“It’s clear I need answers,” I say. “But it’s also clear I won’t be able to trust the answers either of you give me.”
“I might have a solution for that.” Halle edges closer to me, now within striking distance of Jonah, who is only a few paces in front of me and to my right. “You don’t trust me. I don’t blame you. But I find myself recalling an accusation you leveled at me when we first fought each other.”
“Oh, yeah?” I ask, a little thrown.
“I told you I would never betray your mother. And you said to me… Let me make sure I get this right…” She tips her head as if she’s thinking hard. “You said, ‘My mother died in that prison, gasping for breath. Nobody came for her, and for that…’” Hallepauses, her lips pressing together for a moment. “Well, you promised I would pay.”
I nod. “Where are you going with this?”
And what does this have to do with a solution to our trust issue?
She gives me a grim smile. “Just last night, when we fought for the second time, you led me to believe that you didn’t know what happened to your mother. You claimed to have been separated from her during your imprisonment.”
“Yeah.” I can’t stop my sigh. “After we fought the first time, I became convinced that the woman imprisoned with me was not my biological mother, after all. So it wasn’t a lie. Not within the context of what I thought I knew at the time.”
My forehead creases as I try to explain, but Halle’s smile softens.
“I sense you have a story to tell, Veda,” she says. “And you must have many questions for me. But, you see, we’re at the edge of the Underworld, where all power and deceit are stripped away and everyone’s lies are exposed. It is the nature of hell to make us vulnerable to our own darkness.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“Please step into the Underworld with me,” she says. “It’s one of the few places your father will hesitate to follow you, and there are safe spaces within the rings of hell where he won’t be able to reach you at all. I can protect you here. And, if you’re willing, there is a place within the Underworld—one of the deepest places—where I, too, will be forced to speak only the truth. You can have your answers there.”
It isn’t lost on me that if such a place exists, and if it can force Halle—an old god—to tell the truth, then no doubt I will have to tell the truth, too.
What a dangerous thing.
To swap truths.
Halle considers me carefully. “I will pay the price you wish me to pay for failing Galeia,” she says. “I will pay it by giving you all the truths you clearly need, even if it could hurt me.”
She holds her hand out to me. “Will you come with me?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ilook at Anarchy and Lucian and my panther brothers.
They trust me to lead them, but this decision can’t be mine alone.
Anarchy is closest to me, and the way she has edged in toward me ever since Emil stepped in behind me tells me she’s ready to shift into her panther form and take him the fuck out.
She hisses at him, baring her teeth and revealing her two pointy canines. They aren’t as long or as prominent as a vampire’s fangs, but they secrete a substance that can knock people unconscious.
I find myself wondering if it would work on the keeper.
I file that possibility away in case I need it.
“I’d rather take my chances with the snowstorm,” she hisses. “Fuck your enemies, Darkness. Let’s get out of here.”
Around me, my pack is nodding.
Jonah is the only one shaking his head, and it’s with an intensity that alarms me.
“That isn’t any ordinary snowstorm.” He shudders as he points at it. “Hell is the coldest place on Earth and that is a shield of magic that forms its first line of defense from any living creature who tries to get inside.”
“Who wouldwantto come here?” I ask, truly baffled. After all, as Halle said, most creatures spend their lives trying to avoid this place.
“Well, nobody, of course,” Jonah says, the fire across his chest fading and shadows forming in his eyes. “But there are those who have lost loved ones to the darkness and wish to save their souls.”
