A Boat Made of Bone (The Chthonic Saga) (43 page)

When her eyes fell upon Cipher, Kate’s mouth was all but glued shut as she studied him, the fallen angel and thief of souls. His beauty stilled the heart and shook the foundations of Kate’s understanding of the physical world.
How could something so evil be so beautiful?

With one blink of his dark-lashed eyes, reason fled and thoughts scattered like a sand-painting in the path of a hurricane. Kate floundered in a sea of awe at the sight of him. A languorous smile played on lips carved from the finest stone. He sat with one black-clad leg draped over the arm of his throne, his long fingers templed and touching his mouth in bemusement. Suddenly he tossed his fine, wavy blond hair with the flick of his chin and stood in one movement.

“Stop, stop, oh, but stop. It’s passable: for a beginner.” He waved his hand and sent the violinist away. The player bowed, tucked his instrument beneath an arm and walked toward Kate and the doors behind her, shaking his head in regret. Cipher rubbed his chin and searched the remaining entertainers. “Who’s next? Come now, don’t be shy.”

The demon looked around the room for a volunteer. No one stepped forward. Cipher grinned.

“Don’t all rush at once to worship your god, please,” he clapped his hands and strutted back and forth on the dais in front of his throne. He scrutinized the seething mass of nervous performers. There was something magnanimous in his expression, but underneath it, a calculated malevolence. Kate shrank before him, concerned that he would see her and she’d have to do something—perform or speak to him, she didn’t know which would be worse.

“Wait, wait, there’s a new presence in our crowd. An uninvited guest.” He sniffed as though catching her odor, his eyes scanning the faces around her. “Yes, a woman. She wears the flesh of Earth.” A gasp riffled through the ranks. Heads turned, voices conversed, wondering aloud whom it could be. A fire-eater at Kate’s elbow turned and looked at her. He was stripped to the waist and tattoos covered his muscular chest and arms.

“Shit,” Kate muttered, steeling herself for the discovery. Cipher obviously had the power to detect her and she still hadn’t found Will. Was he even here? Leonardo seemed to think he would be—having been an actor before dying.

Cipher unexpectedly strode down the stairs, moving with the grace of a puma. His black boots clicked across the tile floors and his cream silk shirt and black cape fluttered behind him like clouds across a full moon.

He’s coming for me,
Kate realized. But would he find her? Maybe, maybe there was someone else here. Maybe he wasn’t smelling her. Maybe he wasn’t as clever as he pretended to be. She lowered her head and tried to shrink into the crowd.

But already she could tell he was headed for her. Kate felt his gaze landing on her face like a thunderclap. A grin played at the edges of his sensuous lips. He lowered his chin so that his eyes regarded her steadily from beneath a perfectly carved brow. Chills swarmed Kate’s flesh, threatening to eat her alive. Butterflies migrated from her belly to her knees and throat. She was paralyzed. 

“Lovely girl,” Cipher said, shoving through the crowd. Bodies parted and Kate was left standing there alone, feeling nude and like she had woken into a bad dream. “Welcome to my kingdom,” he said, stretching his hand forth and bringing her into the curve of his arm. In that manner, he led her back to his dais.
Is this how it felt when Zeus slept with mortals?
she wondered, feeling overwhelmed by his magnetism and suddenly speechless in the face of his transcendent beauty. She continued to stare into his dark blue eyes as they walked—or did she float?—back toward his throne. There was something luminous in his pupils. Flames, maybe. Perhaps it was an illusion.

Before they reached the dais, Cipher let go of her and returned to his throne with an effortless jog up the stairs where he turned and sat down on the edge of his seat. It was only then that Kate noticed another throne—more of a nondescript chair, really—a few feet behind Cipher’s, hidden by the flamboyance of the grand monstrosity where he perched. Kate leaned to the side and saw that it was filled with a woman: a small, diminutive woman in a dark purple dress with an embroidered pale violet bodice and an emerald silken belt. She blinked at Kate from beneath long eyelashes. Her red hair was pulled up on top of her head in a bun while butterflies and stars sparkled across a small tiara that rested lightly upon her forehead.

“Now then, what will you do?” Cipher asked her.

