because he ran across her while touring the neighborhood!”
“He was waiting for her signal,” Marie said, her hard gaze turning knowing. “That’s why she froze the entire district. She wanted that signal to be too big to miss because she didn’t want us to see him waiting for her.”
“Yes, if we survived.” Agitation had me pacing. “She didn’t know I’d be here, so this setup was for you. Morana probably intended to take you back with them like an ice-covered trophy if you refused to join her. Or kill you while you were immobile. She didn’t change the plan when she saw me because she didn’t know I could manipulate ice and water. My breaking free probably startled her and Phanes into bolting.”
“Ashael and I were only gone seconds,” Ian said. “They must have teleported away during that time. I’d have seen them if they flew.”
“They sure as hell wouldn’t try to get away by running,” I muttered, and then stopped in my tracks.
“What?” Ian said.
“Running.” Holy shit, that was it! “No one runs away from vampires because that’s too slow, even for a god. Back when Morana was talking about her and Ruaumoko’s deaths, she said that ghouls had trapped them in a gorge, but Ruaumoko hated vampires the most because they’d flown in to strike the killing blow.”
Ian began to smile. “Did she, now?”
“What of it?” Marie asked, sounding impatient.
“Means Morana and Ruaumoko can’t fly,” I summed up.
I should have realized that the moment I saw her. Yes, Morana had wings, but Phanes had flown both of them out of the netherworld when he broke them free. At the time, I’d thought Phanes had done it because their confinement had left them too weak, but how could ghouls have trapped Morana and Ruaumoko in a gorge if one or both of them could fly?
“Must not be able to teleport, either,” Ian said, dark expectancy sliding through his tone. “That’s how Phanes betrayed them. He left them to die instead of teleporting them away.”
“Then took credit for their deaths, probably by slaughtering the people who did kill them,” I added.
“That would tie up the necessary loose ends,” Marie said in a diamond-hard tone. “It would also explain why I couldn’t discover more about their demise despite extensive research.”
“When did you do that?” I said, surprised.
She gave me a look. “The moment my spies told me new gods had arrived. By the time Morana contacted me to request this meeting, I knew everything ever written about her, but”—she shrugged—“at best, history only ever whispers at the truth.”
That was a fact, as was its frequent twisting based on who was writing it.
“Someone powerful must have suspected that Phanes wasn’t the hero he claimed to be, because he was exiled to his realm not long after Morana and Ruaumoko’s deaths,” Ian said.
Yes, and all that time with only his illusions and the people he teleported into his realm had made Phanes pine for the good old days when he and his warmongering pals had ruled down here. Then, he’d felt me crack the veil, and begun to plan.
“My father must have eventually suspected Phanes, too,” I said, looking at Ian. “He said Phanes was supposed to be my shelter, but later, he cloaked me so Phanes couldn’t find me.”
Not unless I used that power, which my vampire sire had forbidden me from doing in terms so strong that they had scarred me emotionally for thousands of years. But maybe Tenoch had had another reason for his appalled reaction to my ripping open the veil when I was young. Had my father warned him that doing so would cause disastrous results?
Was it . . . was it possible that Tenoch’s horror hadn’t only been caused by seeing what I could do? Could part of it have come from Tenoch trying, as he’d done so many times before, to protect me from people who wanted to use me for my power?
I wished Tenoch was still here so I could ask him. He wasn’t, though. He was dead, and far too many others would join him if Morana, Phanes, and Ruaumoko weren’t stopped.
“They don’t realize that we know their secret,” I said. “We can use that against them.”
Marie smiled, and though it made her face even lovelier, I had never found her more terrifying.
“Then let us find another gorge to trap them in, and this time, they won’t come back from their deaths.”
Chapter 37
Ashael returned within the hour with the grim news that ninety-six humans