The Darkest Night (Lords of the Underworld #1)(16)
Author: Gena Showalter

"What are you going to do?" Paris asked.

"Consider our options," he replied gravely.

Paris’s brows arched. "What of Maddox’s woman? I will be better able to tight any Hunters if I spend a little time between her – "

"No." Lucien stared up at the vaulted ceiling. "Not her. Remember, I promised Maddox she’d return to him untouched."

"Yeah, I remember. Remind me again why you’d promise such a dumb-ass thing."

"Just… leave her alone. She didn’t seem to want you, anyway."

"Which is even more shocking than the news about the Titans," Paris muttered. Then he sighed. "Fine. I’ll keep my hands to myself, but someone needs to feed her. We told her we would."

"Perhaps we should starve her," Reyes suggested. "She’ll be more likely to talk in the morning if she’s weakened from hunger.?"

Lucien nodded. "I agree. She might be more willing to give Maddox the truth if she thinks it will buy her a meal."

"I don’t like it, but I won’t protest. And I guess this means I’m going into town without my vitamin D injection," Paris said on another sigh. "Let’s do this, Pain."

Reyes was on his feet a moment later and the two strode out of the room, side by side. Torin followed suit, though he gave them a generous head start. Aeron couldn’t imagine the pressure of making sure no part of himself ever touched another. Had to be hell.

He snorted. Life for all the warriors here was hell.

Lucien closed the distance between them and eased into the leather chair opposite him. The fragrance of roses drifted from him. Aeron had never understood why the Grim Reaper smelled like a spring bouquet – surely a curse even worse than Maddox’s.

"Thoughts?" he asked, studying his friend. For the first time in many, many years, Lucien radiated something other than calm. His forehead was furrowed and there were stress-creases further marring his scarred face.

Those scars slashed from each of his dark brows all the way to his jawline, thick and puckered. Lucien never talked about how he’d acquired them and Aeron had never asked. While they’d lived in Greece, the warrior had simply returned home one day, pain in his eyes and marks on his cheeks.

"This is bad," Lucien said. "Really bad. Hunters, Maddox’s woman – however she fits into this – and the Titans, all in one day. That cannot be an accident."

"I know." Aeron dragged a hand down his face, his fingertip catching and tugging on his eyebrow piercing. "Do the Titans want us dead, do you think? Could they have sent the Hunters here?"

"Perhaps. But what would they do with our demons once our bodies were destroyed and the spirits released? And why order you to act for them, if they only meant to have you slain?"

Good questions. "I have no answers for you. I don’t even know how I’m going to do this deed that’s been demanded of me. The women are innocents. Two are young, in their twenties, the third is in her late forties and the fourth is a grandmother. She probably bakes cookies for the homeless in her spare time."

Curious about them, he had hunted and found them in a hotel in Buda after he’d left Olympus. Seeing them in the flesh had only intensified his horror.

"We can’t wait. We must act as soon as possible," Lucien said. "We can’t allow these Titans to dictate our actions in this or they will attempt to do so over and over again. Surely we can come up with a solution."

Aeron thought they would have better luck figuring out a way to patch the charred, tattered remains of his soul when he killed those women. And even that seemed hopeless.

As it was, they sat in silence for a long while, minds churning with options. Or rather, lack of them. Finally Aeron gave a shake of his head and felt as if he had just welcomed a new demon inside him. Doom.

CHAPTER FIVE

Sometime during the endless night, Ashlyn stood and felt her way around the cramped cell. Her ankle throbbed with every step, a reminder of the hours she’d spent climbing the snowcapped mountains outside and the sense of hope she’d lost with six swings of a sword.

Her search for a way out had proved fruitless. There was no window like the one in Rapunzel’s tower, no wicked witch’s magic mirror to walk through. Nor had she found any bars to squeeze through or tunnels to burrow into like Alice. Somewhere along the way, she’d lost her cell phone. Not that she could get reception in the dungeon of a castle.

As time ticked by, the darkness seemed to close tighter and tighter around her.

The mice had stopped squeaking, at least.

She just wanted to go home, she thought, once again huddling on the floor. She wanted to forget this entire experience. She could live with the voices now. She would live with them. Trying to silence them had cost her too much. Her job, perhaps. Her lifelong friendship with McIntosh, maybe. A piece of her sanity, definitely.

She would never be the same.

Maddox’s lifeless face would haunt her, waking and asleep, for the rest of her life. Oh God. Tears streamed down her cheeks, chilling with the cold. How many would she shed before the ducts dried completely? Before the ache in her chest faded?

Please, just let me go, a voice babbled. Please. I swear. I’ll never return.

Me, too, she thought miserably.

"Have you been here all night, woman?"

A moment passed, the question unanswered as Ashlyn oriented herself. That voice… she would swear it came from the present, not the past. The rough, booming sound of it echoed in her ears.

"Answer me, Ashlyn."

Another moment passed before she realized it was the voice that had come to haunt her above all others. A voice that was somehow imprinted in her mind, even though she’d only heard it a few times before. She gasped, eyes straining through the darkness, searching…searching…but finding nothing.

"Ashlyn. Answer me."

"M-Maddox?" No, surely not. It had to be a trick.

"Answer the question."

Suddenly a door was opened and rays of light flooded the cell. Ashlyn blinked against the orange-gold spots clouding her vision. A man stood in the doorway, a tall, black shadow of menace and muscle.

Sweet silence – silence she’d only encountered once before – enveloped her.

She flattened her palms against the wall behind her and inched to a stand. Shock pounded through her and her knees wobbled. He wasn’t… He couldn’t be… This wasn’t possible. Wasn’t even fathomable. Only in fairy tales did something like this happen.

"Answer me," the man said yet again. There was violence in his tone now, as if he spoke with two voices. Both dark, thick and thunderous.

She opened her mouth to respond, but no sound emerged. That double voice was guttural, turbulent and yet sensual beyond her wildest dreams. Maddox. She hadn’t been mistaken. Shivering, she wiped at her tearstained cheeks with the back of her hand.