30. Caly
30
CALY
“R ed?” Mendax glared at the robe I handed him outside his cottage.
“The color of the robe…that’s what you’re concerned about right now?” I snapped at him. It felt like every drop of tension I’d ever possessed had been stored up until my body could use it in this very moment.
His eyes hardened a fraction as he towered over me. “My concern has remained in the same place since it’s developed.” He gripped my chin roughly and leaned down to hover over my lips. “Give Aurelius his robes and have your chat, but be quick. I need to spend time with you before…” His voice trailed off as he ran his thumb over Adrianna’s pendant around my neck.
“You promised me, Mendax. You can’t leave me,” I whispered against his soft lips as my eyes fell shut.
“Would you wait for me?” he whispered breathily.
“No,” I snapped, starting to panic. Why was he even talking about leaving me? He wasn’t serious. This was Mendax. He couldn’t leave me.
“Then you’d come for me?” He grinned.
“No. Why would you talk about leaving?” I bit my lip until I tasted copper on my tongue.
He watched my bottom lip intently. “Maybe I want to be everything to you…your hero and your villain.” He let out a breathy laugh as if his words were all a joke, but I could feel through the bond it wasn’t a joke to him.
“Please, promise me,” I begged him.
“I promise.” He pressed his lips to mine in a kiss I felt all the way down to the soles of my feet.
“Come on, get a room. There are fathers and best friends walking around here now,” Eli said, coming up the grass path from his little house.
I laughed, even though I really, really didn’t want to. Eli was always good at making me feel better when things got too hard. “You come on. I need to talk with you and give you your robes for tonight.” I gave a final look at Mendax’s handsome face and began to walk to Eli’s front door.
I heard Mendax and Eli mumble something after I walked off, and I’d never been more envious of fae hearing, because as a human, I heard nothing but a few murmurs.
After moving inside, I tossed the remaining two garments down on the kitchen table and grabbed the one with less fabric.
The door to the cottage closed behind Eli. “What did I miss?” he asked with concerned eyes.
My fight not to spill to my best friend only held for another breath before I was sitting on the counter telling him everything that he had missed at my father’s. He began to pace when I told him about my mom but stilled when I told him about the beautiful blade that my father had crafted to take the power of those that it killed.
“Holy shit,” he said as he rubbed his face with his palms.
He had seemed really interested in the blade, asking me to repeat its description at least twice, but I was overflowing with things to tell my best friend, so I moved on after answering his questions.
“To make it worse, I think Mendax is going to try and get killed tonight. I can feel it through the bond. He’s serious. I think he wants to be the good guy for once, and he’s the only one who can get into Tartarus and return the pendant to Adrianna.” My eyes began to well with tears for what felt like the hundredth time in this conversation alone. “I can’t lose him, Eli. I–I have no purpose here without him. I know he and I can do anything together. He is friends with Kaohs. I know he can help me find a way to get Adrianna out of Tartarus and into the Elysian Fields where she belongs.”
“And then what?” he asked. “What happens after Adrianna is free? What do you do then?”
I struggled to think about the answer as I took note of the details in the cotton rope rug beneath Eli’s feet. “Then I…I guess I start the process of letting them go and attempting to live the life I couldn’t while I was living as someone else.”
Eli smiled, but it only touched his eyes for a second before it was gone, leaving his mouth sad.
“What’s the matter?” I asked as I bumped my shoulder into his arm. I could feel something wild stirring from him through the tie. As a matter of fact, it was the first time I’d felt anything from the tie since being in Moirai. “Eli, they won’t kill you. I won’t let them. My father is talking with them right now. I… The only thing is, maybe we could let them sever the tie? That way, we can all live?”
I didn’t even need to look at his face to feel the pain my words had inflicted.
“Yeah, I had a feeling you were going to choose Mendax. I was prepared.” He laughed, but it sounded unrecognizable, like it came from someone who wasn’t my best friend.
“No, I’m not choosing him, Eli. You saved my life, and I will be forever grateful for you. You know that. I couldn’t have done anything without you as my friend. You’ve always been my hero when I needed you. Don’t you want to live your life and experience things without worrying that you are going to accidentally kill your friend? Besides, without the drop of Artemi from my sister, we shouldn’t even be tied together anymore, right? The Fates will have to let us go unharmed.” I smiled and tried my best to make sure he saw that I meant it.
“I only saved your life and even had to tie myself to you because he tried to kill you, Cal, and I don’t mind being tied to you. Even as only friends, I like being able to feel what you feel or when you’re in trouble. I’ve always liked being your hero.” He flashed his perfect teeth in his charismatic grin, and I couldn’t help but smile back.
“Well, Mendax suddenly seems hell-bent on being my hero, so you’re going to have to take that up with him,” I laughed. “Maybe you could try out the villain for a change. I hear they have way more fun.” I wiggled my brows.
I smiled, but something inside my mouth felt odd. Within a second, I was hacking and choking as something hard and smooth filled my mouth. Panicked, I looked to Eli for help, but he was no better off than I was as he tried to push his hand into his own mouth to grab whatever it was. I took his lead and tried to pry the oversized thing out of my mouth as I heaved and gagged.
“Here, here, tilt your face up,” Eli said as he held my face and attempted to help pull the thing from my mouth after he had apparently had success with his own. “There it is,” he said like a soothing voice as he emptied my mouth of the obstruction. “Another reason why I am still your hero and not Mendax. Feuhn kai greeyth, baby.”
I bent over and hacked until I was certain my insides were about to come up. “What the fuck was that?” I shouted as I looked up to see him holding two large, thick red tickets with gold-foil lettering.
“These look like tickets to a show that starts in five minutes.”
“A show? My father mentioned it was their entertainment…” My voice trailed off. A show? I thought this was a trial? “We should get dressed and quick. Where are we supposed to go?” I grabbed the smallest wad of robe and went toward the door.
“We are supposed to go to the concert hall. It’s inside the main house and to the left behind the big curtains,” he responded quickly as he grabbed his own red robe.
I froze at the door. “You’ve been to see them already…”
“Yes, and so has Mendax,” he replied softly. “Cal, I love you. Go make sure Mendax isn’t still choking on his ticket. I’ll meet you both outside the hall.”
I remained at the door for a beat as I watched him, then ran out the door and over to change with Mendax.