Pleasure of a Dark Prince (Immortals After Dark #9)(39)
Author: Kresley Cole

"Ah, but what are you capable of without drawing human attention? Tomorrow morning, we’re gone."

"Very well! I’ll tell you," she said, beginning to pace yet again. "You’ve met Nïx, I’m sure."

"Oh, when I was locked in the Valkyrie dungeon? After you trapped me?"

She pursed her lips.

"Go on, then."

"She contacted me just a day ago, told me the world was on the verge of apocalypse. I was to find Rio Labyrinto. The river would hold the answer to our salvation. And before you ask, I don’t know much more. Nïx won’t divvy the details. You don’t know what she’s like."

"I doona? She would no’ tell me why I had to be in Iquitos at precisely three. All she’d say is ‘Do you want to see your mate or no’, werewolf?’"

"That’s how you got here so fast!" Rotter! "No, she wouldn’t."

"We both know she would and did."

Nïx had planned for Lucia and MacRieve to meet. The soothsayer had done him a favor. Why? Nïx might be mad, but she could also be calculating.

A niggling suspicion had been building in Lucia over the last few months. The three-thousand-year-old soothsayer had begun telling people she would soon be a goddess. And that wasn’t just an insane musing – it was actually a possibility.

Nïx had been born of gods, and she’d attained the requisite age – ancient. But most importantly, she was collecting lifelong loyalties, which doubled as worship.

If gods derived strength from the number of worshippers they acquired, then Nïx was growing more and more powerful. Here was Garreth MacRieve, another being who owed Nïx a favor, who’d be thanking her daily for the rest of his immortal life for her help. Like a prayer. Humans might thank God – MacRieve would thank Nïx.

Nucking Futs Nïx a goddess? Lucia wondered if she’d be a benevolent one.

"Doona be angry with the soothsayer," he said. "If she had no’ helped me, I would’ve eventually caught you anyway."

"You sound confident. Makes me wonder why you hadn’t before."

"I had an ace in my pocket that I had no’ yet played." Before she could question him about his ace, he asked, "So did Nïx happen to give you any directions to Rio Labyrinto?"

Lucia shook her head. "She said I’d have everything I needed aboard this ship."

"That so?" he replied thoughtfully. "Then she must’ve meant that you’d need me."

"Why on earth?"

" ‘Cause I’ve been there, lass."

 24

"But no one comes out of Rio Labyrinto alive," Lucia said.

Garreth lifted his chin. "No one – but me."

Her eyes went wide. "Then tell me about the river! Where is it?"

"First, you tell me what else you know about the apocalypse. You ken you will no’ get a word from me otherwise." That wasn’t true. If she ever used her wiles on him, he’d likely be putty in her hands.

She paced, worrying her plump bottom lip – the one he wanted to take between his own teeth to nibble on. After exhaling a breath, she asked, "Have you heard of the god… Crom Cruach?"

He had. But the way she’d uttered, or barely uttered, the god’s name with a flash of sorrow in her eyes made his hackles rise. "Maybe some scattered tales," he lied. "Canna remember."

She cast him an expression that said she didn’t know whether to believe him.

"Gods are no’ really my area of interest. Rugby? Now that I pay attention to."

After a hesitation, she said, "He’s evil to the bone. His primary power is to make people feel a mad need to sacrifice whoever they love. Only now, that need will be contagious – the lust to slaughter in Cruach’s name – passing from person to person. In the past, he’s been jailed in a lair, but with each Accession, he grows powerful enough to break from his prison. Every five hundred years someone has to send him back there. Nïx dispatched me to do this."

After Lucia’s explanation, he sensed that she knew far more than what she was telling him.

And that she might be about to snap. Let the information unfold. "With all the creatures in the Lore that owe the soothsayer, she chose you for this?" He was impressed, and didn’t bother hiding it.

"Yes, me." She tucked her still damp hair behind her pointed ear. "Nïx told me there might be a way to kill him. To finally end the cycle."

"A way?"

"A weapon. Called a dieumort. It’s a – "

"God killer. I’ve heard of them. And she thinks one’s on Rio Labyrinto?"

Lucia nodded. "That’s what she said. Now, I’ve told you my part – tell me about the river. How did you find it?"

"Purely by accident. I’d been chasing game along the riverside, and I saw it disappear right before my eyes. But I could still scent it. I followed my nose straight through the portal."

"And? Tell me more!"

"Also known as the River of Doom and the River of Doors, it’s a watery maze of channels and cutouts." He paused for effect. "And it’s rumored to be the gateway to El Dorado."

"El Dorado?" Lucia’s eyes went wide. "The Lost City of Gold?" Maybe the dieumort was the golden arrow of her dreams? "Where? Where is it?" Lucia had already been reeling from the fact that MacRieve knew where Rio Labyrinto was – everything you need will be on that boat – and now this?

El-freaking-Dorado.

"As though I’d reveal the location to you?" MacRieve scoffed. "I think no’. I like you dependent on me and my good will."

Apparently she wouldn’t be taking her bow back from MacRieve and ditching him. "I told you the nature of the apocalypse."

In answer, he gave her a look as if he knew she was holding back.

"Don’t you understand? It’s critical for me to find a way to destroy Cruach!"

"So if I allow you to stay on the boat, you’re at risk from a thousand different perils, and if I take you from here, you’re still in danger from an apocalypse?"

"Pretty much."

He exhaled wearily. "Verra well, we’ll stay. But we’re going to establish some guidelines for our time aboard this ship."

"In other words, you intend to give me rules to obey? MacRieve, just tell me where it is – I can do this on my own."

"Never."

"The full moon’s coming! Have you thought about that, werewolf? It’s only ten days away!"

"You know the dates as well as I do, then?"

"You won’t be able to control yourself. You’ll attack me. I know what your kind does."