Chapter 13

13

Vesh

N emea’s wary look strikes me like a blade through my heart. This tightening in my chest is an alien sensation, and I have to clench my fist to avoid rubbing my sternum. Until her, it never would have occurred to me to care whether a woman trusted me. All I cared about was having her.

Part of me still wants that, but the minds clamoring for my attention aren’t responsible for that desire. That was all me.

Is all me.

What the others want is for her to be happy—free—despite their own desperate cravings for her. In spite of Cerberus and Campe still not having tasted her, they both agree that Alcides did the right thing in defying me. They all blame me for her departure.

And now I have to bare my soul in front of all of them, even Alcides, who stands naked in front of me, clearly having just completed his bond with her. I don’t give a fuck about what the others witness, but for some reason, having his respect matters.

“What do you want?” Nemea asks, crossing her arms over her bare breasts and glaring at me.

I clench my teeth and hold her gaze for a beat until my shame takes hold, forcing me to look away, down to her reflection in the dark, steamy pool.

“I’m sorry,” I say, looking at her again.

She lets out a snort. “I wondered if you’d ever actually apologize.”

“My intention wasn’t to hurt you, or to trap you.”

“Bullshit.”

I huff a breath out. “Fine, I wanted to keep you. I never intended to let you go. I looked forward to finding you in my bed every night. I should have fucking chained you to it.”

The last thought escapes involuntarily, and Alcides moves like lightning, his big hand clamping around my throat and slamming me back against the stone wall behind me. The scent of her washes over me, and my cock goes hard almost instantly.

“Watch how you speak to her. She deserves your respect.”

I silently curse whichever other mind pushed that secret thought to be spoken. I’m usually more careful with my words.

Nemea gives me a smug look as if I’ve just proved her point.

“I promise you would have loved it,” I say, lowering my voice, but the last syllable comes out strangled as Alcides tightens his grip on my throat. I’m still gratified by the way her cheeks flush.

She shakes her head. “That’s not the fucking point. You could have told me leaving would be difficult. I even had my own key, didn’t I? And you took it away from me. Where is it?”

I frown, until I recall the small bauble she had in her possession when I brought her into the prison.

“Let me go so I can talk,” I wheeze at Alcides. He reluctantly releases me and steps back.

With a flourish, I produce the globe of glass she’s referring to and hold it up on the tips of my fingers, letting my magic crackle around it.

“This little trinket?” I ask, amazed yet again at the perfect detail of the prison in miniature.

She steps forward and reaches for it. I hold it up higher.

“This isn’t a toy, Nemea. And it wouldn’t have let you out, anyway. It is only a key to enter, not leave.”

She pierces me with an irritated glare. “Why do you even have doors if you can’t go through them?”

“If an escape occurs, we want to control the direction the prisoner goes. The door entices them, lets them believe it’s a way out, when what’s on the other side is worse than what they’d leave behind. Kēno would slow most prisoners down long enough for us to capture them before they made it too far, if they survived.”

“But it didn’t slow down the Titans.”

“Not if Hyperion had regenerated even a fraction of his powers. The void demons would have fled from his light.” At her frown, I add. “That’s the level of power we’re up against. That’s why we need you. What you did with your voice a moment ago… you amplified Pan’s power. You and I are alike in that way; we are amplifiers for other beings’ magic that is channeled through us. And the bonds we share with them amplifies our magic.”

“I won’t go back if I don’t have a way out,” she says. “And even if I did, I’m not sure I’m ready to stay there. Not after you lied to me… or hid the truth, or whatever.”

I’m mentally prepared for more recriminations from Pan and the others, but they’re conspicuously absent from my mind now. All except for Campe, who has already heard her name spoken, who has been ready for her freedom ever since I told her what was expected of her.

They’re all with Nemea now, I realize, a sinking sensation in my belly when the implications of that hit. They may have been present for our meeting earlier but the moment she opened her doors to them again, they must have fled into her sanctuary. A place I’m evidently no longer allowed to visit.

I redirect my focus to the globe, conflicted about what I must do, but knowing I have no choice if I want to regain her trust.

