“You’re too late.”
The prince kicked at the chair closest to him, sending it flying. He loomed over her now, frustration sharpening his face. “That’s bullshit. I know damn well when you’re up to something, Elysia.”
She leaned into him, her words rolling past his ear. “There’s no plan. I’m leaving tomorrow. Sailing far, far away from here.” She let her back arch as she reached her arms wide. Body snapping forward, she tapped him on the nose. “And you!”
His face tightened and he shook his head, his voice coming out rough. “No, you’re not going anywhere. This is our home, and the Elysia I know, the woman who is clever and infuriating and as reckless as she is dangerous, would not be bullied out of it. I don’t care who’s been whispering in your ear to leave. They’re wrong and they don’t know shit about what’s going on.”
Fresh tears returned to her eyes, but she warbled out a final answer. “There is nothing more to know. If I stay, I diesanctioned by the Crown you wear on your head. Whether it’s tomorrow or a year from now. I guess I’m not as sanctimonious as you because I’m not ready to die.”
His fingers slid against the nape of her neck, up into her hair, forcing her eyes to him. His words were hard. “No, I am standing here offering you my help, and you are notlistening. I realize I fucked up and it will never be forgiven. I can live with that. Hate me, despise me—that’s fine. But right now, our goals are the same. You want a Kava in which you can be free, and so do I. The woman I knew was fearless in spite of having every reason to be afraid. She walked through the castle with magic in her fingertips and waved to the king who would have her dead. She fucked the prince and made him love her so that she could wield his crown. And now you run? You run when you can finally do something that matters?”
She stopped. In spite of not knowing her plans, he knew exactly what to say. Green eyes beat down on her like a summer storm as he waited for a response that wasn’t coming. He released her neck and she stumbled.
“Perhaps you are tormented by secrets because you refuse to hear the truth.” He walked away, crunching over the broken glass. “Good luck running, Parker. Somehow, I doubt you’ll get far.”
Chapter 30
She stoodoutside the house for ten whole minutes before giving up on the notion of going inside. She was somewhere between drunk and hungover and had no desire to explain the sheer stupidity that had been her behavior. Instead, she clambered up the side of the house just like old times and flung herself onto the roof. She lay there on her back, staring up at the foggy night sky, wishing she could see a single star.
Just a single light of guidance would be good enough.
But not here, not in Kava. It was the darkness that would guide you here. She let the soft gray and black smudged sky loosen the knots in her body, her mind. The alcohol dulled the edges that the sky could not find as everything grew distant and her worries faded out. Body heavy, her eyes closed, and the darkness seeped from the sky into her consciousness, pulling her down, down, down.
It happened just like it did every night.
In her liquor-laced sleep, Elysia fell through time and space until her toes, now bare, touched down on cold, damp soil. Awake within this other world, she gingerly pressed her toes and fingers into the earth and looked around. She hadn’t expectedto come here tonight. Then again, she’d been so drunk that she hadn’t really worried about it at all.
She stood and dusted the dirt from what appeared to be a nightgown. Cream silk flowed over her body, the antithesis to the blackened river off to her right. It rushed past, dark and foreboding, much like the rest of the landscape she found herself in.
A single note of music rippled out. The song was starting, just like it did every night. The realm around her began its lament, and Elysia listened, enraptured as always. But this time as she felt the world shift, readying to send her home, she dropped back to her knees, and grabbed hold of the barren tree beside her.
She gritted her teeth and growled at the dirt, the river, and the sky. “I am notleavinguntil I get some answers.” Her finger nails raked into the bonewood, cracking with the effort of hanging on while the realms tried to spit her back out to her home.
She wasn’t sure how long she’d hung on when a voice as dark and musical as the song playing around them kissed her ears.
“You’re here.”
His voice reached down into every crevice of her being, filling her with its soothing sound. A poem written just for her, she inhaled the sound. Her neck twinged as she contorted, twisting to find the owner of the voice. She stilled. There amongst the grove of bonewood trees just beyond the river was a man staring at her like this was Kava and she was the sun. In a blink, the man was crouching before her, not touching or speaking, just staring.
She wasn’t sure he even realized he had begun to speak aloud, his voice a dusky murmur. “It shouldn’t be possible.” His fingers slid through her hair, letting it slip and pool through his fingers.
Head foggy and body burning, she knew she couldn’t last much longer. Her tongue flopped uselessly, struggling to form the words. “You’re him? The god—the deal broker...”
His hand fell. “You’re—you’re here for a deal?” His eyes closed, brow furrowing. Flat resignation extinguished the sun from his eyes. “Of course.”
She gave a weak shrug and nodded, no longer capable of speech. She could feel the fabric of her being tearing, ripping as it sought its way home. Something warm dripped down her face, and she watched him shudder.
With a surprisingly gentle hand, his thumb wiped away the blood, red and stark against his skin. He stared down at that drop of blood before silently sucking his finger clean. He stood tall, his face creased with emotion she couldn’t understand.
“Well then, I’ll be here, Elysia Parker. Ready and waiting to spin the deal of your dreams.” He gave a slight bow at the waist. And then in one violent motion, he ripped her hands free of the trunk.
With a cry, her body jerked. The last thing she saw was the god of the dead staring at where her body had just been. Hands clasped behind his back, lean and tall as the bone tree beside him. There was a pained expression upon his face. Devastated—the god of the dead looked devastated, and much to her dismay, he wore it beautifully. The strong lines of his face sharpened, the familiar resignation setting into dignified worn grooves. All of it telling her he was no stranger to the darker emotions that plagued humans and gods alike. He wore his pain aloud and for some reason, she found him all the handsomer for it. The thought troubled her, a silent warning sounding beneath her curiosity.
But then she disappeared, the image of him burnt into her memory like a brand.
Elysia flinched awake.
A tiny black padded paw repeatedly smacked her in the face. Large brown-black eyes stared intensely into hers as the paw came down on her cheek rhythmically.One, two. One, two.She lurched up, and the raccoon scrambled back from her, nails clicking on the tile, chittering and hissing at her as it waved its arm. Darting forward again, Lina grabbed a handful of sweater and tugged, grunting as if she could possibly move Elysia away from the roof’s edge.
