Page 7 of Can you take it?

His dark eyes crinkled at the corners. It was one of the few signs of his age and wisdom. “Tell me a story, Aurelius. How is it you came to arrive in my dwellings?”

“Don’t you already know?” I asked him while I watched Walter move from his seat a short distance away and walk over to us. Quickly.

“I know a good amount, but since it involves a good friend of mine, Mendax, I’d like to hear the whole story from your mouth.” His eyes hardened, and I got the feeling he was testing me. I always kept my mind’s walls up, and as I made certain they were still up, I triple-checked the lock while I was at it this time. Fae that could get into your mind never left it the same. “You’re not what I thought the God of the Underworld would be like,” I replied, hoping to change the subject. I didn’t want to talk about what had happened to get me here. Thinking about it felt too raw, let alone speaking it out loud. But the truth was, the reality was slowly beginning to sink in. Not only was I already starting to hate this place as it crawled with thieves and liars, but in my missing Cal, it was growing harder and harder to dismiss the person she really was. Without the overwhelming sense of closeness and needing to keep her from harm’s way…I was starting to realize that, well, she was harm’s way. She was as unhinged and venomous as Mendax, who was once my greatest enemy. How could one be my best friend and the other my enemy when they acted the same? While missing her, I’d replayed memories from our childhood a hundred times when I was certain she had been happy and bubbly. She would save all the little animals that were drawn to her, even making little houses out of leaves for the toads when it rained. Now I wondered how much of that was an act for my sake, something she was doing to try and convince me she was something she wasn’t. I knew now that she was never really happy and she most definitely wasn’t bubbly. Stabby and sweary, sure, but not so bubbly. Would I have loved her the way I do had I known that it was all just an act? No. It was nonsensical to lie to myself about it now. I probably still would have loved her, in a different way. Not in the way that had caused me to fantasize for years about the sweet, angelic, smart, animal-loving girl I thought I had been in love with. If Cal hadn’t had that drop of Adrianna’s Artemi powers to make her connect with animals, she probably would have tried to slaughter all the creatures we had come across. A sick feeling gripped my stomach. I’m done! I can’t do this anymore, I can’t!

You can and you will. He didn’t do this so you could be selfish and quit.

Panic gripped every part of my body. My shoulder knocked into Kaohs as I whipped around in search of the voices I just heard. Something deep vibrated up my spine. Gasping for breath, I whirled back around to see Kaohs letting out a low growl in my direction.

“Forgive him; he has the itch. Bad. He meant nothing by it. Isn’t that right, Aurelius?” Walter said, eagerly putting a solid arm around my shoulders to stop me from my spastic twirling as I continued to look for the owner of the voices.

“The—the voices—” But more than that, the feeling I’d just had. Was this all a trick? Was this Kaohs’s doing?

“Yes, the itch.” Kaohs’s expression was stoic. “It might be wise to get it free from your friend’s system before you go making any more requests, Walter. Take him to the main floor party after this and be certain he does something he would never do prior to being in the Underworld before you even bother bringing him back here and requesting I keep him out of the tiers.” His voice had changed instantly, his words an obvious warning. He squinted as he looked me over. “Have him kill someone, or better yet, introduce him to a few of the girls or guys and let him get wild. Get some fairy dust from Ivan if you need to. Ha! Send him to the sensations, that will likely cure his itch. They do things much differently here than in Seelie.” “While they give him another type of itch,” Walter mumbled under his breath.

“What was that?” Kaohs snapped at the shifter. “Nothing. Good thinking,” he said, this time a smidge louder.

The god’s hard stare remained on Walter a beat before returning to me. “Now, this is the last time I will request it; tell us how you got here while we enjoy the red keys. This is a particularly good match even though Anna isn’t playing.”

My glance at Walter confirmed that it wasn’t really a choice so much as a command.

Over the next fifteen or so minutes, I relayed to Kaohs and Walter, as fast as I was capable, everything that had transpired up until the moment I opened my eyes in the pit of the dead. I spared no details while I watched the horrid, barbaric game of death with a rat shifter who was only here because my mother had killed him and the god of the fae Underworld, while they both continued to ask questions I didn’t feel like answering.

I had been keeping alert for any small children, but so far had seen no one that looked younger than me. Cal’s sister had been about six or eight, I think, when she was killed in the car accident. No, I didn’t suppose I could fairly call it an accident. My hands trembled. I still couldn’t fathom all of the horrible, awful things my mother had done to Cal’s family.

I would make it right—as right as I was capable of anyway. I would find that little girl and make sure she got all of her powers back and could finally ascend, returning to her father in Moirai. My chest loosened with a long, heavy breath. I brushed away the tiniest gnat of selfishness that had started to take shape inside of me. No, I was happy to help whoever I could, whatever it cost me.

“So you wish to take the girl away from here, you say?” Kaohs’s eyes darkened as he watched the game on the field intently. One of the players, a massive fae clad in oversized black armor, was brutally knocked down from his horse by another player.

