Dark Harvest (Darkling Mage 2)

I stabbed a finger in his direction. “You put her up to this, didn’t you?”

Carver raised his hands in placation. “I may have casually mentioned that it would be nice if you could rely on yourself in a fight, but what of it? I didn’t push her to antagonize you. Amaterasu attacked you of her own free will. Do you really think a goddess would take kindly to an outsider telling her what to do?”

He had a point. I wanted to fold my arms and sulk, except that I knew it would hurt like hell considering the state of my chest.

“Carver’s right.” Sterling’s Zippo clicked as he lit one of his cigarettes. “You’re more use to us if you know better than to just duck into the shadows. The sword’s nice and all” – he angled his head at one of my shelves where, I was glad to see, Vanitas was resting – “but would it kill you to hit something with your fists for once?”

“Gil has his claws, and you have your batshit crazy vampire strength. You guys have your advantages, but the rest of us have our limitations.” I coughed very pointedly. “Also I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t smoke in here.”

“Yeah dude,” Gil said, grimacing. “Wouldn’t appreciate you smoking those in my room, either.”

Carver tutted. “Dustin has a point. It’s quite impolite. Smoke in your room, Sterling, or outside.”

Sterling sulkily rose to his feet, his chair scraping against the stone floor.

“Those things are going to kill you some day, you know.”

“Immortal vampire,” Sterling said, showing me a very rude gesture as he headed for the door. “I’d be more worried about your lifespan what with the tattoo and everything. Remember: the offer still stands.”

I leaned back against my pillow and grumbled, holding out my wrist for Carver to see. “One day. Is there really nothing you can do about this?”

He shook his head. “I closed you up and staunched the bleeding. That is the extent of my healing. The only way out of this geas is to fulfill Dionysus’s wishes.”

Geas, Carver said, the Irish word for binding magical agreements. Quests, in short, which came with dire consequences if uncompleted, which was exactly the predicament I was in. I wondered if the sun goddess had done the same.

“So Amaterasu – did she want anything out of me?”

“As far as I know, you’re clean.” Carver handed me the mirror. “This is the favor we’ve been granted. I trust you’ll be familiar with how to use this. Do you remember the bottled lightning you used to try and kill me?”

I looked away from Gil and Carver just then, my ears reddening. Hell, I sure did. The Lorica gave us Hounds small crystal phials that were used to suck electricity out of buildings, making infiltration easier and safer by effectively killing the power. I’d used one of those to attack Carver before I knew that he didn’t truly mean me harm.

“So this works the same way?” I said, turning the mirror over in my hand. “It sucks the sunlight out of the sky?” I couldn’t wrap my head around it, but Carver just nodded. “So. Out of curiosity. What would happen if two sun gods conflicted on what to do? If, say, Apollo found out and decided ‘Nope, the sun stays out today’?”

Carver stroked his beard. “The sun would probably implode. Who knows.”

I frowned, my mouth half open, but I didn’t argue. Knowing what I did about entities, I could totally see that happening.

“We’ll strike at two,” he continued. “You and Gil will need to show up earlier to cast the darkness over the Viridian compound. Sterling and I will follow once it’s safe for him to walk in without immediately burning to a crisp.”

“I’ll catch a few more Zs then,” Gil said, scratching his chest and stifling a yawn. “You should do the same, Graves.” He flip-flopped back out of my room, the fluffy slippers such stark contrast to his image. They were puppies, it turns out. Fluffy little beagle slippers.

Carver’s eyes darted around my room, then back to me. “And take a shower while you’re at it. I healed what I could of you, but I’m not up to the task of giving you a sponge bath. You need one.”

I lifted my arm, sniffed, then winced. “Yeah. I agree.”

“Bring the sword. We’ll need every advantage we can get, and he makes a fifth.”

Vanitas’s voice droned in the back of my head. “Go, team.”

Carver turned on his heel to leave, his feet hardly making a sound.

“I’ll do my best,” I said to his back, unsure of who I was trying to impress. “But I don’t know if I can manage another honing today. Not that you could call it a honing.”

Carver stopped in his tracks, then turned to address me over his shoulder. “I would caution against it, Graves. Your first attempt proved almost fatal. This last one wa

s no improvement. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so hard on you.”

I stared at my tattoo. “It was either die then, or when the last petal falls.” I bit the inside of my cheek, my blood pulsing with fury. Fuck Dionysus. Fuck these fickle gods and the idiot humans who coveted their relics, who played with fire.