Locking the door behind them, I turned back to the mayor. His foot jerked.

  I walked over and knelt beside him. Both his arms twitched and his head spasmed to the side.

  “Budge?” I asked.

  He murmured in a high, straining voice.

  Heart galloping in my chest, I shook him, but this wasn’t someone having a bad dream. He was reacting to whatever was happening to him in the shadow realm. I mentally cycled through my invocations, spells, and potions, but if I canceled out the bonding, he would become stuck over there.

  He murmured again, more forcefully this time.

  His arms and legs began to bounce. His head shook from side to side. I pressed my hands to his chest. His heart was going a mile a minute. And now blood began bubbling from the corner of his mouth.

  “Budge!” I called, shaking him again.

  The door rattled with pounding. “You all right in there, Mayor?” a bodyguard called.

  “C’mon, goddammit,” I whispered next to Budge’s ear. “Don’t you die on me, man. This is too important.”

  Plus, I didn’t want to have to explain the mayor’s lifeless body to his security.

  Budge’s head arced back and he began to choke, coughing out more blood. I stripped off my belt. Working it into his convulsing jaw, I pressed his tongue to the floor of his mouth, then stepped on the belt on either side of his head.

  More hammering on the door. “Open up!”

  Stretching a hand toward my cane, I called, “Recuperare!”

  As it slapped into my palm, I brought the opal end around to his face, uttering words of healing. Blood was running down the belt now and puddling near my shoes. Behind his closed eyelids, his eyes beat madly.

  But I remained focused on the healing incantation until a cocoon of gauzy light took shape around him. My magic wouldn’t return him from the shadow present, but it could slow the damage—here as well as there.

  Just need to keep him alive until he’s out of danger.

  Another burst of blood erupted around the belt.

  “C’mon, Budge,” I urged. “Stick with me, man.”

  What in the hell was going on over there? Kicks were landing against the door now.

  Following his next convulsion, Budge let out a long, sputtering breath and slumped over onto his side.

  Behind me, the door flew open.

  44

  The mayor’s bodyguards burst into the basement. Leading with service pistols, the two men looked from me to Budge’s laid out body. My belt still bisected the mayor’s mouth while a ropey current of blood and saliva slid into a spreading pool on the floor. And I was still standing over him.

  “Get back!” the lead guard shouted.

  In shock, I stepped away, leaving a bloody trail of shoe prints, while the other guard rushed up to Budge. The first one held me at gunpoint.

  “Drop the cane!”

  “This isn’t what it looks like.”

  “He’s not breathing,” the second guard said. He called into his earpiece for emergency services as he started into chest compressions.

  “Drop it!” the first guard shouted, pistol at eye level. “Now!”

  I brought the cane around slowly, uttering a Word for protection. But the moisture had been sucked from my mouth, replaced by the bitter taste of chalk. I smacked and tried again, but this wasn’t the effect of adrenaline. My tongue simply wasn’t responding. I had no way to shape the sounds.

  I only realized I’d dropped my cane when it clattered to the floor. My fingers had contorted and gone numb, and my hand looked pallid, drained of blood.

  “Now turn around!”

  I tried to kneel for my cane, but my legs wouldn’t respond. The guard angled his head in question, then withdrew it in revolt. Something was happening to my face, but like with my hands, I couldn’t feel anything. My scalp suddenly itched like mad, though. I dragged a hand through my hair and looked at my fingers. Chunks of hair were snagged under the pale nails, their roots giant clots of ash.

  No, no, no!

  Ignoring the guard, I managed to get a hand on my cane.

  “Hey! Back away!” he ordered, recovering from his revulsion.

  Dust scattered as I worked the cane around, angling it toward my body. But when I attempted words of healing, only dry clicks emerged. When I tried again, I inhaled my own ashes and fell into a fit of hacking. I could barely even summon breaths now. My lungs felt as if they were dried out and fissuring.

  The gig was clearly up in the shadow realm. I was being bonded to my cremated remains.

