CHAPTER 170

Jenny's laughter filled the room as the arm trembled, then cracked. Beth unfolded the fingers as Tick Tock slashed away at the statue, pushing it back until she could free the rat king.

"We have to free Death," she yelled, then moved toward the wall. "Jenny, try to get this thing over here. Maybe we can trick it into breaking down this section of the wall."

Jenny cackled, and the temperature of the room dropped so hard that it took Beth's breath away. An eerie glow surrounded the guardian moments before it rocketed across the room, just missing Beth, to crash into the wall. The concrete cracked—but held.

Beth ran up behind the statue and tackled it into the wall. One of its ears snapped off, and it spun around and cocked its fist. She felt a chill in her belly and ducked in time to avoid the blow. It came for her again, but that eerie glow surrounded it again and spun it around. The statue's fist connected solidly with the wall. Small cracks formed along its knuckles, but the cracks in the wall widened.

Tick Tock yanked himself free of Beth's shoulders and leapt over her head. Sharp talons embedded themselves in the wall and ceiling as the mimic wedged itself in place. With a pair of bladed arms, it smashed the statue into the wall over and over until Anubis cracked and fell apart.

A hole formed in the wall and a skeletal finger poked through it.

"Death!" Beth knelt down and looked inside, but she could only see darkness.

"I have been bamboozled," the Reaper responded. "It will take me some time to get out of here. There are runes in here meant to trap me."

"Don't worry. He isn't alone." The voice was Lily's. A glowing red eye appeared in the hole and winked.

"How? I didn't see you in there!"

"You did, actually. When that cunt blew out of her sarcophagus, I could tell things were going sideways so I took Kisa's place. Bitch had no clue, but she did knock me out for a bit."

Beth frowned. She wasn't aware that Lily could even sleep.

"Where's Kisa?" she asked.

"No idea. I told her to hide and she took Opal with her. What was left of her, anyway. But listen, that's not what's important. That bag around her neck is what is keeping her alive. You get that away from her and she's toast."

"What is it?"

"It's a Divine Object, but that's all I know. But there's something else. Romeo is stuck in Oregon. He's trying to come back, but we're probably on our own on this."

"How do you—"

"Fucking hell, would you go snatch that mummy's magic coin purse already? Shit!" Lily moved away from the wall and mumbled something to Death. Death's fiery orb appeared in the hole.

"You must make haste, Director Bethany. That woman is more powerful than we realized."

"Why? She needs a human body to inhabit, and the only one within a million miles just booted her out."

"Wrong." Death's flames intensified. "There is one other human nearby."

Beth frowned. "You mean Murray? He's that angel's bitch already."

Death was shoved aside and Lily was back. "All she has to do is hide from you until we're back on Earth. Then it's open season on the first person she sees. You cannot let her get away."

"Got it. You can count on us." Beth looked over at Jenny. "You up for one more round of hide and seek?"

The doll clapped her hands in glee.

"Good luck," Lily yelled through the wall as they all ran up the stairs.

Velvet's hearts were pounding as she scrambled across the ceiling of the cave. Leeds had led her through the woods, his magic flooding her mind with images of shattering her egg, consuming it, or even letting it hatch and tormenting her child.

He had brought her to the goblin caves. Down below, in the darkness, she could hear him scrambling among the bones. The bastard was up to something, she just couldn't tell what.

"Please," she begged. "Just give it—"

A shadow tried to grab her leg, but she released her hold on the ceiling and fell about fifteen feet before grabbing the edge of a stalactite and swinging over to stick to the wall.

What could I do with the child of a cursed union? he wondered in her head. Perhaps it would be best to turn her loose in the city, where there is plenty of prey.

"Not going to happen!" She aimed her pistol at a moving shadow and fired. The brief muzzle flash illuminated the cave and revealed that he was actually hiding far to her left, just beneath a ridge of stone. With a powerful leap, she crossed the space in a moment, her fingers briefly closing on his cloak.

I will be such a good father to her, Leeds told her.

"She already has a father!" She scanned the darkness, the sensitive hairs on her body allowing her to sense his movements. When she felt him, she made another leap and crashed face-first into another stalactite. With a grunt, she fell and landed clumsily on the ground.

I can teach her to be a monster like her grandparents.

"Fuck you!" She fired the gun again—but didn't see him in the flash this time. By a quick mental count, she was nearly out of bullets.

This place is a shrine to their transgressions, little spider. There is no hiding where you came from.

"What matters more is where you're going, you sick fuck!"

How old will she need to be until she can mate? Leeds actually laughed out loud, his voice echoing from every direction. I would be such a good grandpa to—

Leeds made a choking sound, followed by the impact of flesh on stone. For several moments, all Velvet heard was the sound of dripping water from somewhere in the darkness.