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“Sorry,” I said. “Well, eventually, I tagged along, excited to be taken into the human realm.” I smiled tightly.

“That’s not what really happened,” she said as she stared me down. Was it possible she had some sort of power that could read minds?

I swallowed down what felt like glass in my throat. It was so rare for anyone to ask me more about myself or my childhood. “How do you know?” I challenged, feeling defensive. “Why are you asking if you know what happened?”

“I don’t know what happened, but I know that’s not what happened.

It’s written all over your face. You’re easy to read.

” Our eyes locked for a moment, and I truly believed she could see straight through me.

I scoffed at the thought. “My mother took me to the forest with the intent of leaving me behind. She had decided that I was unfit to rule Seelie and that I would be of no help to her. She planned on leaving me in the human realm to die or be stolen and used as some science project by the humans.” I waited for the habitual urge to crack a joke or smile to shift the pity off me after she responded, but as I waited for her teasing response, it never came.

“Ah,” Anna said softly. Something about her tone made me keep talking.

“Apparently, she changed her mind and scooped me back up after she discovered Calypso, deciding that eventually I would be a good husband and king after she trained Calypso to be her own personal weapon. That didn’t work out very well though. ”

“Oh,” she said. “That must make you feel awful. It’s no wonder you tried so hard to be with Calypso for all those years.

Your mother made you feel that you would only be worth keeping around if you married Calypso.

I imagine that’s probably why you base your self-worth on how much you sacrifice for another.

I’m sorry you had to grow up with that burden. ”

A bolt of lightning to my ass cheek in the middle of this desert wouldn’t have shocked me as much as her words.

It wasn’t a story I told many people, but the ones I had told had a much different response, generally telling me how lucky I was.

This was another one of her fucking schemes, pretending she cared about my feelings.

She was no different than everyone else.

She wanted something from me; she wanted the pendant desperately.

And with her, I didn’t trust myself not to fall for it.

With every fiber of my being, I wanted to hate her, but it was impossible while being next to her like this.

It wasn’t just how beautiful she was; it was this gentleness she put out into the air that made no sense to me, this quiet wholesomeness that reminded me of a kitten.

She was no kitten; she was a rabid, feral lynx.

I’d watched her be an absolute menace. I’d watched her terrorize and kill off an entire field of men.

Yet somehow, the woman had this gentleness that seemed to see straight through me.

So many things about her completely perplexed me and apparently turned me into jelly.

This wouldn’t end well for me; I already knew it.

“So you became Caly’s watchman,” she said. “I became Cal’s best friend,” I corrected.

“More like her pawn. Ironic since that was essentially what you were to your mother as well, huh?”

I went to argue but realized that I had said the exact words to Cal before.

“My sister hated Zef before I even died,” she said with a chuckle. “So did my mother.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “About everything that my mother did to your family.”

“That’s why you came here, isn’t it?” she asked. “You’re taking the blame for what your mother did to everyone. Caly is with Mendax and your mother is gone, so you needed to find something that would give you that feeling of selfless approval.” She nodded empathetically. “I get it.”

I looked long and hard at her, desperately wanting to distance myself from this conversation and her.

This was a ploy to get the pendant. I couldn’t quite figure out her angle other than to soften me up.

I stiffened when my gut protested. Oh, she was good.

Smart and manipulative, just like her sister.

“What else do you want to know about your sister?” I asked. Why did I ask?

“I don’t know.” She looked off dreamily. “What’s she like?” “She’s fierce and loyal, headstrong and wicked. She loves to fight. Hates being told what to do,” I laughed despite myself .

“If you tell her she can’t do something, the first thing she’ll do is prove you wrong.”

Anna chuckled. “She was always like that.”

“Yes, I can imagine,” I said softly. Perhaps if I lean my back into the thorns of this cactus, my brain will wake up and I will walk away. “What about you?” I asked.

She looked up, surprised. “What about me?”

“What are you like?” I couldn’t help myself. I leaned slightly away from the cactus.

