“Nah. Cold would be if I asked you to point in the general direction we needed to go then told you to catch up when you can. I’m offering to wait for you.” Not out of the kindness of my heart, but because I couldn’t risk letting him out of my sight in case he lied about Kierce’s whereabouts. “For a reasonable amount of time.”
“Maybe an hour.” He tested each arm then his legs. “My left ankle is broken, and my right wrist is too.” He pressed his fingers to his abdomen and then his head. “If I can heal those, I’ll be good to finish this.”
“Okay.” I moved away from him, choosing to stand with the others. “I can spare an hour.” I gave Josie a side hug. “And if you’re not ready by then, Josie will use her vines to tie your ankles, and we’ll drag you.”
After the longestsixty minutes of my life, helped along by Josie’s insistence we play Truth or Dare, which was asking for trouble when you mixed two exes with two people in a situationship and granted them all permission to dig up dirt orembarrass one another on their turn, Ankou murmured the sweetest words I had heard since opening my eyes.
“I can manage now.”
Managewas a bit optimistic for how wobbly Ankou was, but Harrow consented to walking alongside the god blood with a firm grip on his upper arm to keep him from toppling over and—God forbid—tumbling over the edge.
Once had been cathartic. Twice was just gratuitous.
Not that I wouldn’t enjoy an instant replay, but I was itching to set my eyes on Kierce.
A small eternity later, Ankou shook off Harrow and began testing his strength and reflexes.
“In about thirty minutes, we’ll hit a switchback.” He massaged his healed wrist. “We take it down to the bottom, and, assuming the mirashii aren’t waiting around to eat us, we’ll cross the border into Dis Pater’s lands.” He appeared satisfied with his current condition. “The cage is near the border, and it stands alone. No one goes there. Not anymore. Not after he…” He grimaced at us. “Let’s just say that there were once those who enjoyed taunting the Viduus when he was too weak to fight back.”
More than once, Kierce had alluded to the conditions in Abaddon, but he kept the worst to himself.
Probably to prevent me from clawing out Dis Pater’s eyes as soon as I got my hands on him.
“Why tell us this now?” Josie cocked an eyebrow. “What’s the point of that anecdote?”
Guilt and grief tangled with my hurt for Kierce, distracting me. I hadn’t stopped to consider Ankou might have an angle in telling us. But Josie, who had known him best, as well as anyone could know a liar and a cheat, was suspicious of every breath he took for good reason.
“Not to elicit sympathy.” He rubbed a flake of dried blood off his skin. “He sometimes goes on autopilot while he’s in there. You can reach through the bars, you see. Throw things through them too.” He wiped off his fingers. “Come at him the wrong way while he’s wounded, and he might think he’s under attack.” He tipped his chin. “He might kill you before he recognizes you.”
Carter couldn’t stop her gaze from sliding to Josie. “And you just thought to mention this now?”
“It’s better that the threat is fresh in your minds,” he said to her, but I could tell he meant the words for me. “That you haven’t had time to convince yourself you’re special or immune or safe from him.”
Given the wakeup call I received when Kierce slammed his lightning bolt through my skull during our last meeting, I wasn’t in danger of romanticizing our connection again anytime soon. I had learned my lesson about the bonds between gods and their vassals to the tune of three hundred million volts.
“I will go first.” Anunit turned tail on us. “We must be certain the mirashii have not followed us.”
“Thank you.” I smoothed a hand across her shoulders. “Be careful.”
“You too, Frankie Talbot.”
Graceful leaps carried her lower with an ease I envied, and I watched until she was out of sight.
Harrow, who had also been tracking her, released a gusty exhale and wiped his forearm across his brow.
Tempted as I was to pick on him, try to tease out a laugh and lighten the moment, I only gestured Ankou ahead of us. Harrow and Carter filed in behind him, falling into a hushed conversation with one another.
“Are you ready for this?” Josie looped an arm through mine, tucking it flush against her side, and tugged me after the others. “I don’t know how long my vines can hold Kierce if he getsagitated from our arrival, but I’ll do my best to restrain him until you get through to him.”
“Thanks.” I noticed her pat her pocket and spotted the small plastic pot tucked inside it. “That’s why you chose the vines.”
“Yes and no.” She grinned with vicious glee that made me smile too. “I knew they would be useful, but I also thought Ankou could do with a reminder that I’m not going to put up with his bullshit on this trip.”
“I should have listened to Anunit about you.” I cuddled her arm tighter against me. “You’re smart, you’re strong, and you’re good in a fight. I have to trust you to know your own limits.”
“I get it.” She leaned down to rest her head on my shoulder. “I don’t hold it against you. How can I? I did it to myself. If I hadn’t let you handle everything for me my whole life, you wouldn’t think you still had to do it.”
“I’m proud of you.” I kissed the top of her head. “You know that, right?”
