He took an instinctive step backward. “You can’t think that I—”
“Of course not,” she snapped. “Despite the treachery you harbor in your heart, you don’t possess the power to halt my inevitable victory.”
His lips twisted. All true.
Humiliatingly true.
“There’s no one else here.” He pointed out the obvious.
“Which means the interference must be coming from one of the rifts.”
Gaius was motionless, his mind shifting through the unexpected revelation. Of all the possibilities he’d considered, he’d never once given thought to an outside force being able to penetrate this hellhole.
A gift. One he’d have to use with great care.
“Then close them,” he offered the suggestion that she would be expecting. Anything else would immediately rouse her suspicions.
She reached to grasp his arm, branding him with her touch. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
He bowed his head, clenching his teeth against the blazing pain. “My only concern is for your welfare.”
“Your only concern is saving your own skin. Pathetic worm.”
“How can I prove my loyalty?”
“You can’t.”
Abruptly releasing his arm, the Dark Lord turned her attention to the vast expanse of nothingness bathed in a sickly yellow glow, holding out her hand as she walked forward.
Gaius fell into step behind her. Why would she have sought him out if she didn’t want him to play devoted slave? But he was careful not to brush against the shadowy figure that surrounded her.
The thing was . . . unnerving.
They moved in heavy silence, their steps sending up tiny clouds of choking dust. Absently, Gaius wondered if this desolate land had been lurking beneath the white mists, or if the Dark Lord’s almost-transformation had blasted it to this current wasteland.
Not that it mattered. One was as bad as the other.
Without warning, the Dark Lord came to an abrupt halt, her outstretched hand clenching into a fist. “It’s here.”
“Here” looked exactly the same as “there,” but Gaius’s disinterest was shaken as he caught an unmistakable scent drift through the thick air.
“Vampires,” he muttered in shock, stepping closer to the elusive smell. “Could they be causing the disruption?”
“Don’t be stupid,” she hissed in fury. “Vampires are no match for me. As you’ve discovered.”
He grimaced as her insult slid home. “Then what is?”
She dropped her hand, the halo around her seeming to fade to dull shadow.
“The Phoenix.”
His eyes widened in surprise. “The Goddess of Light?”
“Ridiculous name.”
Gaius barely heard her muttered complaint. Over the centuries, he’d listened to the Dark Lord’s bitter complaints about the powerful spirit that kept him locked in his prison. But since the Dark Lord’s resurrection into a new body, and with the threat of the looming transformation into the Gemini, Gaius had assumed that the Phoenix would go into hiding.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure, you idiot.” A sudden wind whipped around Gaius as the Dark Lord struggled to leash her temper. “Do you think I wouldn’t recognize the bitch who stripped me of my powers and trapped me in this hell?”
He shook his head. “Why would she be so close to the opening?”
The crimson eyes flamed with an emotion that went beyond fury to mindless rage. “She’s obviously arrogant enough to believe she can keep me trapped.”
Gaius deliberately smoothed his expression to a bland mask. The Phoenix had the evil deity twitching.
So how did he take advantage of the unexpected gift?
Carefully, a voice warned in the back of his mind.
“Or . . .” He snapped his lips together, as if regretting what he was about to say.
As expected, the Dark Lord turned to stab him with a fiery glare. “What?”
He shrugged. “Nothing.”
Gaius grunted in pain as the Dark Lord grasped his chin in a grip that crushed his bones. “Tell me, leech.”
He paused. He couldn’t overplay his hand. A hint. A vague suggestion. A pretense he was trying to lead her in one direction so she would bolt in toward the opposite. Just like a spoiled child.
“I can’t believe they would bring the goddess so close unless they’re convinced they could defeat you,” he said as if the words were being pulled out of him. “Styx is an arrogant son of a bitch, but he isn’t the sort of leader to make empty gestures.”
“Defeat me?” The pretty features that should never have been on the face of such an evil bitch flushed with ugly outrage. “Impossible.”
The agony of his shattered chin made it difficult to speak. “If you say so.”
The crimson eyes narrowed. “I know what you’re trying to do.”
“Do?”
“You’re trying to trick me into closing the rift.”
“Certainly I am. My fate is now tied to yours.” He said, his words holding enough truth to sound sincere. “If you’re destroyed by the Goddess of Light, then my brothers will spend the rest of eternity making certain I regret my betrayals.”
She released her crushing hold, the shadow surrounding her shifting in and out of focus. “My return can’t be halted,” she muttered, speaking more to herself than Gaius. “Not now. I’m too close.”
Gaius narrowed his gaze at her stubborn insistence. His initial thought had been to keep her distracted long enough for the Goddess of Light to work her magic. Who knew? He might get lucky enough to slip away unnoticed.
Or at least be destroyed in the crossfire.
Now, he realized he had the perfect means to tilt the odds in . . .
Well, not his favor. But perhaps in the favor of the Phoenix.
He might have turned his back on the world, as well as his brothers, but he intended to do everything in his power to make sure the evil bitch standing in front of him was destroyed.
“What does it matter when it happens?” he asked with a small shrug. “Your worshippers will understand that you dare not risk a direct confrontation with the goddess.”
The nearby stump burst into flames as the Dark Lord’s fury swirled around her. The first thing her minions learned was never to speak of her ignoble defeat at the hands of the Phoenix.
And they most certainly didn’t imply that the Dark Lord might be terrified of another encounter.