Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,136
she mused. “Your niece did not deserve such an end, it’s true. It was a monstrous and cowardly crime.”
The sisters didn’t look at each other, but I sensed they’d made a decision. My stomach knotted.
“Seven people conspired to murder your family,” Aira told Mariela. “They may face imprisonment, but only if you return to your world and petition your courts to continue the investigation.”
“She has to answer for the murders of the people in Walliston, plus a dozen others,” Lucy interjected, her expression hard. “She’s not going back to her world. She has to face justice in mine.”
Mariela’s eyes glowed with blood magic, but she didn’t respond to Lucy. Instead, she addressed Tis. “You’re supposed to avenge murders of family members. I’ve traveled across worlds and realms for my dead family, and you refuse to grant me justice?”
Aira’s eyes narrowed. “We have told you how you may get justice for your family. If it is justice you want, you must seek it within human law. We sympathize with your losses, but long ago we learned the crimes of man are not ours to adjudicate. We keep the law in this realm. Humans keep it in theirs.”
“That’s not good enough.” Mariela’s fists clenched. “I fought my way across a hellscape to reach you.”
“And in return, we offer you wisdom and guidance,” Tis said. “You would save your own life, and many others, if you were to heed it.”
“With all your power, it would be such a small thing for you to do this,” Mariela spat. “I don’t understand why you refuse.”
Aira set her cup on the table. “If you think killing is a small thing, Mariela Diakos, you have proven how little you understand what justice means.”
Mariela’s mouth compressed into a grim line. For someone who’d just seen her hopes for goddess-level retribution go up in smoke, she was much too calm. Lucy and I exchanged a glance. Her uneasiness mirrored mine.
The now-familiar scent of incense and iron drifted past my nose. “It is well, then, that I am here.” A low-pitched, melodious voice came from the direction of the doorway.
Tis and Ronan were on their feet in a blink. Lucy and I weren’t far behind.
The full-figured woman who stood between us and the door wore green robes that appeared sheer from some angles but completely opaque in others. Tiny jewels sparkled in the fabric. Her eyes were yellow, with vertically slit pupils. Visible waves of magic appeared in her dark skin and pulsed in the air around her. Her aura was unlike anything I’d ever seen or sensed. She radiated death magic and pure power that called to my dark magic like the gravelings’ had.
As she studied each of us in turn, I caught a glimpse of an enormous mouth, scaly green skin, and rows of teeth. I blinked and the vision faded, but I was certain I’d seen some nightmare Underworld version of a crocodile.
I had a very bad feeling about this.
“Welcome, sister,” Tis said.
Sister? Was she another fallen angel? If so, this was turning into quite the family reunion. If we’d been outgunned before, we might have just been outflanked too.
“I hoped you would not come,” Tis added. “Do you rise at the beck and call of humans now?”
“I am the Devourer,” the newcomer said simply. “I was promised a feast of mortal hearts.”
Mariela rose, smiling. “Goddess Ammit, I’m honored to provide you with a great feast.”
“Oh, crap,” Lucy muttered.
A feast of mortal hearts. I recalled the vision I’d seen at Northbourne of corpses in piles with their chests torn open and the sound of some unseen thing chewing on the missing hearts.
The name finally clicked: Ammit, Underworld deity who devoured the hearts of those who didn’t follow the principles of justice and truth. Right-hand crocodile-headed goddess to Anubis, according to myth, which explained the glimpse of green scaly skin and the eyes.
“There won’t be any feasting on hearts,” I said.
With a reptilian hiss, Ammit turned her yellow-eyed gaze on me. Again, I caught a glimpse of that toothy maw.
“You only devour the hearts of those deemed not pure,” I added, hoping like crazy the myth was accurate and I remembered it correctly.
Her smile didn’t waver. “I am assured their hearts are far from pure.”
“And you don’t eat living hearts,” I pointed out. “Only those of the dead.”
“This is true,” Ammit acknowledged. “He will serve the dead to me.”