Connor shook his head. “You attacked them. They were just defending themselves. We do not kill our blood brothers without reason. There are too few of us left.”
I guess that was a possibility, but still. My experience with this group didn’t inspire any sort of trust in them.
He must have known we were serious, because Connor didn’t argue, he just leaned back on a pillar to wait. A minute later, Rone walked into view, followed by Axl. Not caring to wait for the Arterians, I stomped toward Connor. “Let’s go,” I said shortly. “Take us to Asher.”
He grimaced. “Gladly. The madness has to end now. I’ve been waiting for you to come here so you’d set the right tides in motion.”
I glared at his back, those broad shoulders defined in the leather outfit. “What does that mean?” I asked. “Is Asher okay?”
Connor stiffened, and I tried not to panic, but it was insanely difficult. All the worst-case scenarios were running through my head. “He’s alive” was all he said, which was not at all reassuring.
The pillars led us to a doorway in the rocks, and when we stepped through I choked back a gasp. There was a waterfall … under the damn ocean.
I had so many questions.
We stood on a precipice, the water below rough and tumultuous. A narrow bridge spanned out across it, leading to the waterfall. As we walked closer, I tried to find the top of the waterfall, but it was too huge. I also couldn’t see either end of it—it spanned out for miles across the caves. Following Connor along the narrow walkway, more pillars came into sight, and it was here that the landscape of my dream finally came to light.
Then I saw Asher. It took all of my control not to shove Connor into the raging waters below, because I almost couldn’t stop myself from running to him. In the dreams it had appeared that Asher was being held under the water, but it was the cascading waterfall behind him that made it appear so, drenching his body, which was secured between two of the pillars right at the base of the torrent.
Six supes were standing around him, and they turned toward us, almost in sync. My entire focus was on Asher, though, who had his arms and legs tied to all four corners of the pillars. His chest was bare, a pair of black shorts his only covering. His hair was longer than the last time I saw him, hanging across his forehead as his head drooped forward. His chest was moving, that much I could see, but I hardly felt a sliver of his energy.
No!Were we too late?
37
Asher’s fake mother stormed toward us. I’d never bothered to ask for her name, because we all knew that this was not Ash’s real mom. “About damn time you got here,” she snapped. “I couldn’t break the promise, but breaking Asher seems to have done the trick anyway.”
It was very difficult not to punch her in the face.
I swallowed hard, my breath coming out in gasps as I fought to control my anger. “I’m going to kill you,” I said, meaning those words more than I’d meant anything else in my life. “What have you done to Asher?”
She smiled at me, a genuine smile, completely unconcerned that I’d threatened to kill her. “Turns out he doesn’t have enough power to open the gates. I gave him his chance, but maybe the famous Asher is not quite as strong as we believed. Which is why I need you.”
“Who the fuck are you? Why are you wearing his mother’s body?”
She threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, I love your assertiveness. I guess there’s no point in lying any longer. You are correct, I’m not the original owner of this body. I chose this form because I believed it would entice Asher to join my cause. I didn’t anticipate that he would spend his life figuring out how to stay under the radar, or that he would team up with powerful friends who have helped him evade me. I eventually contacted him, sent my note, and he ignored me. His own damn mother.” She laughed again, running a hand along her lacy blue dress. It barely concealed anything, and I could clearly see her nipples through it.
“Why didn’t you just take him?” They’d already proven they didn’t have an issue with kidnapping.
She shrugged. “His mother only agreed to me utilizing her DNA if I promised to not force Asher’s hand. It was her one stipulation before I killed her. She probably hoped she was buying him time. I agreed, and therefore had to wait for him to choose to come of his own free will. And there was nothing that could make him … until you, my dear.”
“Who are you, then?” I pushed.
She smiled even brighter. “I’m Shera, goddess of the seas, bonded soul to Sonaris.”
I gasped, which was covered when Jesse let out a rumbling, humorless laugh. “Now it all makes sense. Gods have to honor their promises. One of your many rules. You’ve broken a lot of other rules though, Shera. You’re lucky the hell lands are not calling for your soul.”
She tsked. “I bend the rules, not break them. It’s the reason I had to ask permission for Asher’s mother’s DNA, and yes, you are right … when I promised to not take Asher against his will, I had to stick with it.”
Gods had rules? Why the hell did I not know this? It suddenly seemed very important to find out what all of those rules were now that we were playing in their world.
“Shera?” Axl said suddenly, like he’d finally figured out a puzzle. “I remember your name now. It took me a while because you were such a minor deity that to call yourself a goddess of the sea is pretty insulting to all therealgods out there.”
Her eyes flashed, and the smile faded from her face as she bitch-stared him. “Watch your mouth. You contain such a small trace of power from Atlantis that you’re almost useless to me.”
Jesse rumbled, the lion inside making itself known as he defended his brother.
Shera shocked me then as she stepped aside, gesturing for the others to do so as well. “Let them go to Asher. They have a chance to save his life, but the only way they can do that is if they fill the life stone in his center.”
