AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Tell us what you know then,” I said.
This time, Bianca gave me a wide-eyed look that practically begged me to stop. I almost laughed. I wasn’t going to be afraid of a goddess. Okay, so Hel was big and intimidating and immensely powerful. That didn’t mean that she could use any of that against me.
“I’m a Reaper,” I told Bianca. “My time is already limited. The afterlife will whisk me away for my eternal servitude sooner rather than later. What is Hel going to do to me? Expediate that?Oh no.”
“What?” Maddox growled.
Shit. I hadn’t told him any of that, specifically the part about my time limit.
I gave him an apologetic grimace. “Bastien was fighting the same thing. He was already dead when he kidnapped me. He took the lives of the others so that he could use their power to stay here, in the world of the living, because he didn’t want to be forced to serve fate.”
It made me think of my mother. I’d been so angry with her for leaving me all alone after she died. It’d been easy to assume that she could come back as a ghost, and that I would be able to see her. She hadn’t told me that she would be taken right away. If I’d known, it would have saved me a bit of anger.
But I also would have lived my life in fear of the end, the same way Bastien had.
No matter what, I lost. What’s new?
Maddox stepped up beside me and took my hand in his again. That was twice now that he’d wound his fingers with mine. My heart stuttered happily until I felt the infection in his arm stir at the presence of my arcana. While Maddox gulped down my arcana, the infection siphoned it.
Sad, I pulled my hand out of his. Why couldn’t this ever be easy? There was always something in the way of what I wanted. It was for the best. If I was going to die young, then I shouldn’t get involved with anyone—especially not a man who already lost one lover.
Hel groaned. She stood, towering over everyone.
“Can I leave?” Bianca asked in a small voice.
Hel’s attention whipped to her. The bone collar tightened on Bianca’s neck making the witch flinch.
“No. I want the sorceress found. She is tearing my domain to pieces. You will give us all the information you have before you are allowed to scuttle out of here like the lowlife that you are.”
“Whoa!” I held up my hands and stepped between Hel and Bianca. “The witch is a nuisance, but she’s not a lowlife.”
Hel raised one imperious brow in challenge. “Oh? So, she wasn’t playing dirty when she turned her magical wards against you earlier?”
Oh, Bianca played dirty, but that was a part of her effectiveness. The witch used everything she had available to her. I couldn’t blame her, especially when I’d shrugged the ward off so easily.
“Everyone in this room is angry.” I looked from face to face.
“I’m not!” Vi chirped.
I cast a sidelong glance towards the open front door where Vi stood. “You’re not in this room.”
She grinned.
Maddox groaned. He ran a hand through his hair and stalked away. His beast was getting restless. Nothing was happening. We weren’t going to learn anything if everyone kept taking pot-shots at each other. It didn’t help that he’d shifted, fought, and gotten a magical infection in the process. His body needed sustenance.
If he didn’t get it, he might lose control. I didn’t want that to happen in front of everyone here. Maddox was worthy of their trust, but they wouldn’t believe that if Hel pushed him over the edge.
Lifting my gaze, I caught Hel staring me down. She wore the same expression my father did when he wanted to teach me a lesson. My heart leapt. I fumbled forward, but the goddess was way ahead of me. As she might say, my simple, human brain could never grasp the vast plans of the divine.
“I’m not angry!” Maddox roared. “You’re all insufferable! Nothing is happening. None of you care about lives. Whenever there’s a problem in your way, you cut it down without a moment of remorse.”
Rage rolled off him in waves that made me physically nauseous. Vi surged through the door with purpose, but I threw myself at her. The intensity of her arcana would kill him, and I couldn’t let that happen.
Hel made a noise in the back of her throat. She never meant to help. Stirring the pot was her only goal, and she’d reached it in record time.
I shoved Vi back towards the front door. Spinning, I told Bianca to get out, too. She held her ground, her hands lifted. Magic hovered in the air around her. Maddox stalked towards her. His eyes flashed between human and wolf while his human anger fed on the power of his beast.
We should have been trying to find the missing pieces of this mystery. Instead, I was cleaning up a goddess’s mess while she looked on smugly.
