Edge of Forever (The Soul Eater Book 6) Read online

  Edge of Forever

  Soul Eater, #6

  Pippa DaCosta

  ‘Edge of Forever’

  #6 Soul Eater

  Pippa DaCosta

  Urban Fantasy & Science Fiction Author

  Subscribe to her mailing list at pippadacosta.com & get free ebooks.

  Copyright © 2017 Pippa DaCosta.

  August 2017. US Edition. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictions, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Edited for US readers in US English.

  Version 1.

  Print ISBN-13: 978-1975700843

  Print ISBN-10: 1975700848

  www.pippadacosta.com

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Epilogue

  Also by Pippa DaCosta

  About the Author

  The 1000 Revolution (excerpt)

  Chapter 1

  By the time they brought the demon sorceress to me on the fourteenth day of the sundering, the days had died and the night never ended. Manhattan was draped in darkness, and at its center, in what had once been a long-standing department store, I sat on a red throne made of glass and stone, courtesy of Seth and his sand.

  I had begun to wonder if the drone of worshippers would ever end when my High Priests dumped a seething, panting, snarling woman at the bottom of the dais.

  “We found her stirring up trouble in the snake pits, my lord,” Aika said. It didn’t surprise me that Aika had found trouble. In the two weeks since the sundering began and I revealed myself as once again awake, throngs of people had lined up to worship in my name, mostly out of fear. They all reeked of it. Aika was different. She didn’t look at me and see fear; she saw opportunity. I admired that in a mortal.

  I rose from my throne and walked to the edge of the dais. Hieroglyphs etched into the floor throbbed beneath my boots.

  “You snake-sucking worm.” Shukra tossed her head back and threw out a hand. Her special brand of diesel-tainted magic cracked outward with the speed and ferocity of a whip. I caught the invisible strike in my right hand without so much as blinking.

  Shukra did blink. Fear flashed across her face. She wore dark jeans patched with snakeskin and a jacket, equally armored with the skin of various dead creatures, including crocodile.

  The ceaseless murmuring from the countless rows of people kneeling and kissing the floor ended, allowing blessed silence to pour in.

  “Hello, sorceress.” I twisted my grip on her magic, like twisting a knife in a wound. Shu’s face crumpled in pain. I could do worse, so much worse. I had done worse in the last few weeks.

  She writhed, teeth gritted. Sweat broke out on her face. Confident she’d had a taste of the power I held over her, I opened my hand, freeing her magic, and crouched at the top of the steps, bringing me closer to her level.

  “What were you doing in my snake pits?” She must have timed her break-in with the snakes leaving to slither through the empty streets in search of food. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be alive to fling magic at me.

  “Looking for a new outfit?” she panted. Her gaze flicked up and her eyelashes fluttered. Doubt muddled her expression. She wondered if she had ever known me, if I could have lied to her for so long. And she wondered if there was anything left of Ace Dante. I saw it all in her tight sneer and hopeful eyes. Inside, her lightened soul shimmered. She’d clung to her recently acquired goodness.

  “Ace?” she whispered.

  My lips tucked into one cheek, tipping my smile sideways. “There is no one here by that name.”

  I straightened and regarded the few hundred prostrate figures in my congregation. There were more in the building busying themselves like worker ants. All watching and hoping I would protect them while their world crumbled to dust.

  “This sorceress is not the first to break into my temple,” I said, raising my voice. Fear quivered through the people. They trembled like lambs. “It is time I sent a message to those foolish enough to oppose Seth and me.”

  My gaze settled on the four priests awaiting my orders. Dressed head to toe in black, they each bore the mark of a golden snake-headed jackal on their sleeves: Apophis. There was power in my name, and now it was everywhere, spreading into the nightmares of the people who had seen Seth’s storm coming.

  Aika lifted her chin, admiration and pride bright in her gaze. She had brought me the sorceress, earning my favor. “Take her to the killing room,” I told the priestess.

  “Wait. What?” Shukra babbled. The priests scooped her up. “Ace? Wait! You… you… This isn’t right.” She struggled, but the priests murmured words to subdue Shukra’s magic. Words and power I had given them. “You said it would work—”

  I waved a hand, cutting her off, and turned to my throne. “Cut out her tongue.”

  “Ace! Ace, no! This isn’t you. You know this isn’t you!”

  Settling back on my throne, I leaned back and watched—detached. Aika freed a dagger from her belt. The others drove Shukra to her knees and held her there.

  Aika tossed the dagger’s sheath aside. “Kur Apophis.”

  Unseen power woke from the hieroglyphs covering the floor and walls, summoned by Shukra’s fear and the promise of worship. My power. The chanting started up again, the words grinding against my skull and shaving off pieces of my thoughts.

  Shukra stilled at the sight of the dagger. A priest yanked her head back and cupped her face. Another forced her mouth open.

  “Kur Apophis, kur Apophis, kur Apophis, Rurd uk sra Dord,” the voices chanted. For Apophis, Lord of the Dark.

  Shukra’s wide eyes locked on me. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. Hatred heated her gaze, hatred and regret. Like so many others, she had trusted me.

