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“Posey has been running roughshod over Solarem. She has plans that will shake our existence to the core. We want your help to craft another blade that will stop her.” My voice is stronger than I feel. I step around Essos, unwilling to be cowed by Lairus. Beside me, the God of the Dead tenses.
“And you, the child of Spring, plan to end her? Do you plan to take her place as a Fate when you do?” He steps around Octavia to caress my cheek with the backs of his knuckles. I won’t look away from him, even when he grips my chin with his pointer and thumb finger, tilting my face up so he can get a better look at me. Dave barks at the intruder, but Lairus ignores him.
“We have a plan for that,” Zara bravely announces. I don’t know what her plan is, but Lairus won’t stop looking at me, so I can’t even look to her to see what she means.
“You grow heavier with child each day,” Lairus starts.
“Gee, just want every pregnant woman wants to hear, how she’s gaining weight.” My tone is dry, but I need to affect this feeling of cool indifference. I can’t let him know how his hands on me bother me. They’re warm, like one would expect of the man who is the sun incarnate. I expect the blistering heat from them, but it never comes.
“Do you know what joy it will be to see my grandchild brought into this world?” Lairus asks, lowering his face so I can feel his breath on my cheek.
Essos’s tolerance has run out. Gently, he grips my wrist and pulls me out of Lairus’s grasp. “The child is mine, not Galen’s.” Essos’s tone is steely, brooking no room for argument.
“But she is mine,” Lairus announces with a smug smile.
“I’m sorry. Excuse you?” I ask, but I sway in my place. Essos hooks an arm around my waist, holding me to him.
This time, the confusion rippling around the room is felt by all.
“What?” Octavia asks, disbelief in her voice. She knows of my origin. Octavia was integral to how I was taken from Esmaray as a child.
“Esmaray always thought that it was only her love that brought a child into the world. She thought that a moonflower meant that you came all from her, but fertilization is what brings forth children. I played the part of a bee, helping you come into being. It meant that Esmaray was happy. It meant that my wife was able to stop pestering me because of my relationship with Octavia. I let Esmaray believe that she alone had created you. I let her think she had the upper hand and was buying my silence. Only, her infatuation with you meant that she didn’t care for me and how I spent my nights. It meant that I was jealous of a child. I never expected to miss how my wife would pine for me. So, I sold you out to Octavia, earning Esmaray’s ire for my troubles.”
Xavier snorts. “So, your son almost raped your daughter. Gods, you Titans got so much wrong.”
I have to agree with his disgust. Gods, not only that, but Galen and I kissed and went skinny-dipping together. My whole body feels dirty suddenly, and even if we’re only half-siblings, and not even in the traditional sense, I can’t do it. I can’t believe it. This is one of those traumas that I’m just going to have to sit on for the next hundred years because there is too much to unpack right now. Everything I thought I knew about my creation, my birth, was a lie. I thought I grew up without parents, but I had them. Only, one didn’t care and the other had to give me up to satisfy Octavia.
The room shakes a little, and I don’t know who is causing it, me or Essos or Lairus with the way he’s looking at Galen, his brow crinkling.
“Is this true?”
As much as I want to see Galen get his shit rocked by the God of the Sun, or rather, a Titan, we are on a timeline, and I didn’t give us enough time to deal with this.
I cut in. “Honestly, we can address that later in family therapy. We need your help and I want to know if you intend to give it or if you’re more interested in playing games and manipulating all of the women in your life. You’ve already done wrong by me once. Do you plan to let me down again?”
“What is it that you want?” Lairus’s tone is even when he responds, finally tearing his eyes from Galen to look at me again. The room stops shaking.
“Your blood. We want to create another dagger,” Essos supplies. My husband turns his head toward me, surveying my physical state, trying to glean what he can about my emotions, but I don’t want to think about that. Like everything else, I’ll deal with all the emotional fallout when we’ve survived. No need to get worked up over something when I might be dead in a day anyway.
“Because the first two worked out so well for you?” Lairus deadpans.
“We also need to close the veil between our realm and the mortal realm. Our plan with the dagger isn’t your concern. Are you willing to bleed for your grandchild, or not?” I snap. I lift my hand to press it to my temple, but I don’t want to show weakness in front of Galen and Octavia and Lairus. It’s true, they’re playing their own game, and right now, I’m less worried about their games.
“Which vein would you like me to cut, daughter?”
CHAPTER34
Ileave the more useful members of our group to puzzle this out. Essos tells me he wants to stay behind to ensure that this happens, and as much as I just want to crawl into his lap, I can’t begrudge him this.
My progress toward my room is paused at the bottom of the stairs. I’ve been getting more winded the bigger the baby gets. My body is focused on building a nervous system and lungs, not on making sure I’m getting enough oxygen into mine.
“Escort me to my room?” Finn asks, cautiously walking toward me. He has a white cane in front of him, feeling for tables or anything that might get in the way. Once, Finn comes close to colliding with the doorway, and Spot gives a low growl beside him.
“It would be my pleasure.” I take his hand, sliding it over my arm before progressing slowly up the stairs. I have to fight the mental image that works into my head of him screaming with blood pouring down his face as Posey shoved his eye in his mouth.
“Do you believe this will work?” Finn asks as we gradually get up to the second floor. Behind us, Cat and all three dogs are patiently watching, ready to jump into action if needed.
I try to keep a positive tone. “I hope so. It’s not like it’s over once we defeat Posey. We still need to rescue those souls that she consumed, if that’s even possible, and the ones that are locked in the stone. All for which we will likely need the Scepter of the Dead. This is not an easy fight. There is also the matter of convincing the people of Solarem that we’re not intending to hurt them.”
