I swallowed the bitter pill before speaking. “I do, but souls of the living are far more powerful than those of the dead. An ocean of dead souls cannot combat a couple thousand of the living.”
And Seth now wielded millions of living souls. I fought against the pulling drag of hopelessness that threatened to pull me under again. “It’s why we forbid gods to take worshippers anymore. I should have known. I should have figured out Seth’s plan, but I was distracted.”
Distracted by Aaron. By trying to resist him and what I felt. If I hadn’t hesitated, hadn’t held myself back, I would have claimed him and prevented Seth from using him so poorly, and from getting away with such treachery.
“Well, also,” Xander leaned back on the floral couch, a cup of green tea in hand, “No one has ever thought to use a blood-bonded Sekhor like a separate bank to hold all that power until they cashed it out from them like a damn ATM machine. It’s...it’s godsdamn diabolical is what it is.”
Xander uncrossed his legs to reach over and hold out his cup to Ryuki for a refill. Unlike Echo’s permanently sour disposition, her husband was always ready with a kind smile and pot of green tea to welcome any visitors.
“Seth should never have escaped the Blade of Bane,” Echo huffed from where she sat, her fingers not even pausing as they flew across the keyboard.
Miranda and Xander flinched almost imperceptibly while Aoiki turned away abruptly, but not before I caught the raw pain in her expression.
They were the reason Seth, along with a countless number of other monsters and gods had escaped Bob’s prison back onto our plane. It had been to save Xander, and they were still dealing with the consequences. Miranda’s full-time job was hunting down the beings that needed to be reimprisoned.
Seth just made the list.
But we couldn’t touch him now.
“So if Seth is all powerful, what exactly are we doing here?” Jamal asked, tactfully directing the conversation away from his mom and adopted dad.
“We need to get a message to Grim,” I answered, arms crossed so tightly over my chest that my knuckles blanched white against the charcoal of my suit. Each heartbeat sent a fresh wave of dread through me. I needed to know where Aaron was. Now.
“I thought they went into the Afterlife to work on some secret mission for Osiris?” Jamal said, petting the small white rabbit with black rings around its eyes.
Darth Vader had all but melted into a puddle on Jamal’s lap. Lulu, a brown rabbit the size of a medium dog with ears longer than Darth Vader’s body, lay at Jamal's feet, splayed out on the floor with his legs sticking out behind him, only a few crumbs of Cool Ranch Doritos sprinkling the carpet around him.
Echo may be prickly, but the way to her hard heart was always through treats for her familiars. The fae rabbits had a very specific palette for bananas and junk food.
Assirak lay next to Lulu and they occasionally traded affectionate licks.
“I spoke with Hraf-Hraf,” I said, “the ferryman in the Afterlife, and Grim and Vivian have traversed so far into the Underworld that they may have entered an alternate universe at Osiris’s behest.”
Miranda’s brows raised at Echo. “Can you do that? Find people in another universe?”
Echo simply threw her a scowl with a gruff harrumph.
The things Echo could do as a fae being would probably blow Miranda’s mind. After learning about the centuries-old woman operating out of the basement of the unassuming industrial building, I’d long since done my research on the magical little family.
“My love could hack her way into the stars above or hell below,” Ryuki said in a thick Japanese accent with a heavy dose of pride and admiration.
Echo didn’t turn around, but her face softened with a small smile.
“But if you got Grim to come back, what is he going to do that you can’t?” Jamal asked.
A sickly lurch sloshed in my stomach. I combatted it by tightening my tie until it practically choked me. “The other gods respect him, fear him. He could rally more support. In greater numbers we just might be able to take on Seth, and cut him down with Bob, recapturing him.”
“Bob says he’d rather chew dirt,” Miranda chimed in, “but as long as we give him a nice cleaning and sharpening afterward, he’s game to take that scumbag down.”
“I’ll give him a cleaning,” Echo muttered.
Miranda’s face flitted through some emotions as she undoubtedly heard what Bob had to say about that. Based on her face, his words were very loud and or very impassioned.
“Uh, it might be better if we use Timothy’s blacksmith again,” Miranda posited.
“I’m not ham-handed,” Echo yelled, directly looking at the blade. “You are a sissy and could use some sharpening from someone who knows how.”
“Why don’t you do what Grim does?” Jamal asked the question again.
