“Don’t threaten Veda,” he snaps.
“Threaten?” Halle stiffens, drawing herself further upright. “You’rethe one putting her in danger! The longer we linger at the cusp of hell, the greater the risk.”
It’s Jonah’s turn to falter.
Halle takes another look at him, and then at me. “Oh, dear,” she says. “It seems we’ve had a misunderstanding.”
“I don’t think we have,” I snarl. “You’re trying to cage me and I won’t go down without a fight.”
She splutters. “Cage you? I would never!”
Jonah appears as confused as I am.
Did I not understand her correctly?Is my lack of experience with the world getting in my way again?
I don’t think so, because my pack reacted with the same alarm that I did—and Jonah certainly got mad about it.
I narrow my eyes at her. “You said ‘captivity.’ I don’t see how that can be misinterpreted.”
“No,” she says firmly. “I saidcustody. There’s a difference.”
I scowl at her. “If there is, I don’t see it.”
“Custody,” she snaps. “Protective custody.”
“Protective…?” I arch my eyebrows at her. “I’m supposed to believe that your intention in seizing me is toprotectme?”
She presses her lips together. “Well, maybe I’m a little rusty on the whole godmothering thing, but yes.”
I latch on to the most absurd part of what she said. “Godmother?”
She beams at me. Then her smile wobbles. “Well, I would have been. It’s what your mother wanted.”
I scowl at Halle, since I only have her word for it. I risk retracting my claws to rub my eyes. “Let me get this straight. You want to take me into protective custody… by escorting me forcibly into the bowels of hell?”
I peer past her into the darkness of the long tunnel that stretches ahead of us.
“Well… yes,” she says with a bright smile, as if there’s nothing wrong with that. “It’s the safest place for you to be right now.”
Each of the hounds nods with a sincerity that makes me blink at them.
I find myself wondering if they can talk. Not likely with those heads.
“So you claim,” I say to Halle. “But I can’t trust you.”
She sniffs. “Well, youshouldtrust me. Your mother did.”
“Again, so you claim.” A heavy exhale rests on my lips, defeat pushing its way through my thoughts.
I try to recall the way my mother spoke about Halle. What I do remember is the way my mother would smile softly and tell me that the gods make mysterious moves and that they are not for us to question.
I wonder now if she was telling me to take Halle’s word at face value. To follow her mysterious—or in this case, fucking clumsy—moves and not question them.
The trouble is that I don’t really have a choice.
I have no way of leaving this place without Emil’s help and, once again, I’m faced with the reality that it was his decision to bring me here in the first place.
I’m not certain that I could convince him to take me somewhere else.
