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“You did die,” Nerebis said, pulling my attention back to him. “The problem is, resurrection defies the laws governing this universe. Which means your soul now bears the mark of defiance.”
“And that means what, exactly?” Because to me, the mark of defiance sounded like a low-rent garage band.
He stood and moved across the deck, stopping about ten feet shy of me when Hook inched in front of me. “That mark means there’s nowhere for you to hide. Nowhere you can run. When the others come looking for you, and they will come, it will lead them right to you.”
Creepy, ominous, and still utterly unhelpful.
“Who are the others?” I asked.
“The other fates,” Hook answered without taking his eyes off Nerebis.
I looked between them, still not getting. “I’m going to need a little more.” Or a lot. For once in my life, it might be nice to have too much information.
Hook’s body was stiff beside me, even when he huffed out a sharp, impatient breath. “Nerebis is one of the three fates. It’s said that he is responsible for spinning the thread of life. The other two, Serus and Tenebris, handle other things.”
“So, a fate is like a god. Or is he more like a demon?”
“Both,” Nerebis said. “And neither.”
“Do you have any idea how unhelpful answers like that are?” I asked.
“He’s not like the earthbound primordials we met,” Leo said quietly.
I craned my head to get a look at him. The guy sounded respectful enough, more so than Hook, but the expression on his face told a different story.
Nerebis laughed. Again, it had that warm, distinctly dad-like sound to it, and I could almost picture the guy hanging out at the park with his kid or grandkid, pushing her on the swings. It was a bizarre contrast to the dangerous energy coming off him.
“The fates can shape destinies,” Hook added. “But they each do it in a different way.”
“We are life and death, birth and burial, and it falls upon us to correct certain... mistakes,” Nerebis said.
Hook’s already stiff stance went positively rigid. “It wasn’t a mistake.”
“Not to you.” He shook his head. “The others will undoubtedly disagree.”
“Bringing my back?” I hated the way that realization sat in my gut like a stone. I’d had all of two minutes to process the news that I’d supposedly been resurrected, and none of it felt real. “That was the mistake?”
“No, it wasn’t.” Hook squeezed my hand again. “And I won’t undo it.”
Nerebis gave him a patronizing look. “You would be wise to take more than half a second to consider your situation. You two are linked now, in a far more substantial way than that little love mark you left on her soul.”
“Linked how?” Leo asked, beating me to the question. But only because I got a little tripped up by the love mark part of the statement.
Nerebis’s gaze tracked slowly between Hook and me. “What Atlas did required an exchange.” He motioned between us. “Now, your life force is linked to his and his is linked to yours.”
“What?” I sputtered. “So, if I die, he dies?” I couldn’t have that on my conscience. My only major goal in life for the last few years had been to get my brother to adulthood with as few physical and psychological scars as possible.
We’d all already seen how epically I’d failed at that.
And now I was responsible for a demigod?
No. Nuh-uh.That was waaayyy above my pay grade.
I tried to pull my hand free of Hook’s, but his grip only tightened.
A smile brightened Nerebis’s face. “See there,” he said with a chuckle. “She understands.” His gaze was pinned on Hook, whose only response was to stare back at the guy with stony resolve.
Except his time, when I yanked, he let me go. I backed away, giving myself equal distance between the scary silver fox and my broody pirate.
