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Badb regarded Cade for a while, then returned her focus to me. “Manea has marked you.”
Duh.
“I know.”
“No. Manea has marked you among our kind. She has promised great gifts to the one who brings you to her. She doesn’t only want Seth to pay with the life of his child, she wants you to pay for embarrassing her.”
Cade was staring at her, and I know they were both waiting for me to react, but I’d gone numb.
I could handle having a price on my head.
Dealing with a pantheon of gods out for my blood, on the other hand, wasn’t exactly in my job description.
Chapter Ten
“Tallulah.” Cade shook my shoulder gently, then a little harder when I didn’t answer.
I finally came back to myself and fixed Badb with an intense look. I wasn’t trying to intimidate her, that would be nigh on impossible, but I wanted her to know I wasn’t going to curl into a ball and wither away on the side of the road because of what she’d told me.
“So the gods are out for my blood. Big deal.”
Huge deal. Massive deal. Inside I was pissing myself.
“Mmm.” She narrowed her eyes at me, the smoke of her dress swirling and settling into new shapes and patterns. “I like you, Rain Chaser.”
“Well, I’m a lot more likable when I’m alive.”
This made her smile, and I immediately wished it hadn’t. Her teeth were like those of a shark’s, layer after layer of pointed, white daggers. They were teeth designed to rend flesh from bone. Up until then she’d at least passingly resembled a human. I was harshly reminded that there was no humanity to her whatsoever.
“Why are you warning us?” Cade asked.
“Sport.” Badb was suddenly two feet away, but I hadn’t seen her move. “Manea has nothing I want. Death will follow where I lead whether she likes it or not.”
Seeing my expression fall, she added, “I didn’t bring her to you, pretty one. I have no interest in seeing you die.”
“So…” I wasn’t sure what else to say. She didn’t want to kill me, but was warning me for fun? “You’re, like, giving me a head start?”
“I am telling you to be mindful of the mountains. The Ourea have a taste for blood that makes we Morrigan look charitable. There are those among us who care nothing for a mortal life and won’t bother with Manea’s offer. But there are others willing to send their people for you. Gods have no desire to dirty their hands in human deeds, but we do love having Death owe us a favor. Imagine what Ares could do.” Her eyes glinted sadistically.
I didn’t need to imagine what the god of war would do with an unspecified gift from Death herself. Nor Chalchihuihtotolin, the god of disease, who was not one of the nicest deities on a good day. These were definitely not gods I wanted out for my blood.
This was very, very, very not good.
“Are you offering to help me?” I asked.
“Haven’t I helped you already?”
“Telling someone they’re about to be hit by a bus does nothing to move them out of the path of the bus,” I pointed ou
t.
“At least I am not driving the bus,” she countered with a graceful shrug. Indifference had never looked so chillingly beautiful. “But perhaps there is something I can do. I want you to have some kind of a chance.”
Badb reached into the hidden depths of her robe, and when her hand returned, it was holding something. “Give me your arm.”
Oh, I really didn’t want to.
I extended my arm, and she fastened a thin silver bracelet around my wrist. Upon closer inspection what I’d thought were simple chain links were actually skeletal hands grasping each other. I gave a little shudder.