  The guard continued to shout commands, jabbing his pistol for emphasis, but my hearing was muffled. In my right leg, something cracked like a chunk of cinder—felt more than heard—and I collapsed, dropping the cane and landing against the wall. A frightening amount of dust scattered around me upon impact.

  Nothing hurt, though. That was because I no longer had nerve endings to feel with.

  The guard stepped forward and swept the cane away with his foot. Beyond him, the second guard was still pumping the mayor’s inert body with chest compressions. But now my vision was clouding over. And soon Budge, his two bodyguards, and the entire room became a jumble of fading colors.

  My thoughts deadened, my brain no longer able to wrap around what was happening.

  I was in danger, mortal danger, but my panic had dulled, becoming something soft and scattered. I still had one card left to play, though. Closing my eyes, I called to the power of the collective.

  Whatever you’ve got, give it to me…

  Like a slowing reel, time seemed to crawl, then stop. And now it eased into reverse.

  The room sharpened by degrees. My hearing returned. I watched my hand, which had begun to crack and dust over like an arid landscape, smooth and fill with color again. Pins and needles erupted throughout me as my nerves came back to life. Somehow, someway, the bonding potion was losing its grip, but not from the power of the collective. There hadn’t been the energy dump I’d felt the last time.

  I drew a shallow breath and coughed. I coughed again, clearing more of my lungs.

  The guard was no longer jabbing his gun at my face. He’d joined his partner, and they were kneeling on either side of Budge—who was sitting up!

  One of them pulled Alec’s bed over so they could lean him against it.

  “I’m all right,” the mayor rasped, drawing a forearm across his mouth.

  With a hand that worked now, I scratched my head. Only a few strands came away, no ash. When I struggled to stand, a sharp pain speared my thigh. I could feel again—hallelujah!—but I couldn’t stand. With a grunt, I slid back down the wall to the floor. I felt along my thigh until the pain returned.

  That crack earlier… Must’ve snapped my femur.

  Able to shape sounds again, I retrieved my cane and uttered words of healing. As light swelled around my thigh and endorphins dumped into my system, I slumped, exhausted from my trip to near cremation and back.

  A hand gripped my shoulder.

  I looked over to find Alec peering down at me. No, Hermes, but his eyes were darker and more serious than I’d ever seen them.

  “We hit a snag,” he said.

  The paramedics arrived within minutes and surrounded Budge. I was more of an afterthought. A young woman who appeared to be in training asked me a few questions while manhandling my leg. The fracture wasn’t displaced, thankfully. But though my healing magic was dulling the pain and repairing the surrounding tissue, the fusion of bone would take longer. She left to retrieve a brace.

  “What in the hell happened?” I whispered to Hermes.

  He looked up, eyes sharpening through his brooding thoughts. “Oh, don’t worry about them.” He gestured to the paramedics and mayor’s security detail. “I’ve cast an enchantment. Whatever they overhear will sound like idle conversation, entirely forgettable. And you’re no longer under suspicion for the mayor’s state of health.”

  “Guys, I’m all right,” I heard him insisting, but his voice sounded hoarse and garbled.

  Hermes glanced over at him. “Getting there was a cinch. Anchored to the mayor, I arrived in a suite he’s been using to stay close to Persephone. Your mayor infused his counterpart’s body, I materialized beside him, and everything was going to plan. Persephone sensed me, naturally. She came rushing in, but your mayor talked her down. He was exceptional in his role, in fact. And without Typhon to stoke her hate, I convinced sweet Persephone to meet cordially. The three of us adjourned to her back room, where she safeguards her portal to Hades. Your ashes, as well.”

  I automatically rubbed my arm to ensure it was no longer turning to dust.

  “I made my pitch,” he said. “I explained how Typhon was manipulating her. And she heard me, Everson! I could see it in those exquisite eyes you and I so love—I was getting through! But Typhon heard me, too, and he launched into a spectacular attack to reclaim his hold over the mayor.”

  With a wince, I remembered Budge’s convulsing body, the blood pouring from his mouth.

