“‘Can’ is a poor choice of words when you consider the evidence of your eyes.” Vesuvius’s words are barely louder than a whisper. “And to think—every time you called me, it could have beenhimwho came out of the pearl, had he only been strong enough.”
If I felt lightheaded before, I feel it even more now. I called Vesuvius out to advise me so many times and I had no idea that the one whispering in my ear kept my husband’s soul captive throughout it all. I had no idea that I was opening the door to his tormentor and making him stronger. How different would things be had Lieve spilled out of the pearl to advise me? Would I have killed Okeanos? Would we be here now?
A wrenching gasp rips from my mouth.
“I’m waiting for you to congratulate me, Drowned Queen. For my genius, if you like, or for chewing off my own legs to bind the soul of your beloved. That takes grit, as well you should know. After all, did you not just slice off your own finger to treat with us today? Or if you do not respect me for that, then congratulate me for this—that you can see his soul at all. It ought to be hidden from all but Iwho holds its prison—but those tentacles I have him bound with reveal him to you as long as they are present. That’s a clever trick, I think.”
“I love you,” I mouth in despair to Lieve, for there is no way out now. I am trapped coming and going and I cannot wriggle free. I think his eyes well more in response, but his nod is firm.
“And so we come to the point,” Vesuvius says.
“At last,” Aurelius says dryly. “You wear our patience thin as cheesecloth with all this talk.”
“Will you offer me some bargain, Vesuvius?” I ask. My voice shakes and I no longer care. I have come to the end, I think. Both husbands dead. Both in the power of my enemies. And me, powerless to stop any of it. “What more do I have that I could give to you?”
“Five impossible tasks,” Vesuvius says silkily. “Enough to raise the dead. Isn’t that what you’ve been working on for Okeanos? I’m willing to bet that by now you have five complete. Though they need a different name than ‘impossible’ if you’re the one fulfilling them.”
“I’m not going to spend them bringing you back to life,” I say stonily. But now my heart is beating even faster because I don’t have five tasks. I only have four. I have misjudged.
He barks a laugh, but then he stills, growing very serious, and I know we’ve come to the point because Aurelius’s eyes glitter with excitement, too.
“I think you came here tempted to use the power you’ve stored up for a particular purpose,” the God of the Airsays. “I think you came to restore to life our old adversary, Okeanos. As I’ve said.”
I swallow and glance at the god in question; I do not know if he even hears us. One arm spasms slightly, but he is far gone now, almost fully sunk beneath the Nightwaters. I don’t know how a person could be deader than dead, but he seems like he is.
I clear my throat from the lump suddenly there and steal a look back at Lieve. His eyes are so full of understanding that I feel my stomach sink. It is as if he walked in and caught me breaking our vows, as if he’s watched me lay my heart out before another, and my cheeks burn with the shame of it.
I muster all my strength to put on a bold face. “If you’re planning to kill me, in order to prevent that, I hear it’s harder to kill gods than you might think.”
Aurelius smirks. “I kill less often thananyonemight think. No, I don’t plan to kill you, Drowned Queen. But I do have an offer for you.”
He shifts his grip on his spatha just a little and I clench my teeth as I feel it draw blood and pain from where it nudges my throat.
“You can have the God of the Sea back,” he says, and his eyes taunt me. I don’t believe him. But he knows that.
“Or you can have something better,” Vesuvius adds, and without warning he grabs Lieve and shoves him toward me.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Igasp, arms reaching out instinctually. The trident drops from my grip as I try to catch Lieve, but the rules of the spirit world have not changed and he stumbles right through my arms and falls to the ground.
I’m at his side in a heartbeat, on my hands and knees. Aurelius must be allowing it, because his spatha hasn’t plunged through my throat.
My eyes are locked onto Lieve’s as he struggles against his bonds and my heart is aching with every flicker in the depths of his brown eyes. He was meant to be safely in the Nightwaters, somewhere far from the cares of this world. That I have been eating and sleeping and plotting revenge while he suffered, trapped with his tormentor, is criminal.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” I gasp out, and my voice is faint with shame.
There’s nothing else I can do. I try to grab for his tentacle bonds—those, to my horror, I can touch—but I cannot pull them free.
Lieve is shaking his head, his eyebrows drawn low and his eyes filled with a determined passion, but I don’t know what he’s trying to deny—my help, my affection, or this whole situation.
I wrench my gaze from his and look up at Vesuvius. I am trembling. Never have I felt so much like an animal that might charge and rip out someone’s throat. I could lunge at him from here. I could rend him bone from bone with my teeth.
“Release him,” I demand. “Release him from these terrible bonds.”
Vesuvius’s expression is aloof.
“I cannot. For I am pinned to this mortal world in the flesh. If you want to unbind him, then stabhimwith your trident, too, and make him the same living horror that I am—or better yet—much better, bring him back to life. Give him back his mortal body and future with all that power you’ve been storing up for your sea god husband. Mayhap he’ll forgive you yet for the betrayal of marrying another. Mayhap you’ll live your days together with joy.”
