Strange and Ever After (Something Strange and Deadly #3)(87)

It was the jackal—yet he had the body of a man. He sat on a bench at the opposite end of the boat. In his hand was a pole that sank down into the gentle waves. His tanned chest was exposed, and he wore nothing but a small flap of fabric around his legs.

“You,” I snarled, pushing to my knees and gulping for air. “Take me to him.”

He is gone.

“I saw him!” Blood hit the boat’s floor. “Take me to him.”

You cannot reclaim his soul.

“Of course I can.” I scrubbed my left hand on my pants, ripping flesh off my palm with each vicious wipe. “I know what you are, Annunaki, and I know that you hold the power of life and death.” I thrust my face at him. “I want life.”

The jackal cannot do this for you.

“Yes you can!” I screamed. “Why would you show me this boat if not for this moment? You knew it would come to this.”

The jackal did not know. He only showed you the boat so you could bring him the Emperor’s clappers.

A harsh laugh broke through my lips. The boat shook. “I don’t have the clappers, and even if I did, why the hell would I bring them to you?”

They are not meant to be in mortal hands.

“Then,” I growled, “you shouldn’t have given them to us. Was it you? Were you the one who fell in love with a human?”

The jackal would never do this. Mortal souls are weak, and that is why the balance has been disrupted.

“Balance?” I repeated. “I don’t give a damn about balance or clappers or you. If you will not take me to Daniel, then I will find him myself.”

No.

A new voice flamed through my mind, and the boat tilted back. I lurched around—and froze. A second Annunaki had joined us. It was the god Oliver had mentioned. The god with the head of an ibis but the body of a man.

“Thoth,” I whispered, shock briefly overcoming my fury.

Yes. The ibis head bobbed.

And rage instantly curled back through me. “You are the god of balance, no? So you take care of this.”

Only the jackal may enter the earthly realm. His eyes rolled, just like a bird’s but with fire flickering inside. And even the jackal may not interact directly. He is nothing more than a messenger.

I shook my head. I didn’t care, and I was wasting time. But when I tried to rise, both Anubis and Thoth blasted their thoughts at me—so bright and loud, my body locked into place.

The jackal and the ibis do not care about you, yet Hathor’s clappers were never meant to be in the earthly realm—

“So punish Hathor. Not me.”

Hathor has been punished. Two layers of Annunaki thoughts, like fire searing through my brain. She was punished more harshly than you can even fathom, mortal. Yet now the imperial clappers have chosen you, and the queen’s clappers have chosen your demon. The magic within them has spent millennia drifting and seeking the ones who could bring them home.

“Ridiculous,” I gritted out. My arms would not move. My legs were trapped in time.

It is fact. The clappers made their choice, and now you will do as required. You will return the clappers here. Then you will restore balance. The one called Marcus has broken it. You will fix it. And your demon will fix it too.

“No. No. You took the purest of all souls—the only person in this world who truly wanted to be good. You think that is balanced? If so, I do not want your balanced world. You may bind my body in place, but you will have to hold me for an eternity before I will ever be your pawn or do your bidding. I do not care how much you punished Hathor. It can never be enough. The clappers and the Black Pullet should never have existed—and Hathor should never have fallen for a mortal she could not have.”

My eyes bored into Thoth. I fought against the power that trapped me.

“I came here to find the man I love, and that is all I will do. I have made my choice, and it is for me. The balance of the world may crumble for all I care. I will have my Daniel back, and you. Cannot. Stop me.”

With those final words, I pushed against Thoth with my mind. Against Anubis. Against anything that was not my choice.

I was not a pawn.

I was a queen. I was an empress.

My hands shot up. Movement rippled through me, through the boat. My eyelids lowered, and when they popped back up, the ibis was gone.

So was the jackal.

On wobbly legs, I jumped up and grabbed the dock. But I was so weak. I had to swing my legs—back, forward, back—but even that did not give me the momentum I needed.

A hand appeared before me.

My gaze leaped up . . . and met sea-blue eyes. Elijah. It was my brother, and though his body looked like Marcus, his soul did not. Nothing about my brother’s spirit felt like the monster outside.

Elijah gripped my wrists and hauled me out. My belly scraped over the dry wood, but soon I was upright.

And my arms flew around his neck. My brother.

“I’ve been waiting for you, El.”

“Help me,” I mumbled into his chest. But then I trembled back a step, trying to see beyond him.

Daniel’s silhouette was gone.

I clutched at my heart. No matter how many breaths I gulped in, my lungs would not stop shaking. “W-where did he go? Where did he go?”

“He left the dock.” Elijah stroked my hair. “He passed into the spirit realm.”