Page 17 of Can you take it?

“No,” I whispered when they landed on the inscription. FEUHN KAI GREEYTH—eternal love and friendship. Cal’s scream filled my head, and I let out a gasp.

“No!” I shouted, snatching the pendant from her grip. Eternal love and friendship—I meant every word of that promise to Cal. I wouldn’t let Anna get the rest of her powers. Suns only knew the fresh hell she planned once she had it. She hated Zef. What if she hated Cal? What if she tried to hurt her? It didn’t matter that I was dead—I was still going to protect Cal and I would do everything in my power to make certain Anna never got the rest of her powers. It was up to me to keep everyone safe from her and to make sure I didn’t end up tied to a heathen queen in Tartarus.

“Fine. If you want to do it the hard way, then,” she said, letting out a heavy sigh and rolling her neck.

Oh fuck.

“But he must give you the pendant of his own free will,” Kaohs announced.

“What?” Eletha, Anna, and I said at the same time.

“It takes more than power to rule the Underworld, my dear. You must prove to me that you have what it takes by get- ting Prince Aurelius to willfully give you the pendant.”

“Ha!” Walter barked triumphantly. Kaohs shot him a look as Eletha hit him in the arm. “What?” he snapped at her. “As I already told you, he’s my friend. I have his back.”

“I don’t care,” she volleyed. “I have my sister’s back.”

The room shook again, and the rumbles returned. I looked to Anna, expecting another outburst. She was pouting, her arms crossed as she stared at the floor. “Anna! Call off Toast!” Eletha barked in her sister’s direction when the rumbling grew even louder.

“Toast?” I muttered to myself. What the fuck was a toast? “Fuuuuck. He’s already made it past the library,” she grum- bled as she stomped to the door, pausing for a moment to turn in my direction. “This isn’t over. You will give me that pendant one way or another, I promise you.”

“I—” I began, but she walked out the door. Another rumble shook the walls, nearly knocking us all down. “What is she doing?”

“Toast is her pet lyndwurm,” Walter whispered. “Anytime she uses her powers, he likes to check on her.” A pet lyndwurm may actually have been the coolest and most terrifying thing I’d ever heard.

Kaohs let out a long and heavy sigh. “My soul is tired.” He stood from his chair and walked to Eletha as though he was thanking the hostess of a party he’d attended. “I am retiring early tonight. These topics have weighed heavily on me.” She nodded sympathetically and squeezed his shoulder. He turned back toward me and my spine stiffened. Gods knew what else he could shock me with tonight.

Ignoring me completely, he looked at the damage in the corner of the room and nonchalantly raised his hand. With a small flick of the tip of his pointer finger, the corner restored itself completely as if nothing had happened, leaving no trace but for a few disheveled items.

I fought to not drop my jaw, knowing the amount of power it took to do something like that so carelessly. Tearing things down was much easier than rebuilding. He was a god. Of course he could do cool things like that.

“Good night,” he said, leaning in to kiss Eletha on the cheek before leaving. “See you on the field tomorrow,” he said to me.

“Huh?” I said, confused.

“I heard you’re playing the red keys. I hope you’re a good rider and a better fighter.” He shrugged, sending a wink in my direction. “If not, Anna will get her powers a lot sooner than anticipated.”

“I’m tired of you acting like you don’t care about me. It’s grown old.” Walter and Eletha had been bickering ever since we had left the room. It was apparently a long way to our rooms, and I had just begun a serious internal debate involving whether an ice pick or a rusty iron stake through the head would relieve me of the miserable walk faster.

“I’m not acting, Walter. I don’t care about you. And you know what’s gotten old? You being a hypocrite and saying I don’t care about you after you were the one that left me in Unseelie.”

“For the last time, I didn’t leave you! You left me to come back to Daddy,” Walter replied.

I cringed at the daddy comment. That wasn’t going to go over well. Figures I had left both my ice pick and my rusty iron stake at home. I wondered if anyone had ever tried to dislodge their brain with a button. I silently eyed the dagger on Walter’s belt longingly.

“I was summoned! And I was only even found because your big mouth told Mendax, that smoggy prick!”

“He was protecting both of us from making a huge—” “Mistake? Marrying me was going to be a huge mistake,

huh?”

“Give me your dagger,” I pleaded.

Walter scowled at me and continued fighting with the demigoddess. We paused in a long empty hallway. More shouting. More hallways.

“Ouch!” a muffled voice grumbled. “Eli,” Walter barked.

I snapped my head up to see a large iron door. At the edge of it lay a mildew-ridden lump of fabric that, after stepping on it, showed itself as the haggard, dirty man I had been seeing around. He was the drunk Anna had busted the walls in on.