“You can’t have forever or never without ever,” he explains, muchtoo seriously for the answer to the imaginary riddle of a bloody-faced stone. “Never ever forever and ever.”
I can’t tell if the combination of words is ominous or encouraging. “Now we can pass?”
Atom beams. “Wart says yes.”
The dirt walls around us slowly fall away as we advance, a thick weave of roots emerging from the top and curving down the sides and below us, painful under my knees. My hands are rubbed raw. We pass six more light stones, one with a head full of moss and two with chipped bones for teeth, all with names and personalities—Atom’s only company over the last year.
“You forgot Whiddles,” he says when I fail to name them all in one go for the eighth time. “Start over.”
His innocence is refreshing, a spark of life and light among the darkness, the death. “Okay, okay. Wallace the one-eyed guardian. Wart the riddler. Wendon the worrier. Whiddles the—”
A growl rattles my concentration. The skin on the back of my neck prickles with fear.
We’re not alone.
Chapter 51
ELIVANDER
Never’s heart picks up, sending mine catapulting through my chest at the same frantic speed. “She’s scared. Probably in danger.”
Milo peers around the next corner in the passage then turns back to me with a long sigh. “Of course she is. She’s snooping around the Underbroke. And all of us have been in danger since she showed up months ago.”
I slam a hand into his chest. His back smacks the wall, a harsh breath forced out. “Yousent her off with a child as her only protection.”
Hold it in, Kelter says, his voice hoarse and strained in my head.
Milo grimaces, but it’s sorrow that stings behind his gaze, not pain. “I did, then you finally agreed you wouldn’t have been able to keep your hands off her long enough to make it to Zandrite’s chamber.”
“Let him go,” Kaleida says gently.
I had to explain as much as I could to her once she saw my struggle to hold back. One by one I’m letting them see what’s behind my light side that the curse shows them.I’ve got issues and can’t die until I have a son,I told Kaleida.You’re only my friend because I’m cursed. Kelter won’t get out of my godsdamn head. He’s got issues too, and now I might kill you. Zandrite wants to kill Never, and she’s the only one who can kill him so I can have his essence.
Kaleida nodded slowly.Well, that explains a lot. And nothing at all.
Milo filled in the rest of the details as we snuck from one passage to the next.
I press harder into him. “Wouldn’t fucking her along the way be better than me killing one of you? I can’t contain this.” Violence pumps through me like venom. I want to push so hard his ribs crack and pierce his heart. Much longer, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop myself.
Kaleida reaches between us and rests her hand on my wrist, then rips it away. “Why are you so cold?”
“You’ve never felt that before?”
“No.” She returns her hand and tugs softly, urging me to let up. “You’re freezing. Are you okay?”
I pull back from Milo, my body tight, chest collapsing. “If I asked you to kill Milo right now, would you do it?”
“What? No.”
I have to know. I can stop her if I need to. “Kill him.” Milo’s eyes go wide, blue discs that beg me to reconsider.
“No, get your head out of your ass and focus. What makes you think I would do that?”
I grab my ear, panicking at her refusal, Never’s fear still flooding me. “Because not long ago, you would have. Milo said he explained the curse to you.”
Her brows rise, widening her brown eyes and exposing the hesitancy in them. “Yes, but I would never hurt him.”
“You would have if I told you to. Something’s changing.” I recall what Never said about the curse, how my dark and light sides are combining. Wasn’t that only with her? I hold back Kelter’s cravings with fists at my sides. “I think Never is breaking the curse. She sees past it.”
