“Ah, yes.” I bob my head. “No matter the cost. We should always strive for the upper hand.”
Neri tilts his head, studying me like I’m the abnormal one in the room. “This doesn’t have to be permanent. If power disgusts you so much, ask your friend, Nephele, to have me take it away after you’ve used it to its proper end.”
I laugh. “You just want me to say yes so that she has no choice but to bring you back from the grave. If I deny you, then the conditions of your deal fall apart, don’t they?”
“If you deny me, you fool, then you’re trapped here. And if the prince succeeds in resurrecting Thamaos, the Northlands and the Summerlands will have no godly defense against him. I can be that defense. For certain, your witch will force me to the task whether I want to do it or not.”
A smile unfurls across my face. God, I adore that woman.
Hands in my pockets, I stroll closer. “Do your deed, then. Curse me. But I’m not leaving. Not yet.”
His eyes flare. “Why?”
I shrug. “Because the prince is up to something tonight, and I want to be here to see what it is. Poor timing on your part, but once I’m ready, I’ll leave this place in a manner that the prince will forever remember.”
I slip my hands through the bars, resting my wrists on the crosspiece. “Do it. And to satisfy your end of the bargain, open this cell door when you’re finished. Your deal doesn’t require that I leave, right? Only that you free me. Which you will have done.”
Even as I say the words, I cannot believe that I’m helping Neri be resurrected. I didn’t even know he could be without a remnant, but I suppose, in Nephele, he found a way.
He takes my wrists in his clawed hands and smirks, revealing that godsdamn fang again. “Take a deep breath, king,” he says. “Because this is going to hurt.”
64
NEPHELE
“Wake up.”
I startle and flip over in bed. A lone oil lamp still burns, though I don’t need the illumination to know that voice.
I sit up to find Neri sitting on my bed, right beside me. His amber eyes drift from my face and tousled hair to my satin nightgown.
To my breasts.
I gather the blanket to my chest and glare at his watchful eyes. “What happened?”
“Your king accepted the curse. He is the Frost King once again. But he wouldn’t come with me.”
I frown, trying to hear an untruth. “What? Why would he not?”
Neri holds up a claw-tipped finger. “I opened his cell door. He had but to walk out with me, and yet he chose to stay because he expects to learn of the prince’s dealings from last night. He said he would leave when he’s ready.”
If I didn’t know Colden so well, I would call Neri a liar. But this feels too much like something my friend would do.
“This fulfills my end of the bargain,” Neri says. “Now you must fulfill yours.”
He stands, an enormous naked, snow white, wolf-man-god, in Fia Drumera’s palace. She would probably bury me alive in the desert if she knew he was here.
“Tomorrow,” I say. “Tomorrow we’ll go to the grove.”
He stalks closer, and I push back in bed a little. “Tonight.”
I’m tired and irritated and unwilling to deal with him at this hour.
“Tomorrow,” I insist. “I need time. There are guards there. Strategy is necessary. Now go away. Go rescue Joran from wherever you hid him and get back inside him.” When Neri opens his mouth to tell me where he hid him, I hold up my hand. “Stop! I do not want to know. Just go, and we will deal with this come morning.”
Just then, the palace trembles. We both look around, uncertain what that might’ve been.
“I’ll check it out,” he says. “But know that tomorrow, your end of the bargain must be met, or I’ll change Colden back to a mere man.”
