He never would.
“Is this all you’ve got,Poseidon? I’m not so breakable after all.”
His soft chuckle surprised me. He pulled back so that I could turn to face him again. His thumb rubbed the blood out of my eye and I blinked him into focus.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” he murmured. “You’ll need some fire in you if you hope to keep your sanity.” My confusion must have been obvious because his smile widened. “The power will ruin you, Ivy. You’ll be driven to insanity. And the harder I push you, the sweeter it will taste.”
Bile rose in my throat and if I had eaten anything today I would have launched it all over Nix. I knew he was right. I had felt it only moments ago. My mind had slipped and yet I had relished the feeling, I hadlovedhanding over my will to the power.
“Now, ask me nicely and I’ll let you see your friends.” His eyes darkened and his gaze dropped to my lips. “Or what’s left of them.”
“Please,” I heard myself say, too desperate to care about fighting him. “Please let me see them.”
His hand slipped behind me and deftly opened the gate. I stumbled backwards, but he was there to catch me. He righted me, turned me around and pushed me forward with a coaxing hand on my back.
“This way,” he said.
Once we were through the gate, he took my hand and led the way.
I memorized as much as I could in the short seconds I had to see everything. His yard was made from white sand and spongy rocks. They protruded from the blanket of sand until they towered over me. Their peaks were pointed and sharp and I wondered if they were part landscape, part defense against anyone that would drop from the sky.
They looked deadly.
His house was massive. It stretched as far and wide as the island with multi-levels and balconies on every side. It was built in squares and rectangles. Every side was straight and edged. The expansive windows had silky blue curtains flapping through their open panes. More blue cloth decorated the pool area and lounging chairs. I counted two outdoor beds with massive posts and a slotted pergola overhead in discreet, but not completely hidden places outdoors. The flat roof boasted a breathtaking garden with flowers of every color and shape. I could smell their fragrant blossoms from here, mingling with the scent of the ocean.
Inside, we walked through more opulent luxury. Everything was as flashy and extravagant as Nix. There were subtle details here and there that reminded me of his origins. Tridents carved into a white mantle over a huge iron fireplace or sea shells on the decorative pillows.
It was like Nix had invited a decorator in and said, “I’m the god of the sea, embellish accordingly.”
He led me through the maze of his house. Nothing was on the same level. Each room seemed to make up its own floor so that we were constantly going up or down stairs.
The deeper into the house we walked, the more threatening the décor became. Instead of gauzy curtains and rare paintings, tridents hung on the walls. The rooms were no longer meant for guests, their doors replaced with iron bars.
The house lost its lavish appeal and became a dungeon for Nix’s victims.
My stomach curdled with the realization that my friends had been locked here for a year. In a place where the chill in the air snaked around your skin and sunlight could not reach.
There were signs that visitors had been here recently. Half-full wine glasses were left forgotten on countertops and a man’s jacked lay tossed in the corner.
And while the visitors had left, the girls Nix kept locked up tight, remained.
We stepped over frail, listless arms that reached out through the bottom of their cell doors. They retreated quickly when they caught sight of Nix’s sandaled feet marching along the white and blue tile. I watched them scurry to the corners of their rooms, hiding from the devil himself.
Some rooms were occupied by four and five girls and some only had one. They were of all ages. Some too young for me to want to think about and some older than my mother. They were all shapes and sizes too, as if Nix wanted a variety of women to meet any man’s taste.
Their eyes were all the same though. Empty. Void. Lifeless.
I wanted to scream at Nix. I wanted to throw myself at him and claw his eyes out. I wanted to shove his face in those rooms and beat him until he understood what he did.
He had power over these broken women that should not belong to him. They were not slaves. They were nothis. They were free simply because they were human.
Their souls had worth. Their bodies had value. Their spirits should have freedom.
And yet he had taken their dignity and their freewill and demolished them.
He was adestroyer of livesand nothing could save him from the fate I planned for him.
Nothing about him was redeemable or worthy.
