Hare of Misfortune

Rachel looked up as the sisters’ excitement faded, flaming tails drooping.

”Well, that was disappointing,” Irida groaned, scratching her head and messing up her flaming red hair. ”Here, I thought you were going to surprise us and put a leash around our necks with that sudden rush of Hell Force that would have impressed Dad.”

Stretching out her arms high over her head with the mutts’ stares on them, Rachel saw Nia doing the same. Her lips curled as she studied the three.

”Between the Black, Blood, and Greater Harvest Moons, this Hell Moon puts a lot in perspective. Honestly, you’d probably love me a lot more under the Blood Moon since its natural immortality and healing attributes bypass my weak spirit, but beggars can’t be choosers. How do you feel, Nia?”

”Really good!” the child chimed, moving to stretch out her legs and glancing at the clock only visible to them: 9:10 minutes until they won. ”I feel like I could destroy a large town without breaking a sweat, Major. Woah—hold up!”

Nia threw up her hands as Irida grinned, ruby flames igniting as she shot forward, but it was Thalia’s fist meeting her twin’s face that sent the hound flying off into the distance.

”Ack—screw you, Thalia!” the middle sister screamed.

Aleka’s ears perked up, green eyes darting to her big sister as she straightened, flexing her fingers. ”Well, that’s not like you.”

”It isn’t, is it?” Thalia softly commented, sapphire eyes drifting between Nia and her.

Rachel’s ears tilted to the left, holding her hands behind her back and wondering what people thought about the match thus far, but this made sense with the knowledge of Hell plucking at her brain.

”You want to make a contract?”

Nia jumped over them to land on a half-broken stone wall and giggled. ”If we survive, that is. Where do you want to cut the game of wolf and rabbit? Five minutes.”

Aleka’s glowing jade eyes brightened. ”Ah. So that was what Izanami hinted at. It’s possible as a baroness for her to forge a contract with a Hellhound. Five minutes is too—”

”Thalia!”

The world tinted as Rachel activated some of her granted [Baroness of Hell] Feats. [Hell Step] carried her to the roof of a nearby building as a raging meteor hit the street, [Hell Cloak] protecting her from the debris. Inside the crater, Irida was wrestling with Aleka, the mix of emerald and red flames melting the ground and creating a molten river that flowed down the hill.

”Irida, stop and—ouch! You bit me, you ugly bitch!”

”Ack—don’t bite back! This is your fault for tackling me—my tail! Not there, Aleka—not my thigh! Ahhh!”

”Hasn’t healed from our last fight! Has it, you wiggly mutt!?”

”Don’t call me that!”

”My ear?!”

The snarling red- and emerald-haired sisters rolled into the building across from her, Nia cheering them on in the background as it exploded in flames. They soon disappeared into the blazing city as the melancholy ghostly figures watched from the sidelines, none of them getting hurt in the wrestling match.

”Go for the ear! Yeah, get her good! Ack, that probably hurt. D-Don’t be too rough with her, Aleka! Just make her cry a little bit. Yeah! Pull out her claw!”

”Don’t pull out my claw!”

”Hahaha! Bite my ear, huh?!”

”Thalia, help!”

Rachel crossed her legs, setting her hammer beside her. She watched the fighting siblings, keeping the clock’s countdown in focus. She wasn’t sure when their big sister sat beside her, but she wasn’t caught off-guard.

”Enjoying my sisters’ squabbling?” the sapphire-eyed wolf asked.

A shiver ran down Rachel’s spine at the wolf-like gleam in the girl’s leer. ”You aren’t normal Hellhounds. If I’m a Baroness right now, and Yseress is a Princess of Hell...then I’d place you somewhere between us?”

Thalia’s tail melted a path through the roof to gently weave below, cutting away a decent portion of the protective covering, and it told Rachel how dangerous these girls were when the uncharged radial heat of her cobalt fire made her comfortable.

”Each of us is a Marchioness of Hell, and amongst the highest ranks of Hellhounds as daughters of Cerberus. I’ll get to the heart of the matter. Survive my sisters until your clock reaches one minute, and I will consider your contest won. There is something we need that Izanami pointed out, and you are someone capable of granting that wish. Do we have a deal?”

Rachel eyed the Hellhound’s hand as she offered it with a devilish smirk, knowing there was no way she could back out of this deal. Her gaze lingered on the wolf’s midnight-blue fingernails for only a moment before accepting it, arm tensing at the flame that passed between them, misfortune guiding her.

”I look forward to working with you.”

Her jaw tightened as their fingers locked, and bright-sapphire flames rose to her forearm, and Nia pulled up her sleeve, showing her flesh being tattooed with a circle of wolf’s teeth in the same color.

”I don’t like not knowing what the terms are,” Nia hissed from the house to her right. ”We survive, but what is expected of us?”

Rachel let go of Thalia’s hand, flexing her stiff fingers as the fire settled in her soul. Misfortune is against us if we don’t take this, and with us if we take it. Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it when it comes, but... Her strained smile met the wolf’s small smirk. Thalia will make sure we don’t make it out alive if we don’t. She’s committed to us winning to get what she—

Her eyes widened as Thalia took a deep breath and let out an ear-splitting howl, causing the racket and ball of death that was already across the city to stop. Maybe she didn’t know where this was going.

”Find their weakness, then find me...if you dare,” the wolf giggled, drifting away in sapphire flames.

Rachel’s shoulders sank, eyes closing as she realized her folly; there was always a catch. ”Daughters of a bitch.”

A sharp explosion came from the distance, and Rachel leaned back into the hole Thalia had preemptively made with her tail, grabbing her hammer on the way down. A wave of ruby flames ripped apart the ceiling milliseconds after, Aleka’s vicious giggles following Irida’s answered call of her big sister’s howl.

”Brilliant, Major,” Nia grumbled. ”I’ll take the mean one. She’ll like tormenting a bunny kid.”

Atta’soldier, Rachel chuckled. If we want Thalia’s help, we have to find her sisters’ ’weakness,’ then go find her.

”Great. Not only do we need to find a weakness, but we also get to play hide-and-seek with wolves on our tails. Fantastic job, Rach. Not one of your brightest plans.”

I’m working with what I’ve got. Just don’t get—

”Stupid vague rules—aaah! She found me!”