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“And that’s a story for another day,” I added. The last thing I wanted to do was relive that experience with everyone present.
“Uh huh,” Theloneus chimed in. “Atlas, when did you arrive in the human realm?”
“A day and a half, give or take.”
“And Never, did you have the pendant at that time?”
“Yeah?” Her brow scrunched together for a few seconds before her eyes slowly widened. “Oh shit.” Those two words were barely audible, but I was pretty sure everyone in the room heard them.
“You summoned him,” Emerson said, sounding impressed.
She started shaking her head, then stopped and looked at me like she wasn’t sure she wanted to share what she was thinking. “I didn’t... I was just...” Her gaze darted to Lily and back to me. “We’d just had a run-in with my brother. Lily was injured and she shifted. It was the first time I’d seen her as a tiger, and I was tired, and we just kept fucking losing...”
She fell silent, her throat working but no sound was coming out.
“It’s okay,” I said soothingly, reaching out for her.
She shrugged away from me with an apologetic look. “It was stupid. I didn’t think... I didn’t...”
“Love,” I caught her by the wrist before she could retreat further. “I was trying to get here. I’d done everything I could think of. Called in every favor I’d ever banked.”
Her eyes searched mine, looking so lost and unsure that I had no idea what was going on in her head. Emotions were bleeding from her in a river, but they were chaotic and jumbled.
“I grabbed the pendant to kind of ground myself, and I thought of you,” she confessed. “How much I... wanted you in my life.”
My heart stilled for gods only knew how long before it took off like a bird in flight. Soaring. That was the only way to explain what I was feeling. Well, that, and a bone deep satisfaction. I couldn’t take my eyes off her, even when Emerson let out a breathy laugh.
“In all my years, I’ve never heard of a human summoning a god in such a manner,” he said. “Color me impressed.”
Never’s expression remained guarded, but it did soften a touch.
“Has the shadow made a play for the pendant?” Theloneus asked.
“Yeah. It tried to take it when we first got here,” she said, turning her attention to the other men. “It damn near managed it too, but Matty took back over long enough to get the thing to back off.”
“You said he surfaced yesterday as well, correct?”
She nodded.
“That’s promising Even incredibly strong humans wither under the weight of demon possession. Most souls are burned out of their bodies within a matter of days.”
I winced and cast him a warning glare, but it was too late. Never had heard the same thing I had.
“When you say ‘burned out’, what exactly does that mean?” she asked.
The primordial at least had the decency to look uncomfortable before he answered. “Possession doesn’t typically displace a soul, it destroys it. Not always,” he rushed to add. “Given how long he’s held on, there is reason to hope.”
In an unexpected twist, Never seemed to relax at the news. “Just so I’ve got this straight, you’re telling me that if my brother’s soul is burned up before we can get that piece of shit shadow out of him, he’ll cease to exist. Am I understanding that correctly?”
He offered her a hesitant nod.
“So, his soul will just...” She made an expanding gesture with her hand. “Poof? And he won’t end up in hell?”
Understanding smacked me so hard I felt like a fool. Her world revolved around her brother. Finding out she was cursed to spend eternity in the Alius would have been bad enough, but the knowledge that her brother would suffer the same fate must have been eating her alive.
Emerson’s expression was unreadable as he nodded in the affirmative.
Never let out a relieved breath, though the tension rolling off her was still considerable. “I’m not going to pretend like that’s the best news I’ve ever heard, but it’s a fuck ton better than the alternative.”
