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.

“Don’t tell me what I can or can’t do,” she said, the pressure of her terrible voice sending Gaius to his knees.

He bowed his head, his chin still aching and his flesh beginning to singe. “Forgive me, but wouldn’t it be better to send your minions to battle her?” he suggested softly. “Eventually, she’ll be overwhelmed to the point you can defeat her.”

The ground split open beside them, the stench of sulfur filling the air. “Are you implying I can’t defeat her?”

He wisely kept his head lowered. “She did trap you here.”

“Now I am the Gemini,” she raged, seeming to forget the transformation hadn’t been completed. “I am unstoppable.”

“Let your servants sacrifice themselves,” he continued to provoke, pressing at her weakest point. Her arrogance. “After the goddess is destroyed and you’ve taken over the world, you can write the histories to speak of your glorious defeat of the Phoenix.” He glanced up to witness the veins of crimson that crawled beneath the pale skin of the Dark Lord. As if her blood flowed with fire. “Who will care if it’s the truth or not?”

“I will know.”

With a sharp motion, the Dark Lord lifted her hand and pointed it toward a spot just over Gaius’s head. An earthquake shook the ground beneath him, widening the split until Gaius was forced to scramble backward.

“What are you doing?”

The Dark Lord continued to allow her power to build until Gaius was certain he would be crushed by the sheer force.

“When the goddess is destroyed it will be by my hand.”

“You’re going through?”

“No.” Reaching down, the Dark Lord grabbed Gaius by the hair, holding on tight enough to warn she wasn’t letting go. “We’re going through, Gaius.”

The heat of a thousand suns seemed to rush through him as he was jerked forward, shifting from one dimension to the next.

“Merde.”

At the rift

The cramped room in the basement of the abandoned warehouse had been made considerably larger by the simple process of knocking out walls and digging out the surrounding dirt so the warriors could position themselves for the upcoming battle.

And the battle was coming.

That was the one certain thing in a very uncertain world.

Despite the efforts of the Sylvermysts, as well as the exquisite Nefri, who had added her powers, the rift was widening with every passing minute, filling the air with the electric heaviness of a brewing thunderstorm.

Something was coming.

Something bad.

Standing on the fringes of the gathered crowd, Cassie ignored Caine’s low grumbling to study the human female who was the chalice for the Goddess of Light.

She wasn’t certain what she’d expected. Maybe a statuesque Amazon with a flaming sword riding on a chariot.

Instead, Abby Barlow was a slender female with rich, honey curls that framed her gamine face. Only the shocking blue eyes revealed she was anything other than mortal.

Dante, her vampire mate, on the other hand, was exactly what she’d expected.