“I don’t know about jealous, but I bet he’s planning all the ways he’s going to murder the two of us if we ever make it out of Atlantis.”
She frowns. “Why wouldn’t we make it out?”
Instead of sharing my doubts about why they brought us here, I start leading her away from the mine.
“Wait…” She digs her feet into the ground. “Let’s start with the mine. I mean, this is what we’ve been after our entire lives. We can’t come to Atlantis and leave without seeing it.”
“Hayes, you and I aren’t going anywhere near that thing. Thatgoddess,” I correct myself, flinging a glance over my shoulder.
Am I expecting dark fumes to shoot out from it after being called a thing? I’m man enough to admit I am.
When Quinn pouts, I plant my hands on her shoulders. “Swear you won’t. And mean it.”
With a dramatic sigh, she says, “I swear to stay away from it.”
But will she? She once swore to me she wouldn’t fall under Trenton’s charm. But she fell…like so many others.
Chapter 63
Electra
The only set of eyes that remain dry during Ines’s funeral is Gael’s. Tarian’s ultimate punishment is forcing him to bear witness to the outcome of his cruelty.
Flies swirl around father and son, drawn to Alexander’s rot. The soft buzzing competes with the electric chorus of the cicadas and Dorian’s quiet hiccupping. Even though Diego has an arm wrapped around my brother, I tuck Dorian’s hand in mine and hold on.
“She was my best friend,” he rasps in between sobs. “I just lost my best friend.”
It’s heartbreaking to watch such a strong man crack.
Suddenly, he pivots, his hand jerking from mine, and then he’s jogging away. With a sigh, Diego goes after him.
I look at Gael, a scream stuck in my throat:See what you’ve done?
Before I can march over to him, Mom closes in on me and nods toward the upturned mound of soil. “Tuck her in.”
I sweep gritty soil over the pine box using my magic. As the others do the same, I scan the land, not for my brother but for the two Hunters. I find Malachi doing the same.
Here I thought he’d be more overwhelmed than Dorian by Ines’s passing after the year they spent together, but he seems more concentrated on the humans he flew over. Admittedly, after last summer, Malachi has learned to keep his emotions folded behind carefully constructed walls.
“They’re wandering the northern cliffs,” Mom tells me.
How does she always guess what’s on my mind?
“Before you head out there, Tarian wants a word with you.” She pats my hand before going to Dad, who’s appointed himself Gael’s jailor.
“I wasn’t planning on going anywhere,” I mutter, even though I absolutely was planning on hoofing it in Reeve and Quinn’s direction.
It’s pure torture knowing they’re treading my homeland, and I have to keep my distance.
“You wanted a word, Tarian?” I ask, as I approach him and Calanthe.
Calanthe’s hazel eyes pierce the shadows cast by the wide brim of her floppy hat.
“Nice hat.” I flick the straw brim.
“Why, thank you. Your mom gave it to me to keep me from turning into a giant freckle.”
I snort-laugh, but then press my mouth tight because it’s an odd sound to make at a funeral.
