“Stop!” Aurum shouted, slamming a paw down and making the ground beneath us shudder.
Gage and the others stopped talking and looked in our direction.
Harley stopped before reaching the cube and then turned toward Aurum. “You’re a bossy one, aren’t you? What’s the big deal? We’re here, we can stop Apollyon from getting any more soul juice. Why wouldn’t we cut off his power source while we can?” The look she shot him said she thought he was an idiot.
“You touch that stone and Apollyon will know right away. He’ll also know exactly where you are. You can’t meddle with it until you’re ready to face him, and you two are not prepared for that yet.”
Harley popped a hand on her hip. “Who says?”
I raised my hand. “Me! I say we’re not ready yet. Up until a few minutes ago you could hardly stand on your own.”
Harley rolled her eyes, but rather than arguing she folded her arms across her chest.
I got that Harley was filled with bravado and swagger. Her “I can take on the world with one hand tied behind my back” attitude even had me half-convinced nothing could take her down, but I knew better and was with Aurum on this. I’m glad we were in this together, but we weren’t ready to go up against Apollyon yet. Especially since he was going to throw everything he had at us. If what Gage said about him building an army of demons and hellhounds was right, we wouldn’t just be battling him, but the whole Netherworld. At the very least we needed reinforcements of our own.
“If you go up against Apollyon now and do manage to kill him, you’ll die too,” Aurum added. “Remember that we haven’t worked out that puzzle quite yet.”
“Wait, what?” Gage stepped away from Skye and the rest of the Angel Gang, his gaze locked on me. “If you kill Apollyon, you’ll die too?”
I winced. Right. I hadn’t yet talked to him about that tiny bit of information we learned from Apollyon’s life book. Honestly, I’d kind of hoped he wouldn’t find out about that since I was confident we’d figure it out.
“Technically speaking,” I started, “Harley and I are cursed so that if one of us kills Apollyon that person will die too. A little security measure Apollyon had a level ten demon put in place. But I’m sure it won’t come to that,” I assured him.
The scowl didn’t leave his face. Craning his neck, he looked back over his shoulder at Drea and the others.
“You all knew about this?” he asked, and each of them averted their gazes.
There was thunder in Gage’s eyes when he turned back to me—a tumultuous mix of anger and betrayal. I hadn’t intentionally left him out of the loop, but with all Gage’s hellhound stuff, I didn’t want to stress him out even more. I’d honestly forgotten that he didn’t know about it until now.
“Busted,” Harley said.
I shot her a glare and she sealed her lips.
“Gage, it’s going to be okay. We’re working on it,” I said as I moved toward him, trying to defuse the situation.
“Tatum’s right,” Aurum stepped in, and I could’ve kissed my guardian. “We have some of the best minds in Avalon working on a way to contain Apollyon or break the curse placed on the girls. We won’t move forward until we have a solid plan in place.”
He looked pointedly at Harley then, and she nodded, indicating she understood and would hold back until we had a solution, even if she didn’t want to.
Reaching Gage, I placed a hand on his chest, and even though his face was stony, his heart thumped hard and fast against his ribs.
“Hey,” I said in a low voice only he could hear. “I promise it’s going to be all right.”
He didn’t say anything right away, but he also didn’t pull away, so I took that as a good sign.
“You should have told me,” he finally said.
“You’re right. I should have. You already had so much to worry about. I didn’t want to add to it,” I confessed, and then chewed nervously on my bottom lip as I waited for him to respond.
He brought his arms up and then crushed me to his chest. “Your burdens are never too heavy for me,” he whispered into my hair, and I melted.
I loved this man.
“I have to leave,” Aurum said, breaking us out of our little love bubble, and I only pulled enough away from Gage to peek over at him.
“See you soon?” I asked my guardian. He didn’t really have a schedule and I saw him when I saw him.
He tipped his head and then walked over to the part of the mesh that had a hole in it. No visible portal opened and yet he poofed out of existence like the first time I met him on Earth and like Skye did all the time.
