Zealot (Hidden: Soulhunter Book 3) Read online

“Weird,” Zara agreed. Then she smiled at me again. “You always were a bit different, little sister.”

  “How do you know they’re yours?” Amalia asked.

  “I remember them. Don’t you?”

  Zara laughed and shook her head. “How can you remember that many souls?”

  “I can’t even remember them a moment after I turn them over,” Amalia said. “Hunting, turning them over, going out to hunt again. I miss having a duty. It was nice being needed,” she finished quietly.

  “Are the crows still taking the souls?” Zara asked.

  I shook my head. “New Guardians started appearing, shortly after the undead appeared. I am guessing it was designed that way by Nyx.”

  “Balance,” Amalia said again, and I nodded. “Of course.”

  “And yet, she’s still going to destroy it all,” Angelia, the goddess of tidings and messages said sadly. “I cannot believe it.”

  I stood, watching my horde of souls. Millions of them.

  I thought back to the sight of newly-dead souls fighting, and hurting, the undead who had just killed their mortal bodies. My heart started pounding in my chest. I met Brennan’s mother’s eyes for a moment, and she gave me a questioning look in return.

  “I will be right back,” I said to my sisters. I nearly ran back into the palace, trying to find some privacy. I had one more chance. One more. As I expected, the souls followed me. I made it to Hades’ old throne room, the largest room in the place, and turned to the souls.

  “You would fight if I asked you, wouldn’t you?” I asked them. “You would help me?”

  “Of course,” Sean and Rhiannon said. Sean seemed excited by the prospect, and Rhiannon had already shifted.

  A panther. Of course. I tore my gaze away from her.

  “Please give us something to do. This is boring,” a teenage girl I had picked up in Windsor, Ontario, in the early 1970s, said.

  I closed my eyes and came as close as I ever have to praying. I thought, screamed Nyx’s name in my mind, repeated it vocally over and over again. Eventually, I felt her suffocating power nearby, and opened my eyes.

  “Guardian, I am busy,” she said. “I am sorry you died.”

  “Yes, lovely. Thank you. I have one last bargain for you.”

  “Guardian, this is over. You tried. It was a valiant effort, but—”

  “They will fight for me,” I said, gesturing toward the souls. “They will fight and hold the undead. If they can do that, my New Guardians and I can destroy them. With this many souls working to contain and capture them, all we would have to do is destroy. We can do this. Balance can be restored.”

  “The destruction has already begun. And that does not account for Persephone and her madness.”

  “Let me do this, and I will bring Persephone to you at the end,” I promised her. “She is the imbalance. She is the cancer. She caused all of it. Let me end it. I know I can do it. You can still re-absorb her energy. You will be stronger for it, in many ways.”

  “You being returned to the mortal realm, along with your sisters, would be yet more imbalance,” she said, though I could tell she was conflicted.

  “Surely not while there are so many undead around,” I pressed. “Our presence would help bring it more into balance, temporarily. And we could destroy them all. Think of it, Nyx.”

  “There has to be a trade-off,” she said. “I would be allowing millions of souls to go back, even temporarily, plus three Guardians. The dead are meant to stay dead, not return to the mortal realm.”

  “We’ll return with the souls when we’re finished. Temporary imbalance for a resolution to this stupidly impossible task you’ve set before our sister seems fair,” Zara said. She and Amalia stood just inside the doorway. I had not been aware that they had followed me. “Let us do this for the mortals, at least.”

  “Let us be useful one more time, Nyx,” Amalia asked. “Let us right the wrongs of our sisters.”

  “It is still not enough,” Nyx said. “Do you understand? I have to open the gateway to allow you all back. Do you really think any of the immortals who have been stuck here will ever come back? The souls will follow her,” Nyx said, gesturing toward me, “but the immortals? Every one of them has free will and they will have every right to live in the mortal realm if I open the gateway. And I would have to hope that none of the demons or monsters that call this realm home would get through.”