  “At the same time he ordered Persephone to bond you to your ashes. And just like that, the understanding I’d built up shattered in her eyes, revealing the depths of their emptiness. She became dread Persephone again, and I her enemy. I struggled with her for the urn, but the mayor was getting absolutely butchered. Typhon would have ensured the mayor’s shadow survived, even if it meant resorting to necromancy, but to keep his vessel from being infiltrated, he intended to kill the mayor here.”

  “I thought he succeeded,” I said shakily.

  “Yes, I hit the mayor with a paralysis charm to halt the assault, but it meant relinquishing control of the urn. And within moments, you were joining your ashes. Following another pitched battle, I managed to douse your remains, undoing the bonding. But then her Iron Guard were at the door, undead creatures were pouring from her well, and Typhon was overcoming my charm. Using my speed, I drew a healing rune on the mayor’s chest, seized his consciousness, and transported us both back here.”

  “Geez.”

  “It was no easy feat,” he confirmed.

  Across the room, the paramedics were still working on Budge. I shook my head. “I can’t believe my potion for protecting him crapped out like that. I’m sorry. I feel like I let you both down.”

  “No, that falls on me. Typhon was much more powerful than I anticipated. He would have overcome any such magic eventually.”

  With my broken leg extended out in front of me, I looked over at Hermes with a sinking feeling. “Where does that leave us?”

  “In a bind, my friend. Persephone remains under Typhon’s thrall, and they’ve wrested away control of my siphon sigil. It’s dumping energy into the courthouse temple like Edessa Falls, and the portal to Tartarus is creaking open. Meanwhile, Persephone has extended her defensive field well beyond their original boundaries. And she’s sure to have secured the mayor as well. There will be no riding him in again.”

  “What’s powering her field?” That was essential info if we were to take another crack, but Hermes only shrugged, his anguish too deep for logistics. With a sigh, he showed me his upturned hands.

  “I had her, Everson. She was as near to me as I am to you. I could feel the moment of delivery. So closely did it resonate with our escape from Hades, I was trembling, I tell you. And then…” He balled his hands into helpless fists. “I failed. Failed to deliver her from that wretched darkness.”

  As tears ran down the god’s face, I felt my own despair deepening.

  So far, nothing had worked out as planned. Tartarus was opening. Typhon was nearing victory. And we were drawing ever closer to the point when Hermes would become inextricably fused to Alec.

  The paramedic returned with my brace and secured it to my leg. It would keep the bone from shifting, she said, but I wouldn’t be able to bend the knee. In fact, I was to keep my weight off the leg entirely until it had been X-rayed.

  “Do you have a way to get to a hospital, or do you need an ambulance?” she asked.

  I felt like laugh-crying. The leg was the absolute least of my worries. But as I looked at Hermes’s distraught face, I caught a glimpse of my son. Just the night before, I’d told him that magic-using wasn’t all spells and invocations. It was trusting that everything we’d done would sink into that magical collective and reemerge as the right solution at the right time. That was true magic.

  And the key is our faith.

  As I repeated the mantra, a charge caught in my bloodstream and spread throughout my system like electricity, making my hair stand on end. I wrapped an arm around Hermes’s neck and kissed his temple firmly.

  He looked back at me in confusion.

  “We’re not going to the hospital,” I told the paramedic. “Here, help me up.”

  She was hesitant, but my wizard’s voice compelled her. With her assisting me under one arm and Hermes the other, I rose to my feet. Leaning on my cane, I took a tentative hop-step. A fresh spear shot through my thigh, but I remained upright. I thanked the paramedic and assured her I was all right.

  “We’re going back to the shadow realm,” I told Hermes.

  He released a forlorn sigh. “To do what? They’ll know we’re coming.”

  “Your love for Persephone… It’s understandable, and noble, but it’s limiting you. Do you really want to deliver her? Then let me call the shots.”

  Even as I spoke, pieces were assembling themselves in my mind. There was a way to get Typhon out of the picture, close the portal to Tartarus, and rescue Persephone, and we had the necessary pieces.

