28. Trapped
28
TRAPPED
TESSA
F rom his black satin bed, I shout at Hypnos, “What the fuck happened?”
“Please, woman. No need for dramatics.” He waves me off. “At least she didn’t consume your soul.”
“ She? ” I bolt from the bed. Thankfully, I’m not naked. I’ve been dressed in a black and silky nightgown.
To match him.
Then a chilling thought crosses my mind.
“Are you claiming me? Is that why you’re helping Instant?”
“So you do know what’s going on?” He raises an eyebrow and looks down his nose at me as I charge up at him. The towering dream god doesn’t look worried in the least. Annoyed, maybe. Perhaps even a bit amused. Like I’m a feisty little kitten.
“Why? Why do this?” I’m shaking with anger. “Aren’t you powerful enough?”
“I am powerful. More powerful than you can imagine. But, my dear, I’m bored.”
“You’re bored? You fucked up my life, helped Instant steal my body and powers to cause who knows what kind of damage to the world because you’re bored ?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds frivolous,” he says with a pout.
“It fucking is!”
Hypnos adjusts his black wings, and they flare a bit. He reaches out and captures my head between his hands. He leans down, meeting me face to face. It’s intimidating as fuck. Briefly, I worry he might try to kiss me. How can I fight off a god like him?
Instead, he whispers, “You’re not dead. You can live here with me forever.”
“You did this because you’re lonely?” I ask in complete disbelief. “Why?”
“I liked you well enough when we chatted. You amuse me. So I renegotiated to save your soul in exchange for my help in weakening your mind and body through stress.”
“That’s why you’ve been fucking with my love life… and the texts with the guys?”
“I wanted you all to have some fun before Instant sucks their souls dry. I thought you’d be grateful I’m able to play with you while Instant has your body. You might be stuck in limbo for hundreds of years before she accidentally drains your soul too much.”
“Grateful? To be your prisoner?”
Hypnos keeps his hold on me and steps closer, pushing me against the edge of his bed. “You’d rather be out there? In the physical world? When I can give you everything in the dreamscape?”
“I want to be with my guys. I don’t want them to die.”
“I can be them for you.”
I grit my teeth. “No. You can’t. It isn’t the same and you know it.”
I swallow down my rage when I realize he doesn’t want to hurt me. Perhaps, if I can get him to see my side, he’ll help me.
“I understand why you prefer the dream world,” I say softly, gazing into his strange dark orbs for eyes. He’s so close, it makes me nervous. “But I’m human… well, mostly human. I belong in the physical world.”
“You all belong to me for a third of your life spans, so you belong here, too. Every time you sleep, I’m there, watching over you.”
“But that isn’t enough, is it?” I ask. “That’s why you want me to be aware and be your companion.”
He turns his head, not looking at me anymore. “I don’t have the one thing you all have a chance to find.”
I place my hands over his, which are still cradling my head. “What’s that?”
“Love.”
Does he expect me to fill that role for him?
“Hypnos, you must realize I can’t offer you that. My heart belongs to them.”
His attention snaps back to me, his grip on me tightens to the point of being painful. I’m afraid for my life as I watch the grief pass over his face.
His forehead drops to mine, his shoulders curling in. “I know,” he breathes out, barely audible.
“Please, help me.” I beg. “Please, stop her before she ruins everything I love. Before she fucks up the world.”
His hands fall away, and I drop to sit on the edge of his bed. He paces away from me, his fingers raking through his glossy black locks.
He’s beautiful, but he’s not mine .
“She’s out there,” I say, as if in a trance. “Your love.”
He spins and races toward me, excitement and fear warring in his eyes. He falls to his knees in front of me, but we are almost the same height now since he’s so tall. “Truly? Your ability tells you this?”
I nod. Then close my eyes to see if there is anything else I can see that might convince him to help us. “I see long, straight hair—dark, like yours. A dreamer? But I also feel she’s in danger. Instant Karma will come for her. For this woman’s special power.”
“My mate has power?” he says in awe. “And Instant will harm her?” Then he narrows his eyes. “Are you fucking with me?” he growls.
“No.” I shake my head in earnest. “You must know I get more visions when I’m dreaming. It makes sense I would see her while I’m here, and with you .”
“Swear on your soul… your mates’ souls, that you speak the truth about this supposed mate.”
“I swear on the souls of my loves and my own that what I say was shown to me just now.”
Hypnos jumps to his feet and paces again. His giant wings twitching as he thinks.
He turns to me and opens his mouth to speak, but before he can, the temperature of the room plummets and we both shiver with cold.
I recognize the sensation.
Death.
“Am I dying?” I clutch my chest, as if the heart beating in my chest is real.
“No, I don’t think so. But Death is here.” Hypnos stares into the distance. “I’m going to allow him into my realm, but make sure he understands I’m helping you now.”
“You’re going to help?” I ask, feeling a bit of hope.
He nods curtly.
Then the cloaked reaper appears in the cavern. Death has at least a foot on Hypnos and makes him seem small and less intimidating.
Death turns to me, and then his attention burrows into Hypnos. The dream god holds up his hands in surrender and speaks quickly. “I’m going to help you and Tessa.”
It’s clear Hypnos fears Death. It makes sense that even though they are similar and possibly matched in power, that Death will be what ends Hypnos’s epically long reign.
