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“Buttheirmother is close friends with a chunk of the underworld high council,” Doug states. “And while Veronica can be a triple-locked safety box of intel when she wants to be, how long do you think she’ll be committed to silence about her first grandchild, a one-of-a-kind blend of demon, demigod, mortal,andmagic?”
My stomach wrenches up into my throat. It’s not a new feeling by any stretch, but it feels eight hundred times more intense outside the safety of Maximus’s apartment and the security of our little confidence. Outside the space of those who already know what Hecate is planning.
Does Dr. Doug know too?
If so, what have we risked by coming here in the first place and entrustinghimwith my new…situation?
There’s only one way to find out.
“Is there a big reason for being concerned about that?” I ask, freaking about riding the line between being casually intrigued and outright paranoid. “I mean, aside from the obvious?”
The physician tosses a double take. “Isn’t the obvious enough?” His caramel eyes get unexpectedly warm while his posture keeps tracking toward frigid. “Once the powers that be are in full knowledge of your announcement, it’ll spread through the underworld faster than aDaily Spillhot break.”
My stomach lurches. Its flows of color, until now so steady and even, are now frantic flashes. “As far as the bottom circle? Even to…the castle?”
“Oh, especially there.” He clears his throat, already knowing I can feel the pogo sticks his nerves are suddenly favoring. “I’m sorry, scamp. No way, no how do I enjoy being the Debbie Downer for your visit. But I’m also not going to be the reason you’re not prepared.”
“For what?” Kell doesn’t waste a second to get it out. It’s not the same for Doug’s pause, stretching several more seconds than the comfort zone for us all.
“For the chaos.” Though now that he’s started, he rushes into the rest. “The mayhem that’s going to ensue once Hades, then every deity in every realm, learns what kind of a creature is about to open its eyes on this world.”
His last word is nothing but a long, terrified screech. Not his. It’s the one from inside my mind, peeling back layers of my spirit. Again, not because Idon’tknow all this. Because now I’m forced to hear it as reality, a truth I can no longer stuff away into the corners of my brain.
I have to face it in full.
I have to accept it as the reality, however surreal, of every decision I’ll make in my life again. My very marrow confirms it. But most of all, every fiber of my heart does. I already love this child with parts of my heart that I never knew existed. Expanses of elements beyond my mere feelings, a part of me beyond just the flesh we share. It’s visceral and elemental and spiritual. But most of all, miraculous.
Poetry I can’t be reciting right now. As soon as Doug continues his explication.
“Claiming you, and that hybrid gem inside you, is going to be the most valuable prize on everyone’s list,” he asserts. “Both of you will be their key to controlling a majority of the realms. And because of that, to conquering them. With the mortals so fractured, they’ll be effortless to split apart and subdue. Any detractors will be easily hypnotized by your offspring, who’ll be well-schooled in how to speak the words they all want to hear. After that, Poseidon will have no choice but to surrender the seas. Or, more likely, he’ll form an alliance with the new ruler through marriage. He has plenty of sirens, of all genders, to offer—”
“Stop.” I croak it past all the screams, still exercising their torque around my throat. “Please. Stop.”
Though I know he’s not specifically painting my child into that scenario, he’s not ruling out the possibility either. But there’sno waywill that happen. No way will my beautiful son—nor especially my daughter—grow up the same way I did. Painted into a cosmic corner. Knowing that the only path out of it is by submitting to a spouse they never chose. A lot they never asked for.
It’s too much. Just like the love I never imagined, my fears churn into pain I never fathomed. Panic I never could have conceived.
Tears blur my vision as I drop my gaze to my white-knuckled grip around Maximus’s fingers. To the mush of his answering clutch to me.
But only my oscular view is muddy.
In my mind and spirit, the way is blindingly clear.
I lift that brilliance up to Maximus, blinking to clear my eyes from the oncoming floods. But they spill down my cheeks as our stares lock, the flow increasing as I latch on to his captivating cobalts—and the unblinking purpose in them. Intention that matches my own. Determination that powers new words to my lips.
“We have to get back to the grimoire. And then I’ve got to figure out a new place for us to hide.”
Though Maximus’s quick nod is exactly what I need, Kell’s rough scoff isn’t. My sister is ready for my whip of a glare, waiting with one bounced brow to go along with her sardonic grimace.
“Hide?” she drawls. “Because that worked when you were stowed beyond the Styx…and then in an unmapped witch ashram…why?”
My stomach is back to flashing like a stressed disco strobe. Doesn’t stop me from pushing off the table, stomping to the exam room door, and yanking it open like I’m the dance club bouncer preparing to evict a wasted sailor. But instead of Kell, I rush Maximus and myself out the portal.
“So we’re supposed to throw in the towel and let the whole pantheon have at us?” I bark over my shoulder anyway. “Because between us, these walls, and this disgusting hospital tile, I’m not okay with that.”
Doug, who’s bringing up the rear of our line, stops hard enough to make his shoes squeak. “Hey. I just replaced this tile.”
In the meantime, Kell rushes up to match my pace. “You thinkIwant to see the sapling chopped up for everyone’s fire? But I also don’t believe in wasting time on doomed plans.”
