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I place a finger to his lips. He nods, letting me go on.
“Well, first I was visited by the ghost of evils past. Your mother came to plead for Galen’s life again. She also told me that, in order to open the gates of the Underworld, we need royal blood.”
My husband closes his eyes and lets out a slow breath. “Of course, we do. Swell. Xavier and I can do it.” His tone is sharp.
I grit my teeth in an effort to not snarl at him. “For the doors tostayopen, it needs to be the blood of the King and Queen of the Underworld. I verified her statements from a research book. So, before we do anything, we need to get married again.”
“We’re already married,” he tells me sternly, even though we’ve had it confirmed by several people that we are not, in fact, married in the way that counts for the ritual.
I hold up my hands defensively. “I am not the one you should pick this fight with. Rafferty confirmed it. Your mother confirmed it. Everyone has confirmed that declaring ourselves married does not make us married. You need to get down on one knee and put a nice big rock on my finger.” We haven’t discussed what happened to my rings or my old body following my death. He hasn’t offered, and I haven’t asked.
Essos grabs my ringless hand and presses a solitary kiss to my ring finger. “I shall remedy that oversight, posthaste. Do you have any other requests?”
“We will be married at the end of the week, so as a wedding gift to me, we’re pushing back reviving Galen. I want to make sure your mother’s proposed solution actually works before we do what she wants.”
“Because there isn’t a bomb hanging over our heads waiting to explode, Daphne needs to exploit her vanity,” Xavier snarks, lifting a glass of dark amber liquid.
Essos snarls at his brother, all goodwill with Xavier ended by those words. I shoot out of my chair, letting it slam to the ground behind me. With the action, everyone else gets up, seeming unsure which side of the conflict they’re going to fall on.
“Iasked for the wedding,” Cat pipes up, “so if you want to blame anyone, blame me. One week isn’t going to change anything.”
“I disagree,” Kai interjects. “People—humans—are dying, and they have nowhere to go, so they’re left wandering around, rotting and traumatizing their friends and families. Unnecessary deaths are occurring, and there are spikes in suicides and murders and who knows what else. We were in the mortal realm for less than an hour and witnessed a massive hoard moving into a small neighborhood. You weren’t there as Helene and I did what we could to fortify those borders.” He’d been so quiet this whole time I actually forgot he was there. “I understand why Essos and Daphne need to be married, but we can’t wait. It’s not just the humans left in limbo—dryads and other minor creatures in our world are dying too, turned to stone by Posey for stepping out of line. We don’t have the luxury of time.”
I move close to Essos, wanting the security that he offers me, and his long arms fold me against him in a tight embrace. “So, we wed tomorrow, but I’m not spending another night away from my wife.”
“Fine,” Xavier concedes.
“Just want to make sure I’m putting this in my calendar right—wedding tomorrow, open the gates to the Underworld the next day, and following that we’re raising my brother from the dead. Did I forget anything?” Helene asks.
“At some point, I’m going to kick Posey’s ass into next week,” I add.
We settle back into our seats, and I wave a hand at the table. Snacks appear in front of us. I don’t want to admit it, but Cat was right, I do need something to eat…especially now that I have to tell Essos about my conversation with Posey.
“Is that all?” Essos asks, glancing from the food to me, knowing the answer.
I grab a piece of toast and butter the bread carefully before I look at him. I snag a few pieces of sausage and bacon too and a fried egg and some fruit. “Not quite. I got hurt because of Posey.”
Essos goes statute-still, his nostrils flaring.
He must realize I’m alarmed at this reaction, because he clenches and unclenches his hand before his eyes flick to mine. “I’m waiting for you to elaborate before I react, so please do, before I assume you went after her with some half-baked idea about ending all this.”
I lift my chin, anger flooding my veins. “Why should I, since it seems you’ve already made your assumption?”
“Daphne…” Essos warns, never breaking eye contact.
I take an obnoxiously large bite of toast to stall. If he wants to be an asshole, I can be one right back.
I finish chewing and take a sip of orange juice. “I was going to the bathroom, and I stepped through the door and right into Xavier and Posey’s house.”
“She called you to her, no warning?” Callie asks.
I can understand her surprise and fear. Summoning another god isn’t something we can do, but evidently Posey the Fate can. She must be enjoying her cat-and-mouse game.
“Yes, I think the first landing was jarring and hurt me because I wasn’t expecting it. When she sent me back, it was much the same. She made me an offer—well, she offered all of us mortality in exchange for not having to bring Galen back.”
“What kind of offer is that?” Callie asks with a laugh, pouring herself a fresh coffee.
“The kind of offer she expects Daphne to take because she’s traumatized by Galen murdering her, attempting to murder her, assaulting her, and really just being Galen in general,” Finn offers. He grabs a muffin and rips off the top, then hands it to his boyfriend before eating the bottom of it. Dion happily accepts, breaking off a dainty portion and popping it into his mouth before giving his boyfriend a kiss.
