“Are you fucking kidding me right now? Are you out of your damn mind?” I screamed. “You think I want that dead idiot to touch me?” Of all the asinine things that kept coming out of her mouth, this was what still bothered her?
“I told you this would happen. I told you to leave here and never come back,” she scolded, eyes wide with panic.
I stepped forward, jamming my hands on my hips, just about to lose my shit. “See, here’s the thing—everyone here told me that and, you know, that would have been a really awesome idea if one of you fuckers would have told mehowto do it.”
Shock flashed across her face then disappeared instantly. “You came here on your own. You must know how to— ”
“No, I didn’t. I was lured here the first time, then given an ultimatum the second time. I want to be here withKing Jerklockas much as I want a hole in my head.”
She sniffed and cast her eyes to the floor by my feet. “After I ready you for your first offering to His Majesty, I’ll be sent back upside and—”
“First offering?” I interrupted her, furious. “Do you hear yourself? I’m not offering anything to him. I don’t want him to touch me, and all you’re worried about is having to go back to the real world?”
“This is my real world. It’s where I want to be, near him.”
“Well, now it’s time to think about someone else other than yourself and what stupid things you want. I’m in this mess because of you; you brought me here and gave birth to me here. This was never my choice, it was yours. How could you want to stay with him?”
She remained frozen on the bed, gaping at me with wide eyes. “I love him.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“Has all your humanity been lost here? Because of Hemlock, there are innocent souls lost here. Because of Hemlock, every god that once roamed free, the gods that legends and myths where made from, is locked somewhere—the gods who could help the world upside.” I swallowed back tears. “And I have to tell you, the world up there could really use some help.” I sat down on the edge of the bed next to her. “We only have a few moments before someone comes in here demanding me to do something that Iwill not do. Hemlock will know then that my loyalty is not to him. Please, please help me. Help me find the place he has all the other gods locked in. Help me find a way to trap him. Help me do something to stop all this madness.”
Her chin lifted up and looked away, defying me.
“So even though you know that he will send you upside after he has me, you’ll still let him have me?” I asked, stunned.
“What is it that I could do to stop it? I am no one. I have one tenth the power you hold.”
I needed to try to get something out of her. Anything. “Do you know what the Tartarus is?” I asked.
“It’s a deep and sunless abyss, far below Ravenswood. Farther still below what you upsiders believe as Hell.”
“Do you know where it is?” I asked, shifting closer to her on the bed.
“You don’t understand!” she shouted, moving her body further away from me on the bed. “I want to be Queen. I want to rule alongside His Majesty and pleasure him for all eternity. Showing you where the abyss is will destroy any chances I have to be his queen.”
Shock ripped through me and for a brief moment, I just stared at her, fighting back an explosion of wild panicky rage. “No,you don’t understand. There is no ending here where you get to be his queen. Either I help the gods and trap Hemlock in the Tartarus or I’m Queen with him. Either way, you’re going back to the world you belong in.”
“You belong there, not me.” Her words were ice.
“You’re wrong, again. I was born here. This is more my home than it is yours, and Ravenswood needs my help. These souls trapped here need my help. Mathias needs my help.”
“I should be his queen,” she hissed.
She wasn’t going to listen to reason. She wasn’t hearing what I was saying. “But you’re not his queen. I am. Maybe he is right, maybe you should go back upside if you won’t help me.” Maybe playing her psycho possessive game would get her to do what I needed her to do.
“You would have him cast me aside, your own mother? If you’re the queen, you could demand that I stay and be his concubine while you his consort.” Her desperation was showing. “Until he doesn’t want you any longer.”
“And then what,Mom? You just take my place? Maybe you’ll get a hold of that charm around his neck one night and set my soul free? Then you just slip into my spot and pretend to be me?”
The look she gave me was beyond any hatred I’d ever seen.
Slip into my spot and pretend to be me. Wait a second.
“What if you took my spot now? Tonight?”
Her gaze narrowed, her back stiffened. “What do you mean?”
