Immortal Rider_ Lords of Deliverance Series_ - Larissa Ione [86]
Limos’s creative curses blistered his ears. “No. Pestilence will be able to sense the holder of the soul he’s trying to claim. We’re screwed.”
“In more ways than one, I think.” He gestured down the beach at Thanatos jogging toward them. Thankfully, they were dressed, but the guy wasn’t an idiot, and if he had a single brotherly instinct, he’d… yep… the Horseman’s eyes narrowed as he approached, and Arik readied himself for Death Match: Part Two.
Fortunately, though Than gave Arik a look that spelled out L-A-T-E-R, he didn’t pull a big brother.
“Human.” Thanatos’s voice was as dark as his expression. “You said you can learn any demon language.”
“Yeah. Why.”
Thanatos held out a slip of parchment. “Can you read them?”
“What’s this about?” Limos asked, as Arik took the page and studied the strange scribblings.
“I have Regan going over everything I’ve found about your agimortus. She said that this piece of Isfet writing felt angry, but I don’t know what it says. I was hoping your boy here could translate.”
Arik shook his head. “Sorry. I can’t read demon languages. Just speak them.”
“Dammit,” Than snarled. He glanced down at the messy towel and churned up sand, and those damned shadows started swirling around his feet.
Not good. With the Horseman’s focus off the agimortus, it was locking in on Arik and Limos. Think fast… “Why don’t you just ask an Isfet? Or do they not exist anymore?”
“They exist,” Limos said, “but no one but the Isfet know their language. That’s why most of what we think we know about my agimortus is legend and not fact.”
Arik slapped the parchment into Limos’s palm. “Then let’s go find an Isfet,fin why most because you’ve got yourself an interpreter.”
Arik’s soul might still be the rope in a tug-o-war, and Limos might still be engaged to Mr. 666, but if they could secure her agimortus, it would be a huge win for the good guys. And as long as Thanatos could keep his Seal from breaking, having Limos’s Seal safe would mean that everyone could shift their focuses from her to stopping Pestilence.
This could be the much-needed break the R-XR and The Aegis had been looking for. Arik grinned.
Pestilence could suck it.
Limos and Arik waited for Ares and Thanatos at the Temple of Limos, which was the only temple constructed for the Horsemen that wasn’t inside Sheoul. Limos’s temple existed inside a bubble of sorts, where the demon and human realms met and where both humans and demons could walk, but neither could pass into the other’s realm. This bubble was deep inside an ancient Incan cave that Limos doubted had seen a human in hundreds of years.
From the looks of the temple, it hadn’t seen demons either.
She looked around at the dust and crumbling stone altars. “This is really insulting.”
Arik kneeled next to a time-bleached skeleton chained to the wall. “Why are all these skeletons here?”
“They were sacrifices to me.”
Her boots clacked on the floor as she moved to one of the altars, where a bunch of colored stones had been laid out in the pattern of a set of scales. Under her armor, her own scales, the tattoo, remained balanced, which was a relief. It tended to tip to evil when she was in one of the bubbles or inside Sheoul.
Grimacing, Arik stood. “Nice.”
She watched him wander around the temple, studying its marble walls, every inch of which was engraved with symbols or writing. When he stopped in front of a carving of her and her brothers standing before kneeling humans and demons, he traced his finger over her image, and she swore she felt his touch on her skin.
“You and your brothers are close, but what’s supposed to happen if all of your Seals break?”
“I think, after the Apocalypse is over and evil has won, we’re supposed to be at war with each other.” The very idea made her sick.
“I can’t imagine going to war with Runa,” he said, dropping his hand from the carving.
She smiled. “We have that in common.”
Their love