But I would.
His smile vanished, and maybe, just maybe, that was even more terrifying.
“Okay, if that’s your wish,” he said softly. There was an undercurrent in this tone, but it was hard to discern the extent of his anger. “I know what I want for my favor, and I’m ready now for you to know it as well.”
Riddle talking fucker.
“Well…”
He stepped closer and I wanted to back up, but that would give him the power. And I’d die before I did that. “I want you to spend one month with me, on my island, exploring my world and getting to know me. You think you have it all set with the young Atlantean, but how can you know when you’ve never given anything else a chance. You’re very young yourself, and to commit fully to one without exploring other options … not something I can allow.”
My head spun for a second. Was this some sort of cosmic joke? I mean, Jesse had just pulled the same move on me in the pool, only he’d at least been somewhat kidding. Sonaris wasn’t.
“When does this month start?” I whispered, knowing that I’d bound myself to this deal and could not back out of it. In reality, of all the things he could have asked for, this wasn’t the worst. Although, the timing could be better. According to Mab, one month was all the time I had until the gods released. Maybe Sonaris knew that and was doing this for that very reason.
I was no doubt about to find out.
“Right now,” he said. “This is my island. It’s perpetually summer here, and no one comes into my waters without my permission. It’s private and safe. It’s the perfect—”
“Prison?” I interrupted.
His features tightened minutely before he smoothed his expression again. I was finally getting to him, destroying his perfect facade. “I could have asked you for anything,” he reminded me. “Anything.”
I swallowed roughly, and he took another step toward me so there were only inches between us. “Remember that when you act like this is the worst kind of punishment you could receive. I assure you, it’s not.”
“I have school,” I said, shaking my head. “I want to graduate early this year. I can’t skip an entire month.”
He opened his mouth but I pushed on.
“Not to mention that I’ve heard from a reliable source that the gods will only remain in their cage for another month at the most. I have to figure out how to stop them before that happens. Otherwise we’ll all be fucked.”
Sonaris grimaced. “You curse a lot. It’s irritating and a sign of limited intelligence. I know you’re not of limited intelligence, so maybe tone it down.”
Did he just seriously…?
“Fuck. You.”
Now I was the one smiling. This piece of shit thought he could come in here and tell me how to…
My internal rant was cut off when he grabbed me, hands tight around my biceps, and it was in that moment I saw the true monster inside of him. A monster he’d been hiding … trying to woo me using fake charm. I hadn’t fallen for that, though, and now he was done acting.
I was finally going to see the real Sonaris.
Power surged under his palms and I reacted with my own, shooting energy back at him. He flinched but didn’t let me go. He was so strong, one of the strongest of the gods, and I’d been stupidly complacent, thinking of him as nothing more than an annoyance. A nuisance.
Now I was probably going to pay for that in some sort of horrific way.
His power wrapped around me, invisible to the eye, but it felt like thick coils of rope, binding every part of my body, including my own power, rendering me completely vulnerable.
That old fear of being held immobile still flickered inside of me. I’d mostly gotten over that since coming to the Academy, but I’d never lose it completely. At least if I focused on something else—aka destroying Sonaris—I should be able to handle it.
“If you’d ever figured out how to truly tap into your powers, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation right now,” he said angrily, roughly shoving me away. I sprang back like I was connected via an invisible string to him. “You’d be able to kill us all without blinking an eye. But since you’re still woefully ignorant, I’m going to take advantage.”
Fuck. He was lucky I couldn’t kill him with nothing more than an eye blink, because he would no longer be breathing.
“You’ll never make me love you,” I told him, my mouth the only part of me that could still move.
Sonaris laughed, throwing his head back, strong bronze neck corded with muscle and veins the only thing I could see.