  “We could stay,” Amalia said slowly. “We could guard the gateway. Try to protect the mortals from the monsters. Zara and I could manage that so Eunomia and her souls could try to destroy the undead and capture Persephone. It will give her time to do what she needs to do, and you can close it after she gets back.”

  Nyx had been about to say something, when I interrupted. “My soul,” I said quietly.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Balance. If I give you my soul, my immortality in exchange for those who will decide to stay in the mortal realm… would that be enough to satisfy the need for balance?”

  She studied me. “You would give me your life, your eternal life, for them?”

  I nodded.

  “You would be nothing more than a soul, nothing more than one of them,” she said, gesturing to the souls behind me.

  I swallowed hard, then nodded. “Let me do this. Grant me the time it will take to restore balance. Let Zara and Amalia guard the gateway. I will bring you Persephone, and then my life is yours. My life belongs to the Old Nether,” I corrected. “To restore the balance of so many leaving.”

  “Little sister, your soul doesn’t balance the dozen or so who will be leaving,” Amalia said gently.

  “Says who?” Nyx asked sharply. She continued studying me. “No, her soul is worth at least that many immortals. She is strong and pure of heart. The fact that she would even suggest it tells me that, without a doubt.” She paused. “You would let them all return to the mortal realm and sacrifice yourself, when you have so much there you have left behind?”

  I swallowed, steeled myself. “If I do not, then everything I love will die. At least I have a chance to save them, if you agree to this.”

  She studied me a while longer, and I wanted to scream with impatience.

  “Very well, Guardian. I grant you leave to take your souls and rid the mortal realm of the undead. I give you the task of bringing Persephone to me, for her punishment shall be eternal. And when you have finished, your soul is recompense for the immortals this realm will lose when I open the gateway. The time you have is not unlimited. I will summon you back here when I have determined your time to be up.”

  “Yes. I agree,” I said quickly, wanting to move on with it, knowing that Persephone was causing more damage as time went on.

  “Then it will be so,” she said, her eyes glowing with her power, and I felt the truth of her words as the magic or power or whatever it was that Nyx possessed made its way through me, latching onto my soul as I felt the odd sensation of being nothing more than energy, and I knew then that my mortal form was well and truly gone. I belonged entirely to Nyx and the Old Nether now. I closed my eyes, accepting it. I would protect him, one last time. If I was lucky, I would see his face once more before I was forced to come back. It was more than I could have hoped for, even minutes ago.

  “I will not fail,” I said, opening my eyes and meeting Nyx’s gaze.

  “I believe you,” she said softly.

  “At least you’ll be here with us,” Zara said. A glance at Amalia showed that she was smiling.

  “Why? You can go back,” I said.

  “If we’re guarding the gateway while you’re gone, we’re not going anywhere,” Amalia said, shaking her head. “It’s fine. It’s mostly quiet here, and at least we can be of some service one more time. Besides, our presence in the mortal realm would upset the balance again. Too many Guardians, now that we have replacements,” she said, shooting a glance at Nyx, who merely nodded.

  “Prepare yourself, and when you are ready, I will create a
temporary gateway,” Nyx said. By now, the other immortals had filtered into the throne room, called, most likely, by Nyx’s presence. At her words about the creation of a gateway, even a temporary one, they erupted into smiles and tears. I noted that Triton was there, looking confused and lost, even as Autumn stood beside him, filling him in on all that had happened. At least the sea would have their prince back, I thought.

  I felt Nyx’s gaze on me.

  Are you sure, Guardian? How strong are you? Can you truly walk away from him, knowing without a doubt that it will be the last time?

  I met Nyx’s eyes. “I have always been stronger than I look,” I said quietly, but I knew she could hear me, even over the roar of noise in the room, the sound of hundreds of souls passing the news down the line to those who had not fit into the throne room, the exultations of the immortals who knew they were going home.

  She gave a brief nod, and I turned and walked out of the throne room, my sisters, Brennan’s parents, and the rest of my army of souls behind me.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I stood at the site of the old gateway, somewhere in the vicinity of ten million souls at my back, souls I had first hunted, souls that were found by Hades to be decent.

