Page 3

ELI

Walter took off and I followed behind like a duckling as he guided me out of the so-called “threshold,” weaving in and out of corridors and hallways of every size—literally every size.

He had made a point to take me a route that was obviously never used, which made me think something strange was happening.

At one point he had to crawl through a little copper-framed doorway that, had it been one single inch smaller than it was, neither one of us could have fit through.

As it was, we both had to practically dislocate our shoulders to wedge our bodies into the space.

When I gave him a concerned, appraising look, he only shrugged and continued on until at last we came to a watermelon-sized black hole in the ground where he tried (unsuccessfully I might add) to force his large, muscular body through.

“Dude.”

He looked up at me from the ground, where he was trying to jam his waist through. “Huh?”

I kneeled beside him. “Are you taking me somewhere to torture me for what my mother did to you? Is that why you begged the warden woman to not send me off—you wanted me all to yourself? Also, can I even die…again? ”

He moved to sit on the ledge of the hole, still trying to shove one thigh in. “What? Why would you think that?”

“Where are you taking me?” My arms were crossed and my tone serious, but I couldn’t seem to get rid of the laughter in my eyes as I watched the six-foot-five Unseelie continue to try and fit through a hole the size of his head.

At this point his beefy thigh had gotten wedged in and wouldn’t budge, so he just sat, staring up at me with a whole leg through the floor.

He opened his mouth to defend himself but then let out a small laugh and ran both hands over his face, shaking his head slowly. “Man, she’s got me all kinds of messed up.” His eyes glittered with mischievous sparks as though he didn’t mind her messing him up at all.

He removed himself—or rather, his leg, since that was all that had successfully fit—and sat down in the small, closet- like room.

For the first time, I took a good look around.

I couldn’t have found this room again from the threshold if my life depended upon it.

The room was poorly lit, but in the filtered orange light from the hall, you could see that even the small cubbies of this place were spared no ornate intricacies.

I had always assumed Tartarus was a grimy, dingy pit of despair and horror, as that’s what we had always been told.

This looked nothing like a pit of despair.

I took pity on the shifter and sat on the ground next to him, pulling a knee up to my chest. Whatever was going on with him, I now considered myself his friend and would be there for him, if he wanted. I waited a few minutes for him to explain and then took over when he didn’t.

“Mendax killed me,” I stated. “I asked him to…well, sort

of.”

Walter’s eyes shot to me, as big as plates.

“It was only a matter of time before he killed you, you knew that. Wait, you asked him to? Why would you do that? And how are you here? Seelie royals automatically go to the Elysian Fields with Ether.” I wasn’t sure what to say that wasn’t going to make me sound foolish.

Even in the short amount of time since being here, I had begun to realize how stupid it was of me to volunteer to die just so I could save a person…

I didn’t know. At what point was saving people stupid and not at all heroic?

I shrugged, deciding it didn’t really matter now anyway.

I was dead and I told him the truth. “My whole life has basically just been me trying to prove that I am helpful and needed. I suppose this time I went a little too far.” I let out a breath, feeling my chest tighten with the admission.

It was the first time I’d ever said it aloud.

“All I ever wanted was to be the hero they needed, my mom and Cal. I spent my whole life trying to help Cal because she was kind and sweet and good-hearted.” Walter stifled a snort at that. “And I thought she needed me.”

Walter stood to his full height, rubbing his leg. “Calypso never needed anybody.” His large arms crossed in front of his chest, reminding me of a fiercely protective older brother. He and Cal had been close.

A flare of jealousy flickered through me—that had always been my place with her.

“See, you’re wrong about that. She does need someone and that someone was supposed to come here and rot for an eternity while he watched her.

In all my years of being Cal’s best friend, she’s never been as happy as she is with Mendax.

At the end of the day, she needed him more than she needed me. ”

The wolf and rat shifter wiped at a small dent in the wall. “So, ever the hero, you fell on the sword so they could be together?”

I smirked even though I didn’t feel like it.

“I guess you could say that, although it didn’t really matter.

I never wanted to be the King of Seelie; that was my mother’s dream.

” I pulled a random hangnail from the edge of my thumb free with my teeth.

“I-I just wanted to be a good person and be useful and that’s what I got to do.

I had no purpose anymore, so what did it matter?

And this way I got to die a hero.” I wiped my hand over the textured wall, shielding my face from Walter’s view just in case I teared up.

I typically wasn’t an emotional person, but ever since I’d woken up in Tartarus, I had been struggling not to fall apart.

Walter had always been a good guy, but I still didn’t want him to see me falling apart.

I needed him to think I was tough and could hack it down here.

I had to make it—at least long enough to give Adrianna her powers back and find a way to the Elysian Fields.

“Yeah, well, you’re going to want to knock that hero shit off around Kaohs if you want to stay out of the tiers, and trust me when I say, you really want to stay out of the tiers.

” His dark eyes widened with warning and that was all the nudging I needed to know that if the tiers spooked Walter, then they were definitely something I needed to avoid at all costs.

Walter was an indomitable fae who was much tougher than me, though I wasn’t going to tell him that.

Men just didn’t say things to another guy like that, especially when they didn’t know each other that well.

A sudden wave of impulsiveness struck me.

I was dead. I could say whatever I wanted to say now, do whatever I wanted to do.

What was going to happen to me? Nothing.

For a split second, I felt invincible. “I think you’re a badass and you have good hair.

” The compliments tumbled from my mouth.

The giant shifter paused as if he was waiting for me to say more.

Walter’s surprised expression balanced between hysterical laughter and genuine gratitude. “Thanks, man.” His warm smile grew until it took up his whole face. “It’s hitting you now, isn’t it?”

I quirked my brow. “What’s hitting me? That I’m dead?” What an odd thought.

The smile on Walter’s face dialed down a little. “You’re feeling the itch of death.”

My eyes rounded and my lips puckered. “Beg pardon?”

His lupine eyes were practically spinning, they were filled with so much amusement.

“The loss of inhibitions or feelings of what’s right and wrong.

It usually only happens with the Seelie that end up here by accident.

The ones that aren’t really supposed to be here.

The usual crowd that arrives doesn’t have enough morals to be affected by it. We call it the itch of death. ”

Lovely. “Sounds like a rash.”

“It’s sort of like a rash in that it only lasts a little bit.

Half the time, the Seelie that come down with it scratch their itch of letting go and being bad, and by the time the itch of death leaves them and their perfect Seelie morals return, they are left with a big, bleeding splotch on their conscience that they can never seem to forget as they struggle with what they did.

” He lifted himself out of the hole and took a few steps into the wall before he ran his finger over an errant white tile on the floor.

It popped open and he shoved it to the side.

He repeated this three more times until there was a hole in the floor large enough for a man to fit through.

“I think you should embrace it though, have a little fun. You are too pure. And I’m not trying to kill you.

It’s too late for that. I usually travel this route as a rat.

We need to be the first ones to let Kaohs know about your arrival though, if you want to stay in Eromreven and out of the tiers.

Eletha will be racing to tell Anna and Kaohs that a Seelie royal has arrived. ”

I watched with a scowl plastered to my face as his body disappeared feet-first into the hole.

“I am not too pure.” Any other time in my life, I’m embarrassed to say that would have been the highest compliment I could receive.

But not here. I was in Tartarus. Everyone here was tough and gritty and…

evil. Well, okay, Walter wasn’t evil, and to be honest I didn’t think that woman, the ward, seemed evil.

The wench who shouted at me to flash her my cock was most definitely evil.