Who could’ve told her that? The Fates? Selene? Had she been watching me? Her onyx eyes shifted to me when I didn’t respond, narrowing.
“I’d think you’d be dropping at my feet, begging me to save her,” she crooned with a grin that made my skin crawl.
I turned from her, ready to use whatever magic it took to leave this realm, to return to Cassie’s side.
“I could do it, you know.” I halted in my tracks, unable to take another step as she continued. “I could save her.”
My feet remained in place, my mind roaring. I’d been searching for a god or goddess willing to go against the laws of The Twelve. Eris had violated the laws numerous times. If anyone would be willing to do it, it would be her. I turned, looking back to her over my shoulder, and the triumph in her eyes boiled my blood. My jaw clenched as I held back the urge to curse her. “You can’t be trusted. I know what you did to Marcus, the corruption.”
“Marcus.” She pressed a tip of her finger to her lips as she thought. “What year would that have been? I’ve played with so many minds, I’m not sure who you speak of.”
“Don’t fucking play with me, Eris. I know you did it. You tried to do it to Cassie.”
“I tried to help her. Do you know how many heart attacks she would have suffered had I not been there?”
I scoffed. “I won’t risk your deception.”
“Oh? What other options do you have?” she asked, the form before me melting into shadows. She reappeared within inches of me, her hand lifting to rest against my chest. The touch was enough to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand. “To end your own life?”
I didn’t move, forcing my face to remain unreadable as I held her gaze.
“I know of your plan, Lord of Shadows. To end your own life, to trip the reincarnation cycle and its curse to force her to live.” She lingered a moment, her onyx eyes falling to my chest where her cold hand rested. “It won’t work, though.”
“And how would you know?”
“Oh, I know things, Lord of Shadows. Many things. She would live, yes, but she would never recover.”
I stopped breathing. “What do you mean?”
“Did you not consider the fact, she’s human? Preventing her from dying won’t fix the damage already done. She can’t heal like the immortals. You would leave her trapped in the state she’s in now.”
My heart stuttered, my knees weakening under my weight. “No...”
“Yes.” She lifted those depthless eyes to me. “Would you suffer her a lifetime of agony, Lord of Shadows?”
Dread spread through my chest. My eyes fell from hers as the thought of Cassie, trapped in this state, suffering this pain tore through me. Eris remained silent, allowing me time to think.
“How would it benefit you, though? What do you want in exchange?” I knew how this worked. You didn’t bargain with gods and goddesses without paying a price. It was dangerous, reckless, even more so than bargaining with the fae. I’d exhausted all other possibilities, though, and Cassie was almost out of time.
Her form melted away into shadow again, and I braced myself, eyes searching the darkness for her. Her voice echoed through the nothingness around me. “I will claim something of yours at a time of my choosing.”
“What is it you want, exactly?” I asked, taking a step back, trying to feel out where she might be.
“I haven’t yet decided,” she said from the shadows.
“Then the answer’s no,” I said through gritted teeth, irritated by these games.
Her cold presence appeared at my back, her arms lowering over my shoulders as she leaned in to whisper. “I’m not the one who is running out of time.”
Before I could pull from her, she melted away, the shadows slipping downward as the walls returned into view. The fluorescent lights on the ceiling flickered back on, and slowly but surely the ambient sounds of Johnson’s medical office filled my ears once more. My gaze jerked to the door, the sound of the conversations in Cassie’s room returning, Thalia still wagging her tail as she watched. Had time stopped? Slowed?
Air rushed from me as I slumped onto the bench, a cold sweat breaking out over my skin as I panted. Gods... Eris had been willing to help Cassie, and I’d fucking turned her down. The chance had been right there, right in my grasp. What was I fucking thinking?
No, it was better this way. There was no telling what she had hidden up her sleeve, what sort of twisted games she might be trying to play. I had to find another way, there had to be one. Her warning left gravelly unease in the pit of my stomach.
You would leave her trapped in the state she is in now.
Was what she said true? If she’d been telling the truth, Cassie would never heal, might suffer the pain she was enduring until I returned, and the moment I resurrected... her heart would likely give out. Gods, I couldn’t do that to her,wouldn’tdo that to her.
