Page 6

My stomach churned at the barbaric sight. A large crowd of darkly dressed fae cheered wildly from their seats. It appeared to be some sort of a sporting event for the cretins.

“A foreign and unnatural sight for you to see, no doubt,” said Kaohs beside me.

A shiver tickled over the tops of my arms as I felt his power radiate into my space.

Aside from the Fates and the weather goddess, I’d never been around any of the old gods.

Most fae never saw them and many didn’t even believe they still existed, assuming that the gods were just lore at this point.

I struggled not to stare at the man. I didn’t need to do anything that would upset the God of the Underworld, but it was impossible not to gawk.

He stood a good bit taller than me, with a thick head of shiny, black hair peppered with bright silver strands at the sides just above his slightly pointed ears, making him look distinguished and experienced.

His eyes were disarmingly friendly, shining at me with a reddish-brown hue that made me feel, somehow, like trusting him.

His gray, long-sleeved shirt had clean lines aside from where it pressed out from his muscular build.

His shoulders were definitely not fitting through Walter’s hidden floor corridors, that was for certain.

“Sir.” Why am I like this—sir?

His broad shoulders shook slightly with laughter. “Call me Kaohs.”

I nodded, still looking at the blocks he called shoulders.

I wonder how much he could carry? Loads, I’d bet.

“Kaohs.” He flashed a smile full of bright white teeth and put his arm around me, guiding me to the seating area with the other fae that surrounded three stone towers.

I realized how dangerous and powerful this man really was once I caught myself eagerly smiling at him—the most dangerous creatures in the world were the ones that made you think they were harmless.

At the top of each of the towers, elegantly dressed men and women shouted and laughed.

“I was not expecting you here, Aurelius, Prince of Seelie. Ah, but that is the way of the Fates. They like their secrets as much as the rest of us do. If I know them, they have something quite interesting planned for you. Seelie royals don’t come here without purpose.”

“Your shoulders are huge.” I snapped my mouth shut and debated lying under one of the equine beasts.

His dark eyes crinkled at the corners. It was one of the few signs of his age and wisdom. “Tell me a story, Aurelius. How is it you came to arrive in my dwellings?”

“Don’t you already know?” I asked him while I watched Walter move from his seat a short distance away and walk over to us. Quickly.

“I know a good amount, but since it involves a good friend of mine, Mendax, I’d like to hear the whole story from your mouth.

” His eyes hardened, and I got the feeling he was testing me.

I always kept my mind’s walls up, and as I made certain they were still up, I triple-checked the lock while I was at it this time.

Fae that could get into your mind never left it the same.

“You’re not what I thought the God of the Underworld would be like,” I replied, hoping to change the subject.

I didn’t want to talk about what had happened to get me here.

Thinking about it felt too raw, let alone speaking it out loud.

But the truth was, the reality was slowly beginning to sink in.

Not only was I already starting to hate this place as it crawled with thieves and liars, but in my missing Cal, it was growing harder and harder to dismiss the person she really was.

Without the overwhelming sense of closeness and needing to keep her from harm’s way…

I was starting to realize that, well, she was harm’s way.

She was as unhinged and venomous as Mendax, who was once my greatest enemy.

How could one be my best fr iend and the other my enemy when they acted the same?

While missing her, I’d replayed memories from our childhood a hundred times when I was certain she had been happy and bubbly.

She would save all the little animals that were drawn to her, even making little houses out of leaves for the toads when it rained.

Now I wondered how much of that was an act for my sake, something she was doing to try and convince me she was something she wasn’t.

I knew now that she was never really happy and she most definitely wasn’t bubbly.

Stabby and sweary, sure, but not so bubbly.

Would I have loved her the way I do had I known that it was all just an act?

No. It was nonsensical to lie to myself about it now.

I probably still would have loved her, in a different way.

Not in the way that had caused me to fantasize for years about the sweet, angelic, smart, animal-loving girl I thought I had been in love with.

