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“Cade,” I corrected.
“Cade Melpomene is not going to do you any favors.”
“Like Seth did me favors by pitting Manea against me?”
“Tallulah Corentine, you forget yourself.” Sido’s expression was fierce and serious, and I knew instantly I’d made a mistake in speaking ill of Seth in front of her.
“I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“You can’t blame the gods for your trouble.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. Was she seriously trying to pin all this on me? Sido was great, but sometimes she leaned a bit too heavily on the gods are never wrong side of things. That never made sense to me. They were definitely wrong fairly often. But to say such things out loud was not only frowned upon, it was actually forbidden. My sass mouth could get me in a lot of trouble if the wrong person heard what I said.
Sido wasn’t likely to forget it, either, but at least she wouldn’t punish me with anything more than stern words.
As relieved as I’d been to see her, now I wished she would leave. This trip was already hard enough without her unique brand of guilt applied to the situation. She had a way of making me feel responsible for the activities I did in Seth’s name, and it was a little hypocritical, honestly. I was bound to the god. I had no option but to do what he asked. Yet Sido acted like the things that happened to me as a result of my actions were only my fault.
I took the death idol, and now Manea had sicced a litany of angry gods on me.
And somehow this was my problem.
Sido, who had a gift for reading my emotions no matter how well I tried to hide them, saw something on my face that made her soften. She took my hands and held them between hers, squeezing gently.
“I know it doesn’t seem like it, Lulu, but this will all work out as it’s meant to.”
“What if it’s meant to work out with me dead?”
She was quiet, and I knew she was trying to come up with a diplomatic way to say my death would have been the will of the gods, but she couldn’t do it without upsetting me. “I don’t believe that will be the case. You are important to Seth.”
I guffawed at the absurdity, but since I didn’t actually voice my disbelief, she couldn’t scold me. “Thanks for bringing the car.”
Sido kept hold of my hands and pursed her lips. Something else was on her mind, and whatever it was I wouldn’t like it. “Seth wants me to take the idol.”
I wrenched my hands free, no longer just annoyed but outright angry. “That’s why you came in such a hurry, then? Daddy is worried I’ll die and Manea will get her hands on it again.” I didn’t wait for her to make up a lie. I yanked the strap of my bag and pulled it up, rifling through it until my fingers bumped against the carved surface of the skull.
My first instinct was to throw it at her. But since my first instinct was rarely right in confrontational situations, I thrust it in her direction. “I don’t know why the damn thing is so important to him. What does a storm god want with a death idol?”
Sido brushed her hand almost lovingly over the skull’s surface, tracing the fine details before hugging it close to her chest. “It’s not about what the skull represents.”
“Then what?”
“It’s about who the skull belonged to.”
My pulse beat a little quicker as her words registered. Her face was telling me to let it go, but I’d never been good at that. “Who was it?”
“Let’s just say if you don’t find my brother in time, Manea will have no problem finding herself a replacement.”
Chapter Fourteen
Stopping in Shreveport felt like giving up.
But after fifteen hours of close-quarters tense silence, both Cade and I were desperate for a break from driving. We pulled in at the cheapest motel we could find just over the Louisiana border, and unloaded our bags and Fen’s carrier from
the car.
I hadn’t mentioned my visit from Sido the previous night, and Cade hadn’t asked what miracle had gotten the car to us overnight. Good thing, too, because magic would have been my one-word answer.
Big bonuses: my jacket had dried out, and I’d gone a full day without needing to use my powers.