“How did you know she was here?” Hypnos asks.
“She’s one of mine,” Death explains. “After her mates came to me with concern about her behavior, it didn’t take much to search for her soul and find it hidden from me. It was only a small leap to assume it was in the one place I couldn’t locate her.”
My guys hunted down Death to rescue me?
I’m surprised they would do that. Should I be surprised? I suppose growing up in a home that treated garbage better, I’ve never really expected that people might go out of their way to help me.
Life on the streets only reinforced that belief. I was a target for most. Sure, I met a few decent people along the way, but never for long. Even Carmen, aka Karma, didn’t stick around.
“Tessa?” Death calls to me, and I snap out of my thoughts. When he sees I’m alert again, he says, “If you want to live, you’ll have to fight her. Hypnos will wake you, essentially moving your soul back into your body. Instant will try to shove you back out. If she accomplishes that and permanently claims your body, then you’re dead. I can’t forcibly remove a goddess from a human vessel without destroying it. Even if I tried and succeeded, she’d likely destroy your body out of spite when she left.”
“That only gets her out of my body, which I want, don’t get me wrong, but we need a better plan or else she will just come back again and hurt others.”
“What do you have in mind, little reaper?” Hypnos tilts his head as if he knows where I’m going with this.
“We need to trap her essence… like how Hypnos has me here.”
“She would find a way to break out,” Death states, as if it’s no use.
Then an idea comes to me. “Not if she didn’t realize she was trapped.”
After we work out the broad strokes of a plan, Hypnos saunters up to me. His fingers brush aside a lock of my hair and he tucks it behind my ear. “You sure you don’t want to stay with me here? I wouldn’t force you to be my mate.”
I roll my eyes. It seems the dream god is a compulsive flirt. “Only because you know you already have one out there.”
“Maybe. But why couldn’t you be my mate as well? It appears you have three.”
“Exactly. I have three. I’m not yours.” I frown for a moment, and then another thought comes to me. “I’m a descendant of the first karmic death god, and I sense you’re facing retribution if you don’t fix this mess with Instant.”
“Hmm. Good point, little reaper.” He smirks, as if this is all a game. And to him, it probably is. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” I answer, squaring my shoulders and looking at Death, who is standing to the side.
“I won’t be able to help much. Forgive me,” Death says with so much sadness, it makes me want to weep.
“Nothing to forgive.” I give him a nod of appreciation. “Thank you for everything. Will you tell them I love them?”
“That’s your duty,” he refuses. I understand the positive sentiment, but damn, I hope I get to see my guys again.
Hypnos places his large palm on my forehead, and I’m shoved backward.
I’m falling, spinning through the darkness. Then I land with a jarring sensation.
Still in the darkness, I grope around for something, but it’s like I’m stuck in a cloud.
Beginning to panic, I remind myself that isn’t an option.
With my senses, I probe outward into the dark. I’m in my body, that much I can tell. But I’m not in control. I’m a stowaway with no access to my sight or hearing.
The consuming darkness would be more terrifying if I hadn’t been working as a reaper. I know this isn’t death. I have to trust that where my thoughts go, my consciousness follows. Focusing on my mind, my eyes, my ears, my skin, I feel a pull. I allow my spirit to drift with that tide.
Slowly, I can see light hitting my retinas and hear someone speaking. Good. This is good. My spirit unfurls in my brain and down through my limbs. As if I’ve been asleep and my whole body is waking.
“What the fuck?” Instant hisses with my voice.
“What’s wrong?” Dante asks from across the kitchen table.
“Nothing. I… I need to go to work.” She scrambles to find an excuse to leave abruptly.
“Right now?” Evan challenges. “We were talking about our future.”
Do they really not know it’s not me?
No wait, coming out of my haze, I remember they know… they had gone to Death. They’re probably waiting for me to take control and are biding their time with her.
I imagine she hates having to pretend to be nice and talk things out with them. From what I know of her, she’s categorically impatient. But why is she wasting time doing that? Perhaps she wants to keep them as her servants.
“If you leave now, we’re over,” Dante threatens. He moves closer, glowering at us. I can see how differently he looks at her than with the love he usually has in his eyes with me. It reveals so much and it breaks my heart.
“You can wait,” Instant snaps and vanishes.
We pop away to the boardwalk. It’s almost vacant now that the carnival has moved on.
“Tessa?” she growls. “Is that you, you little bitch?”
Little bitch?
I don’t think I can reply to her even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.
She’s watching people, searching for a victim so she can consume their energy—their souls. No, I can’t allow her to do that, for several reasons.
I need to grab onto her essence and capture it. No need for a discussion. I must act now.
Hypnos will have to handle the rest. I just hope I can trust him to accomplish what he claims he can do.
Being back in my body, even though it isn’t under my control, still gives me access to my powers. I gather the magic that I naturally have, then I pull from Death’s gift.
Next, I focus on the energy that is the goddess invader.
I expected her essence to be bright with golden, blinding light, as I had seen her before when she recruited me. But she’s a pale imitation of herself.
This is good news. Perhaps I have a chance to subdue her.
I reach out with my astral arms to rip her from my body.
“Bitch!” she screams, and the few pedestrians in the area turn to see what the commotion is.
She doesn’t waste her godly magic on transportation when she needs every drop to fight me.
And the battle begins…