“I have no idea, though that would be nice. You’d think she could just, like, pop by and explain things, but for some reason no one ever does anything the easy way.”
“Speaking of things that don’t make sense.” Axel plops down on the bed next to me and takes my hand in his. “You can’t disappear like you did yesterday again. It was terrifying, and you almost died.”
“I’m a warrior,” I say. “I won’t sit things out, and it was a working strategy. I could see the vanir, even with the moon vanir blocking them, and I drew them out so you could see them too.”
“Hyperion did fine without you, flaming the air.”
I roll my eyes. “He wasted a lot of energy on nothing, you mean.”
“You could have stayed on my back and told me where they were.”
“That didn’t work as well. I could hardly see any of them, and they were easier to get when I drew them in.” I can’t help sulking a little. “It was a good plan, and it was working.”
“The vanir are powerful and plentiful.” Axel takes my hand and interlaces our fingers. “You can’t do that again. Promise me.”
I clamp my lips closed.
“Then I’ll leave you here in the future.”
“The water blessed won’t thank you for that,” I mutter.
He squeezes my hand hard—too hard.
“Ow.”
“Really? My hand hurts you?” His eyes are flashing. “You almost died, Liz. You—I can’t do that again. Are you even listening?”
I drop a hand on his jaw, liking the stubble. “I am listening. I will be smarter, I promise.”
“I may have three faces,” Axel whispers. “I may look different in each, and I may even share a face with a lunatic who abandoned all of us and Jörð.” He leans closer, until his face is an inch from mine. “But Liz, every single one of my faces, every single one of my forms, and every part of my life loves you. Do not put me through that again.”
My heart lurches inside my body.
“I can only imagine that the idiotic version of Azar who let that tiny Gideon person kill him felt the same, so if I regain my memories, I’m sure I’ll only act worse.” He drops his head against mine, so our foreheads are touching. We’re so close together that I can barely see his gorgeous face. “I promise that I will always be whatever you need. I will sacrifice whatever I must. Always.”
There’s a tiny knock at the door and Coral bursts through. “Is this a good time to tell you that Mom and Dad are leaving?”
“What about Gideon?” Axel asks.
“Him, too,” Coral says. “Hyperion can make a portal, but I thought you might want to, like, say bye or whatever.”
I reluctantly pull away from Axel, and I turn to face my sister. “Are you the chosen one who always has to interrupt us?”
Coral shrugs. “I thought I’d be waking you up. You’ve been sleeping for like forever. Dramatic much?”
Axel laughs. “She was stuck underwater, basically drowning and under torture for a significant time.”
“And then you burst from the water all broken and deranged and called on Jörð again, and saved the day.” Coral purses her lips. “I heard you were quite the hero. Believe me, no one will talk about anything else, and the water dragons are downright annoying with all their trumpeting, darting around, and whatnot. They also keep bringing piles of stinky fish, so if you could tell them ixnay on the ishfay, that would be great.”
I laugh, stand up, and stretch.
“I’m just saying.” Coral’s still shaking her head. “The earth blessed weren’t this annoying when they got wings, and they’d never had them before.” I swear, sometimes Coral acts like she’s forty years old.
“Sorry for sleeping too long while recovering,” I say. “If it helps, it wasn’t a very restful nap.”
“If I slept for seventeen hours, I wouldn’t call it a nap,” she mutters.
“If she’s this bad now, what are we going to do when she’s a teenager?” I ask.
