Page 23

Now it was our turn.

‘Eli? Eli, can you hear me? Are you okay? Is Anna all right?’

Fuck !

‘Not now, Calypso!’ I immediately tried to block everything. I couldn’t do this now. How was I going to tell her what I’d just done?

A flash of pink darted in front of my face and I had to do a double take.

A large pink moth with a fuzzy yellow body flut- tered in between us, stopping for a second on my armored fore- arm before it landed on the other rider’s shoulder.

It had been one of Anna’s moths, the same fluffy ones that had followed her into the room when I’d thought she was a hooker.

It was looking for her. Again my eyes watered and I let out a string of curses.

I was so ready for this whole adventure to just be done.

In the last ten minutes, it had dawned on me how much I wanted out of this shithole and how desperately I no longer wished to be thought of as everyone’s hero.

What had I ever gotten from it? No one loved me more because I continuously sacrificed my wants and needs for theirs.

No one ever changed their ways and were a better person because I had saved them.

Everyone was selfish. No one ever came to my rescue when I needed it, and it was exhausting—I was exhausted.

I should never have come to this place. Mendax probably would have already been back to Unseelie with Cal, had he been the one to die.

Why was I always doing things like this?

Thistle moved to stab the rider’s leg, but he moved his leg out of the way at the last second and his horse took the brunt of the hit.

The rider stalled and I didn’t. Using the hilt of my sword, I bashed it into the side of their head, quickly moving it to block their strike and hold their weapon at bay.

They were skilled but weak, and I easily kept them in place. The game was mine now.

I grabbed the red key with my other hand and ripped the helmet off my opponent. A sea of chills covered my skin.

It was Anna.

I gasped dropping the helmet, barely managing to retain my hold on her.

The air stung my widened eyes as I stared at her in absolute shock.

She wasn’t dead—I hadn’t killed her. She was still alive.

Too much blood pumped through my veins and there didn’t seem to be enough air in Tartarus to refill my lungs as I stared at her face in shock.

“What are you waiting for? Do it already! You won.”

Why did she have to speak? And why did her voice have to sound like that? Frightened and proud.

“I—” My eyes covered every inch of her face unable to believe that she was still alive.

Ten thousand thoughts, each carrying their own emotion, ripped through my head.

She was still alive. She still needed to die.

Cal was her sister. “I—” “He wasn’t lying.

” Her eyes darted between mine. “The tenth tier has a portal to the Elysian Fields. I’ve heard him talk about it.

After you kill me, go to the tiers. You won’t make it through them, but he can’t do anything to you once you’re inside of them.

Tell him I love him—and Eletha.” A small desperate smile barely lifted her mouth as her eyes watered.

“The fireflies from last night, I didn’t kill them.

I made them fall asleep.” She let out a sharp exhale.

“I don’t know why it matters to me that you know, but it does.

I would never hurt an animal.” Her eyes closed for a moment before she opened them again.

“If you ever get to see Calypso again, tell her I love her and I’m sorry I never got to hug her. ”

Was I still breathing? “I—” I released Anna, dropping my weapon and the key to the ground, and turned Thistle, making the little pony run as fast as she could off the field.

Thistle ran as fast as her short legs could carry us through the exit. The crowd gasped in unison.

“What the fuck?” shouted Anna at my back.

Realization kicked in as I heard more than one set of hooves.

I glanced behind us to see her and her horse chasing after us.

I didn’t know what I was doing, but I knew that I was grateful she was alive, and no matter what, I couldn’t kill her now, whether she deserved it or not, which now I was having a lot of doubts about.

I couldn’t do this anymore, any of it—I couldn’t kill her, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t want to be the hero.

I didn’t want the responsibility of fixing everyone else’s mistakes.

I didn’t want the heavy burden of sacrifice .

I didn’t want the weight of indecision or the feelings of obligation, and most of all, I didn’t want to kill someone I think I could have loved just because it was what a hero would have done.

I had fallen for the monster I was supposed to slay and the only thing that could save me now was to get away. From all of it.

“Get back here! You can’t just leave the game!” she called out from behind me.

Apparently I could and I was. I half expected to burst into flames the moment we stepped foot out of the field, but to my surprise, nothing happened—so we continued to run.

“Stop following me!” I shouted back at her. Her horse had much, much longer legs than Thistle’s and had almost caught up to us.

“No! Either give me my fucking pendant or get back here and fight me to the death like a man!”

Her horse’s legs were longer than mine, but my legs were longer than hers.

I halted Thistle outside of the main house and jumped from the saddle, taking off at a full run the second my feet hit the ground, still half expecting to turn to dust when they did.

But nothing happened—the magic must have only been on the field.

“Go to the barn. Find the stable boy!” I shouted at Thistle as I ran through the doors and into the large party area. Already they had started to gather for tonight’s debauchery.

“What are you doing?” Walter came running around the corner with Eletha on his heels. He wiped a line of slobber from his mouth. They must have shifted to their wolf forms to have gotten here so fast.

“I don’t have a fucking clue!” I shouted at him as I continued to run.

“Get back here!” Anna took the corner behind us. “What is going on?” Eletha shouted at Anna, slowing her pace from behind Walter to run with her sister. “Ask him!” Anna called back.

“Aurelius, what are you doing? Don’t!” Walter calle d

out as the large door marked The Ten Tiers of Tartarus came into view.

“It’s my only way out,” I said through heavy breaths, stopping in front of the door only long enough to step over the discarded pile of coats on the floor and lift the heavy bar up.

“Are you crazy? You can’t do this! Stay. We’ll figure it out,” Walter tried again.

“Stop! Give me my pendant first!” Anna called. “No, get away from me!” I shouted back at her. “Walter, stop him! Get the pendant,” Eletha called. Walter’s mouth dropped open, unsure of what to do.

With the bar lifted, I wasted no time pushing into the heavy door. With an echoing creak the door opened.

“Walter, what are you doing, you idiot? Grab the pendant!” Eletha shouted.

“Thank you for everything. Everything you did for Cal— everything.” With a final pat on Walter’s shoulder, I shoved my way over the threshold and into the darkness of the Ten Tiers of Tartarus and felt my body fall before I landed on something hard with a grunt.

“That son of a bitch!” screamed Anna.

“Anna, no! Stop! You can’t go in there!” Eletha’s frantic voice called out.

A feminine grunt sounded next to me. “Eletha, stop!” Walter screamed.

A second grunt from Eletha, then a third from Walter right behind hers.

Then a fourth…