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“With the right magic, just about anything is possible.”
My heart sank. Opening the portal that had sent Never and her brother home had required the power of a god, or a demigod. It wasn’t unreasonable to think that the same power could have fused the shadow to the boy.
This is bad.So much worse than anything I’d envisioned. If the shadow managed to take over the boy’s body and get its hands on my power, it could draw the demon’s physical form into the human realm.
The catch? That kind of summoning of a powerful demon always required a sacrifice. Painful. Bloody. Deadly.
I couldn’t let that happen. Not just because I’d been tasked with keeping Petra locked up safely on that island. The demon’s sacrifice would inevitably be Matty and losing him would kill Never. There was still a great deal I didn’t know about her, but I was certain of that much.
In the off chance losing her little brother wasn’t enough to do the trick, the demon would gladly finish the job. Slowly and with an enormous amount of pain. Because as powerful as Petra was, she held a grudge like a school child. She would make an example of Never and make sure I felt it when it happened.
That was unacceptable. “I haven’t spent millennia in this realm, keeping that creature locked in this tropical cell, to have it end like this.”
Rue eased back in her seat, the tip of her tail flipping lazily against the stone. “What do you plan to do about it?”
There was only one thing I could do. “I need to travel to the human realm.”
She shook her head. “You know the terms of your sentence, Captain.”
I did. Just because Never and Wendy had used my power to leave this place, it didn’t mean I could. I was bound here by a different decree, one set down by my father himself. A titan who hadn’t answered my call since damning me to this forsaken place.
“There are always exceptions. The demon’s shadow should never have found its way back to the human world, but it did.” Maybe I could do the same.
“Ah ah,” Rue said, raising an index finger and ticking it side to side like I was a disobedient child. “That you cannot do.”
“Would you be so kind as to stay out of my head, Rue?” I did my best to sound polite, but inside a storm was brewing.
“I would, but your thoughts are so very loud.”
Thoughts were tied to emotions, and emotions needed to be controlled. Gripping my cutlass, I pulled in a deep breath and let it out slow. Then I did it again.
“See.” She said, once again offering me that mothering smile. “You’re letting your feelings for the woman weaken you. If you’re going to do what needs doing, you’ll need to keep those walls up, Captain.”
“And what exactly needs doing?” She knew something that she wasn’t telling me. Since she couldn’t see Never—supposedly—that meant what she was seeing would happen outside of the human realm.
“I’m afraid I have nothing more to offer today.”
I stood there for a long moment, staring her down as she stared right back. Her expression was one of concern, but the resolve in it was as solid as the stone throne on which she rested.
“Is it just me, or are you being more cryptic than usual?”
Her gaze danced across my face, her expression shifting into something more guarded. “My power has limits, the same as yours. Remember what I said. The future is not written in stone, Atlas.”
My lip curled at the sound of my name. Since Never had used it, I’d had no desire to hear it fall so easily from another soul’s lips. Then again, I would give just about anything to hear my fiery little human call me anything. Even Hook.
Reluctantly, I bent in a bow. “Thank you, Rue. I appreciate your help. What do I owe you?”
Money didn’t exist in the Nassa, but that didn’t mean there weren’t other means of payment. Anything of value could become currency. It was simply a matter of demand.
She studied me. Her fingertips resumed their steady drumming on the arm of her throne. “Call it a favor.”
I lifted a brow. “I would be happy to pay you.”
She huffed out a laugh. “I know.”
That rankled, but the slip was my fault. I knew better than to deal with a bargainer like Eylarue without setting the terms first.
Just more proof of how tangled up I was inside.