  Souls that wanted to fight, wanted to save the world they’d once loved.

  The fact that I was now one of them, that in joining them, I had sentenced myself to eternity in the Old Nether…. well. I would try not to think about that just now. I turned, and found Brennan’s parents still right behind me. I glanced at them, then looked at the rest of the souls.

  “The undead are not hard to find. They are not hard to recognize,” I shouted, turning toward my horde, my army of the dead. “You have the ability to fight them, to hurt them and hold them. All you need to do is get them to a Guardian. There are thirteen of us,” I said loudly, so they could hear me, so the words could easily be repeated to those who could not hear me. “You will know us. They all feel like me. You will be assigned a Guardian and a region of the world in which to fight. Leave none left to continue this plague,” I said. “You love this world? Destroy those who dare to threaten it.”

  We flowed out of the gateway, through cities, past mortals who never even realized we were there. How odd it was, to have people look straight through me.

  As soon as we were through the gateway, I called to my New Guardians, who were very likely still fighting in the Netherwoods. Do not explain. Just come to the Packard Plant immediately, I said through our mental link. In an instant, all twelve of them were there, staring first at the horde of souls, then at the two Guardians already cutting monsters and rampaging demons down at the gateway, and then, finally, at me.

  “Boss?” Quinn asked. “You’re—”

  “Yes. I am. I am dead. But I am back one more time to finish this. How is the fight in the Netherwoods going?”

  “Not good. I mean, they’re holding their own. The undead started showing up and that’s just adding to the chaos. Persephone’s monsters are still attacking, though you helped take out the biggest, meanest one,” he said, still staring at me.

  I explained the plan to my New Guardians… my Guardians. I would have to stop considering them “new,” especially now that they were the only Guardians the mortal world and Mollis would have. I divided the world between the thirteen of us, assigned each Guardian a regiment of souls. As I expected, the Matthews stayed with me.

  The shock of seeing me as I was, as a soul like any other, had clearly not worn off completely for my Guardians, but one by one, they left with their armies. They would do their jobs, because that is what we do. We vowed to do this as quickly as possible, and then all meet back at the Netherwoods to finish it.

  Only Quinn remained behind. I nodded, gesturing to him that we could step aside for a moment. It was a relief for me to be away from all of the souls for a moment, even if it was a separation of only a few feet.

  “So… you’re going to be leavin’ us again,” he said. I nodded. “And this time, you won’t be coming back.”

  “No, I will not. It was the price Nyx required for their help,” I said, nodding toward the souls, “and the price of her re-creating the gateway for a short time. And for the immortals who are now free to come home from the Old Nether.”

  He looked at me for a long time, then looked away, and I realized he was blinking back tears. “It was a bad scene, when you died back there.”

  “I imagine it was,” I said. I closed my eyes. “How is he?”

  Quinn knew who I meant. “It was like he died, too, for a bit. He didn’t move, lost his panther form, just sat there staring at what was left of you until you dissolved into dust. And then, it was like he snapped. He’s been like some kind of feral, mad wild animal since. He’s doing more than a fair bit of damage, but it’s like the guy we knew isn’t there. It’s all instinct, all predator.”

  I nodded. Like me, all Brennan knew how to do in times of trouble was to fight, to keep working. To avenge those lost.

  “Mollis?”

  “Nether had to take over. Mollis just kind of lost it. I think Nether was maybe afraid Mollis would destroy everything, including all of her allies, just to get to Persephone. I heard Nether say something to Nain about how Mollis would have hated herself forever if she’d done that, and he agreed, and the fighting went on. Nether’s doing a good job,” he said with some surprise.

  “She is at her best when she is protecting Mollis,” I said. Sometimes, it seemed like Nether felt even more maternal toward Mollis than Tisiphone did.

  I took a breath. “Let us go do this, then. When it is over, you are the leader of the Guardians.”

  “Boss—”

  “No time to argue. Just do your job,” I said.

  “Yes, boss.”

