Steal the Day (Thieves #2)(99)

Daniel put his hands up in defeat.

Stewart clapped and opened a bag that had been sitting on the dresser. “All right, companion, I have a few exciting items to make your stay on our plane a little more survivable. This is a little charm that will keep demons from seeing you though you shouldn’t really worry about it until you get to Brix’s. Hell is vast and we don’t really mull about in it, you know. You should be able to use your little prize quite easily until you find the palace.” He passed the items to Dev and me and handed me a small key and a glass ball. “This will get you into Brix’s little pleasure palace, and when you open the door, smash the globe so any assistants he has in there will sleep for a while. It only works on demons, so your friend will be fine.”

Daniel crossed his arms over his chest. “Why don’t you just lead the way, Stewart? If you led the way, I could go with her and she wouldn’t have to rely on that amulet.”

Stewart shook his head. “Oh, no, I can’t get caught with my hands in the cookie jar. They actually cut them off if they catch you. The horrible part is the itching when they grow back. It’s really terrible. Don’t worry about it, Zoey. If they cut your hands off, you’ll just bleed out and die.”

“I feel so much better,” I said sarcastically. “Could you please get the door? We can’t be gone forever.”

Stewart held a hand up to the wall and a door appeared. He looked at me and the smile was gone. “You’ve been here, companion. You know how personal this can get. You know that it isn’t a land as you would know it. It’s something more, something personal. Don’t get lost in memory. Follow the amulet. Ignore what goes on around you.” Dev stepped toward the door, ready to go in behind me. Stewart turned to my lover. “Whatever you do, try not to think about it, Green Man. Think about something other than what they did to you. Otherwise, you might walk straight into it all over again. I wonder how she’ll feel about her paragon of masculine sexuality when she sees you like that. Don’t you?”

Dev’s face clenched as he tried to ignore the demon.

I took his hand. “Devinshea, there is nothing I could see that would make me turn from you.”

“That might be the most na?ve thing I’ve ever heard you say, lover,” Dev said bitterly. He opened the door. “Let’s get this over with.”

I held his hand and walked into his nightmare.





Chapter Twenty-Four





The door closed behind us, but I could see its outline even in the soft light of day we stepped into. Everything in this place was gauzy and beautiful. The very air seemed soft and sweet. A warm wind blew through, brushing against my skin and I heard the sound of crickets chirping in the distance. It was the opposite of what I expected to find on the Hell plane. We were in a field of flowers with the sun warming our faces. I sighed at the feel, but Dev dropped my hand, and when I looked at him I knew this was not a place of beauty for him.

Whatever Stewart had talked about before was still playing through his brain. Or worse, perhaps we were there. The Hell plane was a place to relive all the bad events of your life. I should know. Stewart was right. I’d been here before. It seemed we were about to take a tour inside Dev’s crappy memories.

“Where are we?” My hand felt empty without his, but I let him keep his distance for the time being.

“We were told not to get lost in memory, Zoey.” Dev ignored my question with a cold practicality. He looked down at my chest where the amulet was still covered by the bodice of my dress. “Is that thing working? We should really get started.”

I pulled on the chain and, sure enough, the amulet pulsed in my hand. There was a hearty glow to it, nothing like the weak light it put out around Dev and me. Felix Day was here.

I wasn’t sure how it did it but the Revelation pulled me to the north. It pointed the way as though desperate to get to the angel. “This way.”

“Well, naturally it’s that way,” he said with acid under his breath. He ran a frustrated hand through his hair and made a decision. “If this is the way it’s going to be, then I can lead us. We’ll be going past those caves. Come along, Zoey. I assure you it will be informative.”

He started off in the direction of the caves without waiting for me.

“Just tell me where we are, Dev.” I raced to keep up with his long-legged pace. My skirts floated around me. I used my hands to hold them up so I could run. I wished I had dressed myself for this mission.

“It’s a sithein in Scotland, inasmuch as a sithein can be considered in a country,” Dev explained in an academic fashion. What he meant was the entrance was a mound in Scotland, but the actual land of the sithein was a piece of Faery and not of the Earth plane. Though it seemed to be underground, a sithein was its own land with its own sun and moon and time.

“But you’re Irish.” His branch of faery was known as Daoine Sidhe. They were left behind when the Tuatha de Dannan left Ireland. At some point in the last couple of centuries, they immigrated to the States and then formed their own sithein.

“Yes, my ancestors inhabited Ireland, but my mother believed it was important to have her sons experience all the various forms the Fae can take. This is an Unseelie sithein,” Dev continued his lecture. “Do you know the difference between the Seelie and Unseelie courts?”