Chapter 11

Something weird was happening in New Eden Asylum. Weirder than me sharing my cell with the statue of a fake nun or the fact that I could see the hand of the fake Monsignor and I was so hungry, I must have been hallucinating because it looked oddly blue.

I could feel my magic again and my fucking mate was here. I couldn’t access my magic, but it was like being around an old friend. Something had changed. Pax knew it, too, because he felt me before I felt him and he was able to reach out to me. And it hurt like fuck to pretend like I didn’t want to see him and have that dinner with him, but Athena made damned sure when I met my other mates they wouldn’t be safe from me without my glasses. And even if I did have my glasses, she could swoop in at any minute and break them.

Seriously, fuck her, but it had to be this way, even if it hurt.

Monsignor Hannibal spent a long time outside my cell trying to perform an exorcism on me, even though he couldn’t get close to me with holy water and the crucifix. I kept trying to interrupt the asshole because he kept calling me child like I hadn’t been a whole-ass adult for a long time when the ritual he was trying to do was written.

They didn’t understand various states of the mind, so they blamed demons and traumatized people further with those exorcisms. When it didn’t work, because that’s not how demons worked, it was never the ritual or the person performing it. They went straight back to demons.

And then they tried to exorcize me. How was this my life right now?

Thankfully, they hadn’t moved the fake nun statue in front of my vent, so I went to sit when the foot traffic died down and I thought it might be nighttime.

“Can you feel it?” I asked.

“Something fundamental is broken here and this time, it’s not the common sense of some crack-ass humans.”

“I think it’s the silver because my hair isn’t standing on end anymore.”

“Isn’t your hair snakes now? Is all your body hair snakes? Like, do you have a bush made of serpents?”

“Oh, fuck you.”

“What? I made a killing during the Renaissance as a paid courtesan. Dancing at the high end strip clubs and taking escort jobs on the side finances a pretty nice lifestyle. I’m bisexual as fuck. Call it professional curiosity. I’ve never laid eyes on you and that’s probably the safest thing for me, but aren’t you also supposed to be insanely beautiful?”

“I’m not bisexual. I tried that after Poseidon because I wanted nothing to do with men, but I wasn’t feeling it. Those people who say you choose your sexuality are lying because I tried super hard to be a lesbian after I got cursed for being raped. And no, it’s just the hair on my head that is snakes. And fuck you for bringing that up because Athena is probably watching and might get ideas.”

“How did you have your whole lesbian phase with your curse?”

“Special glasses made by a really awesome god.”

“So, if the other wards in this place fail and we get out, we could totally have a girls’ night out and do mean things to stupid drunk boys?”

“Maybe, but I don’t think Athena is going to let that happen. My fucking mate is here.”

“Seriously? That’s awesome. Congrats.”

“It’s terrible! It’s going to make us both stupid trying to get to each other. I can barely stand up, but he just got here and they haven’t broken him yet. He’s convinced he’s going to break us all out of here. Maybe he’ll manage that with some of the wards broken, maybe he won’t. He’s going to come charging down here to find me and I’ll kill him if I look at him by accident without my glasses. I remember Athena showing up and breaking them, but I don’t remember how these people knocked me out and took me.”

“None of us do. I still think it’s a good thing. You’re pretty fucking famous. All you have to do is name drop yourself and he can take the proper precautions.”

“My curse doesn’t work like that. There are no fail safes for mates and I can’t undo it once it’s done.”

“That sucks, pumpkin. Sorry about the snake-bush thing. I saw some fan art once.”

“You know I still love you since you have been keeping me sane here. I know the fan art is out there, but I try to avoid looking at it.”

“I guess I understand. I get irritated when people get their mermaid lore mixed up with Sirens.”

“What do you think it means that some of the wards are broken?”

“I don’t know, but they broke when your mate showed up and I think that’s important. Everybody here had better be smart enough to keep their fucking mouths shut because something tells me the rest of them might be breaking soon.”

Fuck. If the wards were broken because of my mysterious mate, he’d better fucking listen to me about not coming down here if he broke the rest of them.

Because that’s what mates did.