I push a surge of power up through my fingertips into the glass, mentally altering its magic. The light within shimmers and the doors visible at the top of the tower begin to glow, purple light seeping from around their edges.

Then I hold it out to her. “There. When you’re ready to return, this will let you back in. And if you desire to leave again, the doors will open for you and you alone. They will send you wherever you desire, bypassing Kēno entirely.”

Offering this to her physically hurts. It’s a vulnerability I can’t afford, especially when she already has a way to enter and leave locked within her own mind. This is merely a symbol of my trust, or my effort to trust.

Her existence has already weakened my walls, enabled the worst kind of breach. But I can’t blame her. Fate’s the one whose magic wormed its way in, creating fissures in the prison’s defenses. I just hope this gesture doesn’t make things worse.

She gingerly reaches for it, cradling it in both hands. She peers up at me, understanding evident on her pretty face. “What’s to stop me from staging a breakout for everyone? They’re all trapped there. The Danaids. Prometheus. They don’t deserve their sentences.”

I grimace, reluctant to tell her everything. But Typhon has returned to my mind, slipping in like a curious serpent, ready with blame if I don’t give Nemea everything she deserves.

And everything means the truth.

“Nothing at all. You could break me with this, Nemea. Release all the prisoners once and for all, flood the prison with void demons, and condemn humanity to torment at the hands of creatures even worse than Hyperion and his brothers. So I beseech you, please keep this safe. And even if you never return, please don’t shut the others out. Let them help you continue to strengthen your magic so we can beat the Titans and return them to their pit.”

As difficult as it is to say, this missive settles much of the agitation roiling inside my belly. Hopefully it will also calm the seven creatures who’ve been ready to take my head if they didn’t think it would be more likely to send them all back into a cell rather than kill me.

“They weren’t the ones who fooled me,” she says, dashing my hopes of having built any goodwill with her. With a surge of power that manifests around her hands as crackling black lightning, the globe disappears into another dimension, yet another piece of me I know I will never get back. Still, I can’t help but be impressed by the demonstration of how far her control of her power has come in a matter of days.

Her glare makes me take a step back in an attempt to stave off the rising anguish. I have too much to do, too many tasks as I prepare to betray my creator. But she holds out a hand to stall me.

“Wait. Can you tell me what Chaos or the Titans even want with me? Why do I need to be protected at all? Especially if I’m as powerful as everyone seems to think.”

I step closer to her again, relieved that she doesn’t retreat this time, though Alcides gives me a warning glare, moving to step in front of her again. She places a hand on his arm to hold him back and lets me get close enough to reach up and brush my fingertips lightly down the contour of her jaw. Close enough that her earthy female scent inundates me, mixed though it is with the demigod’s more potent musk.

“Because you’re still essentially human. You can be manipulated. Chaos wants to balance the score with Fate, and he’s decided you are the way to do that. You’d just be part of his collection. The Titans… they’re a wildcard right now. I still don’t know what their endgame is, but I have suspicions. You’re a weapon, and the moment they learn what we have pointed at them, they’ll try to acquire you to use against us, or to use against the gods themselves.”

A harsh swallow ripples down her throat, and I sense the slightest tilt of her head against my hand before she steps back out of my reach and Alcides curls his arm protectively around her waist. “I thought Chaos was your boss. Doesn’t that mean he’s powerful enough to beat the Titans? Why can’t he capture them?”

“He doesn’t see it as his problem beyond making sure I do my job. None of the gods are altruistic, nor the primordials. There’s no such thing as good and evil. There are only shades of selflessness, of honor, or lack thereof. And if you live as long as the gods, the rest of existence stops mattering more than your own next diversion. Even the nice ones have to be in the mood to help.”

“What makes you think you’re any different?”

“I’m not. But I was never influenced by Fate before. Their magic makes you want things that otherwise would never have mattered.”

“So Fate made you do it , is that what you’re saying? Way to pass the blame.”

She crosses her arms again, her lips pressed into a bitter line.

“Fate magic linked me to a mate, Nemea,” I correct her. “Fate magic offered me something I never believed I could have, and now that I know you exist, I will do everything in my power to keep you.”