Page 6 of On a Pale Horse
It took a half hour for the group to gather in The Black Horse Cafe.
Scarlet and Tyr stood against a wall by the menu.
Hades sat on a stool at the counter while Cloris paced back and forth at the other end.
Katherine cleaned the same mug for the tenth time while Bianca, Gwyn, and Victor squeezed into a booth, surveyed them all.
“Tell me again,” Cloris said.
Arwan didn’t appear to have a problem with repeating himself for fifth time. “You can basically transfer your power to objects of equal power. I got on to this line of inquiry from Gwyn’s library. Llewelyn’s coronet is one of those objects, but seeing as Bianca’s seal is off the table, that line of power has been broken. She can’t be human as the Queen of the Fae. However, that leaves three more objects of power that can hold the rest of them.”
The tension in the room was thick enough to reach out and pluck. “All of us?” Cloris asked.
Arwan blinked and looked down at the page. “I think so. It’s about transferring power, doesn’t really matter what kind or who is transferring it. I’d assume that means Death too.”
Hades watched Cloris. Nothing at all showed on her face. She rubbed the back of her neck and in Cloris’s world that was a huge reaction. He wanted to move closer to her, figure out what the inner workings of her mind. The way her brain worked, what she thought about behind that mask, was a mystery to everyone, including him. They were close, but she kept her secrets to herself no matter how much he tried to pry them loose.
Scarlet stepped up and leaned on the counter. “So where do we start then? How do we know what can hold our power and where to find them?”
Arwan snapped the book closed and placed it gently on an empty stool. “That’s where I can’t help. I have no idea. Some of you are psychic, right? Maybe you can see something?”
Bianca snorted. “Doesn’t work that way. If only.”
Cloris did another loop of pacing before stopping again. “Then we have to learn the answers. I mean between us all we know a handful of deities, some demons, probably a few angels, and so on. There has to be someone in our collective connections who can help.”
Gwyn cleared his throat. “I might know someone.”
Bianca pushed away from where she’d been leaning against his chest to look at him. “Who? How?”
He shrugged, and she rolled her eyes before facing the group again. “I’ll get it out of him. Don’t worry.”
Hades couldn’t help but smile as he caught the aghast look spread across Arwan’s face. He’d only recently learned of Bianca, Victor, and Gwyn’s nighttime activities. And Katherine had yet to bring him by the club. They were the vanilla pair. Someone had to be.
Cloris walked over, interrupting his musings about Katherine and Victor’s sex life. “Are you coming by the club tonight to help screen applicants?”
“I suppose. Unless you have an idea on where to start with this new debacle.”
She shook her head, and her blonde hair gleamed in the late afternoon sunlight streaming through the windows. Every time he saw her, he fell for her all over again. She struck him dumb just standing in front of him.
His entire body screamed out to pull her in close and kiss her, but he didn’t. They didn’t do that. There was once a time he would ask her about her motives, but he stopped wanting to know the answers years ago. Now he just went along with her plans or sublimated with his own instead of talking to her about it.
Maybe that’s where they went wrong.
“Then I’ll see you tonight.”
Her words dragged him back again. “Right. Yes, see you tonight.”
She exited the cafe to the street, and he watched her round the corner to the back alley. Likely so she could disappear without anyone noticing.
Three
Cloris
It took everything in Cloris to leave the cafe and get out of sight before she broke down. She leaned over, bracing her hips against the brick while taking deep breaths. Leaving the void and the destiny they shared to come to Earth was a facsimile of the life they wanted. Cloris never considered she could share in that fate. To be human, truly human? It was something she never considered for herself.
And what did that mean for Hades? All the air fizzed out of her metaphorical balloon. Could she give up Hades to be human? The idea put a pain in her chest. She rubbed the spot over her heart, hoping it would ease the ache there.
As she got a hold of herself, her phone vibrated in her pocket. She took a fortifying breath and dug the phone out from the folds of fabric making up the skirt of her dress.
