Page 34 of Wicked Ties
Astrid threw her magic out and sparks of gold filled the whipping wind. The face of a woman emerged, screaming in rage. It wasn’t a face like mine or Tilly’s, but one made of shadows and darkness. Then she blended back into the wind and was gone. It closed in on us, and Beckett’s blue portal opened beneath our feet.
My stomach dropped out and we were in it for only seconds before popping back out just outside the whirling shadow. The wind stopped and, in its place stood a woman made of shadowy smoke. Her features were undefined by today’s standards. Yet she had the figure of a lady. Shadows drifted around her in the shape of a dress, and plumes of smokey streams rose from her. We all rose to stand in a line across from her, each of us letting our magic flow. Beckett opened a portal beneath her, but she just floated over it, hovering there.
“You think to trap me?” Her echoing laugh filled the air. “I am darkness. I am shadow. I am more than you.”
Sharp, black, javelin-like shadows shot out from her all at once toward us. One skewered Kylian through the shoulder. One wrapped around Logan’s ankle and lifted him high up into the sky. Another shot right at me. I twisted out of the way as Tilly punched it. It disintegrated around her fist and melted away—only to re-form and launch out at me again. I dove to the side, and she fell next to me.
“How do we stop it?”
Pebbles scrapped at my skin. “I don’t know.”
Beckett’s smokey blue magic shot from his hands, and he knocked the shooting spikes away one after another. Astrid stood by his side, shooting balls of golden magic into each of those stabbing shadowy vines. Grayson raced through the street dodging them. The ground exploded around him each time one of those things hit.
“Oi, bit of help here.” Tiny pebbles flew from the ground and gathered in his hair.
Beckett opened a portal just beside him. “Cover me.”
Astrid, Tilly, and I stepped in front of him. He ducked his head into the portal and began talking to someone. All I got were the words “Aunt” and “backup.”
Then he was beside me once more. The portal swirled and twisted with blue magic. Penny —once the mother of warlocks, Queen of the Occult, now turned minor goddess—floated through the portal. Her long blond hair whipped around her body, her eyes glowed a bright green, and her skin shimmered with power. She wore a tailored black power suit and stabbing stiletto heels. She touched down between us and held her hands up. Dark green power mixed with golden streams shot from her hands and formed a wall between us and the shadow woman.
She turned toward her. “Nyx, what is the meaning of all this?”
The smoke and shadows all dropped down to a single figure. She was a deathly color, blue with gray undertones. Her midnight hair was loose and wild around her shoulders, like she’d been standing in a wind tunnel. Though her dress looked like shadows before, now it took on the appearance of an old Victoria duchess, with a corseted top and skirts that fanned out around her.
“They hunt my children.” She hissed. “I’ll have their heads, Penndolyn Fairmont.”
Penny turned to me. “Are you hunting her children?”
I shook my head. “We just want back what they’ve stolen.”
Wavery shadows drifted up from her body. “And what have they stolen?”
“My spirit.” Tilly lifted her chin. “It’s mine and I want it back.”
Nyx gave a shrug. “I’m sorry, but there is nothing I can do.”
“Then I’m sorry, but we will be hunting them down.” I didn’t want to start a fight with the Greeks. Everyone knew they were the most powerful beings on the earth, answering only to the Fallen themselves. But my soulmate wanted her spirit back, and I’d travel to the ends of the earth for it.
She pursed her black glossy lips. “They didn’t used to be like this. But my ex-husband, their father, Erebus, did this to them.”
Tilly wrinkled her nose. “Did what?”
“He stole their souls, and I’ve been searching for them ever since.” She motioned to Tilly. “Now they take others’, just to feel something. It’s been decades and they feel nothing at all. At least you have some semblance of being human. They used to be so lovely. Playful, even.”
Nyx sighed and her face fell into sadness. “I’ve searched the world over for their souls, but he’s hidden them, and now they steal them constantly. I don’t even know what they do with them. They couldn’t possibly like the feel of all those souls. They’re hollow shells, and I just want my children back. Please don’t hurt them. They don’t know.”
I didn’t want to hurt them or hunt them. I just wanted Tilly’s life back. I ruined it. I would fix it. It didn’t make things better, but it was a start. My mind lingered for a moment, and then I saw it. The vision that’d been tickling the side of my mind. A dark tent, full of cages and bottles hanging from the ceiling. The same familiar bottles the lead Keres had in her bag. I didn’t want to go there. Didn’t even want to think of that place, but I knew where the bottles where and I knew what it would lead us to. “I think I know where they are.”
All eyes swung to me, and I knew I couldn’t take it back. Beckett put his hands on his hips. “You do?”
I shrugged, trying to hide my unhappiness. “In theory.”
Nyx dropped her arms and began to levitate off the ground. Her eyes went round with madness, and her body once again began to shift into darkness and shadows. “Tell me at once.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t going to give our only lead away, and I wasn’t going to send darkness herself after it. “Let me confirm it first. There’s a reason your daughters are doing what they’re doing, and if I can help them I will.”
“You’ll tell me, or I’ll gut you where you stand.” Two of those long javelin-like things extended up at both of her sides.
