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Suddenly he was riled up again. “We are leaving here. We’re leaving this tier.

I can’t stand to be in this tier. I can’t stand the fighting.

I don’t want to talk about my father and what he did to me.

” Something seemed to have snapped in his mind.

His hands grew shaky. “I don’t want to be here anymore.

I don’t want to do any of this. I want out of here.

I don’t belong anywhere. I don’t want to belong anywhere.

I just want my drink and my dust, and I want out of here.

” He rambled, and I felt the blade press harder into my skin.

“You don’t want to be here either,” he said.

“I know you don’t. This isn’t a place for you. This isn’t a place for us.”

“It’s okay, calm down, Bexley.” Anna’s silky voice came from next to Bexley and her gentle hand moved the blade away from my throat. “All right, just calm down.”

“Why does everyone keep telling me to calm down? I am calm,” he started.

“I would stop telling him to calm down,” I said.

She shot me a look. “Have a seat with me, could you please?” she asked him gently.

Bexley nodded and they stepped back a few feet and sat down as if they were at a picnic instead of a hostage situation.

“How many times are you going to go through these tiers, Bexley?” The softness seemed to be working for him, making him feel safe and calm.

I couldn’t say I blamed him. With a voice like that, she was practically a siren.

“I’m helping,” he started, but seemed to think better of it. “Yeah, you’re helping. Because you don’t want to be here either, do you?” she asked, taking his hand, removing the last weapon, and throwing it to the ground. “I’m not going to hurt you, okay? I promise.”

“I’ve seen what you can do,” he said. “I’ve heard. You will hurt me. Maybe not right now.”

“No, I won’t hurt you. I don’t want to hurt anybody,” she said .

“You want to take over. You want to take Kaohs’s position,” he stuttered, still red-faced.

She shot a look at me as if I’d been feeding him information.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I want to hurt people.

Perhaps I want to help people.” She said it with such conviction that I almost believed her.

She was good. She was really good. “Bexley, I think you’ve had a lot of terrible things happen to you, and I think you’ve spent a lot of time in Tartarus, and I don’t think that’s helped you. ”

He began to tremble as if thinking of the memories was too much.

“It’s okay,” she said calmly. “You don’t have to think about them.

You see, when I take over Tartarus, I’m going to make sure that everyone can have a good time, even the people who don’t like violence and don’t love hurting other people.

There’s no reason we can’t have lighter things in Tartarus too. ”

“Is there such a thing?” Bexley said.

Anna’s eyes shot to mine. “Of course there are, Bexley,” she said. “Why do you stay here? Why do you stay in Tartarus?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Why do you stay? I know for a fact you’ve made it through the tiers before. Why do you always pick the portal to return to Eromreven if you hate it so much? It doesn’t make any sense,” she said gently.

Sadness etched across his face in a way that made me ache for him.

“I go into the tiers with the hopes of dying,” he said, his eyes fixed on a spot on the dusty ground.

“You don’t want to die, not really,” she said putting her arm around his shoulder.

As I watched the two of them, I began to feel as if I was watching a private and very delicate conversation.

‘Cal,’ I called out in my mind. With everything going on, I had my own urge to smooth things over with Cal.

‘What do you want?’ came a startlingly dark and heavy presence. Mendax .

‘Hello, darling, it’s been so long’, I sang back. ‘Do you miss me?’ My jokes stopped abruptly when I felt someone familiar. ‘Are you with Tarani? What’s going on?’

‘We are having dinner with Tarani and a few of the Fallen Fae. Also, your sister has terrible taste in men. She’s seeing that one guy that turns to fire; can you believe it? Seth or something. He keeps touching Calypso’s stomach.’

It was like everything around me blurred away and for a minute I was filled with the need to hug my sister. Suns, I missed her so much. ‘Wait, what do you mean she’s dating someone?’

‘Yeah, don’t worry, I’m keeping my eye on him,’ Mendax said.

Oddly, his words were comforting.

‘Well, does she seem happy?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘She laughs a lot; she’s always smiling.’

Something inside me calmed a little, thinking about Tarani being settled and happy. Still, it killed me that I couldn’t be there for her. ‘Where’s Cal? I want to talk to her,’ I said.

‘Well, she obviously doesn’t feel like talking to you right now,’ he replied.

Even through the bond, I could feel his protectiveness of her, and it too put me at ease.

As much as I missed being there with them, it did provide me a bit of calm to know that the women in my life were being protected by one of the most menacing men there was.

‘So, wait, you’re having dinner with Tarani? Where?’ I asked.

Mendax let out a mental sigh.’ I don’t think I’m supposed to be the one to tell you, but the Fallen are moving from the Seelie castle. And we’re moving in.’