Kate cleared her throat. It was dry. So dry. She remembered the water in her pack and wished she could take a sip from it. “Do?” she asked. Her voice crackled like static electricity.

“You must have an offering. A performance. That’s what this whole parade is about.” His arm swept across the hall and its multitude. No one rehearsed. They stared at Kate as though aware this was a special occasion.

“I’m not here to do a performance or compete with your subjects for your approval,” she said, wondering why her knees hadn’t melted in fear yet.

Cipher smiled knowingly. “Ah, so it’s something else that you want. An audience with God, then?”

Kate couldn’t help but smile. “Forgive me, but you’re not God.” It was a gamble. It was dangerous. But she was pretty sure he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her, not in front of this audience.

Cipher frowned. The expression did nothing to mar his perfect looks. “Either you’re very brave or very stupid. You are definitely very ignorant. For here on Chthonos, I rule. These are my creatures, my subjects. They live to worship me. It brings them pure joy. Look at them. No, look. Really look. Now.” His jaw clenched as he gave his command, the order punctuated by his fist slamming on the armrest like a gavel in a courtroom.

Kate shrugged and then did a slow circle in place, her gaze sweeping across the vast crowd. Bland, expressionless eyes stared back at her. Somehow Cipher saw adulation in their faces. Kate saw despair and hopelessness.

Wait. There.
Her breath caught. Her stomach did sixty back flips and it was all she could do to not fall to her knees or go running for him. To the left of Cipher’s dais, a man dressed as a Spartan warrior stood, a look of longing and concern on his face. It was Will. His arms were crossed and his chin was tilted down. As incapacitating as Cipher’s looks were, it was the sight of Will that truly shook her. Kate’s breath left her like she’d been punched in the stomach. She stopped in her revolution and stared at him.
He’s here!

And now she knew what to do next.

Somehow Kate managed to tear her eyes away from him, finish her examination of the crowd and look at Cipher again.

“Well? Impressive, no?” the light-haired demon said.

Kate dodged the question. “I’m here to take Will Hawke back to earth,” she said. A gasp went up from the sea of people behind her and more whispers ensued. “Why hasn’t anyone come for me?” they said. “Again? She’ll never do it. It will be like the last one,” she heard behind her. Some of what she heard made her uncomfortable, but she fought it away and focused on Cipher, though her eyes longed to find Will again.

Cipher grinned. “Will? William Hawke? You can’t be serious. But he’s one of my favorites.” The demon stood and began pacing. “Come forward, William.” Cipher stopped and raised a hand, motioning for Will to approach.

Kate turned as Will came to stand next to her. Her breath caught in her parched throat having him so close to her. His Spartan military skirt showed off his legs and a sword hung at his side. He exchanged a look with her, then faced Cipher. Kate clenched her hands into fists, desperate to touch him, to make sure he was real, but she withstood. At this point, upsetting Cipher didn’t seem advisable. Her tired muscles were tense and Kate could feel a headache drumming behind her eyes but she ignored it.

Cipher laughed with a smirk. “I see that the womanizer has lured a new concubine into his trap. Oh, my apologies, William, but I’m only stating the obvious.”

Beside her, Kate sensed Will stiffen at the insult. She didn’t know what to say. Concubine? She was familiar with Will’s past enough to not be shocked at the term
womanizer,
but concubine? She suddenly had visions of a hovel-f of slutty women draped across the furniture and hanging on Will while wearing thin, transparent outfits like Barbara Eden wore in
I Dream of Jeannie
.

“It’s not true, Kate. Don’t listen to him. You know what’s true about me and what’s not. I’ve never lied to you,” he muttered under his breath. His arms were crossed and he glowered at the throne where Cipher now lounged like a sleeping lion.

“I can hear you,” Cipher responded in a sing-song voice, tilting his head to one side and nudging his ear with a finger dramatically. He sat forward, suddenly taut with energy. “I do not lie, Kate. You see, the strongest connection my creatures have back to their mortal life is the only way for them to reach Earth,” Cipher explained. He stood and began pacing as though deep in thought. “William had to use sex to communicate with you, did he not? I see by your red cheeks that I am right. Sex was also the best way for me to bring him to Chthonos. We use the most telling exploits, don’t we? William may have told you anything to bring you here. What did he say? That he loved you? I do not doubt that he filled your head with these pretty little lies so that you would risk everything to come for him. I would find it deplorable if I didn’t admire it so much. Well done, William, well done, I take full credit for having taught you so well.”