“Well, according to you, an evil menace who is out to set the world on fire and suffocate everyone with the fumes while I take over and bring all of Tartarus to the top.” A small smile played at the corners of her mouth, and I found myself completely mesmerized.

“I’ll never give you this pendant,” I said softly, staring at her mouth.

The energy shifted between us, but it wasn’t as I expected. “Why not?” she asked, though it sounded more like a statement.

I was having a harder time answering that.

The truth was I wasn’t convinced she was evil.

In fact in this short conversation with her, my gut told me the complete opposite.

“You belong in Moirai with the other gods and goddesses. You belong in a place where you will be worshiped, in a place that’s filled with wholesome goodness, not in a place like this.

I know you are toying with me, but someone with your powers should be using it for good, not evil.

I don’t think you belong here. And also because I’m tied to it, and I’m not going to be tied to someone and not be with them. ”

I pushed my back into the cactus and felt the prickly sting. Hopefully it would shut me up and stop my mouth from spewing more words.

“So you don’t think I’m entirely evil,” she whispered. “I never said that,” I said seriously.

“It’s beautiful and filled with magic down here too,” she said. “You just have to look for it. ”

Something loud sounded on the battlefield, drawing our attention away from the conversation.

“Bexley!” she said.

It took my eyes a second to filter through the other figures, but they landed on him. “Holy shit.” What was he doing? In the middle of the crowded battlefield, Bexley had looped Walter and Eletha together, back to back, with a long iron chain.

The creepy hooded figures, without anyone giving them a fight, retreated eerily back into the decrepit buildings like leaves in a breeze, and only a few remained, as if thirsty to watch the carnage the new person was about to provide.

Bexley, who had appeared out of nowhere, was shouting at them. He looked red-faced and angry as he held two weapons in his hands, waving them around emphatically.

“Oh my suns, where did he come from?” We both hurried to stand.

“Listen, listen to what he’s saying,” she whispered.

We moved behind the large cactus to hide ourselves a bit. My first instinct was to run out there and take him down from behind, but there was too big of a gap between the cactus and where they stood; there was no way he wouldn’t see me coming.

“What do you think we should do? I thought he was good,” I mumbled under my breath.

“Bexley?” she whispered.

I felt her breath on my neck and swallowed. “Yeah, Bexley,” I mumbled. If she whispered into my neck again, I was going to shove my semihard dick into this cactus just to stop thinking about her like that.

“He is good most of the time. Well, as good as he can be,” she replied.

“What is that supposed to mean?” I scowled at her. “Bexley’s mother is an angel in the human realm, in their heaven, but his father is the Devil.”

“So you’re saying the rumor’s true? An angel and the Devil had an affair?” I asked .

She squinted at me. “You’ve been in Tartarus five minutes. How do you know any rumors?”

I tipped my chin up and focused on Walter and Eletha. “I’m very sociable and well-liked wherever I go,” I said sarcastically.

“Why do I actually believe that?” she said.

“Bexley’s pretty good for the most part.

He’s been in Tartarus for ages and ages.

He’s been through the tiers multiple times, always says he’s going to go somewhere other than Eromreven when he hits the tenth tier, but he never does.

He always comes back once he runs out of drink and fairy dust.” She shook her head, making her brown and pink hair tousle. “Wastes his life away.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Just sometimes he can be a bit wicked, like now.” She nodded.

“It’s almost always with good intentions.

I think he had a rough childhood. From my understanding, his father was awful, and his mother wasn’t much better.

Before they made a deal and sent him here, I guess he stayed in hell with his father, except no one protected him like Kaohs protected me. ” Her eyes filled with sentiment.

“Bexley, you better make sure this chain is tight, you demon fuck, because the minute my hands are free, I’m going to strangle the memento out of your soul, you son of a bitch,” Eletha said through clenched teeth.

“Once I get my powers back, I’m going to obliterate you.

I’m going to make you wish you were never born. ”