Page 43

“Dropped it where?”

“In the human world. Or maybe I left it on a bench somewhere. I don’t know.”

“Why did you take it there?”

“I don’t know.” I draw away from him. “Is this where you beat me again?”

He pulls in a breath. “You deserve it. But I do not have time. You want to stay down here and fraternize with the one who nearly got you killed, who caused your body to undergo a dangerous and unpredictable transition requiring surgery, very well.”

With that, he sweeps out of the dungeon.

“That was really impressive,” Nox says.

“It was?”

“Nobody stands up to the old man. He won’t know what to do about that.”

I feel a little spark of pride. “I’m tired of him defining what is good and what isn’t, what I want and what I don’t want. He just stole me and made me a baby machine. Rude.”

Ornix

The missing seal is a crisis like none other in my lifetime. It’s one thing to have it missing from its assigned guardian. Something else for it to be out of the realm entirely. I leave my bratty little mate who is intent on pushing me to whip her beyond sanity to continue to consort with Nox. I know that removing her from his presence is going to do nothing but make her even more insistent on protecting him. I intend to let her get to know him. That will provide more of an education than all the warning in the world would.

I go to one of my most trusted advisors instead.

“Arkos, there is a serious problem. My mate’s escape to the human world has not happened without consequences.”

“Oh?”

“She took the seal to the human world and left it there.”

“The fifth seal is somewhere in the human world?” Jak repeats my words to me as he walks in just as I tell Arkos of the matter.

“Yes.”

“This could the Ark of the Covenant all over; remember how mad they all went over that?”

“Yes, we need it back before they start zapping themselves and getting excited about it.”

“Or before they find another world religion on it.”

“Stop. I cannot begin to fathom the absolute chaos if that were to happen at this late stage. They can barely handle the religions they already have.”

“They can absolutely not handle them. That’s why the relics have to stay here, why the true powers were removed from their world.”

“I will go and retrieve it,” I say.

“You cannot. You are needed here, sire. Your mate is recovering from surgery, and is quite unhandle-able by anyone else.”

She is barely handle-able by me.

“I have to go. Nobody else can be trusted with it.”

“Then you should take her.”

“She’ll sprout wings and cause a scene if she goes back to the human world.”

My trusted advisor gives me what amounts to an ultimatum. “Sometimes, in life, one must choose between retrieving an ancient artifact of immense power, and tending to one’s mate. I recommend you send someone else.”