  “Kur Apophis, kur Apophis!” The chanting grew louder. My power filled the air like rich spices on the tongue. It buzzed across my skin, electrifying, strengthening. It felt good to be worshipped. I had spent too long in the dark, too long forgotten. Nameless no more.

  And there Shukra was, on her knees, beaten. The demon sorceress with a good soul. An intriguing contradiction. I had always wanted her under my control, hadn’t I?

  Aika positioned herself in front of Shukra and lifted the dagger. “Kur Apophis!”

  My power thrummed. The chanting thundered. Hieroglyphs glowed all around, their song beating in time with my black heart.

  “Wait,” I said.

  It all stopped. The noise, the fevered worship, the thrum of power.

  Aika obeyed—she always obeyed—and lowered the dagger, though it was clear from her parted lips that the priestess hungered for violence.

  I leisurely descended from the dais and approached my priests. “This sorceress and I have history. It would be remiss of me to allow another to take my spoils.” I caught Shukra’s chin and held her still. She trembled at my touch, but not from fear. Rage scorched the air between us. “I have not forgotten how you betrayed me, Shukra. How you spied on me for my enemy, Osiris.” A snarl tugged at my lips, and I let it come.
“Take her to my chamber.”

  Defiance stalled Aika. She had the dagger in her hand and wanted to hurt Shukra, to make good on her promise of worship, and I’d taken that away.

  “You will have your chance to take your reward,” I told her. “Until then, the sorceress is mine and not to be harmed by any other.”

  “Yes, Apophis.” Aika bowed her head and sheathed her blade. She yanked Shukra to her feet and manhandled her out of the room.

  Whispers filled the air. Kur Apophis, kur Apophis, kur Apophis. They hissed around me like sand over stone, and it plucked at my patience. I swung my attention to the worshippers on their knees, all of them with their eyes cast to the floor. Anger simmered through my veins, heated by the power their worship summoned. I could kill them all with a click of my fingers and they would thank me for it. My gaze traveled on and came to rest on the empty red throne.

  You know this isn’t you.

  More than darkness.

  I left the throne room, my strides even. Can’t run. People fell to their knees in front of me, toppling like dominoes. Don’t run. I climbed the motionless escalator two steps at a time and brushed by those who gasped at my passing. Kur Apophis, they proclaimed. For Apophis. For Apophis. For Apophis. Power crawled across my skin. Shake it off. Don’t run.

  “Apophis.” Aika stepped in front of the door to my room, blocking the entrance or my escape. I wasn’t sure which. “The sorceress is subdued.”

  Another priest loitered nearby. I ignored him and moved to sweep Aika aside. “Good.”

  She stood firm. “My lord, I…” I narrowed my eyes at the priestess. She didn’t flinch. She rarely did. She held my gaze, her eastern eyes sharp and clear and penetrating. “I am at your service, always. Please, I… Would you allow me to watch?”

  The snarl was exactly what she’d expected, but she’d expected it for all the wrong reasons. I locked my hand around her throat and pinned her to the wall. Power slithered down my back, raw and intoxicating. I loosened my grip but didn’t back off. Aika glared, so fierce, so devoted. She would kill the ones she loved at a single word from me. I touched her face, wondering how much pressure it would take to crush her skull. No, no, no… not me. Not me.

  You know this isn’t you.

  More than darkness.

  I hooked my thumb into the corner of her mouth, tilted my head as though I might kiss her, and whispered across her lips, “You walk a fine line, priestess.”

  The additional power the worshippers had summoned in me seeped from my skin and over her. She couldn’t see the black tendrils edged in fiery embers. It looked like the night, if the night burned. Aika gasped, and her eyes unfocused. Her pupils expanded, and her body slumped in my arms. Godstruck.

  We were being watched. I was always being watched. I handed Aika’s limp body off to the High Priest who had been observing. They were everywhere, hiding in corners, feeding on my scraps like damn roaches.

  I pressed a hand to my chamber door. “I am not to be disturbed.”

  The priest bowed his head. “Of course, my lord.”

  He hurried down the hallway, Aika drifting beside him, thoughts lost to my thrall.

  My chamber had once been part of a furniture showroom. The room had been cleared of sales stock, with only the grandest pieces of furniture remaining. Among the vast dressers, sprawling leather couches, and long oak tables stood a huge four-poster bed. Not an old wooden monstrosity. This was a modern, wrought-iron piece. The iron filigrees had been modified since my arrival and now curled into fanged snakes and scorpions, their stingers sharp. Strung to one such post was Shukra.

  Aika had gagged the sorceress, but I didn’t need to hear her speak to know her thoughts. Her fury was palpable. Narrow-eyed and silent, she watched me approach.

  I yanked her gag down.

  “You can let me down now,” she blurted. “Osiris’s balls, I almost believed that bitch was going to cut out my tongue. If anyone is taking body parts around here, it’s me.” She pulled on the nylon rope binding her wrists to the bedpost. “So… get with the freeing.”

  “No.”

  “No?” She dragged out that little word. “What do you mean, no?”

