Pure Requiem - Aja James Page 0,62

her.

Erebu would not betray us.

I don’t know this for a fact, but I believe it.

I have faith in him. I just hope that my faith is not misplaced.

“But it doesn’t matter which side I’m on, does it?” he continues, not waiting for anyone to answer his question.

“This opportunity is too good to pass up. When will you have another chance like this? Medusa grows more powerful every day. Her schemes and reach grow ever more expansive. Yes, she might be expecting you because of me, but she won’t have it all figured out. Just like I can’t read her mind despite our connection, she can’t read mine either. She can only guess at what you have planned. And she probably won’t expect the Dark Ones to join.”

I can sense his eyes on me. Perhaps he is looking in the rearview mirror, for I don’t hear him turning back to look.

“She won’t be able to resist the bait—her beautiful Monster, Tal-Telal,” he says softly in a menacing voice.

Ishtar squeezes my hand harder.

“And lucky days—she gets two in one, with her darling little sister here as well. Are you sure you’re ready to confront the serpent again, Ishtar? You couldn’t end her when you had the chance the last time.”

Ishtar’s grip on my hand hardens with the incredible strength of the Great White Beast, almost bending my bones.

“More than ready,” she growls.

“Hmm,” he murmurs, and I sense him looking away again.

“You didn’t both have to come, you know. Nor Gabriel and Inanna. Just half of you would have sufficed. If you don’t survive this night, who will take care of Benjamin?”

It is an odd enough question coming from a virtual stranger, where Benji is concerned, that something inside me clicks into place.

Erebu has a special connection to Benji, of that there is no doubt. Even I can sense it without seeing. Many times, when Erebu visited Dark Dreams in Ere or Binu’s forms, Benji was there with Ishtar and I. He always paid special attention to the boy.

I wonder what that connection is. I know that Benji is not Inanna and Gabriel’s biological son.

Could it be…?

“Perhaps you should make sure you survive the night for that very purpose, Erebu,” I finally break my silence thus far.

I can feel everyone’s pause at my words. I can hear Ishtar’s unspoken question in my mind. I can hear Gabriel’s hands tightening on the steering wheel.

“Ha! Haha,” Erebu interjects with a stilted laugh. He seems to be working his throat to say something else, but only gurgled sounds come out.

“You are his uncle, after all,” I emphasize, for the first time explicitly alluding to Erebu’s relationship to this family, without actually spelling it out.

“Benjamin will miss his Uncle Ere if anything happens to you.”

“Pfftt,” he mutters dismissively.

I can tell that he’s turned his face toward the window.

“Well, it’s too late to back out now,” he says in a low voice after a while.

“We’re here.”

*** *** *** ***

In our nearly silent approach from the forests surrounding Medusa’s lair, I retrace Erebu’s words in my head.

My Mistress will have the forests booby trapped. She has surveillance for miles around. The tech master sees everything. So, expect to get an exuberant welcoming committee starting within a mile of the Lair.

We’ve already encountered some of that “welcome.”

Spikes in the earth. Metal, electrical nets. Poisoned arrows from hidden automatic bows.

Nothing related to guns, however, for the small bullets are least effective in debilitating or killing an Immortal. And the larger weapons will be accompanied by loud explosions. For whatever reason, Medusa wants to advertise our presence in these mountains as little as we do.

She will likely not use the Immortal-killing heat-seeking bullets in the outer perimeter defense. Those weapons are rare, despite her attempts to mass produce them, and for maximum effect, she needs soldiers who can aim to wield them. So, expect the next line to be those soldiers.

She’ll likely use the most disposable ones—the failed experiments from Wan’er’s labs. Werewolves, I call them (sue me for being unoriginal), despite that there are a few survivors from the splicing of other animal species too.

Clumsy, ferocious, no intelligence—what do you expect from canines? As with all of her minions, these frontline foot soldiers will not feel pain. Or rather, wounds will not slow them down. So, aim to kill.

We killed many. Dozens.

All the while trying to make sure Erebu is protected. He is the weakest link amongst us.

We debated whether to let him come. In the end, only he can pinpoint