“Where is he?” Zandrite tries to search the room, but the root holds him too firmly.
“Who?”
Fondness fills his eyes. “My son.”
Chapter 58
EVER
Your what?” I ask. A son, here? In the Mortal Realm?
“You don’t deserve to call me that.”
I jump at the voice behind me and grab my chest, painful gasps ripping me open, my leg on fire. “Kelter. Where did you come from?”
Zandrite stretches his neck upward, the root coiling around and around. “I’m still your father. My offer to leave you the Underbroke stands.”
His father?This is why he thought Zandrite would help him? Why he was given a throne? Why he was born with cravings, the need to connect? Maybe even why he merged with Eli, his own blood, instead of dying? His father is the fucking god of love.
Kaleida stops fussing with me to gawk at Kelter. “He’s your what?”
“Time to come back, man.” Milo pokes Eli’s cheek.
“You chained me to a wall and tried to kill my link!” Kelter shouts at Zandrite.
“And I couldn’t go through with it because of you!”
“So you let a shadow of compassion through, and now you think you’re worthy of a son?”
“Do you know what I was left with after I was banished?” Zandrite asks, eyeing the roots that curl around me. “Curses. What kind of creator takes everything from the god of love except the ability to cast curseson love?”
If Kelter is his son… I whack his calf, looking up at his black-and-blue face. “You’re a demigod too?”
“I told you we are destined for each other. We’re the only demigods in existence. Isn’t that enough for you to see?”
“Eli.” Milo tries again to rouse him. “Time to step in and shut him up.”
I seal my lips, holding back a screaming rant. “How long have you known?”
“Since I was kicked out of Sonnet. My mother told me.” Guilt flushes his face, pink rising behind the freckles and blood on his cheeks.
I’ll deal withthatlater. I inspect Eli’s limp form from afar. Can he hear every word like he could after drowning and only can’t move or speak? Did he know, or did Kelter block this too?
Much slower than I’d like, I fit the pieces together, all the bits I overheard while hiding in the chute, and look into Zandrite’s eyes. If Kelter and Eli’s mother is Mazy, then… “You’re Mazy’sotherlover?”
“I wasthelover. But the whore was never satisfied with one cock, even that of a god.”
Invisible steam puffs from Kelter’s shoulders. “Talk shit about my mother, and I’ll kill you myself.”
“It’s only the truth. How do you think you ended up with a brother? Why don’t you askhimwhen he rouses?” He jabs a toe into Eli’s ribs. “His father fucked her while she was pregnant with you. And continued to do so while you slept in the same room, I’m sure. He was born three months after you.”
“Three months. That’s impossible,” I say, almost relieved.
Kelter’s fists shake at his sides. “Gestation is two months for Vaile, not nine.”
Why why why?It’s too much at once. But the final piece falls into place, and it’s the most gutting of all. I swallow, taking in Zandrite with fresh hatred. I keep the root tight enough around his neck to make him sweat. “You’re the reason Eli won’t let me love him?”
“He did that to himself. Well, his father did. What better way to get back at the man who knocked up your woman than to curse their child? And what a bonus it turned out to be that the curse meant for his son was his suffering too… in his son’s body. It took me hundreds of thousands of years to risk love again, then Mazy screwed me over. So I made sure her son’s love would always end in heartbreak.”
