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“You’re too late for that, Eletha. I already wish that.

” His old brown coat had been thrown down to the ground.

With the article free from his body, I was shocked to see a tattered set of wings tucked against his back.

For the first time since being in Tartarus, I was happy that my own wings were no longer a part of me.

Bexley’s wings, which I assumed were once white, were now mottled shades of tan and yellow with broken and shredded feathers.

Most of his wings was nothing more than pink flesh and cartilage covered in scars.

I couldn’t look away. Someone had tried to burn his wings off.

I had never seen anything so tragic in all my life and I hardly blamed him for wanting to be drunk or high every waking second if that was any symbol of the terrible memories he kept.

Walter scowled. “I’m sorry to do this to you guys, but it has to be done. All you two do is fight, fight, fight.” His words trailed off as he continued to mumble to himself, walking in a circle around his two hostages. He was definitely not all there in the head.

“Do something, Walter!” Eletha screamed.

“And what exactly should I do, master?” Walter said in a low, steady voice.

“Stop! Enough! I can’t take anymore!” Bexley shouted as he shook the large weapons in his hands. He looked ready to snap at any given second. “Stop with the fighting!”

“We need to do something,” I whispered to Anna.

“He’s gonna kill them if they don’t shut up and my sister is not going to shut up.” She nodded.

Her eyes seem to darken slightly. “Looks like we are going to have to find a way to make him stop, teach him a lesson.”

I did not like the way that sounded. “Weren’t you just trying to convince me you weren’t evil five minutes ago?” I snarked. “You stay here. I’m going to go see if I can defuse the situation.”

“Are you sure you want to do that? You don’t even know him,” she said with a look that made me immediately second- guess myself.

“It doesn’t matter if I know him or not, somebody has to do something,” I said.

“I don’t care what you do, Walter, but get us out of here!” Eletha was shouting.

“Stop fighting. Stop fighting. Please, please, please stop fighting!” Bexley began to sing, putting his weathered hands into his hair and pulling it until it stuck out in tufts of brown. “Enough, Eletha,” said Walter. She didn’t like that very much.

“‘Enough, Eletha,’ huh? You sure have a lot to say when your back’s to me,” she snarled .

“You know what happened? We were getting along fine, and everything was going great back there. And the second you sit down and aren’t killing something, you’re pissed off at me again!” Walter snapped.

Bexley continued to pull at his hair, and my pulse quickened. They were playing with fire, and they didn’t realize it.

“Kiss and make up right now,” Bexley said in a panicked voice that sounded like he was on the edge of tears. “I can’t take the fighting. Please stop fighting. That’s all I hear is fighting. You two used to be so in love.”

“How do you know what we were?” Walter snapped. “Because I remember her telling me. That’s all she could talk about when she came back.”

Eletha’s face turned red. “It was a long, long time ago.”

“You don’t fall out of love like that,” Bexley said. “Kiss right now. Or hug or something, but please stop the shouting.”

“It’s kind of hard to kiss when you’re tied up,” Walter said.

“I’m not kissing him anyway,” Eletha replied, and the two began another spiral of bickering.

This time, Bexley snapped. “Enough!” he boomed, and his wings burst into flames, spreading wide behind his back. Flames licked up his legs.

All four of us stopped and stared at the sight.

“Holy shit,” said Anna under her breath. “Okay, we might have reached a new level of bad.”

“Okay, Bexley, everything’s fine,” Eletha said, obviously realizing too late how bad things were.

“It’s not fine!” Bexley said. “All you two do is fight. Stop fighting, stop fighting.” He continued his pacing, now on fire.

Eletha’s eyes shot to us, connecting with Anna’s. For the first time, Anna looked nervous.

“It’s okay, Bexley. Sometimes people fight. That doesn’t mean they don’t love each other,” Walter said.

“It does in this case!” Eletha snapped.

“Enough!” This time, it was Walter’s turn to bellow.

“Eletha, when we get out of these chains, I’m going to remind you why it is you don’t want to be with anybody else but me.

I’m going to remind you why you and I are destined to be together, and I’m going to remind you that you will not be with anyone else but me.

I’m tired of this. I’m as tired as Bexley.

If you want to fight and dance around, hell, if you want to battle me, I don’t care.

I’m up for it. I love it. But I’m not going to stand by while you pretend that you’re not in love with me every bit as much as I am with you.

Stop lying to yourself and everyone else. ”

The flames died away from Bexley’s wings and legs, leaving little wisps of smoke. For a moment, Eletha was silent. And then I saw something I never thought I’d see.

