20. Hook
I blinked, and suddenly I was standing outside, facing Emerson and Theloneus with Never nowhere in sight.
Weariness seeped into my bones. “What is the meaning of this?”
Emerson shook his head in response, wearing an expression that was equal parts frustration and pity if I was reading him correctly.
“The woman doesn’t know about her blood, does she?” Theloneus asked. There was no judgment in his voice, but it was loaded with curiosity.
I let my stance ease the tiniest bit. “She does not.”
“But you do.” Emerson’s eyebrows pulled together, revealing a series of fine lines that were uncommon for a being of his power.
“Obviously.”
“And you’ve chosen to be with her despite her bloodline?” he asked skeptically.
“I fail to see how my relationship with Never is relevant to the trouble we’re facing,” I fired back, careful to maintain a polite tone. What I felt for her and what she meant to me was no one else’s business.
“You are aware she’s mortal, aren’t you?”
Much to my dismay.I dipped my head to confirm his suspicions.
His lips twitched down, deepening his frown before Theloneus cleared his throat and pulled my focus.
The air shifted, and just like that, it was only the two of us standing on that unfamiliar rooftop. From the layout of the city beyond, we were likely on the roof of Never’s apartment building. A fact that made me feel both better and worse.
“Where did he go?” I asked.
Theloneus let out a great sigh. “You’ll have to forgive him. He fell in love with a mortal not all that long ago, and he still hasn’t recovered from losing her.”
My chest tightened. My throat worked, though I could barely swallow past the lump that had formed there in the space of a breath. “How long?”
Pity filled his brown eyes. “Since she died? Just shy of a century.”
All the air still lingering in my lungs leaked out. Emerson was living my nightmare, and it brought the reality of my situation with Never into even sharper relief.
But it was already too late for me. It wasn’t as if I could stop loving her.
My heart twisted in my chest. Love. I just had to think that cursed word, didn’t I?
He reached out and clapped me on the shoulder, ripping me from my troublesome thoughts. “We should be able to help with the demon, though every exorcism carries some risk for the host.”
It took me a moment to come back to myself and process his words. “You’re still willing to help?”
“Of course. The shadow bit might make things tricky, but the principles of the spell should remain the same.”
His answer offered me hope, limited though it may be. If we could get the shadow away from the boy, I could ensure Never and Matty’s safety by returning the creature to the Nassa. That, at least, would buy me time to figure out what the devil I was going to do with her.
“What’s your price?” I asked. Everything had a price.
“The truth.”
“What truth is that?”
He cast his gaze across the rooftop and across the city before it found its way back to me. I was powerful in my own right, but there was no denying the echo of endless ages that swirled around a primordial being. He folded his arms over his chest. “Tell the girl the truth about her blood. She has a right to know.”
“What good will that do?” I shook my head. “When she dies, she’ll end up in the Alius, whether she knows the truth now or not, won’t she?”
His nod was barely perceptible.
“Then why should I ruin her time here with that knowledge?” Especially when I had no intention of letting her die. Period. I just wasn’t sure telling anyone that part of my plan was a good idea.
“It’s a cruel place, Atlas. Worse even than this world during its darkest years. Souls that aren’t expecting to end up there rarely fare well.”
All I could do was stare. The human world in its darkest years was a thing of legend, and I’d witnessed only a sliver of it.
“I see your wheels turning. Whatever plan you might be working on, make sure you’re also preparing to lose her. That is the way things always end for humans.” His expression turned almost fatherly. “If you truly care about her, prepare her for her fate.”
My blood was racing, filling every cell in my body with anxious energy. The idea of Never winding up trapped in the Alius clawed at me, laying everything inside me bare. Maybe she did deserve to know, but I hated the thought of robbing her of her beliefs surrounding death, even if I didn’t yet know what they were.
But none of that mattered, did it? I would tell her the truth. If that was the price to save her brother, I would pay it.
No matter what else happened, I would find a way to bring her to my world. Even if that meant tearing a hole in the veil and laying waste to every being in the Alius who stood in my way until I found her.
She was mine, and nothing in the universe would keep from her for long.
“I will tell her.”
He nodded once. “Do it quickly. The longer the shadow controls the boy, the harder it will be to separate them.”
A cool wind ruffled my hair, but when I turned my head to let it wash over my heated face, I was once again standing in the still air of Never’s apartment.
Emerson was there, as I suspected he would be, with Never staring him down with so much fury it was a miracle the man didn’t burst into flames.
He cast his gaze my way. “I see why you chose her.” His lips tipped up in a sad smile.
She whipped around, relief washing some of her anger away. “What the fuck was that?” she demanded, even as she closed the distance between us. She stopped just out of reach, like she wasn’t sure if I’d want her to come any closer.
I reached out my hand. “We need to talk.”
Half an hour later, Never was standing at the window, staring out at the rather depressing view of her neighborhood. She’d taken the news of her bloodline in stride, but I had a feeling the implications hadn’t truly begun to settle in.
“Does it change things? Will the Brethren refuse to help now?” she asked without turning around.
Fortunately, Emerson and Theloneus had taken their leave while I shared the news with her.
“They’ll still help.”
She nodded. It was the only indication she gave that she’d heard me. I wanted to go to her, to pull her into me and tell her it would be okay. Her blood was the same as it had been when I’d first laid eyes on her. It changed nothing for me, but there was little I could do for her as she wrestled with her new reality.
She turned slowly, a haunted look shadowing her normally fiery features. “When do we start?”
“Whenever you’re ready.”
“It’s okay to take a beat, Nev,” Lily said, watching from her perch at the kitchen counter. “You were just hit with some pretty huge news.”
