Thunder Road (Rain Chaser Book 1) (24 page)

“Yes it was.”

“Last time I listen to one of your plans.” He rested his fingers on the doorhandle and sucked in a deep breath.

I didn’t have the heart to tell either of them this was most likely the last time
anyone
would listen to one of my plans.

Droplets of rain started to fall against the windshield. If I could muster up enough energy to call the lightning, we
might
have a fighting chance. Of course, I could barely maintain the energy to stand on my own two feet, so channeling electricity into my body would be finishing Manea’s job for her.

If it helped get Leo and Cade to safety, though, I’d do it.

I was filing that idea under
last-ditch effort
.

“Count of three,” I said. “You guys get out, and I’ll be right behind you.” The unfortunate problem of driving a two-seater was I needed them to be gone before I could climb through the door. And no matter how I managed it, it would be a hot mess to watch.

The guys clambered out on my count, and I squeezed through the seats, worming my way through the passenger door like a graceless human snake. As soon as I was on solid ground, the rain started falling harder, pelting my face and wetting my eyelashes. It was nearly impossible to see anything, let alone whether we were about to be attacked.

I rounded to the front of the car, and Cade grabbed my wrist, pulling me down the center of the street. All the pedestrians we’d previously seen were gone, leaving the streets empty of any life except for us.

Wonder if the news had forecast cloudy with a chance of reanimated dead.

Every step I took was a new form of punishment on my body. Cade and Leo were running, with Cade shouting out what we were looking for—a pink two-story house that would be on a corner lot—as we moved with single-minded purpose.

We made it a block and a half without incident, long enough I tricked myself into thinking we might make it the whole way.

I was doing my limited version of hauling ass as Cade dragged me down the block, when the ground below us began to rumble. It reminded me of the tremors I felt when a lick of thunder would shake everything around me, the only difference being this didn’t make me feel good.

In fact, as the street began to creak and groan like the asphalt was being shredded from below, an ominous feeling came over me.

Not many things lived below the surface. Aside from the water gods, whose domain was strictly aqueous, and the mountain goddesses buried beneath the rock, there was a very small subset of gods who lurked in kingdoms below.

Only one immediately sprang to mind who would jump at the chance to aid the goddess of death.

If Hades was involved, then this battle was already over. The reach of the underworld king was boundless, and once he had his eyes on us—or a thousand eyes if he was seeing us through Manea’s minions—then I really didn’t know how we were going to get out of this.

A huge fracture ripped down the middle of the street, swallowing a parked car a few feet ahead of us.

We skidded to a stop, and I yanked Leo back a moment before the crack split the ground where he’d been standing.

“Whoa.” His breath was shaky, but all told he was handling this situation a lot better than I had expected.

The real bitch of it was, I could see the pink two-story house only two blocks ahead, beckoning to us from the corner. On any other day, in any other circumstances, we could have easily made it there at a sprint.

Except I couldn’t run, and there was an enormous chasm now blocking our path.

Heat wafted up through the new hole in the ground, making me take a few steps backwards instinctively. I wanted nothing to do with whatever was down there. Some gods I didn’t need to meet. In fact, the fewer the better at this point was my opinion.

The rain started to fall harder, blackening the sidewalk and creating rising licks of steam where it met the hot air coming from within the fissure. A half block down two figures emerged from the cemetery, ambling slowly. Glancing behind me, I spotted the body we’d hit with my car dragging itself in our direction. Soon the street was filled with bodies, all moving towards us with a steady, unhurried gait.

Curtains shifted in a nearby window, and I spotted someone staring out at the scene on the street with a mixture of amazement and horror. The second the woman saw me looking at her, she shut the blinds and off went all her lights. Similarly, other houses up and down the block drew their curtains and went dark.

People knew better than to get involved in the messy business of divinity.

The outlet temple still had its front-porch light on, a beacon through the falling rain and incumbent darkness. All we had to do was make our way through dozens of the undead and a hole that led directly to the underworld.

