“Who’s Valen?” I didn’t expect him to answer.
“He’s a God of love. We’ll need him to conduct the ceremony.”
The protests and questions bubbled up my throat and almost made me choke as I held them back.
“Erik would be a better choice,” Hunter mused quietly, more to himself than me. “Maybe I’ll stop in on him on the way home.”
“There’s no way he would agree,” I told him.
Hunter’s look was predatory as he fixed it on me. “I’m sure we’ll find a way to get him to agree if we needed to.”
The threat was loud and clear. If he chose to speak to Erik and he didn’t agree, then my gift would come into play. Thinking about Erik being forced into this mess sent another deep crack into my heart.
“Behave,” Hunter told me as a way of farewell.
I stood rooted to the spot, listening to his footsteps fade away and the click of the lock as I was secured in my cage. Slowly, I counted to thirty before I rushed out the back doors and onto the grounds.
When I was a child, body folded on the floor of the temple, pretending to care for whatever sermon was being delivered, I often watched my mother. She was the most devout of us all. I would watch the way her lips would move as she asked for safety and protection for the family. Once she was done, she would turn to me and run her hand across my hair before kissing my forehead. Even though I didn’t believe those prayers were being answered, I never realised how much comfort they brought me. I’d never appreciated how much it meant to have someone you love whisper to the Gods on your behalf.
And it was those moments that I craved as I stalked back inside from the grounds of Hunter’s home, remnants of dirt embedded into the whorls of my fingertips and staining the knees of my jeans a light brown. I wanted the reassurance thatI would be looked after. Or maybe, as I’d done throughout most of my life, I wanted the approval from my parents and the confirmation that no matter what choices I made in life, I was doing them proud.
The grounds were vast, and it had taken twenty minutes to check through all the plants that grew there. Hunter’s flowers, as I discovered, were crocuses. I tried my best not to disturb the shades of purple as I hunted along the rows for the fatal oleander. The sheds also held nothing, and I grew frustrated. It was almost too obvious that he would keep the oleander somewhere on his grounds, but he wasn’t exactly snowed under with visitors. The grounds were vast and neat. Sparse apart from his flowers. It lacked personality like so many other aspects of Hunter’s life. And it left me empty-handed.
As I moved through the rooms downstairs, the frustration grew. Some drawers were locked, while others contained pointless knickknacks and papers. I wasn’t interested in council contracts. There was no need for me to understand his long-term plans when he wouldn’t reach them.
My stomach clenched and anxiety flooded my system as I climbed the stairs to continue my search. Every time I thought about my plans, every time I remembered the oleander and the way Gray’s skin reacted to touching it, or the way Tobias’s fingers had been scorched to the bone, I doubted myself. Doubted if I was capable of carrying out the deed. But there was a whisper in my mind that had embedded itself there and vines of it continued to spread with each passing day. Hunter’s ledger wasn’t just red, but dripping blood until we were all drowning. The guilt of my impending actions lessened, and that was a concern until I remembered what I was.
I was part God. And that also meant I was part monster.
The rooms upstairs were numerous, and I walked into them cautiously, unsure of what I would find. The first one I enteredappeared to be where Larkin had stayed. It came as no surprise that they hadn’t shared a bedroom. I wasn’t sure how Larkin had managed to live in the same house as him with everything she had told me. What did surprise me was the fact that Hunter hadn’t wiped all traces of her from the house. Delicate pieces of jewellery laid on the table and a few pieces of clothes were hung in the wardrobe. Satisfied that it had no oleander, I left with a sigh.
The next three rooms had the same outcome, and my hope dwindled. There were only a few other places I could imagine Hunter hiding the plant—Archer’s home and the labs—neither of which I had access to. A few days ago, Archer’s place might have been a possibility, but after our last run-in, I knew he wouldn’t roll out the red carpet for me even if I could turn up on his doorstep.
Every door had opened with ease so far, but Hunter’s room was locked. I rarely walked this far down the corridor, but had seen him disappear inside more than once. My brow furrowed. Hunter’s domain was something I was more than happy to leave alone, but I was surprised to find it secured, which only led me to believe that there was something he was hiding.
Jiggling the handle, I checked to see if the door was jammed but no matter how much weight I placed against it, it refused to open. I barely registered the pain in my shoulder as I shoved against the solid wood. It didn’t give way, but the floor disappeared beneath me as I was swept off my feet and slammed into the wall at the end of the corridor. I hissed, landing in a crumpled heap on the floor.
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to keep your nose out of trouble.” Hunter’s voice drew closer, and I closed my eyes, willing the ringing in my ears to stop. “What were you looking for, Quentin?”
When I opened my eyes again, his shoes greeted me. Pushing myself up to a seated position, I tilted my head back and looked at the fury that painted Hunter’s face.
“Would you believe me if I said I got confused?” The words left my mouth before I could filter them.
A tendril of blue wrapped around my throat, pressing hard as I was lifted from the ground and pulled towards Hunter. My eyes watered as I reached out, clawing at him while I gasped for air, but it made no impact.
“I don’t appreciate you sneaking around my house, Quentin, not when I’ve shown you such hospitality. But I appreciate you lying to my face even less. If you won’t be honest with me, I’ll have to get the truth out of you some other way.”
The relief of Hunter’s aura leaving my throat was short-lived. My body flew through the air, colliding with a wall for a second time before gravity played its part. The edges of the stairs felt sharp against my face and back as I tumbled down them before coming to a stop at the bottom. Once again, Hunter’s shoes greeted me and this time I didn’t have the energy to look up and meet his eye.
“You should know by now, there are no secrets in Elysia.”
And with that, he walked away.
By the timeI could sit myself up, Hunter’s footsteps were approaching and my heart raced. His bouts of anger were terrifying and, without my aura, I remained powerless against them. Ignoring the throbbing in my temple, I scrambled to my feet, feeling the world sway. If Hunter was going to attack, I at least wanted to appear like I could fight back.
When he came into view, my fists clenched at my sides, but the panic truly flooded me when Archer appeared from behind him. It was so negligible that there was a chance that I made it up, but I thought I saw his eyebrows rise at the sight of me.
“What happened to her?” Archer asked. The nonchalance in his voice had me believe that I had made up the moment of concern.
