“He loves you and wants you to be safe,” Eliana said.
I felt a spear of envy and remembered Hades’ obsessive need to keep me safe too.
Eliana took my hand, stealing my longing, as she said, “My car’s out front. I’ll drive you home.”
“Do you mind if we all go to your house, Ashlyn?” Megan asked. “I think there’s more we need to discuss.”
“Sure,” I said.
Twenty-five minutes later, we were all comfortably seated in my living room and sipping the hot chocolate Eliana had made us.
“Almost as good as Grandma’s,” Megan said.
“It’s her recipe,” Eliana said.
I watched them share a smile and realized how much I’d missed their company even though they hadn’t been in my life for long before I’d disappeared.
“How mad are you at your in-laws?” I asked Megan.
“Like everything in my life, it’s a love-hate relationship. I’m getting pretty good at those.”
“Except for Oanen,” Eliana said. “There’s no hate there.”
Megan snorted. “I’ll hellgate to you the next time he takes my phone so you can feel what I feel.”
Eliana grinned. “Mild annoyance isn’t hate, Megan. We both know he always makes it up to you.”
Megan got a far-off look, and Eliana’s eyes went black.
I quickly shut mine and focused on what Mr. Quill had said in the library. Confined. That’s what he’d said. As if I were the problem and needed to be locked away. But wasn’t I sort of the problem? The tremors had started when we’d reached the lake. ButbeforeI’d been threatened. Megan, Zotera, and I had been talking at the end of the dock. The very subtle tremors hadn’t been enough to dissuade me from casting a line. But they’d definitely increased when the mermaids had started messing with us.
“Sorry,” Eliana said, breaking through my thoughts. “I’m done. Are you okay?”
I cautiously opened my eyes and looked at her.
“No overwhelming urges to kiss you or invite you to spend the night with me,” I said. “We’re good.”
Her relief was notable as I took another sip of soothing chocolate.
“I’ll be more careful in the future, Ashlyn,” she said. “I promise.”
“Me too,” Megan said. “No more distracting Oanen thoughts. Let’s focus on Adira instead.”
She set her cup aside and leaned forward. “I wasn’t as forthcoming with the council as I could have been.”
“When are they ever forthcoming to us,” Eliana said with a shrug.
“Exactly. Which is why I stayed behind to find some answers after Mrs. Quill left with you. While the mermaids said that they were told to poison you, they couldn’t confesswhotold them to do it. They remembered talking to someone at the docks but couldn’t recall a face or a voice. It was completely gone, like they were mind-wiped.
“When I demanded that the mermaid or mermaids responsible for poisoning you confess, none of them did. And considering the dart we found, that makes sense.”
“They like to use their claws,” Eliana said with a nod.
“Yep. Surface wounds that are easier to treat. Instead, you were hit with a dart. A small injury but one that sent the poison deep,” Megan said. “According to Mrs. Quill, if Zotera hadn’t sucked out as much of the poison as she had, they likely wouldn’t have been able to save you, Ashlyn.”
I looked at Zotera.
For a split second, I thought I saw that flicker of absolute rage in her eyes again.