If Cal hadn’t had that drop of Adrianna’s Artemi powers to make her connect with animals, she probably would have tried to slaughter all the creatures we had come across.

A sick feeling gripped my stomach. I’m done! I can’t do this anymore, I can’t!

You can and you will. He didn’t do this so you could be selfish and quit.

Panic gripped every part of my body. My shoulder knocked into Kaohs as I whipped around in search of the voices I just heard. Something deep vibrated up my spine. Gasping for breath, I whirled back around to see Kaohs letting out a low growl in my direction.

“Forgive him; he has the itch. Bad. He meant nothing by it. Isn’t that right, Aurelius?” Walter said, eagerly putting a solid arm around my shoulders to stop me from my spastic twirling as I continued to look for the owner of the voices.

“The—the voices—” But more than that, the feeling I’d just had. Was this all a trick? Was this Kaohs’s doing?

“Yes, the itch.” Kaohs’s expression was stoic.

“It might be wise to get it free from your friend’s system before you go making any more requests, Walter.

Take him to the main floor party after this and be certain he does something he would never do prior to being in the Underworld before you even bother bringing him back here and requesting I keep him out of the tiers.

” His voice had changed instantly, his words an obvious warning.

He squinted as he looked me over. “Have him kill someone, or better yet, introduce him to a few of the girls or guys and let him get wild. Get some fairy dust from Ivan if you need to. Ha! Send him to the sensations, that will likely cure his itch. They do things much differently here than in Seelie.” “While they give him another type of itch,” Walter mumbled under his breath.

“What was that?” Kaohs snapped at the shifter. “Nothing. Good thinking,” he said, this time a smidge louder.

The god’s hard stare remained on Walter a beat before returning to me. “Now, this is the last time I will request it; tell us how you got here while we enjoy the red keys. This is a particularly good match even though Anna isn’t playing.”

My glance at Walter confirmed that it wasn’t really a choice so much as a command.

Over the next fifteen or so minutes, I relayed to Kaohs and Walter, as fast as I was capable, everything that had transpired up until the moment I opened my eyes in the pit of the dead.

I spared no details while I watched the horrid, barbaric game of death with a rat shifter who was only here because my mother had killed him and the god of the fae Underworld, while they both continued to ask questions I didn’t feel like answering.

I had been keeping alert for any small children, but so far had seen no one that looked younger than me.

Cal’s sister had been about six or eight, I think, when she was killed in the car accident.

No, I didn’t suppose I could fairly call it an accident.

My hands trembled. I still couldn’t fathom all of the horrible, awful things my mother had done to Cal’s family.

I would make it right—as right as I was capable of anyway.

I would find that little girl and make sure she got all of her powers back and could finally ascend, returning to her father in Moirai.

My chest loosened with a long, heavy breath.

I brushed away the tiniest gnat of selfishness that had started to take shape inside of me.

No, I was happy to help whoever I could, whatever it cost me.

“So you wish to take the girl away from here, you say?” Kaohs’s eyes darkened as he watched the game on the field intently. One of the players, a massive fae clad in oversized black armor, was brutally knocked down from his horse by another player.

“Yes, the Fates wish for her to return to Moirai once her power is rightfully restored. As I’m sure you’re aware, the Artemis power increases throughout their lineage and she is the daughter of Zef, the Titan Artemi.

Apparently, she must be unbelievably powerful, rivaling the power of the gods, I suppose, as the Fates themselves said they need her in Moi— OH MY SUNS!

” With a slash and a gush, the player that had knocked the other man from his horse had skillfully guided his black stallion closer to the falling fae.

Once there, he grabbed the larger man’s head with one hand while his other hand roughly lifted the face flap of the man’s helmet.

He opened a small leather chest, no bigger than a fist, pulled a dark red skeleton key from it, and then smashed it into the man’s forehead!

Black blood trickled down the man’s face as he was dropped to the ground just before he…

disintegrated. Disintegrated. The man completely disappeared into dust before my eyes.

With a snort and somewhat haughty gait, the muscular black stallion trotted off the field completely unscathed.