The kiss felt like static, an electric burn that crackled through his skin from lips to toes. Patrick would have gasped, but he didn’t want to give Hermes the satisfaction. Hermes kept up the pressure for a second or two but didn’t try to take anything more than a touch. When the immortal pulled away, he left behind healed skin and the ability for Patrick to swallow without feeling as if his throat was about to cave in.
“We need you in one piece,” Hermes told him.
Patrick touched his throat, the heat of bruises gone. “Knew it wasn’t because you cared.”
“Dionysus was in Atlantic City when he felt the call from the spell. He’s left the country to escape it. So has Artemis.”
“Not surprised. We cleaned up the focus of his sacrifice this morning. Who’s left?”
Hermes studied the chipped black polish on his nails, picking at a few of the ragged, bitten-down edges. “Does it matter? You have a job to do, Pattycakes.”
“Your misplaced faith will ruin you, Hermes,” Lucien said.
Hermes casually flipped the vampire off with one hand while making a lazy circle in the air with the other. The sound of coins clattering on the floor at Patrick’s feet reminded him of a Vegas casino’s slot machine cashing out a win.
Hermes pointed at the coins. “These are for you.”
Patrick toed one of the old Greek coins with the tip of his boot, the rough-hewn gold circle shining in the floodlights. “What are they for?”
“Payment for the dead.”
Patrick winced at the sound of Skuld’s voice coming out of Marek’s mouth. “Immortals don’t die.”
“We can be broken. We can be forgotten.”
“We can be used,” Hermes said in a low, vicious voice, eyes snapping with a fury that burned. “I don’t want to lose what belongs to me the same way Macaria did. Neither do I wish to become a conduit for power-hungry mortals the way Ra did.”
Patrick drew in a sharp breath at the sound of that goddess’ name, wishing his shields could hide the sound of how hard his heart was beating.
“Might I remind you the Dominion Sect used the pyramids in Giza to try to enslave him. We are nowhere near Greece and its relics for them to use you and your pantheon like that,” Carmen pointed out.
Hermes’ expression twisted into something monstrous for a split second before it smoothed away into the visage of a man once again. “You don’t need to be in our homeland here on the mortal plane for this spell to come to fruition.”
“Then what do they need?” Patrick asked.
Hermes spread his hands, his smile as sharp as knives. “Wonderful thing about America. People came from all over the world to build this country. They carried their beliefs and their gods with them to these shores. This city was built with hands that prayed to hundreds of deities. The Dominion Sect doesn’t need a several-thousand-year-old monument when they have skyscrapers.”
Patrick shrugged out of Jono’s arms with a little effort. He knelt and gathered up the coins, counting up an even twenty-four, two for each of the sacrifices tied to the zodiac spell. All the dead needed to pay the ferryman. He filled his pockets with the coins before straightening up.
Stepping around Hermes, Patrick headed for Marek and the immortal who would never let the seer go. She watched him come with a secretive twist to Marek’s mouth, the power drifting out of his aura deep and fathomless and entirely inhuman.
And yet, Emma still had not let go of him, as if Fate didn’t scare her one goddamn bit.
“Can you see the end?” Patrick asked Skuld bluntly once he stood in front of her and her vessel. “Can you see the future?”
Skuld didn’t blink, her eerie attention never wavering. “Not here. Not anymore. There are too many possibilities now that you are standing in the way, and my sight is not the only one searching for a new reality.”
The warning fell heavily between them, but Patrick refused to let it weigh him down.
“Then let Marek go. This isn’t his fight, it’s mine. That’s what all of you wanted, isn’t it? For me to fight?”
“Your acceptance doesn’t clear your soul debt.”
Patrick barked out a sound that in no way resembled laughter. “I’m well aware of what your side thinks I owe it. Let Marek go. It’s not him you want, it’s me, andyou’ve got me.”
Skuld closed Marek’s eyes, and when they opened again, they were hazel once more—human eyes in a human face. Marek’s knees buckled, but Emma moved fast to catch him, holding him up with preternatural strength.
“I have him,” Emma said, her gaze shifting over Patrick’s shoulder for a quick moment. “Hurry it up, will you?”
