Defy & Defend (Mythverse #7)

Chapter 2

2

I shuffle down the hall to my old office. Perhaps to my death.

That should leave my limbs shaky and my breath short. Instead, a numbness comes over me. I’ve been imprisoned and faced death before. The first time, I was like a rat ready to chew my own leg off. But this time, it’s a little different. My sister—my only family left—is missing, probably dead.

I don’t want it to be true. Every night instead of sleeping, I go back and forth.

Edie is a dragon shifter. The girl breathes fire. Nothing in this world can take her down.

The problem is—she’s not in this world. She was sucked through a portal into Tartarus. A place with monsters capable of killing gods. Easily killing gods. Like a human smushing a spider with the bottom of a flip-flop.

But Edie has her boyfriend Val with her, I remind myself. He’s one of the fiercest vampires I know. He and Edie together are a formidable team. They’ll survive.

Except...something came through the portal wearing their faces. Copies so good they fooled me and everyone else. At least at first. Then Cassie planted an axe in fake Edie’s back. A million roaches crawled out while the part that looked like Edie crumbled to dust.

After that it was hard to hold out hope. Hard to believe she and Val are still hunkered down in Tartarus awaiting rescue.

Being trapped behind bars while hope wrestles with despair—and despair keeps coming out on top—is a special type of t*****e.

If I can’t break out and go look for Edie—then maybe execution is the next best option. Kalinda pushes me through the door and I get a sick pleasure from seeing Marguerite looking flustered as she reviews paperwork. I don’t miss paperwork. I scratch at the collar around my neck that keeps me from shifting unless I’m in my cell or designated areas.

Marguerite looks up. “Mavis. Don’t sit, this will be brief.”

I knew Marguerite at Mount Olympus Academy. She was in the Assassination Class and I was in the Spy Class, so our paths didn’t pass very often. She’s also a vamp, and born vamps are notoriously cliquey. I was much more friendly with her girlfriend, Fern.

She looks at me. “I’m required to inform you that the Triumvirate has come to a decision about you and your little squad. The Human’s First movement is calling for blood and unfortunately, you’re on the menu.”

I blink. Hard. “I’m going to be sacrificed?”

“Execution sounds more official,” she corrects me. “Less like the pagan ritual the humans expect from us.”

Execution. The hardness of that word should scare me, but instead I almost feel like I’m floating above this scene—detached from it all.

The Triumvirate, the three gods who lead all the other gods, mentioned that there could be executions of violent criminals, but I didn’t think it would move this fast. And I’m hardly one of the most violent. Although I did break a bunch of inmates out. And directly broke trust with the Triumvirate. And got a prisoner killed, not to mention a god or two.

Okay, so I can kinda see their point.

“You and a few of the others,” Marguerite adds. “Mac. Shauna. Griff. That unhinged baby vamp, Kit.”

This brings me back down to earth. Fast. My death I could make peace with. But Mac? Shauna? I can’t even think about Griff dying because of my bad choices. The idea of him being put down...

I shake my head. “Okay, but...that’s just to appease the humans? There’s some sort of appeal process, right?” BJ, one of the gods on the Triumvirate is super tight with my sister Edie.

“No trial. No appeal,” she tells me, her gaze steely.

“BJ would never have voted…”

“It was unanimous,” she informs me.

I step forward, panic bubbling in my chest. Tot follows along at my heels, with a slight whine. “Marguerite, there has to be a way. Fern wouldn’t let you…”

“You will call me Officer or Ma’am,” she tells me. “And Fern has nothing to do with this. It’s been decided. There is nothing that either of us can do.”

“But Tina…”

“Tina remains in a coma. We will continue to care for her.”

“And then?” I prompt. “If she wakes up…”

A flash of regret crosses Marguerite’s face. “The fact is...no one expects her to wake up. But we’ve managed to keep her name out of the official documents. She was never an inmate and she never worked for UWR. She won’t be punished.”

Even though Marguerite told me not to sit, my legs refuse to hold me any longer. I collapse into the chair across from her. The Triumvirate may have made the decision, but really, I’m the one who sentenced us all to death.

“I’d like to be the one to let the others know,” I say when I can finally speak past the lump in my throat.

Marguerite nods. “I thought you might. Tonight you eat in your cells. Special requests—within reason—will be honored for final meals.”

“Shauna will want candy and blood,” I say in a small voice. “Mac’s hungers are all s****l, so maybe a final orgy instead of a meal for him? And…” But again, I can’t bear to think of Griff and I can’t make my mouth form his name.

“What about you?” Marguerite asks. “Any special requests?”

A time machine. A chance to go back and do it all differently. Maybe all the way back to before I started at Mount Olympus Academy.

But my mom tried that. Unable to deal with losing almost everyone she loved, she decided to have her mind wiped. She killed her memories. And in doing so, she cleared her mind of me and Edie. For her it was like we’d never existed at all.

Killing the past is no way to love the people who were part of it.

“Pen and paper,” I tell her. “And if you could hold onto a letter for Edie from me. In case—I mean, when—she comes back.”

Marguerite nods and I stand, my legs steady once more.

There’s no going back. Only forward.

And my next step is telling the people who trusted me that tomorrow they’ll die.

They all know something is up when just the four of us are let into the exercise yard together.

“Are we being neutered?” Mac asks, his hands gently cupping his manhood.

“No,” I say, and then take a deep breath to tell them the truth. Before I can, Shauna jumps in.

“Are we getting sent down to the lower level for serious offenders?” Shauna asks, her eyes wide.

“There is no lower level,” I tell her.

“Everyone says there is,” she counters.

“I used to work here,” I remind her. “There is no other level beyond this one.”

“Well, Griff’s roommate—you all know Tigger, right? Anyway, he says he was once sent to the lower level and it was like cold and there were no windows.”

“This level is cold and has no windows!” The words burst out of me, angrier than they should be.

“Geez,” Shauna says. Then she sticks out her tongue and gives me raspberries to let the rest of her feelings loose.

I look to Griff, fairly certain he won’t be offering up any guesses. He’s a man of few words. As I thought, his dark eyes just meet mine and hold them. He looks even more solemn than usual. Maybe he suspects what’s coming.

Why on earth did I insist on being the one to tell them?

My throat is tight but I force myself to meet all of their eyes. Then I put my chin up and give it to them straight.

“They’re executing us. All of us. Tomorrow morning. Lethal injection.”

Not one of them says a thing. They just stare at me, eyes wide. Scared.

“I could tell you I’m sorry, but that won’t make you any less dead tomorrow. I could say to be brave or that it was an honor to know you and will be an even greater honor to die beside you. But the truth is, this sucks. And it’s bullshit. I don’t want to die. And I don’t want to see any of you go down either. But I can’t stop it. None of us can. All we can do is kick and scream until the end, and when it’s over—haunt their asses until the end of time.”

They all stare at me still. Then Shauna forces a grin.

“I’m gonna be a poltergeist. All moving s**t around and stuff. So watch when you try to sit, living people, cause I just kicked out your chair.”

Mac gets into the ghost stuff too. “Obviously, there will be multiple exorcisms to get rid of me. Do you know how many closets I’m going to be sitting in, watching while people—”

“That’s the spirit...pun intended,” I say, and then point to Mac. “Just get consent first before invading bodies, yeah?”

He nods. And again, I find myself gazing into Griff’s eyes.

“Boo!” he says.

For some reason this is so unexpected and yet perfect that I don’t have to pretend to laugh. It bursts right out of me. A little wild, sure. Just on the edge of hysteria. But it still feels good.

The others join in and then we are all wrapped up together in a great big huddle of bodies, laughing and crying and saying good-bye.