Justin shrugged. “To distract me. I’m scared,” he admitted. “I was trying to find a way to go home, and now, I’m stuck here. I don’t know if I’ll ever see my brothers again. The way you talk about yourassociatetells me that to you, he’s more like my brothers are to me than just someone you work with.”
“You have brothers?”
Justin was happy to talk about his brothers. Anything not to have to think about the mess he was in. “I do. Well, all of us were adopted, but I still consider them my brothers.”
Mynor stared at Justin for a moment before nodding. “We have different parents, but we grew up together. Our mothers were friends.”
“So you’ve known each other a long time.”
“All of our lives.”
“Then it makes sense that he’d be willing to risk his life to save you from this place. He loves you.”
“And I love him, which is why I don’t want him to come anywhere near this place.”
Justin snorted. “You know that’s not going to stop him.”
“I do, but how do you?”
Justin pressed the back of his head against the wall. He stared at the stone ceiling, praying this wouldn’t be the last thinghe saw before dying. “Because my brothers would do the same. Unfortunately for me, they don’t know I’m here. They don’t even know I’m in Hell. I didn’t tell any of them I was coming here.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was an idiot. Because our adoptive mother recently died, and we’re all grieving. Because we had a stupid fight, and I thought that if I gave all of them some time to cool down, everything would go back to normal.”
“You lost your mother?”
“Yeah, and stupid me thought that maybe I could find something similar to what I had with her with Anya.”
“I don’t think Anya was ever meant to be a mother.”
“I agree. Unfortunately for me, I’m now stuck here. My brothers don’t know I’m here, and I don’t see how they can find out. I don’t have a way to have anyone open a portal for me, which means I’m as stuck as you are. So please, tell me more about your friend. Distract me.”
Mynor was silent for a moment. Justin expected him to continue being quiet. Why would he tell Justin anything? Maybe he thought that Justin was a spy for Anya. Maybe he didn’t actually believe that Justin was as much of a prisoner as he was.
“His name is Alphan,” Mynor eventually said. “He’s stubborn, which means he’ll try to reach me again. If he manages, and if we get out of here, I promise that I’ll help you find someone to open a portal for you.”
Justin looked at Mynor. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I don’t, but you should be able to go home. Keeping you here isn’t right.”
“Something tells me it’s not the only thing that Anya will do that isn’t right,” Justin murmured. “I know why she had me locked up here. I mentioned you to her the other day, and I think she believes I’m afraid of you.”
“You’re not?”
“I’m more afraid of her. So far, you haven’t done anything that would cause me to be scared of you. On the other hand, she’s done many things that mean I don’t trust her. She’s not a good person. She didn’t hesitate to have me locked up when I stood up to her and because I’m not going along with what she wants. I trust you more than I trust her.”
“You don’t know me.”
Justin looked at Mynor. He was as handsome as he’d been the other time they’d talked. He also looked tired and a little rough around the edges. Justin still wasn’t afraid of him. “I know you enough to be sure you’re nothing like my mother. I just have to listen to the way you talk about Alphan. You care about him more than you care about yourself, which isn’t something Anya has ever felt. She doesn’t care about me, even though I’m her son. She only wants to use me and to mold me into her image.”
“And you won’t let her.”
“I’d rather die.” And it might come down to that. Justin wasn’t an idiot, even though he’d definitely been stupid when he’d decided to come here. He hadn’t thought about how this would go. He’d desperately needed a distraction, and part of him had hoped to find the bond he’d shared with Caitlin with his birth mother, too, or at least something similar to it. Instead, his birth mother had revealed herself to be a monster, and now, Justin was stuck in a cell with a massive, handsome demon. He had no way to contact his brothers to tell them what was going on, or even to say that he loved them one last time. He’d probably never know if Yancey and Calyx ever made peace.
What he did know was that they’d worry about him. They’d try to find him, and Calyx might even be able to do so. He was a powerful mage.
The problem was that Justin wasn’t sure it would happen soon enough. He had faith in his brothers, but he didn’t trust Anya.