“Kate,” Will said in an anguished voice. It rang and echoed from far away. She was lost in her head, struggling to find something to anchor herself too. A memory, a dream, something true. “Please, he’s wrong. I do love you,” Will whispered.

“Anyway,” Cipher said with a flippant wave of his hand. He stopped his pacing and stood with his back to his throne and his arms crossed behind his back. “I’ll let him go with you if you can outdo all my performers. Remember, they live to worship, to glorify me. I’m not amused by anything else. You need to reduce me to tears, if you want to live and get your precious womanizer out of here. I’m sorry, William, you know that I appreciate you and your talent. I am merely saying what I know to be true, but that does not reflect the respect I have for your skill. Just ask my Beatrice.” Cipher twisted around to glance down at the woman in the throne behind his. The woman looked surprised to be addressed. She blinked, and looked up at Cipher. She smiled faintly and nodded. “She knows what lies hidden in my heart of hearts,” Cipher said, untwisting and looking out at the crowd behind Kate and Will.

Kate was jerked from her internal wandering as soon as Cipher called the woman by name.
Beatrice,
she thought, staring at the small woman.
So this is who Leonardo gave up his spiritual rest for
. Something tugged on Kate’s finger and she looked down at her hand. The dragonfly ring was still a lifeless metal form, but it had nudged her.

“Hello? Hello? I am waiting. No rehearsals, young one. Gather yourself and perform or else leave Necropolis and never return,” Cipher said. He strode purposefully behind Beatrice’s throne and because it was such a dismal excuse for one, he was able to reach over the back without even straining himself and place his hands on her shoulders.

Kate watched him before her eyes fell to Beatrice’s face. Their gazes interlocked and Kate found herself staring into the brown eyes of the imprisoned woman. There was something buried there. Kate’s brow furrowed, the dragonfly shivered again, and Will suddenly touched her arm.

Defiance. That was what was in Beatrice’s eyes. She looked submissive, but there was a fire alive in her.

“Kate,” Will whispered from beside her. “You don’t have to do this. I—I promise you that I didn’t know when it all started in the dreams that I was a prisoner here. When I found out, I left you. This is too dangerous. If you go now, Cipher will let you leave. If you perform and he doesn’t like it, I don’t know what will happen. He might keep you here.”

“Why did you want him? I mean when you stole his soul?” Kate asked Cipher, raising her voice to be heard over the hum of the entertainers behind her. Their voices buzzed with energy at the prospect of Kate performing and Will being let go.

Cipher straightened and removed his hands from Beatrice’s shoulders and placed them on the back of her meager throne. “Well, obviously dear girl because he was weak, filled with regret, and because he’s one of the best. I fill my city with the best.”

There was something wrong with this. Kate’s thoughts attached to what the demon said and held fast. Will was weak. Weak because he was filled with regret about his life. The things he’d told her in the dreams were true—the man Will had been wasn’t the man she’d fallen for. Maybe he had been a man-whore, a womanizer, and maybe for all she knew, he really did have a hovel full of concubines. And there was a chance that everything he’d told her had been lies just to lure her into this trap so he could get off Chthonos.

Kate turned to look at Will. Before she could say anything, he spoke. “You don’t have to do this Kate. I don’t want you to. I can’t promise that what Cipher says he’ll do, he’ll do.”

“Do you love me, Will?” Kate asked, studying his face. Will’s vibrant blue eyes narrowed and his familiar lips pulled into a thin line.

“I never lied about that, Kate, and I have been with you only. Have loved only you, since I stumbled into your dreams.”

“Oh do hurry up. We haven’t got all eternity, you know,” Cipher said, laughing at his own joke—everyone in the room knew just the opposite to be true. He walked down the stairs of the dais and sat on the bottom step, one leg extended and the foot of the other resting on the tiled floor.