Eletha didn’t fight back, and instead relaxed and reached back to grab Walter’s hand.

“You’re right,” she said. “I just don’t want to be hurt again. I can’t take it, Walter. I can’t take it if you hurt me again like that. I won’t make it.”

“I know,” he said. “I never want to hurt you again. You have to know that I never ever wanted to hurt you.”

“I know that,” she said.

Walter continued, “You have to know that none of that was my choosing. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about you.”

“I know,” she said. “I thought about you too.” “Then let me in,” he said.

I noticed their hands connected under the chain and squeezed. Meanwhile, Bexley seemed to have not noticed that his hostages had stopped fighting, as his rambles continued.

“I can’t take it. Everybody’s upset. No one needs to be upset. Why, why, why, why, why must they fight? Why must everyone fight? Why can’t we just get along?” He sang as weapons started leaving his hands and flying off into the air.

“Oh shit,” Anna said. “We can’t just stay here. I’m going to do something.”

“No, you stay here.” I didn’t want Anna to hurt Bexley—or the other way around for that matter .

“I can handle it,” she insisted.

“Stay put. I can take care of this,” I said. “Bexley!” I shouted as I approached.

The man turned around with an ax in his hand. I saw the look in his eyes and immediately regretted my decision. The next thing I knew, I was tied up next to Eletha and Walter.

“Bexley, this is stupid. Stop!” I shouted. Bexley began to pace back and forth.

“You’re not helping,” Walter whispered to me.

I let out a huff. “Well, I’m glad to see you two getting along. Is this going to last? Does this mean you two are giving it another shot?”

“Yes,” they replied. Eletha reached out and squeezed my hand gently.

“Thank you,” I replied, squeezing her hand back. She swatted at me as much as she could and shuffled until she found Walter’s hand again. “So what are we going to do now? He is so strong,” I said half from surprise and half admiration.

“We are going to kill him,” Walter said, and Eletha nodded in agreement.

“You can’t kill him just for tying us up,” I said. “Why not?” Walter asked.

I could feel the thrum of adrenaline still pouring off the two of them. Anna was right; they could easily get stuck in this tier, and if Bexley didn’t play his cards right, it wasn’t going to work out very well for him.

“No, that’s enough violence,” I muttered under my breath. “Bexley, come here. I want to talk to you.”

“I’m really sorry you’re mixed up in this,” he said. “I just don’t really know you, and I don’t want you trying to hurt me. I know Walter’s your friend.” He wrung his hands together.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Bexley. I just want to talk to you. These two don’t need to be tied up. You should set them free. Set us all free. We’re not going to hurt you,” I said calmly.

“Yes, we are,” Walter interjected. “Fucking yes, we are,” growled Eletha .

I rolled my eyes. I was dealing with a bunch of violent toddlers.

“See?” Bexley said.

“Not helping,” I muttered to Walter. “Bexley, what do you plan on doing? Keep us tied up forever? That’s not going to get us out of here.”

“Yes, it is,” he said. “That’s the only way out of here.

These two will fight forever. They are violence.

Especially together.” I couldn’t argue with him there.

“But look what you’ve done. They’re not fighting anymore.

Everything’s okay. You helped them. He helped you guys.

” I directed my voice to them. “You should be thanking him for the free couples therapy, not trying to kill him.”

Bexley started to walk off again.

“Wait.” I called him back over. “I noticed your wings.” “I’m so sorry,” he cut me off. “Don’t touch my wings. Stay away from my wings!” His face turned red. Suddenly, one of the sharp blades of the ax was under my throat.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said. “Okay, we won’t talk about your wings, crazy,” I muttered.

“I know you think I’m crazy. I am crazy. You’d be crazy too,” he said.

“I was just going to tell you that I had wings too once. I don’t anymore because they disappeared when my powers were stripped. But I’m sorry for what happened to you.” I looked him dead in the eyes; I meant every word I said.

“You don’t even know what happened to me,” he breathed heavily.

“You’re right, I don’t,” I said. “But I don’t have to. That shouldn’t happen to anybody.”

“My father lit them on fire multiple times to get rid of them.”

“I’m so sorry,” Walter mumbled next to me. “Oh my God,” said Eletha.

“Why don’t you untie us and we’ll all sit down and have a talk and then we’ll leave here. You’ve been here before, right? You’ve been through the tiers?” I asked Bexley in my calmest voice.