“Yes, the Fates wish for her to return to Moirai once her power is rightfully restored. As I’m sure you’re aware, the Artemis power increases throughout their lineage and she is the daughter of Zef, the Titan Artemi. Apparently, she must be unbelievably powerful, rivaling the power of the gods, I suppose, as the Fates themselves said they need her in Moi— OH MY SUNS!” With a slash and a gush, the player that had knocked the other man from his horse had skillfully guided his black stallion closer to the falling fae.

Once there, he grabbed the larger man’s head with one hand while his other hand roughly lifted the face flap of the man’s helmet. He opened a small leather chest, no bigger than a fist, pulled a dark red skeleton key from it, and then smashed it into the man’s forehead! Black blood trickled down the man’s face as he was dropped to the ground just before he…disintegrated. Disintegrated. The man completely disappeared into dust before my eyes. With a snort and somewhat haughty gait, the muscular black stallion trotted off the field completely unscathed.

“Sit down, Aurelius,” Walter murmured quietly as he carefully kept his eyes on Kaohs the same way a rabbit observes a fox for a sign of when to bolt. I glanced back at the god and was immediately unnerved by the wide smile covering his face. “Do you not enjoy my game?” he asked with an intense look, watching as I tried to swallow down my disgust. He let out a laugh like a clap of thunder. “Too macabre for you? Most Seelie don’t enjoy the suffering aspect of it, though they all still play—eventually. The prize is so good, it’s nearly priceless.”

I held his stare, wishing I could make him feel the suffering that he obviously enjoyed doling out to the desperate and hopeless fae who had no choice but to take it. His jaw tightened. No doubt every soul here cowered and worshiped the ground he walked on, and understandably so, being that he and he alone could make one’s time here completely unbearable if he chose.

Another sharp pang of grief hit me in the chest. Fuck, it hurt. It hurt in an annoying, unavoidable way in a hidden, buried body part in the cavern of my ribs next to my heart. I knew it wasn’t my heart because that ached too but in an entirely different way. I’d never, ever get to see my sister again. I couldn’t explain to her why I told Mendax to kill me. She would be left with no one now, no family to help take care of her. As the leader of the Fallen Fae, I was fully aware she was capable of taking care of herself, and I knew the Fallen would proudly die to protect her after everything she did to ensure they have a place of their own in the realms, but I still couldn’t be there for her if she needed me, and that felt terrible. I had left her all alone. Cal and Mendax had no reason to see her again; in fact, they were probably in Unseelie right now, plotting how to take over Seelie for good.

I broke the staring contest with Kaohs to chide myself for thinking so little of Cal. Maybe, at least out of sheer courtesy to me, they would hold off on destroying Seelie to make Unseelie the largest of the realms. Or if not, then at least maybe they would keep Tarani out of the desecration or be kind enough to find some place for my people. That would be enough for me.

“Will you assist me in finding Adrianna?”

Kaohs’s eyes lit up eagerly and I instantly worried about what I’d gotten myself into. Was she a wailing, screaming, sickly child that cried incessantly for her missing mother? Possibly she was a true terror of stickiness and that was why he suddenly looked so eager to be rid of her.

“Of course I will help you get the child her powers. Then I suppose you will be staying here, Seelie?”

Another bloody scuffle on the field redirected our attention. Several more men had been knocked to the ground, each of their bodies turning to a fine dust that floated off into the wind. I suppose it was a competition of the fittest in a way. Every time a player was dropped, only the best remained alive and standing. I was repulsed by the barbaric game, which I didn’t understand, but even I found my pulse gain speed as I watched each round grow more and more intense.

Kaohs’s words pulled me back. “Will I be staying? As though I have the chance to leave?” I grinned, unable to stifle it. “It’s unkind of you to tease me with thoughts of home.”

Walter leaned back so that Kaohs was unable to see him and shook his head from side to side, letting me know that whatever the god was about to suggest, I needed to steer clear of. I nodded once in acknowledgment, but my mind had already begun to stir. Was there actually a way out of here?

“Ha,” he laughed. “You are a good-hearted Seelie, are you not? Of course you can leave this place. Fate knows I’d love to leave myself. I’ve grown tired of this scenery.”

What? “Wait, I can? How?” I moved to the edge of my seat. This could be amazing. After I got the little girl out of here, I could go back to my home and see my family… Well, Tarani and Cal were the only ones left, but they were family.

“My lord, he knows nothing about the tiers, so I’ll speak for him on his behalf. Eli will be staying far away from them with your blessing,” Walter interjected sternly. I still didn’t understand completely what was happening, but I knew that Walter was saving me in some way, even if it didn’t sound like it. I nodded my thanks. Though I desperately wanted to be gone from this place, he was correct in his assumptions; from what I knew about the tiers, I did not want to even think about entering them.