I felt the blood drain from my face down to my toes. ‘You bastard!’ I shouted. ‘You’ve overtaken the Seelie castle. You’ve taken it from my sister!’ Rage and fury poured through me. How could he sit here and talk to me like this all while he was ruining everything my sister had?

Pure joy—pure joy bubbled up through the bond, catching me off guard. Mendax chuckled.

‘Why are you laughing?’ I snarled .

‘Because even after all of this, you still assume the worst in me. It brings me comfort,’ he said.

I rolled my eyes and let out a sigh. It was surreal talking to Mendax while I watched Anna and Bexley.

“Dude, you okay?” Walter said, bumping my shoulder.

“I’m talking to Mendax. He’s a fucker,” I said to Walter, which made him chuckle, and that also made Mendax chuckle. Walter perked up immediately. Mendax’s chuckling slowed.

‘So have you taken over the Seelie castle or not? ‘I asked, returning to the conversation at hand.

‘We’ve built them a new place. It’s nice. Really nice,’ he stated.

I felt the honesty surge through the bond, and I had no choice but to trust that he would keep her out of harm’s way.

‘Tarani is my family now too,’ Mendax said as if sensing my worry. ‘I won’t let any harm come to her.’

For a moment, things were quiet. My emotions were everywhere. I was filled with missing my sister, Cal, even Mendax. All the while, my eyes were stuck on a woman with brown and pink hair.

‘What’s that?’ Mendax asked.

‘What’s what?’ I said.

‘What’s that feeling? Who are you thinking about right now?’ There was an edge to his voice. ‘Anna, Cal’s sister.’

‘Oh,’ Mendax said. ‘Interesting.’

‘She’s defusing a situation right now with Bexley. Do you know him?’

‘Bexley,’ Mendax said. I could feel him rifling through his memories. ‘No. Back to Caly’s sister. I thought she was evil. That’s all I’ve heard about for the last two nights. Did you give her the pendant yet?’

‘No, not yet. She’s a fucking Artemi and I watched her kill insects.’

‘Really?’ Mendax said, perking up.

I rolled my eyes. Of course, he would just love to have another evil friend. ‘She insists that she only stunned them and she is currently talking a deranged man off a cliff.’

‘Why is there a deranged man on a cliff?’ Mendax asked .

‘No, a hypothetical cliff. She’s dangerous and powerful. I can feel it. She’s Kaohs’s daughter, for Sun’s sake. She wants to take over the whole Underworld.’

‘So what?’ Mendax said.

‘What do you mean, so what?’

‘Give her the pendant and go to the Elysian Fields. You’ve done your part. It’s not your responsibility anymore.’

I grunted again. ‘I know, I just—it feels wrong.’

‘ It’s her powers,’ Mendax reasoned.

I closed my eyes and dropped my forehead into my palm. ‘She’s interested in what I have to say, and she asks questions no one else asks me. And she makes me feel… I don’t know,’ I trailed off.

‘I see,’ said Mendax.

‘I don’t care what she does. I don’t even want her here. They followed me into the tiers. I just want to get away from her. The Fates wanted her in Moirai. She hates Zef apparently. I thought she hated Cal at first too.’

‘And you don’t think that’s the case now?’ Mendax asked. A protective surge coursed through the bond that I appreciated.

‘No, I don’t think she’s going to hurt Cal. She really wanted to see her.’

‘What does Anna want?’ Mendax asked, catching me completely off guard. Since when did he ever care about women’s feelings or what they wanted? I had been right—these two really had helped each other grow.

‘Anna wants to take over, letting Kaohs retire. Which, how does a god even retire anyway?’ I grumbled.

Mendax was quiet for a minute. ‘That’s really honorable of her,’ he said at last. Because Kaohs had been a long-standing friend of Mendax, it seemed that this action now put Anna in his favor.’ Kaohs has been wanting to be done for a long time.’

‘Wanting to leave?’ I said. ‘Where is he going to go?’

Mendax ignored my question. ‘So she hasn’t taken the pen-

dant yet?’

‘No. Kaohs said that he only deemed she’d be ready to take over if she could get me to hand it to her. And not take it. ’

‘Huh,’ Mendax said thoughtfully. ‘I’m sure he knows what he’s doing. He’s one of the wisest men I know.’

‘Listen,’ I said. ‘Tell Cal I love her and I miss her.’

‘No, I won’t,’ he stated. But I’ll tell her I talked to you. I felt a little bit of humor from his side.

‘Hey, also, is she okay?’ I asked.

‘Why do you ask that?’ Mendax asked quickly.