Taste a Thousand Deaths (Marionettes of Myth #3)

Chapter Twenty-Five

The Vampire Alliance Court building was empty. We shoved open the doors and marched inside, and the kinetic charge of the once animated lobby was flat. There was no one. Only us.

The doors closed against the young morning and the congestion of city drivers on the streets outside.

I shouldered my sword, the blade fully formed and gleaming and somehow changed. After Amon, the pictures of the sword had been wiped clean. Now, the rigid, streamlined design had fragmented. When I reformed the blade back at the house, the strands of sunlight were more like gobs of melted gum, sticking and clinging and twisting together to form something like a spider web around the hilt—a spider web that had survived a torrential downpour, riddled with holes and knots, glimmering with glass beads of moisture.

Yuuhi flanked my left side, Toivo my right, and we fanned out, each of us who could fight, all nine of us. The elevator of gold was already split open, waiting for us.

He'd known we would come for him.

I swung the sword to my side and stepped into the spacious compartment with the others. Toivo jabbed the button for the courtroom. The doors eased shut. We climbed.

None of us said a word.

There were no more words that needed to be said. We had our weapons ready in hand, our guns loaded, additional ammo strapped to our bodies, and we were ready. That was all we knew, all we needed.

I shut my eyes through the climb and collected Yuuhi's hand into mine, and we clung to each other with a bond stronger than atomic.

When the doors divided again, we filed into the hallway and the others lined the walls, waiting for me to pass, waiting for me to lead. The sword was heavier than ever, stiffening my shoulder, seething hot enough to steam if we'd been outside.

The first set of doors hit the walls and we stepped inside.

I had never wanted to see these obsidian doors again, the entrance into an endless night. These doors had haunted my dreams, a perpetual doorway to Cassius, who was only there in spirit, never where I could see him, never physical, although he could touch me, and he had. In my dreams, beyond these doors, he was a force I couldn't conquer.

I grasped the left handle, my stiff fingers like rubber pulled too taut. Toivo gripped the right handle, and together, we pushed. The dim light greeted us, the spotlights aimed at nothing in the center of the coliseum, and a single pair of eyes turned to us.

Seth sat atop the extending crescent of the dais where the five lords together had once occupied their thrones, high above our heads. One of his legs dangled, his other leg pulled up with his elbow resting on his knee. His free hand spun a single blade around and around, a heavily decorated weapon similar to the ones mounted against the walls, surrounding us. He had only his ever-bored demeanor to offer us, and he counted our heads with a brief sweep of his eyes before he sighed. "This is it? This is the army you brought?"

The sword flared in my hand. "Where's the king?"

"Sorry, you're stuck with me." He eyed the sword with a curl of disgust to his lips. "If you were looking for a grand finale, you'll have it with me." He hefted himself up and planted the tread of his boots against the ledge, and when he tossed the sword into the air, the blade vanished into the shadow. Toivo tensed beside me and Seth raised his arms, palms facing the domed ceiling, as if he were inviting us to make the first move.