  “This ends now.”

  He gave one more nod, signaled to his regiment of souls, and then they were gone. I turned to my own group of souls, who were watching me eagerly. Both of Brennan’s parents had shifted now, Sean standing in wolf form next to Rhiannon’s panther.

  “Are you ready?”

  They nodded, and then I closed my eyes and focused. Rematerializing all of us would not be hard. Souls can move more freely than any other being, even more so than immortals. A second of thought, and we were in our assigned region. When we appeared again, I took a moment to steady my nerves and emotions, then turned to my army. On the faces of every single one of these souls, there was the determination that they were not yet finished, that death was just one more adventure, that their story was still being written. I was more than happy to help them write it.

  “Do not let a single undead escape your wrath,” I shouted, and the souls behind me shouted their echoey approval, and we began to move. I had taken northern and western Europe as our assigned clean-out zone.

  My forces were like a raging river, washing the Earth clean of the undead taint. They worked together, beating down and capturing the undead, bringing them to me. My Netherblades made quick work of them. I swept through my army, plunging my blade through the heart of undead after undead, watching them ooze away to nothingness. We worked tirelessly through Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal. The sun rose and set twice, and still, we fought. The entire time, the earth rumbled and shook with the natural disasters that Nyx had initiated, designed to end the world, though they seemed to be lessening in power the longer we worked, the more undead we destroyed. It was as if the closer we came to balance, the less the Earth suffered.

  Nyx was honest, if nothing else. She was holding up her end of our bargain, I realized with a sense of relief. Buoyed by this knowledge, I continued capturing and killing undead.

  Once we had the mainland clear, I took my army to Ireland, thinking that this was my gift to Quinn, that his homeland was free of the taint of the undead and could now rebuild from the havoc they had caused.

  On the third day, I had no choice but to take the army to our final country. Britain.

  We swept through the northern areas,
making our way south. My blade never seemed to rest as they brought more and more undead to me. If they were confused about why I took us around London, no one questioned my decision. Finally, with nowhere left to clean, I turned to London, to the city that had become my home. It did not take us long to deal with most areas of the city. My New Guardians had recently cleaned it out yet again, so we were mostly just dealing with those who had moved in afterward. One more neighborhood to go.

  The East End. Whitechapel. How fitting that we ended our sweep of the earth, this eradication of the undead, here, where it had all begun. I kept my eyes averted as we flooded past the building Brennan and I had settled in, what felt like an eternity ago. All I wanted to do was go home, to curl up in our bed and smell his scent and mine mingled in our sheets.

  Instead, I attacked, and when there were no more undead to bring to me, when I realized that we had accomplished what we’d set out to do, all I could do was look up at my army of souls in respect and disbelief.

  “Well done,” I said to them, and they bowed. Most of them looked lighter, happier than they had when they’d first come to me. I understood. A sense of accomplishment is a beautiful thing, and they had managed something everyone, including the Creator of all we knew, had considered impossible. “We have one more task ahead of us.”

  A moment later, we were in the Netherwoods, which was still smoldering around us. Very likely the Earthwitches and Gaia had been working tirelessly to keep the flames down as the fighting had continued.

  And continue, it had. The palace was nothing but rubble. The statue of Hades lay toppled, the sword arm broken off and lying on the ground several feet away. Shouts, growls, and cries echoed in the air.

  My eyes went, immediately, to the enormous black panther tearing its way through the ranks of creatures Persephone had created. I felt his parents behind me, watching him as well.

  “Go to him,” I told them, and they both bounded away and started helping their son destroy. Mollis/Nether, Nain, and several of our other friends fought near Persephone, determined to get to her, but her little army of abominations kept them at bay. I realized with a start that the vampires had joined the fight as I saw Shanti, Zero, Rayna, and Ronan facing off against some undead together. My other Guardians started appearing, having finished up their areas as well. Erin, Claire, Margaret, Anna, the new ones Quinn and the others had found for me… all of them appeared, and I waved toward the undead. The souls knew what to do.