More rumbling shook the ground below us, and Cade pulled me back a few steps onto the sidewalk as we watched two more cars vanish into the steaming-hot abyss in front of us.

“We have to run,” Cade urged. “If we stand here, it’s just going to keep opening wider.”

Eventually it would reach the houses to get to us, and I couldn’t let that happen. The people inside might not be willing to help us, but that was their right. I wouldn’t fault someone for trusting their survival instinct rather than saving a stranger from angry gods.

I also wouldn’t make them suffer just because I was public enemy number one with the divine set.

Two blocks.

We could run two blocks.

I took hold of Cade’s arm, squeezing it hard until he looked at me. His face glowed in the orange light from below, skin glistening as rain streaked down his cheeks.

He was so handsome I wanted to kiss him right then and there, but this was hardly a moment for sweeping romantic gestures. There was nothing sexy about getting sucked into the underworld because you decided to waste thirty seconds making out with a dude.

“Whatever happens, you keep running with him, you understand?”

His jaw flexed, and a war waged across his features as he struggled with whether or not to say whatever he was thinking. Eventually he gave a sharp nod and said, “I’ll do what needs to be done.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” The asphalt made a terrible noise, somewhere between a shriek and a growl. I’d never heard an inanimate object sound like that before. It made me feel sick to my stomach, like somehow the street itself was in pain.

Everything shifted, and we all staggered at the same time. It was as though the world had suddenly stopped spinning, and we were trying desperately to stay grounded when all of nature wanted us to shoot off into space.

Leo slammed into me and I fell, unable to keep my equilibrium long enough to get my bearings. I landed hard, losing my breath momentarily. As I got up onto my elbows, Leo came forward to offer me his hand.

The street below me split, cracking like a dropped egg. Heat flooded upwards as the asphalt crumbled.

I swatted Leo’s hand away. “
Go
.” Everything in my brain was screaming at me to hold on to him, but the part of me that knew his life mattered more than mine wouldn’t let me reach out.

He grabbed me anyway, bracing his feet on the edge of the hole just as the chasm opened up beneath me. For a moment I felt weightless, like I could fly. Leo’s fingers trembled, trying to maintain his grip on my wrist. He had almost pulled me free when something got hold of me from below.

“
Fu
—” was all I managed to say before both Leo and I plummeted headlong into the open mouth of hell itself.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Oh hell.

We landed standing, more like we’d been transported somewhere instead of falling through realms. For the first time that evening I wasn’t the wooziest person in the room, as Leo bobbed and weaved and I had to offer him a supportive arm to keep him from toppling over.

And we
were
in a room. One incredible, breathtaking room that reminded me of beautiful old libraries with grand domed ceilings.

Only this room was built entirely of bones.

The glass ceiling was over fifty feet up, framed by femurs and tibias. Outside, a storm of fire raged, billowing clouds of smoke and flame as far as the eye could see. Inside, the orange glow was almost romantic in contrast, giving everything a warm feeling.

Beneath us bones were crafted in broad mandala flower patterns inset into the floor and finished with a lacquer to keep everything smooth and shiny.

I stooped low, running my hand over the slick surface where six skulls in a perfect circle stared up at me with their hollow eye sockets. Between each was a hand, fanned wide, and then petals of ribs bloomed outward from there, with clusters of hand and foot bones creating the spotted texture of lilies.

Every inch of the floor was crammed with bones of all sizes and shapes, each part of the human body—and some I didn’t think were human at all—was represented.

My gaze traveled upward to where seven chandeliers hung from the ceiling at even intervals, each built of more bones. Lights burned from inside the eye sockets, giving them an unnerving live feeling. The number of bodies that had gone into the manufacture of this site was uncountable. Thousands of generations of bones had built a temple to worship the land of the dead.

What had we gotten ourselves into?

