Page 224 of Curse of Darkness
50
There’s just one last task to see to.
“Are you ready?” I ask Thiago as we stand before the entrance to Kato’s throne room. Only the two of us were allowed to come, and I’m desperately missing the presence of Finn or Baylor.
My husband stares ahead, his gaze distance. “I am. I don’t know if he is.”
The two of them have worked out some sort of wary peace between them in the past week, but Thiago said Death’s been strangely quiet within him ever since we started planning the logistics of this.
“Do you think he’ll agree to our terms?” I blurt.
This all fails if Death refuses to leave.
“He said he wants to see Kato,” Thiago replies. “He wants to talk with him. And then we shall see.”
It’s a start.
“Let them in,” Kato calls, and his guards stand aside.
The negotiations for this were intense. There are precisely fifty guards in the halls, all of them brandishing spears as if they expect Thiago to suddenly forge his obsidian blade and go for Kato. They have the numbers. They’re prepared for any eventuality.
Orlagh even stands at his side, one hand on her knife and the vial of light hanging around her throat. There’s no hint of friendliness this time. Only focus and duty and a certain sense of grimness as she tracks Thiago’s every move.
This could go so very badly.
Though I did pointedly remind Kato there’s a Hallow here, though one unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
I think I finally know what it is.
It’s a portal, like the others, but this time, it’s a portal to another world.
The Underworld.
And if he dares go back on his bargain and attacks us, then I’m quite happy to show him what an Old One can do with the power of a Hallow.
“Don’t burn anything.” Thiago gives me an amused glance, as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking.
“No promises,” I tell him. “Though I willtrynot to. It all depends on Kato.”
We march toward the throne.
“As promised, I will speak with the creature,” Kato says arrogantly, sitting on his throne. “And then he will give himself over to the Darkness.”
Thiago glances toward me. This is the moment where it could all go wrong. We don’t know how Death will react if he’s given free reign to rise within Thiago. Kato was one of the warriors who tried to destroy him, after all, and even though the entity within Thiago has changed over the years, there’s still some part of it that was once the Shadow Sinister.
But we have no other choice.
If we don’t do this, then Kato has promised us no relief. It will not be war. It will be assassins when we least expect it, treachery at every turn.
And Death has agreed to… consider giving himself up.
“Be ready,” Thiago tells me.
“Always,” I promise him fiercely, because he knows I will fight for him in this moment.
Turning his face to the ceiling, he stills.
A ripple shivers over his expression. A change. And when he opens his eyes and locks that stark gaze upon the Lord of the Underworld, I know my husband is gone.
