9. SETH
SETH
“Well, have you decided to accept my invitation?” Lucien was looking far too smug, as if it was a foregone conclusion that I would say yes.
“I haven’t decided to not accept it,” I said, pleased when he looked a bit taken aback, “but I have questions I want answered first.”
“Go ahead and ask them then. I have nothing to hide from you.”
There were so many I hardly knew where to start, but one in particular had been bugging me since our last meeting.
“Why did you stay? If things are as settled as you claim they are now, why bother waiting on the damned Prophecy. Why not just leave?”
“Do you really think I had any choice in the matter?”
“According to Gabriel, yes. He said, and I quote, ‘Luci’s been getting very antsy lately so we couldn’t rule out him just abandoning the Underworld to its fate if we didn’t find him a replacement’.”
“Is that what he told you?” he said with obvious disgust. “Well, honesty never was one of his virtues. Same goes for all of them. When it fell to me to be the realm’s first overseer, it was on the understanding that one of my brothers would take my place after a few centuries.
It was never intended to be just me forever more, or I’d never have agreed to do it in the first place.
When I started reminding them of that fact, though, they all came up with one excuse after another for why they couldn’t be the one to take over.
“And then of course they came up with the ridiculous prophecy idea instead. Purely to save themselves from having to keep their word to me. Oh, and when they returned me to the Underworld after my little tryst with your mother, they put a fucking binding spell on me to stop me from leaving before the prophecy played out, unless one of them transported me. Just their little insurance policy.”
“That’s… pretty fucked up.” I said. Although from what I’d seen of Gabriel so far I had no trouble believing it. “But if they can stop you from leaving, why didn’t they apply that to the entire realm? Then there’d have been no need to guard the gateway.”
“Too complicated. The binding can only be applied to individuals and there are far too many of them. Every time a new demon was born, someone would have had to place the binding on them. We’d still have needed someone on the inside to do that.”
“So why not just make the gate a one-way portal? Use it to send in supplies and leave them to get on with it.”
A look of horror crossed his face. “Lock them in there and forget about them, you mean? Our own kin? We’re not barbarians.”
If anything could have convinced me he was deserving of my help, it was that statement.
“You could just let them go though, couldn’t you? If the binding only keeps you there, you could just open the gateway and let them come and go as they pleased. There wouldn’t be much point in making you stay if you weren’t going to stop them from leaving.”
“And what do you suppose would happen to them if I did that? As things stand, they’d have nowhere to go, none of the support they’d need to build a new life for themselves.
And if my brothers discovered they were in the mortal realm, they would hunt them down and eradicate them.
I don’t want them to have to live in secret, hiding themselves away from even the other magical races for their own survival.
I want them to be recognised and accepted, just like everyone else. ”
I could see where he was coming from. Keeping our existence a secret from the mortals was hard enough, doing so from the Guardians and the Watchers would be nigh on impossible.
“Aren’t you tempted to just disappear now you’re in the mortal realm?” I asked curiously. “Then one of them would have to take your place if I refused to do it.”
“At one time I might have considered doing just that,” he admitted. “But not now. I want to see this through. I want to see my people achieve the freedom to choose for themselves how and where they live their lives. But I can’t do that without your help.
“That’s why I’ve been willing to play along with my brothers’ little game and pretend I’m on board with trying to force you to fulfil the prophecy.
That’s not my intention. I want you to come to my realm for a visit because I honestly believe that when you see the truth you’ll want to help us.
But if you don’t, you can walk away after the year with no hard feelings. Does that answer all your questions?”
“I guess it does. The main problem though is what are you going to tell your brothers? If they believe your intention is to force me to fulfil the prophecy, won’t they be demanding to know why you’re still there and why this fucking coronation they seem so set on hasn’t taken place?”
“Let me worry about my brothers. I can handle them.”
“The same way you handled them into keeping their word about relieving you of duty? Forgive me if I don’t find that very reassuring.”
He sighed. “Look, all they really care about is that someone is guarding the gateway. Someone that isn’t one of them.
As long as one of us is doing the job, they’re not going to care who it is.
Me staying on to get you settled into your role is entirely reasonable.
