If Jessa got back in time, we might have had another plan, but this was the best I could come up with. My path hadn’t shown up like Mab predicted. And I’d spent too long waiting around for it.
“Can’t we just kill them all?” Jesse asked, stepping in behind us. He’d just gotten home from classes. “I mean, Asher killed Sonaris and he was super powerful…”
Louis shook his head. “I’ve considered it, but there are no beings strong enough to do what you all did. And you’re already tapped out taking any extra power. It nearly killed one of you, and Asher shouldn’t do that again. A lot can go wrong. You all got lucky this time.” His eyes shifted to meet mine. “Maddison’s idea is solid. The Hellbringers are still our best—our only, really—option. The three of you will need your bond to control them.”
His eyes locked with mine. “Have you bonded with Connor?”
I groaned, running a hand through my hair, leaving the aqua strands in messy disarray. “No. He’s an idiot who never listens. He doesn’t want to bond. He’s keeping us out of his mind and energy, and we spend most of our sessions together arguing.”
Louis’s expression, normally open and relaxed, was dark and hard. His aura was scary even through the phone. “Stop waiting for his cooperation. We don’t have time to baby him through this bump in the road. Bottom line, you three are possibly the only chance to keep the world as it is now and not reformed by gods who care nothing for mortals. Connor needs to step up. Don’t come to the island until that’s complete. You’re useless to us otherwise.”
He ended the call and I fumed, my own guilt eating away at me. I hadn’t tried hard enough. My brother was no doubt having a midlife crisis. Trying to keep him sober for longer than five minutes was a challenge … but there was no more taking it slow. Connor was going to bond with us, whether he liked it or not.
* * *
“Give me five minutes,”I said to Asher. Mostly because he looked like he was going to kill Connor if the idiot mouthed off one more time. “My brother and I need a little heart to heart.”
Asher snarled again, shooting a dark look at the pathetic excuse for an Atlantean sprawled across the sand of the beach world. “Tell him this is the last chance I’m giving him. When I walk back in here, he better be on his feet, ready to figure this shit out.”
He turned to leave, pausing briefly to drag me into his arms, pressing a rough kiss to my lips. “I desperately needed that,” he told me, the slightest vibe of good humor creeping back in before his anger descended again and he left to walk it off.
Once I felt Asher’s energy fade away, I focused on Connor. Using my power, I swirled water around him, jerking him up off the ground and to his feet.
His eyes went very wide as he blinked stupidly at me. “Wha—?”
He choked as more water crashed into his face, drenching him completely.
I’d been practicing the last few days with one of my professors, pressing harder into my ability to manipulate water and the elements within it. I could now, without too much effort, remove certain minerals and increase others. It was not the easiest of skills, because it required huge levels of concentration, but I was starting to see that I could manipulate any substance that contained even the slightest trace of water.
Like the alcohol he was so fond of. It contained water from Faerie—which was not an issue. Water was water, when it came to my power.
Holding him in the air, I reached for more energy, marveling at how much stronger I was since Sonaris. His death … it had boosted more than just Axl. All of us had a new influx of strength, and I kept praying it would be enough to fight the gods. For now, it was more than enough to strip the alcohol from Connor’s system. I needed him sober, and there was no time left for him to do it on his own. I should already be at Atlantis. Instead I was here, babysitting this fucking fool.
As soon as Connor realized what I was doing, he started to fight me, but it was a pathetic attempt.
“How are you so strong?” he snarled, trying to stop me from removing the toxic booze from his body. It was seeping out in bubbles that smelled horrific; it was a constant battle with my gag reflex to keep going.
“We killed Sonaris,” I told him. This was not common knowledge, so I wasn’t surprised when he choked and coughed.
“You did what? How? How has the world not ended?”
For the first time since we started these sessions, Connor was showing an interest in something other than getting drunk.
“We almost died,” I told him, voice flat. “The power was too much for even the five of us to take, and Axl, who was last, absorbed the final energy. He was prepared to sacrifice himself, because the power of a soul’s death would be enough to house the last blast of Sonaris’s energy.”
Connor couldn’t even stop drinking long enough to remember his own name, so he probably didn’t comprehend that level of sacrifice. But it deserved to be mentioned. Axl deserved to be known as the hero he was.
Connor’s bloodshot eyes squinted at me. “I saw him though. At the meeting. I’m sure, now that I think about it, you all felt more powerful there.”
“Axl is the god of the ocean now.”
The silence was long and filled with tension, until he shook his head. “I don’t believe you. Gods can’t just be made from mortals like that.” For the first time in a month, he sounded completely sober.
Yanking the last of the alcohol from his system, I sent it up into the air, exploding the droplets in a fiery blast. “I don’t owe you any further explanation. You asked why I’m so much more powerful and I told you. End of story.”
I released the water, letting him fall to the ground. He was on his feet in an instant, eyes clear, face confused. “How did you do that?” he asked. “Stripping the alcohol? My natural barrier should have stopped you from entering my body like that.”
I shrugged. “Maybe you should have spent more time using your power and less time drinking. I’m not sure you have any barrier left at all.”