At the far end of the room, perched between two long black banners that ran floor to ceiling and bore the white outline of the mark of Hades—the three-headed dog Cerberus—was a throne.

No shocker here, it was also built entirely of bones.

I was starting to sense a theme and would not be asking the god for interior-decorating tips before I left.

The throne itself was empty, which offered a temporary sense of relief.

Of course, nothing good could last. A moment later Hades swept into the hall in all his glory, followed closely by Manea. They were holding hands as if he were escorting her onto the floor of a high school dance.

Never had two deities been so perfectly matched to one another as Hades and Manea were right then.

Of course their paths brought them in contact on a regular basis, since she was the master of death and he was the master of the dead. But seeing them together now, it occurred to me for the first time there was something more than professional interest between the two.

Gods loved to get it on with each other, but typically those relationships were too volatile to last long. Yet the connection between Manea and Hades, even at a quick glimpse, was so full of respect and passion I had to wonder why I hadn’t heard anything about it before now.

Another new arrival to the hall distracted me from my overly romanticized feelings about the gods. Mormo slunk in and lowered himself next to Hades’s throne, looking ready to roll over and have his belly scratched at the slightest indication.

“You
asshole
,” I snarled, stopping myself just shy of running down the length of the temple and strangling him with my bare hands.

“Sssso we meet again, Rain Chasssser.” He grinned at me like he had no idea why I was upset, but the truth was I knew his glee was rooted in what we both knew he’d done.

“I hope Hecate slits you open and fills your corpse with the ashes of the newly dead.” I glared at him, no longer caring that I was speaking to a god. Mormo had done nothing to earn my worship or respect, and he’d get neither.

“Now that would be a ssssight to behold. Too bad you’ll be sssstuck here forever and won’t get to ssssee it.” Mormo gave me a smile so slimy it made my skin crawl.

I glanced down at the floor again, trying to compose myself. If I didn’t get my shit together, I was going to kill him, and that wouldn’t do Leo or me any good whatsoever. At the very least I needed to get Leo out of here alive.

The hands inlaid in the floor sparked an idea.

“Leo,” I whispered, hoping to get his attention without drawing any additional ears to the conversation. “I need you to steal my bracelet.”

“Huh?”

If I simply handed it to him, Hades and Manea would know I was up to something, and they’d stop us before he was able to get it on. But if I could get it into his hands without their notice, then he would be protected by Badb’s magic, and nothing here could kill him.

I’d be exposed, but I’d worry about myself later.

“Steal my bracelet.”

“Is this really the best time?” He gave me a quizzical look, and I returned it with an expression that said I had no interest in being questioned. If he didn’t know by now that I never asked for anything without good reason, he was about to learn.

He took my hand, squeezing it gently, and lifted it to his lips, dusting a kiss on my knuckles. The pure focus he kept on my eyes and the soft, sensual way his mouth brushed across my skin sent an unexpected shiver down my spine.

When he lowered my hand back to my side, the bracelet was gone. I hadn’t felt it move. The man was good.

“Put it on,” I added. “Now.”

This time he didn’t argue. He pretended to adjust the button on his shirtsleeve like it was the most natural thing in the world to do right then. After he’d finished, the linked hands of the bracelet shone around his wrist in the bright orange light. It was a tight fit, but he had it on.

I let my breath out in a
whoosh
of relief.

Light from above danced and played its way across the glistening floor, giving off the eerie impression that the bones were moving underneath us. It was a deeply unsettling illusion that also managed to make the floor seem unstable, and if I looked at it too long, I felt dizzy.

I glanced up to the windows overhead, and for the briefest of moments I could have sworn I saw bodies—charred black from flame—twisting and writhing in the fire, as if they were still alive. They were screaming soundlessly to me, but I couldn’t make out the words, and I was glad of that.

Swallowing hard, I steadied myself and said a silent prayer to Seth.
If you get me out of this alive, I will never question you again. I will be the best Rain Chaser you’ve ever had, I swear it
.