And as long as I’m willing to do that, there’s no reason for them to push for an official transfer of power.
I’ve no doubt they won’t let me leave until that’s happened.
But they won’t stop you from leaving as long as I’m still there.
And I’ve already given you my assurance that I don’t expect you to stay once the year is up, regardless of whether or not you agree the demons are no longer a threat to the mortal realm. ”
He made it all sound so straightforward. And although I didn’t trust that smug blond arsehole of a brother of his, I did believe that Lucien would keep his word.
“Alright, you’ve convinced me, but I have a couple of conditions,” I said, surprised to find I was actually starting to look forward to it a little.
I was going to miss Zara like my heart had been ripped out, but I’d never had a challenge quite like this before.
And I had to admit I was curious about my father and the civilised society he claimed to have created in his realm.
“Firstly, I want passage back to the mortal realm at least once a month so I can check in with my team and make sure everything is running smoothly in my absence.” Jed and I had discussed the possibility of me being able to negotiate something along those lines, although I hadn’t mentioned it to Zara in case it hadn’t panned out.
“You say your brothers will be happy as long as one of us is there holding down the fort, so it shouldn’t be an issue. ”
“It shouldn’t be, but I’m more or less certain they will make it one unfortunately.
Gabriel’s already complaining about having to ferry me to these meetings.
We can work on it once you’ve been there a while though.
Maybe we can arrange something later.” Damn.
But at least having that request turned down might give more weight to the other one.
“Very well. In that case I won’t agree to a year. I’ll give you six months. I’m not willing to spend any longer than that away from my duties here. Do we have a deal?” I held out my hand, and he shook it eagerly. Maybe I should have gone with three months.
“Deal. Gabriel will be waiting for us downstairs—”
“Whoa, not so fast. I still have a few loose ends to tie up here. I need to let my team know what’s going on.
And I need to say a proper goodbye to my Kaderi.
” That was something I was not looking forward to.
“Gabriel can come and collect me from the manor tomorrow morning. I’ll be ready at ten o’clock. ”
“So you’re really going to abandon Zara and do this?” Terrah was looking at me like I’d just announced I’d cancelled Christmas.
“I have to. I thought everyone understood that.”
“Have to or want to?” she muttered under her breath.
Before I had a chance to snap back at her, Zara surprised me by leaping to my defence.
“Terrah, I know you’re trying to look out for me,” she said, “and I appreciate it, I really do, but you don’t need to. I understand why Seth is doing this and it’s not because he wants to.”
I was grateful for the show of support, even if I suspected that she didn’t fully believe that any more.
As soon as I’d got back from my meeting with Lucien, I’d filled her in on everything we’d discussed before the others arrived.
And while it was true that I didn’t want to leave her, I wasn’t sure I’d quite managed to hide the fact that I wasn’t exactly dreading my visit to the Underworld either.
The only thing I hadn’t told her about was my intention to try and persuade Gabriel to bring me back for visits.
It was better for her not to know and be surprised if it happened, than to be disappointed if it didn’t.
“So what happens now?”
I gave Eli a grateful look for changing the subject. “Now, I just have to officially hand over my authority to Jed. You are still going to accept it, right?” If he changed his mind now I was screwed.
“Of course I am. Just remember it’s only temporary.” He stood and held out his hand, and a little arc of power flared between us as I clasped it firmly in mine.
“My team is all yours, cousin. Good luck, they can be an unruly bunch,” I added jokingly.
“I’ll do my best not to let them break me,” he said with a grin. “And if it’s okay with all of you,” he swept his gaze over my – no, it was his for now – team, “I’d like to go over a few things with you all while everyone is here.”
“If you don’t need me for this, I’m going to go upstairs,” Zara whispered. “There’s something I need to do.”
“Does it involve getting naked?” I whispered back, delighted when her cheeks turned crimson. I’d only been joking but now I was hoping.
“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” she said teasingly. “But don’t rush to join me. You should spend a bit more time with this lot since you won’t be seeing them for a while.”
She slipped out of the room unnoticed while everyone was laughing at something Theo had just said, leaving me to wonder what the little minx had planned. And how quickly I could wrap this meeting up so I could find out.