Phoenix’s breath catches. I hear it and feel it in the way her whole body goes still beside me.
“Not that the angels knew it,” my father continues cheerfully. “Once they turned their back on this world, they saw no reason to turn their eyes towards it any longer. So I just had to wait for them to let down their guard and turn their eyes away from me as well. Then, once I jumped through the well back here, I sought to take over this world and become its ruler as I did in the ages of old. Except this time, I would rule it fully. Not by just puppeting some foolish human empire for an age or a century, but by ruling the entire world. With myself as it’s one true god. Forever.”
I scoff at his pride as Phoenix makes the connection: “It was you behind the angelic runes that took over government systems last month and launched those nukes,” Phoenix says. Her voice comes out breathless, shocked. “You weren’t going to rule the world. You were going to destroy it.”
“And remake it in my image,” my father says with a grin that makes him look truly mad. “With every being left bowing down in worship to me. For all time.”
Of course it was him. I should have known at the time. I just hoped that when we sent him home through the rune circle I created at my brother’s castle last year, it meant we would be done with him once and for all.
But Phoenix is right. The only way to deal with a rogue spirit is tokillit.
I don’t care if my brothers tried once before by burning my father’s body to ash. Unbeknownst to them, he regrew from an ember. But it took him years to regain his shape and strength. We will have to just keep burning him eternally, if that’s what it takes. I don’t care how. But he cannot be allowed to live. He is a creature of destruction.
“But when you so creatively foiled that plot by creating a crack in the continuum of spirit realms,” my father chuckles, eyes on Phoenix, “I realized I had been thinking too small. Why rule one world when I could rule many? This world will be a nexus point to draw in more powerful spirits than I could dream of. I no longer have to create an army. The army will come to me.”
He holds out a hand toward Ammit, who has been silent this whole time.
“I won’t be part of your army, you bastard!” she shouts. “I never wanted any part of this.”
I’d forgotten she was even here. I look toward the woman we thought was a murderer, and her face is twisted with genuine horror.
My father’s expression shifts to something crueler. “Oh, come, my dear. Don’t be dramatic. You hungered for this realm just like the others do.”
“I was happy where I was,” Ammit cries out.
“You were an outcast.” My father’s voice bites out the words. “In a realm of spirits in constant consummation and orgasmic bliss, you were alone. You cried out, and I answered. I gave you a body. I paid for your passage into this world in blood.” He gestures and she winces back in horror. “You should be the first bowing at my feet in worship of your god.”
“Never!” she shouts.
“Wait,” Phoenix says, her mind clearly working through something. “Are you even Ammit? Was it you who killed those people?” She gestures at the sliced-up body in the atrium.
“What?” The woman looks horrified as she glances around. “No! I’m not a murderer.Theydid that to the student in the dormitory—to bring me into this world.” She points to my father and then to Sabra and Vlad.
They?
Phoenix swings around, and I see the devastation on her face.
“Please,” Vlad sneers from outside the circle. “You think I was fooled by that little performance you pulled on your wedding night? I need you to produce me heirs. That was the deal he and I made.” He gestures toward my father. “He came to me after the stunt with the Devourers and offered me a partnership. We were about to become in-laws, after all.”
Vlad’s eyes gleam with avarice and greed. “So first we pulled through a spirit to force you two to fulfill your part of the bargain.”
Ammit. Or whatever spirit from a realm of lust Sabra could reach through the blood ritual. I’d be horrified if I didn’t know my father’s playbook so well. Win at all costs.
“You’re a fool if you think he considers you a partner.” Contempt drips from my voice. “You’re nothing more than a pawn to him. An insect.”
I know my father better than anyone. He “partnered” with many powerful emperors over the years, only to crush and betray them the moment it amused him.
Vlad looks pissed, but Phoenix interrupts before he can say anything.
“Fine, you’re both big and bad and evil; I get it.” She holds up her arms, and I notice her hands are shaking slightly. Rage or fear, I’m not sure which. Probably both. “You’re going to raise a great, evil army together. What does any of this have to do with why you’ve trapped us in this circle here with these dead bodies and the spirit of lust you already pulled over?”
“Oh, my dear,” my father says, his voice dripping with false sympathy. “You really haven’t figured it out yet? The circle isn’t just to trap you. It’s touseyou.”
He walks right up to the edge of the invisible barrier. Phoenix’s hand tightens in mine again.
“You see, I’ve learned from my mistakes,” my father continues. “Pulling spirits through one at a time with witch magic, angel runes and blood sacrifices is terribly inefficient. As is waiting for the two of you to fuck and my son’s seed to take root in your belly. Because what if I could create apermanentconduit to the offspring I desire? A living gateway between the realms? Every spirit I call over and craft in myimageshall be my children!”
My blood runs cold. And I’m clearly not the only one disconcerted by what he’s describing.
