Page 40 of Can you take it?

“More like her pawn. Ironic since that was essentially what you were to your mother as well, huh?”

I went to argue but realized that I had said the exact words to Cal before.

“My sister hated Zef before I even died,” she said with a chuckle. “So did my mother.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “About everything that my mother did to your family.”

“That’s why you came here, isn’t it?” she asked. “You’re taking the blame for what your mother did to everyone. Caly is with Mendax and your mother is gone, so you needed to find something that would give you that feeling of selfless approval.” She nodded empathetically. “I get it.”

I looked long and hard at her, desperately wanting to distance myself from this conversation and her. This was a ploy to get the pendant. I couldn’t quite figure out her angle other than to soften me up. I stiffened when my gut protested. Oh, she was good. Smart and manipulative, just like her sister.

“What else do you want to know about your sister?” I asked. Why did I ask?

“I don’t know.” She looked off dreamily. “What’s she like?” “She’s fierce and loyal, headstrong and wicked. She loves to fight. Hates being told what to do,” I laughed despite myself.

“If you tell her she can’t do something, the first thing she’ll do is prove you wrong.”

Anna chuckled. “She was always like that.”

“Yes, I can imagine,” I said softly. Perhaps if I lean my back into the thorns of this cactus, my brain will wake up and I will walk away. “What about you?” I asked.

She looked up, surprised. “What about me?”

“What are you like?” I couldn’t help myself. I leaned slightly away from the cactus.

“Well, according to you, an evil menace who is out to set the world on fire and suffocate everyone with the fumes while I take over and bring all of Tartarus to the top.” A small smile played at the corners of her mouth, and I found myself completely mesmerized.

“I’ll never give you this pendant,” I said softly, staring at her mouth.

The energy shifted between us, but it wasn’t as I expected. “Why not?” she asked, though it sounded more like a statement.

I was having a harder time answering that. The truth was I wasn’t convinced she was evil. In fact in this short conversation with her, my gut told me the complete opposite. “You belong in Moirai with the other gods and goddesses. You belong in a place where you will be worshiped, in a place that’s filled with wholesome goodness, not in a place like this. I know you are toying with me, but someone with your powers should be using it for good, not evil. I don’t think you belong here. And also because I’m tied to it, and I’m not going to be tied to someone and not be with them.”

I pushed my back into the cactus and felt the prickly sting. Hopefully it would shut me up and stop my mouth from spewing more words.

“So you don’t think I’m entirely evil,” she whispered. “I never said that,” I said seriously.

“It’s beautiful and filled with magic down here too,” she said. “You just have to look for it.”

Something loud sounded on the battlefield, drawing our attention away from the conversation.

“Bexley!” she said.

It took my eyes a second to filter through the other figures, but they landed on him. “Holy shit.” What was he doing? In the middle of the crowded battlefield, Bexley had looped Walter and Eletha together, back to back, with a long iron chain.

The creepy hooded figures, without anyone giving them a fight, retreated eerily back into the decrepit buildings like leaves in a breeze, and only a few remained, as if thirsty to watch the carnage the new person was about to provide.

Bexley, who had appeared out of nowhere, was shouting at them. He looked red-faced and angry as he held two weapons in his hands, waving them around emphatically.

“Oh my suns, where did he come from?” We both hurried to stand.

“Listen, listen to what he’s saying,” she whispered.

We moved behind the large cactus to hide ourselves a bit. My first instinct was to run out there and take him down from behind, but there was too big of a gap between the cactus and where they stood; there was no way he wouldn’t see me coming.

“What do you think we should do? I thought he was good,” I mumbled under my breath.

“Bexley?” she whispered.