She nodded thoughtfully before shaking her head. “But that’s the problem; it’s just information. I can’t do anything with it.” When she finally looked my way, resolve hardened her expression. “So, I’m going to pretend like I didn’t hear it. Going to hell, or whatever you called it, is officially a tomorrow Never problem.”
“The Alius,” I reminded her. Of all the ways I’d imagined she might deal with the news, disregarding it altogether hadn’t even made the list.
She waved a dismissive hand. “Let’s get those evil bastards back here and get this shit show on the road.”
There it was: the attitude. Her armor. As much as I wanted her in my arms at that moment, the woman needed to stand on her own. So, I let her have her space and sent out the mental call. Only a matter of seconds passed before Emerson and Theloneus reappeared.
Never’s expression was cool and determined as she took in both men. “What do we need to do to get that thing out of my brother?”
“You told her?” Emerson asked, ignoring her question to shoot me a doubtful look.
“Yeah, he told me I’m rocking some demon blood inside all this.” She motioned to her body. “It changes nothing.”
His gaze swung between the two of us before his shoulders lifted in a resigned shrug. “Very well. The first thing we need is a location. Outside but secluded, where we can draw the demon to us without putting others at risk.”
Never and Lily shared a look. “The park,” they said in unison.
“Where I saw the demon the first time,” Never added. “I was in a part of the park that was mostly overgrown, like people didn’t spend much time there.”
“I didn’t scent a lot of human traffic there either,” Lily said.
Right. I’d forgotten they were together during Never’s initial fight with Petra’s shadow.
“It might be an anchor point,” I said to Emerson and Theloneus. “When I was pulled from my world to this one, I arrived in that same park.”
Emerson narrowed his eyes. “You were pulled? You didn’t flash here?”
My gaze slipped to Never for half a second before returning to him. “I’d been trying to find my way here without any success. Then, out of the blue, I felt myself slipping between realms.”
He scratched the stubble along his broad jaw. “Interesting. It takes a good deal of power to cross realms, but it takes more to draw a being from one to the other.” His gaze roamed the room before settling on Never. “The pendant you and your brother used to return here. Do you still have it?”
She took longer than I expected to respond, but eventually she pulled it out from beneath her shirt to show him. “Right here.”
“Hmm.” He moved closer, studying it carefully without reaching out for it. “And what kind of magic is this?”
“Mine,” I said. “That is, quite literally, a piece of me.”
His eyes went wide, and he backed up a step.
“It’s kind of a family heirloom,” Never said.
“And that’s a story for another day,” I added. The last thing I wanted to do was relive that experience with everyone present.
“Uh huh,” Theloneus chimed in. “Atlas, when did you arrive in the human realm?”
“A day and a half, give or take.”
“And Never, did you have the pendant at that time?”
“Yeah?” Her brow scrunched together for a few seconds before her eyes slowly widened. “Oh shit.” Those two words were barely audible, but I was pretty sure everyone in the room heard them.
“You summoned him,” Emerson said, sounding impressed.
She started shaking her head, then stopped and looked at me like she wasn’t sure she wanted to share what she was thinking. “I didn’t... I was just...” Her gaze darted to Lily and back to me. “We’d just had a run-in with my brother. Lily was injured and she shifted. It was the first time I’d seen her as a tiger, and I was tired, and we just kept fucking losing...”
She fell silent, her throat working but no sound was coming out.
“It’s okay,” I said soothingly, reaching out for her.
She shrugged away from me with an apologetic look. “It was stupid. I didn’t think... I didn’t...”
“Love,” I caught her by the wrist before she could retreat further. “I was trying to get here. I’d done everything I could think of. Called in every favor I’d ever banked.”
Her eyes searched mine, looking so lost and unsure that I had no idea what was going on in her head. Emotions were bleeding from her in a river, but they were chaotic and jumbled.
“I grabbed the pendant to kind of ground myself, and I thought of you,” she confessed. “How much I... wanted you in my life.”
My heart stilled for gods only knew how long before it took off like a bird in flight. Soaring. That was the only way to explain what I was feeling. Well, that, and a bone deep satisfaction. I couldn’t take my eyes off her, even when Emerson let out a breathy laugh.
“In all my years, I’ve never heard of a human summoning a god in such a manner,” he said. “Color me impressed.”
Never’s expression remained guarded, but it did soften a touch.
“Has the shadow made a play for the pendant?” Theloneus asked.
“Yeah. It tried to take it when we first got here,” she said, turning her attention to the other men. “It damn near managed it too, but Matty took back over long enough to get the thing to back off.”
“You said he surfaced yesterday as well, correct?”
She nodded.
“That’s promising Even incredibly strong humans wither under the weight of demon possession. Most souls are burned out of their bodies within a matter of days.”
I winced and cast him a warning glare, but it was too late. Never had heard the same thing I had.
“When you say ‘burned out’, what exactly does that mean?” she asked.
The primordial at least had the decency to look uncomfortable before he answered. “Possession doesn’t typically displace a soul, it destroys it. Not always,” he rushed to add. “Given how long he’s held on, there is reason to hope.”
In an unexpected twist, Never seemed to relax at the news. “Just so I’ve got this straight, you’re telling me that if my brother’s soul is burned up before we can get that piece of shit shadow out of him, he’ll cease to exist. Am I understanding that correctly?”
He offered her a hesitant nod.
“So, his soul will just...” She made an expanding gesture with her hand. “Poof? And he won’t end up in hell?”
Understanding smacked me so hard I felt like a fool. Her world revolved around her brother. Finding out she was cursed to spend eternity in the Alius would have been bad enough, but the knowledge that her brother would suffer the same fate must have been eating her alive.
Emerson’s expression was unreadable as he nodded in the affirmative.
Never let out a relieved breath, though the tension rolling off her was still considerable. “I’m not going to pretend like that’s the best news I’ve ever heard, but it’s a fuck ton better than the alternative.”