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“What’s going on?” Thanatos studied Ares as though trying to decide if he should armor up as well.

“Our brother has recovered from the blow we dealt him,” Ares’s voice, cold and hard, rang with anger. “A swarm of locusts is sweeping across New Zealand, the worst plague they’ve ever seen.”

Limos frowned. “A plague could point to Pestilence’s hand, but it’s still a natural occurrence.”

“Not when the locusts are eating animals and people too.”

Eew. “I was hoping it would take him more terae him mime to regroup.” There were a number of reasons for that, but foremost was the fact that when Pestilence wasn’t causing chaos, Ares and Thanatos didn’t fight. Ares wanted Pestilence dead, and Thanatos wanted to repair his Seal.

Unfortunately, Pestilence was in possession of the only weapon capable of killing him, and no one had found a way to repair his Seal. Hell, they didn’t even know if it was possible. Thanatos was running on nothing more than a theory and hope.

“So was I,” Ares said. “But tension in the Balkans is flaring up again, and so are battles in the Middle East. I just got back from a nasty one.” Ares, as the Horseman who would be War when his Seal broke, was naturally drawn to battles, could sometimes be kept away from home for days, weeks, even months during the worst of the fighting. Fortunately, thanks to Cara’s bond with the hellhounds, his Seal was safe—unless either Limos’s or Thanatos’s Seals broke.

“Dammit,” Than breathed. “I’d been sensing an upswing in deaths, but nothing I could pinpoint.”

“That’s because the battles are scattered right now, mostly skirmishes, and the death rates are fairly low. Pestilence might be working his next attempt at an Apocalypse in gradual measures. Fly under our radar for a while. He’s definitely up to something.” Ares reached over and scratched the hellhound under the chin, and Limos didn’t think she’d ever get used to that. “You guys make any headway in locating Arik?”

Limos nodded. “We were just heading out to Erta Ale to search. Wanna join us? There might be some fighting.”

“Then hell, yeah. I’m there.”

Limos touched her fingers to the crescent-shaped scar on the left side of her neck, and her Samurai-style armor snapped into place. Thanatos followed suit, his bone-plate armor clacking as it folded itself onto his body.

Time to ride.

Nothing.

They’d found freaking nothing but scorching lava, noxious gasses, and lung-choking ash near the Erta Ale hellmouth. Inside the entrance, they’d discovered the gnawed-on skeletons of half a dozen humans and tunnels that broke off into more tunnels. After a full day of combing the caverns, Ares and Thanatos had been compelled to another of Pestilence’s wars, and Limos had to change her game plan.

She threw a Harrowgate to her place, intent on gathering a team of her servants to help her. As she stepped out onto the warm Hawaiian sand outside her home, another gate flashed, and that son of a bitch, Pestilence, burst from it on his white stallion.

“Hey, sis.” In a clang of metal armor, he swung down from Conquest and called the horse to him. Conquest poofed into a wisp of smoke and slipped under his master’s gauntlet to settle on his arm. “I have a job for you.”

Her fingers flexed over the scabbard at her hip, the desire to run him through with her blade stronger than it had ever been. “If you think I’m going to do anything for you, y>Lig for you can go fuck yourself.”

Pain flickered in his ice-blue eyes, startling the hell out of her. “I know I’ve been a bastard, Li. I can’t help it.” His shoulders slumped, and he looked down at the ground, his platinum hair concealing his face. “My dreams… man, my dreams mess with me. I remember how I was. I… miss that.”

She took an involuntary step toward him. “Reseph?”

“I need help.” With a jerky, uncoordinated movement, he grabbed his head as if it pained him, and his voice cracked. “Cure me… please.” He inhaled a strangled breath. “Deliverance… under… my armor. Kill… me. I’m begging you.”

“We’ll help you, I swear,” she said, reaching for him.