Immortal Rider (LD2) by Larissa Ione Read Free Book Online Page A

artifacts.”
    Pestilence blinked innocently. He could get away with that when he was Reseph. Now… not so much.
    “Fake?” He shrugged. “Nah. They’re real. Most of them. And the vault truly is an Aegis hiding place.” He opened a Harrowgate. “Come with me.”
    “How stupid do you think I am? We could come out in Satan’s bedroom, for all I know.” Shudder.
    He rolled his eyes, as if her distrust was completely unwarranted. “Cast your own gate and link it to mine then.”
    “I have things to do.”
    Abruptly, Pestilence’s demeanor took on a new cast, and he snarled. “If you don’t want to regret confiding in me about your part in The Aegis’s loss of Deliverance so long ago, you’ll do this.”
    “Blackmail, brother? Wow, you really have sunk low.”
    “Says the girl who has been lying to her family about some really important shit.”
    Damn him . With a curse, she cast her own gate over the top of his. They would both enter the now-single gate, but she could back out if she didn’t feel safe.
    They went through, Pestilence first, and when she stepped out into a dusty cavern lit by hovering balls of mystical fire, it appeared he hadn’t been lying. At least, not about all of it. They were definitely in some sort of manmade tunnel, and her built-in GPS told her they were somewhere in Egypt.
    She shivered. She’d never liked Egypt, and the claustrophobic closeness of the walls tightened around her chest like a python.
    “Where are we?”
    “A forgotten crypt. Some formerly important dude is entombed in a chamber behind us.” Pestilence knelt at the base of a chest-freezer-sized stone box, and although the lid probably weighed five hundred pounds, he lifted it as though it was made of paper. “Take a look.”
    Easing up to the box, she peeked inside, where a dozen pieces of ancient jewelry, coins, and clay figurines lay on top of a pile of dust. Very carefully, she picked up one of the figures. The clay rendition of a plump woman was cracked, the piece of cloth tied around its legs was brittle.
    “Nice job with this,” she murmured. “You missed your calling as a counterfeiter. What’s its purpose?”
    “That’s none of your concern.”
    “You’re such an asshole.”
    One blond eyebrow shot up. “After the things you’ve done, you have the gall to call me an asshole?”
    “Just get to the point,” she gritted out. “What do you want?”
    “Bring an Aegi here. Tell them you discovered the vault in your search for your agimortus .” Pestilence tossed something at her feet. Dogtags, she realized, when she bent to pick them up. Arik’s dogtags, caked with blood. “You’ll do it, or next time I bring you his eyes.”
    She clutched the metal chain and tags so hard her palm hurt. For some reason, this little piece of Arik made everything so real, so tangible. It was as if she could feel his pain in the blood smears. God, if she’d been stronger, if she’d resisted Arik and her attraction to him, she wouldn’t be in this mess, and he wouldn’t be in pain.
    Shame sifted through her, but she couldn’t afford to give in to it. Whatever Pestilence was up to was bigger than Arik’s agony, and she couldn’t let on that she felt anything for him.
    “Do what you have to do to Arik,” she said, her voice strong and sure, even if she didn’t mean what she said, even if inside she was aching. “I won’t help you.”
    “Then I hope you’re prepared to face Ares and Thanatos after I tell them of all your deceptions.” He bared his fangs. “And yes, I know. Our mother told me everything.”
    Limos’s heart shot into her throat, but she still managed to stay outwardly calm. “Telling them won’t benefit your cause.” She stroked the words engraved into the dogtags, taking comfort in the feel of Arik’s name under her thumb. “If anything, it’ll hurt it. Any remaining feelings they have for you will turn to hate.” She hoped. She was damned sure they’d hate her ,