  With her lightened good soul, she was almost back to her original state, before her power and wrong choices corrupted her soul. Almost human. But not quite. Shukra would always be a potent creature, made of old power, made to manipulate. Our curse had broken. She was no longer bound to my soul, but she was still my enemy. That hadn’t changed. Shukra had spied on me for Osiris for centuries. She could be here now to do the same.

  “C’mon, don’t tell me you believe your own camel shit?” Her lip curled. “Oh, Lord Apophis, may I lick your feet?” Her dark eyes sparked. “Let me down.” But a chip of fear broke off the end of her command. “I’m here, just like we planned. It took a bit longer, but we didn’t know Seth would cover Manhattan in sand. Now that you’re in his favor and I’m here as back-up, you can cut me down. Let’s get the boy. That’s what all this is about… getting close to ol’ Red Eyes and taking the kid. The lies you told everyone, it was all for this. They hate you, yah know. They all hate you, especially Cat. I had to stop her from coming in here like a shifter wrecking ball—”

  My withered heart stuttered. “Cat’s alive?”

  “Yes.” Shukra had been there, watching from the roof as we had planned, when I’d driven Alysdair into Cat’s chest. She had witnessed me kill the shifter. “You’re lucky she has a few lives. You’ll wish you weren’t so lucky when she catches up with you. She doesn’t know you were only meant to put on a show and cut her up a bit.”

  I turned my back on Shu and paced to a ridiculously long dresser. My reflection shimmered in the three angled mirrors, eyes golden, their edges burned to ash. How could I have only cut her with Seth watching? I had to make it look believable. The Twelve Gates had taught me that Cat could survive almost anything, but I hadn’t known for sure. Cat had survived. That was… good.

  “She believes your act. Believes every word. Not just her. Cujo does too. You should hear the names he calls you. I’ve picked up a few new ones and encouraged some more—”

  “Did you get them out?” Back when I’d been looking for Chuck and Nile in Allentown, I had told her to keep Cujo safe, to keep him and his family away from New York and away from me, but things had been different then. I’d been different. Only a few weeks had passed. In my reflection, embers danced down my cheek like tiny lightning strikes, then disappeared beneath my skin. Much had changed since Allentown.

  “They’re not in Midtown,” she replied, careful to stay vague.

  Cat was alive and Cujo was safe. That was good, wasn’t it? I should care. Why then was there only emptiness where I should feel relief? The emptiness, the dark… those things crowded in closer and closer. In the never-ending stretch of eternity, these people meant nothing. They were specks of light in an endless sky. A night sky I controlled.

  “Ace,” Shukra persisted, adding a warning to the way she said my name. “Stop this madness.”

  “Cukkomd,” I uttered. The word instantly gripped her and then released when I didn’t follow up with a command. Our curse was gone. That left her vulnerable to the gods, to me. But while there was sport in compelling people, Shukra was different. Compelling Shukra felt like cheating. “Be careful with your words, sorceress.”

  “Just when I think you can’t disappoint me anymore, you outdo yourself.”

  I turned, folded my arms, and eyed the sorceress. “Tell me everything you know about what is happening outside of Manhattan.”

  “I don’t think I will.” A dark eyebrow arched in direct challenge.

  “I can compel you, but I’m sure we’d both prefer that didn’t happen.”

  “Come over here”—she jerked her chin—“and put your hand in my right pocket.”

  I smiled. What trickery was she conjuring? Her spells couldn’t hurt me.

  “Are you too afraid of a little sorceress?” Shukra ret
urned my smile and shifted her hips, angling her pants pocket closer. “I’m not going to throw magic around. I’m trapped in your stronghold, surrounded by your priests. Believe it or not, my self-preservation instincts are intact.”

  To hesitate gave her power and allowed her to think I feared her. I approached. After weeks on that throne, her games were welcome.

  “Right pocket,” she urged.

  Her gaze tracked mine as I sank a hand into her pants pocket. My fingers touched something warm and metal. I scooped it out and opened my hand. An innocuous golden band sat in my palm. “What is this?”

  “A ring. When you asked me to take your memories, you also asked me to hide that ring from you.”

  A ring. A wedding ring. Mine.

  “You do remember Bastet?” Shu asked.

  The goddess I had killed. Alysdair had eaten her soul. Her eyes had been sorry, but sorry for her or sorry for me? This band symbolized her marriage to Ace Dante. When I’d told the sorceress to take my memories, I had asked her to hide the ring. Having it here, back with me now… It weighed more in my hand than it should. It seemed as though it should be important.

  “I thought you might like it back,” Shukra was saying.

  “Why?”

  “To remind you that you weren’t always an epic asshole. Well, actually, you were, but you tried to be a decent asshole. Now you’re just a god in love with the idea of himself, just like all the others.” Shukra’s gaze searched mine, looking for the truth. “You sided with Seth as a ruse to get close and bring him down from the inside, not to make everything worse. We need you to be Ace Dante. I need you to be that thorn in my side again.”

  Ace Dante. The man made of lies. A disguise for the nightmare inside.

  “Then you’ll be waiting for a long time.” I closed my hand around the wedding band. When I opened it again, ash settled against my palm. “Ace Dante was an illusion.”