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“Where did you take Finn?” I seethe, getting in his face. Even powerless, I’m not weak. I’ll still gladly break bones with my fists if I have to.
“Dead.” The moment the word leaves his lips, I feel my insides wring out as if he’s taken a piece of my very soul. “I took him and the king’s traitorous daughter right to the beast. It’s my job. I’m its keeper.” Asmo’s eyes toggle between mine, not a shred of guilt reflected in them. I was so wrong… He was never on my side, but he did a good job convincing me, and I played right into his hand.
18
Finn
Something doesn’t feel right about this. Asmo dropped me in the middle of fucking nowhere, surrounded by the forest I hate more than drinking water. Which is saying a lot. It’s bland and lifeless… Okay, maybe it’s not as comparable to this god forsaken forest as I thought.
The problem with this place is that it’s crawling with life. Underneath every stone, hiding behind every tree trunk, is something that is equally deadly as it is terrifying. Not to mention the gigantic spiders. A shudder tears through me as I stare at the treeline.
There’s a yelp behind me, and my body has never moved so fast. I all but jump and twist midair to find Asmo shoving Eva toward me. She loses her footing and slams into my chest. Out of instinct, my hands–small as they may be–fly to her head, clutching her to me as I step back, trying to keep us from toppling over. I right her, cupping her face as her silky white hair wraps through my baby hands.
“Are you alright?”
She nods, her wide, round eyes searching mine for some sort of hidden message. Then they narrow and she spins around to face Asmo. “How dare you shove me?” Her hand lifts, her fingers forming into talons and growing longer as magic swarms around them.
As quickly as I can, I reach up, wrapping my small hand around the girth of a single finger. It’s all it has the capacity to do as of late. I just hope they grow back fast. Eva’s body stills as her head twists so she can eye me.
“We still need him. Unless you can teleport, we still need her to get Alice out.” I swallow hard, hoping she sees my reasoning.
“Fine…” I breathe a sigh of relief, letting go of her as his fingers return to normal.
“I hate to say it, but plans have changed. Alice will not be joining you.”
“Excuse me?” My tone is clipped as I step closer. I used to be scared of him, but I know that should he lay a single hand on me, he’d stand no chance of surviving the next minute. Eva would tear him limb from limb, then use his bones as a toothpick, and somehow that gives my backbone strength.
“You both should go,” Asmo says, and light starts to spill into the surrounding space. Against my better judgment, I reach forward, snagging on his arm. The light wanes as his single eye narrows into a lethal slit. “Let go.” His voice is dark and menacing and it sends a shiver up my spine, but my grip stays true.
“You cannot leave her there.”
“I’m not leaving her anywhere. She’s going to choose to stay. I’ve seen it.” His hand lifts, pointing a finger at his white eye. “We knew going into that castle would end with someone not making it out. You know Alice better than anyone, and you know she’d sacrifice herself for those she loves. It’s why she’s let my brother believe she’s dead. So he won’t be plagued by our father’s deal. It’s why she went after you, even with the odds stacked against her. The least that I can do is make sure she has a leg up. Especially since I was the one who stacked the deck against her.”
The prince believes she’s dead? How? I might know Alice, and I do believe what he’s said about her wanting to save everyone, even at her own expense, but I also know Kai. There isn’t a world where he wouldn’t move Heaven and Earth to keep her alive. Not just because of the deal, because it’s who he is. He wouldn’t rest until there was proof.
I’m not sure of the effects of his father’s deal. I know he’s bound to protect her, but to insinuate that he’d accept her death is a stretch. Was it really that awful?
“Look, any moment now, the king is going to trap her because I warned him of her plan. So, if you know what’s good for her, you’ll go. Make your way back to Hell Hold. Give her one less person to worry about,” Asmo says, taking a step back. Light floods around him and just like that, he’s gone.
I meet Eva’s eyes, and she steps forward, closing the gap between us. “Do you believe him?” Her voice is so pure… divine in every form of the word. The moment I hear it, it’s like every worry in the world can melt away and the only thing that matters is her.
“No. I don’t.” Reaching up, I dust the back of my hand across her cheek, gathering a tress of her hair in my fist and pushing it behind her shoulder. “I have a rather short list of people I trust. Alice is one of them, Kai is another, and you. That’s it. Not to mention, he tried to kill me once and I haven’t exactly let that go.”
“Then we stay.” she says, lifting up on her tippy toes to kiss my lips, soft enough for me to want more, yet sensual enough to hold my heart in a vice grip. She pulls away, and I find myself chasing her.
“If we go back, we’re dead.”
“Then we wait, and if she doesn’t show up or we fear the worst has come, then we go back.”
My jaw ticks as I clench my teeth. “I can’t lose you.”
Her lips slant as she traces the contours of my cheekbones with her feather-light fingertips. “It’s not me you should be worried about. It’d snow before any of them would be lucky enough to put my head on a spike.”
A silent chuckle leaves my lips. “You’re so morbid.”
She breathes in deep, her shoulders jolting as she exhales. “You like it though.” Eva steps away, her eyes dropping to the nearly nonexistent hands hanging at my sides. “Now, let’s see what we can do about these tiny hands of yours.”
I tuck my chin to my chest, rolling what she just claimed over in my mind. “I’m certain that my hands were anything but tiny until you ate them.”
