Page 87 of The Arcane God

He knew what Lara was asking. Had there been any word from Greya, or Ena, or anyone about Ty’s whereabouts?

Steig shook his head, rubbing his hands over his face as if he could wipe away his exhaustion. “How have things been here?” he asked.

“The same,” she said. “Agren from the mid-levels was put in a collar last week for requesting additional trades for more grain, but other than that, no changes. I’ve been able to make do with the rations we have. I redirected some from the king’s kitchen to the lower levels without Cole knowing, so we’re okay for now. Though I don’t know what we’ll do once the fall harvest is all done in the villages. Cole’s missions, while more frequent than ever, haven’t yielded much in the way of goods—just death and destruction.”

Steig yawned as she was talking, not because he wasn’t paying attention, but just because his body was starting to shut down. The warmth and safety of his home—his family—made him just want to collapse for days.

“You should go sleep,” Lara said gently, covering his hand in hers.

Steig shook his head. “No. No way. Not while the kids are still awake. I need to be here for them.”

Lara smiled at him, and the look brightened his entire world. “Okay,” she said understandingly. “Let’s at least unpack your bag, though. How much time do you have?” She knew without having to ask that Cole was sending him out again—and that he would continue to do so until Ty was found.

“A day. He’s sending me out again tomorrow with Unger and Jace.”

“A day?!” Lara exclaimed, loud enough that the kids looked over at them, their faces concerned.

“Everything okay, Mama?” Leela asked. Her stilted three-year-old speech had progressed so much since Steig had last seen her, it almost surprised him.

“Yes, love, nothing to worry about,” Lara said, calming herself and handing the girl a fresh spiced bun from the table.

“It’s okay, Lara,” Steig assured her once Leela had rejoined the game with her siblings.

“No, it’s not, Steig. None of this is okay.”

He didn’t know what to say to her. She was right, of course. None of this was okay, but Steig didn’t know how to fix it, and he didn’t know what else to do. At least while he was going out on missions, Lara and the kids were left alone—Cole didn’t mess with their day-to-day. But he knew, the second he was put into an imperae collar, that could change. Not only would he lose access to them altogether, but Cole wouldn’t waste time before pushing Lara into a new marriage. She would resist, of course, but then he’d use the kids as a bargaining chip. He could take them away from her. He could put them in collars. There was no end to the cruelty Cole would perpetrate to achieve control, power, and supremacy over everything and everyone in the Underworld, especially his own daughter.

Steig moved to her, wrapping her in his arms again, holding her tightly. “I know,” he said simply.

After a minute, she moved away from him, returning to check on something in the kitchen, and he grabbed his pack, moving it to their bedroom to remove his dirty clothes and refill it with clean ones. His eldest daughter Myda followed him, ostensibly to help him sort through his bag, but he could tell she just wanted to be near him, which suited him just fine because that’s what he wanted too.

“These smell, Dad,” she said, tossing his dirty things into a pile on the floor.

Steig chuckled at her bluntness. “I’m not surprised. I’ve been wearing them for a month straight,” he said.

She continued to dig around his bag until she pulled out a small wooden board, sanded and stained, and decorated with carved letters and wiccan symbols. It had a small planchette attached to it by a string, and was very clearly not a daemonic relic.

“What’s this?” she asked curiously.

“Oh, nothing,” he said, taking it from her and leaving it on the bed. He felt bad lying to her, but she couldn’t know what that was for.

“It’s starting to move, though,” she said as she stared at it.

Steig whipped his head to look at it, watching it intensely as he saw the small planchette shift just the tiniest bit, moving from where it had hung limp by the letter L towards the letter T.

“Lara!” he called. “Come in here!”

“What is it?” she asked as she came down the hall from the kitchen and into the doorway.

Steig looked up at her briefly, keeping one eye on the planchette as he tracked its movements.

“Myda, go watch your siblings, please,” Lara said.

“But Mom, what is that?” the girl asked, watching the planchette move along with Steig.

“Now, Myda,” Lara said, her tone brooking no argument.

Myda huffed with displeasure, but did as she was told, leaving Steig and Lara alone with the talking board.