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“Don’t forget all about the newly dead souls too. It’s a shame she doesn’t have therightGod Killer blade.” I hate Octavia’s tone and the haughty look on her face.
“Mother,” Essos hisses, “what do you want?”
“I want my son back.” Octavia’s voice cracks as she says this. Even though I already knew what she wanted, hot and cold chase each other all over my body like I’m feverish. Galencan’tcome back. I don’t want my child to live in a world with him in it.
Essos and I both knew this demand was coming, but Xavier ignores his mother’s plea. “Do you even care what that bitch has done to us?” he asks, and I wish I could see his face. I’ve spent so many hours with him over the past few months that I can hear the hurt lurking within his words.
I reach out and press a hand to Xavier’s shoulder.
My mother-in-law’s laser focus narrows on me. “What, enchanting two of my sons wasn’t enough? You have to go for the royal flush? Were Titus alive, would you see if you could bring him to bed too?” Octavia’s words cut off suddenly, and I peer around Essos to see her mouth has been sealed shut, similar to what I did to Ellie.
Sometimes I wonder if Ellie still has no mouth, and then I find that I hope that she doesn’t and that she’s suffering for it. With no real lips, she’ll think twice about setting her sights on my husband.
The ground beneath our feet shakes violently, and even Octavia looks afraid before Essos speaks and I realize that the shaking is his doing. “Enough, Mother. Insulting Daphne is not the way to go about getting what you want. So kindly—and I mean this respectfully—shut thefuckup about mywife.”
I slip my hand into his and, again, I need to focus my unreasonable pregnancy hormones. Even with so few of us around, I’m positive that I cannot jump him in the middle of the street. His motherisstanding right there.
The rest of my body doesn’t get the memo, because his simple act of power and fierce protectiveness has my inner walls clenching, desperate to be filled by the man inciting these feelings.
“Why should we help you? Galen murdered me.” I thought I was done having to explain this to people, but I seem to be stuck in some sort of hell loop where all I do is listen to people act like it’s no big deal Galen killed me. Maybe I’ll get lucky in this circuit of the loop and have a man tell me I should smile more.
Essos frees her mouth to let her answer me.
“Because he was my son, and I thought maybe I could appeal to you, mother-to-mother.”
My hands fly to my stomach protectively. Xavier takes another step forward.
“That might carry weight if you hadn’t just insinuated I was a tart who spread her legs for anything with a dick,” I snap. “Oh right, and if your childhadn’t murdered me.Honestly, is there some sort of weird space-time continuum where his crime has been erased from everyone’s memory? Is there some sort of sound vacuum that those words disappear into whenever I speak them?”
“What sort of mother would I be if I didn’t forgive my child for his mistakes and try to protect him from the consequences?”
“A bad one. Maybe that’s why Galen never learned the wordno. Maybe you’re the reason that he feltentitledto me, so entitled that I was kept from being reunited with my husband—you know, yourotherson?” I can feel threads of power unspooling from me in ways I can’t control, because my growing anger and resentment refuse to be chained any longer.
“Daphne,” Essos warns, his hand coming to my forearm as I march straight up to my mother-in-law.
“No, Essos, let her speak her mind, regardless of how ignorant she sounds.” Octavia lifts her chin and peers down her nose at me.
Xavier scoffs.
“What was it about Galen that had you bending every rule, ignoring your other children just to soothe his ego? I heard it was Galen who you consoled at my funeral, not Essos. What was it about him that made him so special that you would go so far as to think no consequences for him was good parenting? You are the perfect model of hownotto parent. Gods, if my child wound up as spoiled and self-centered as Galen, I would think I failed as a parent!”
“Clearly, you spent too much time with the humans if you think that.” Her tone is clipped. I turn my back on her, knowing that Xavier and Essos are watching. It’s the best sign of disrespect I can put out there, letting her know I don’t think she’s a threat, even as my heart rate climbs higher the more I let my anger churn.
“Is she out of her fucking mind?” I ask them.
“I’m thinking I want you to give me my son back. It’s the same trade I offered you in the Underworld. If you bring back Galen, I’ll help you with Posey. I’ll make sure you’re rid of the Fate once and for all. If you need more encouragement, I’ll give you a little token of good faith. The reason you can’t call the souls of the dead back is because the gates to the Underworld are closed right now. Every time a soul tries to gain entry, they get turned away. Reopen the gates, and it will solve your zombie issue. Once the gates are open, you can call the souls back—at least, the souls that Posey hasn’t consumed.”
I look over my shoulder at Octavia to judge her sincerity. She already told us about the gates to the Underworld, which we’ve been investigating, but she’s given us more details than we’ve been able to find in all the damn books we have. Posey consuming souls is new.
Octavia’s viper-red lips spread into a calculating smile. “That’s right. She’s been consuming the souls that had no physical form to return to in the mortal realm. Some of the oldest and baddest. Like I said, reconsider my offer.”
It’s a struggle not to wince, knowing that we withheld that meeting from Xavier. In hindsight, of course, we should have told him. Xavier and Helene both deserved to know that their mother contacted me to bring their brother back from the dead. It wouldn’t have mattered what they wanted, because at the end of the day, Essos has the dagger, and neither of us want Galen back in the world.
I’m upset about the betrayal I see in Xavier’s eyes when I look at him, but the vise-grip around my chest at the thought of facing Galen outweighs the guilt I feel for not telling him. The mental image of what Galen will do to me—what he will do to my child if he’s released from that stone—erases all the guilt.
I need to fight these thoughts because once they grab hold of me, they will drag me down, down into the watery depths of despair, and I can’t stand, can’t breathe, because he will get me, he will kill me if he has the chance, and the only way that he has a chance is if I let him out of the stone. Which is not an option. I won’t let it be.
Essos’s blue eyes ground me, and once we lock gazes, I realize he’s squatting down in front of me. I don’t remember dropping to my knees, but I must have in my panic. His hands on my arms ground me. The all-consuming, messy kiss he presses to my mouth pulls me back to land, back to air I can breathe, except I can’t breathe because Essos’s mouth is on mine, moving like I’ve died and he’s just gotten me back and he will not lose me again to these poisonous thoughts of his brother. His hand slips into my hair, undoing my braid as the kiss deepens.