  Almost…

  Across the room, the medics were loading Budge onto a gurney. The extendable legs came up, and they rolled him toward the door, his security detail in tow.

  “Wait, hold up,” I called, hop-stepping toward them.

  Budge spied me through a gap in his entourage. His hair was mussed, and he still had blood smeared across both cheeks.

  “Is that Everson?” He pulled down his oxygen mask.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked as he rolled to a stop.

  “Like I just went twelve rounds in the Garden with the heavyweight champ.” He snuffled a laugh. “But these guys say I’m gonna be all right. Just need to spend a day or so in the hospital.”

  As I shouldered between the paramedics, they looked on dumbly, thanks to Hermes’s enchantment.

  “I understand you did really well over there,” I said.

  “Did the best I could. Hey, I was serious about wanting to help out.”

  “I need to ask you something. When you were in your counterpart’s body, did you pick up any thoughts?”

  “I was mostly impressed with how damned trim I felt. Boy, that was something. But, yeah, a few thoughts. Background noise, mostly.”

  “Think for a minute. Persephone has a mystical network of some kind that she uses to power her soldiers and defenses.” I was recalling my visit to the barracks, picturing the blocks the Iron Guard stood on, the ports where they inserted their weapons “There has to be a hub or central node, something to power it.”

  His exhausted face furrowed in thought, then he shook his head. “Gee, Everson, I’m sorry…” But then he squinted, a light seeming to flicker behind his eyes. “Wait a sec. There’s an old bunker behind City Hall—we’ve got it here, too, for the emergency utilities. But during the construction of all the new buildings over there, they installed something in that bunker and fortified the crap out of it.”

  “A lodestone, most likely,” Hermes said softly. “They’re abundant in Hades.”

  “I remember, because we buried copper cables all over the place, and it wasn’t easy procuring that copper.” Budge gave me a knowing look, then hesitated.” Or I guess he remembers,” he said of his shadow, suddenly confused.

  But I nodded fervently. That had to be it.

  The paramedics shifted now, anxious to get the mayor to the hospital.

  “Real quick,” I said. “Did you pick up anything else that could be important?”

  Budge thought some more, then shook his head apologetically. “Only that the guy who was beating up my insides is scared shitless of Zeus.”

  That made sense. Zeus had been the one who’d reduced Typhon to “a maimed wreck” when he’d tried to claim Olympus. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a version of Zeus at our beck and call. Still, something suggested the info could be important.

  I gripped his hand. “Thank you, Mayor.”

  He squeezed mine back and clapped it with his other one. “I owed you, buddy. More than that, I owed my city.”

  “You’re even on both counts.”

  That made him smile. I moved back as the team wheeled him out into the corridor. The basement unit fell silent again, but not for long. I hopped over to my lab area and began pulling down ingredients.

  Hermes’s drying eyes glimmered with interest. “So, what’s this grand plan?”

  “It involves a few steps, but we’re definitely going to need your army.”

  45

  Bree-yark drove Hermes and me to Rizo’s Storage. We pulled up in front just as the sky was beginning to pale.

  “Want me to wait out here?” Bree-yark asked.

  “Actually, I have an important job for you inside,” I said.

  “Oh, yeah?” He drew the brake with gusto, and the three of us got out.

  From the back of the Hummer, we unloaded several containers and duffel bags, Bree-yark having to carry the bulk of them on account of my leg. After completing my prep work in the wee hours, I’d gone upstairs to say goodbye to Ricki. It was a quiet goodbye, more holding than talking. I told her I’d be back soon.

  Now I limped on my leg brace after Hermes. The bone had healed enough that I’d begun experimenting with a little weight on it. Still hurt like the dickens, though. Hermes led the way through the building’s steel doors, up the ramp, and toward the storage unit he’d enchanted for his draftees.

  As he released the door with a flick of his fingers, I prepared myself for the space to be trashed and empty. After all, my introduction to the beings was a knock-down, drag-out that had spilled into the city.