Immortal Rider_ Lords of Deliverance Series_ - Larissa Ione [90]
Limos damn near screeched with joy. Her brothers whooped, Wraith muttered something about being hungry, and she was about to jump down to Arik…
When all hell broke loose. One minute, Limos was celebrating finding her agimortus, and in the next, Pestilence was crouching on a ledge above them, a silent snarl peeling back his lips and making his fangs glint.
“How’d he find us?” Arik dove across one of the gaps in the crystals, but Pestilence was beside him in a flash.
As Arik skidded across the smooth surface, he flung the agimortus up to Ares. The act cost him, and before Arik could escape, Pestilence seized him by the throat.
“Let him go!” Limos ran toward them as Arik punched and kicked, but when her brother squeezed his throat harder, Arik’s struggles weakened.
“Stay there, little sis,” Pestilence said, and everyone froze. “I’ll trade him for the cup.”
If he’d asked for anything else, she’d agree, but the cup was so off limits. Stall. “How did you find us?”
“Ah. That. Did you know your boy sold his soul to a Charnel Apostle?”
Arik slammed his boot into Pestilence’s shin. “She knows, you horse’s ass.”
Pestilence ripped the mask away from Arik’s suit, and Arik gasped at the sudden heat and thick air. “I found him, killed him, and your soul defaulted to me. I can now sense you wherever you are.”
“Let him go, Reseph,” she said quietly.
“Don’t think you can appeal to Reseph,” Pestilence snarled. “He’s gone. Get used to it.” He clamped down on Arik’s throat again, and Arik’s face turned crimson. “Give me the damned cup.”
She couldn’t. But she couldn’t let Arik die, either. Every bone in her body screamed at what was running through her mind, but she quelled the noises and stepped forward.
“Take me instead.” The crystal walls closed in, suffocating her the way Sheoul’s confines would do forever after this. “You can take me to my husband and get whatever reward you’ve been seeking.”
Arik, Than, and Ares all shouted “No,” simultaneously, but she ignored them. This was her worst nightmare—well, second worst, the first being to have her Seal break, but to save Arik, she’d do it.
Pestilence’s eyes glinted with icy evil. “I think we’ve made a deal.”
Than leaped for her, but she spun out of his way. “Don’t,” she whispered. “I have to do this.” She moved toward Pestilence with leaden feet. “I also want Arik’s soul returned to him, so that when he dies, you don’t get possession.”
“Agreed.”
“Don’t, baby,” Arik rasped. “Don’t do this.”
“If I don’t, he’ll kill you, and you’ll spend eternity being tortured. I can’t let that happen.” She kept her eyes rooted on Pestilence as she stepped within arms’ reach. “Release him.”
Pestilence shoved Arik off the ledge, and only Wraith’s catlike reflexes saved him from falling to his death on the crystal shards below.
“Bastard!” Limos slammed her fist into her brother’s jaw.
Pestilence’s head snapped back, and she struck again, this time swiping her fingers over his armor-scar. Instantly, his armor melted away, leaving him in worn camo pants. Sticking out of the leg pocket was Deliverance, in all its shiny, horse-headed glory.
As Pestilence reached up to re-armor, one of Arik’s knives impaled his wrist in a well-executed throw. Blood splattered Limos in the face, blinding her in oneingded glory. eye as she rammed her shoulder into Pestilence’s gut and seized Deliverance. The dagger felt cold in her hand. Heavy.
Without thinking, she plunged the blade into her brother’s heart.
The cavern went silent. Horror and disbelief flashed in Pestilence’s eyes. His hands shook as he grasped Limos’s hand, which was still wrapped around the hilt of the dagger. Blood flowed over her fingers and gushed from his mouth, where it dripped off his chin.
Pounding footsteps rang out as her brothers, Wraith, and Arik rushed toward her.
“Oh, fuck.” Than’s voice was choked. “Li, what