“Once a soul has been promised to the realm, I cannot undo it.”
“But—”
“Totakea life, you mustgivea life.”
My brow furrowed. “You want me to stay in his place?”
Kaiden gripped my hand tighter, his claws drawing blood. “You can’t leave me,” he cried.
Pulling him closer to the bars, I tried to hug and soothe him. “Shh. I will do what I have to do to get you home. This is all my fault.” I pulled away and brushed the tears from his cheeks with my thumbs. “I love you, turd.”
I stepped to Astaroth, tears finally pooling enough to tumble down my dirt-stained cheeks. He watched each one as they dripped to the pristine black marble floor of his dais.
“No,” he stated.
Confused, I repeated him. “No?”
Astaroth didn’t move or twitch. He stood there in the same position, hands clasped behind his back, intensely focused on me. “I want something else from you, Cali.”
Relieved to hear that, an answer rushed out of my mouth before I could think. “Anything.”
Those orbital eyes began to twinkle, the way they did when I lost myself inside his mind, and I jerked my gaze down to his lips as they said, “I want your firstborn child.”
I moved backward with a gasp, bumping into the cage. Kaiden’s fingers dug into my shoulder, the sting from his claws helped ground me and clear my tired mind.
“Do we have a deal?”
I didn’t have a choice in the matter. There was no more negotiating. Agreeing to this would get us home. Another little crack formed inside me as another choice was taken away. It beat being trapped here, though.
“Yes,” I whispered.
Astaroth smiled and snapped his fingers. Energy pulsed through the room. The goblins, tucked into nearby hiding spots, shivered fearfully and scurried away. Kaiden returned to his normal self. His small, claw-free hands patted down his body in disbelief. The cage popped open, and I wasted no time pulling him out and clutching him in my arms. I refused to let his feet touch the ground. He must have felt the same. His legs wrapped around my waist and locked at the ankles.
“We shall meet again when the time comes.” Astaroth came to a stop in front of us. He pulled a long chain from around his neck that lay hidden beneath his ruffled shirt. “A gift for all you have endured, and what you have yet to give.”
I flinched, and Kaiden buried his face in my shoulder as Astaroth looped the necklace over my head, gripping the pendant in his palm. Using it like a leash, he jerked me closer, and I stumbled toward him. Those silent declarations screamed in the breadth between us. With a gentleness I no longer thought he possessed, he laid it on my chest over the scar he gave me years ago and placed his hand over it. His lips moved, but the words slipped free from my mind as he spoke them. My head grew foggy and began to throb. It felt like my brain shredded as the pain ebbed through my skull. I gripped my forehead and winced, and then it stopped. The metal warmed beneath his cool palm before he took a tired half step back.
The pendant was heavier than it looked. I lifted it with a shaky hand. It reminded me of Astaroth’s eyes. It was beautiful and terrifying.
“What is it?”
“It’s a wishing stone. It will make all your dreams come true.”
“It would be a dream come true for you to forget about me.”
“Fortunate for me,” he said with a sad smile I didn’t understand, “you can’t use my magic against me.”
I gripped the necklace in my fist. Too bad his wish would never come true. “I wish for my brother and I to go home.”
The last thing I remembered before the inky darkness swallowed us up was Astaroth’s lonely eyes and the echo of my name on his lips.
