“Run, Ever. Go back to Caldera. I’ll come visit you when I finish figuring things out here. Please. Eli isn’t safe for you.”
“You’re one to talk.”
He sighs, dropping his shoulders and leaning even closer. “I know, but it’s not an accident that life keeps putting us together. I could sprint as fast and hard as I’m able in the opposite direction and still run smack into you. Our paths overlap no matter which way we turn.Youare my path.”
“You’re not in love with me, Kelt.” That’s one truth I’m not afraid to face. “And I’m not in love with you.”
“No.” His pained eyes sweep over me. “But I’m forever yours.”
“Because you’re my link.”
“It’s more than that. More than the gods. Can’t you see how destiny brings us together? We’re connected.”
Destiny? Isn’t that the ultimate form of hope? Believing and trusting that everything happens for a reason? Utter bullshit?
“I don’t believe in destiny. And I don’t trust meant-to-be,” I say.
We both turn at the loud thud behind us. Zandrite has Eli in a headlock, his body smashed between a hairy chest and the wall. Roots hold Milo and Kaleida captive.
“Eli’s fine,” Kelter says, grabbing my hands from my lap. The knife comes along, the sheath and handle still tightly clutched in my palms.
I pull my hands free. “I have to go kill a god now.”
He drops his face into waiting hands. I leave him in sorrow and scoot backward along the marble on my bottom, dodging roots and threatening them with my thoughts and Eli’s knife until I’m beyond their reach.
Zandrite turns around to face me, flipping Eli around with him. Every part of the god is stained red and raw with open wounds, blood guttering in the scars of his bare chest. He looks straight down at me. “Oh good, you’re finally ready to die.”
My skin is almost liquid with the way my nerves scatter. I rise to my feet and hold the knife between us, letting Eli’s dark eyes lure me in. Then I follow his gaze to the blade… covered by the sheath. Shit. Lesson number two. I rip it off and raise the knife again in a flash of blood-stained silver.
Zandrite stares at my steady hand, his deprecating chuckle the only sound in the room. “Look, sweetheart, your fuck buddy here already stabbed me over forty times.” He yanks his arm tighter around Eli’s neck. “So what is it you think you’re going to do with that thing?”
I rally my courage. “You should fear me.”
He laughs again, straight from his belly, head back. “You’re a demigod. A freak of nature that was never meant to be, yes, but not capable of killing a god.”
“Then try me, you bastard.”
“That’s my girl,” Eli whispers. Zandrite wrenches his head to the side. The anguished look on his face is the briefest ever, a split second before his neck is broken, his head hanging. His eyes flash with green and gold. Then he’s gone. Zandrite drops him and kicks his limp body out of the way.
I know he can’t die. He’ll be back, but the devastation hits the same. The black marble walls close in on me. My heart hollows out. Zandrite stomps on his neck with acrunchI feel in my own bones.
I act. A swift stab into his chest. Through flesh. And into bone.
Bone?
I was aiming for his heart. I look down at my failed attempt. Only the tip of the blade is buried in his skin.No. That was my chance.
I go for my rings, struggling to hold the knife as I rip them off my fingers. I’ll melt his hairy ass. I throw them down before him, careful to avoid where Eli lies off to the side. One after the other. Ring after ring. They bounce off the marble with quiet clangs. I stare at the black floor. I beg for the puddles to appear, for molten metal to swallow up Zandrite and end this now. I beg for an act of mine to be reliable. For one single thing to make sense. But my rings disappear. Silver and blue and black and gray pieces of my past vanish.
Zandrite’s confusion only lasts a second before he forces the knife from my hand and spins me around. My back to his chest hair. His wrist across my throat. And Eli’s knife at the side of my neck.
Chapter 57
EVER
My heart lands in my feet, terror wrapping itself in cords around my chest. A vision takes me.
My bones go first. Tendons tear. Joints pop. Muscles strain with the twist and pull of my body collapsing into a pile of flesh. The loss of my skull is the worst, the way my face sags against my brain with nothing in between. My blood is next. It drains from my pores and—
