Page 271 of The Mortal Trials

“With all due respect, Anansi, I don’t want allies who would hold something so vital over my head for information I don’t have,” I rasp, wholly disappointed. “Let me out of here. Now.”

I just saved his mortal, but that wasn’t enough. He wants more. Because if we have anything they don’t, no matter how insignificant, they can’t stand it. The trickster stares at me and I stare back.

He could rip the information from me, break me apart piece by piece. He considers it. A terrible, sentient desperation ripples in his eyes. These gods may look like they’re clothed in the same skin as us, but they’re not. If a mortal sees their true forms, they won’t live to describe it.

The instant Anansi drops the ‘web’ he cast over us, my three angry allies descend.

“What the fuck was that?” August demands.

Anansi gives a spider’s smile. “We needed to privately discuss something, August Aymes. It’s none of your concern.”

“She is my concern,” he insists, still livid. He seems to remember the other two men and gestures to them. “We’re her allies.”

“If Koda gets worse, or you change your mind…” Anansi hands me a whistle made from a thin piece of wood.

When Anansi disappears, I hand it to Elias. “Put this with Koda’s things.”

August curses. His eyes hold a vast, monster-laden sea of worry. I wonder if he knows I’m struggling to swim against the currents and beasts keep coming at me from the depths.

Niall steps closer. “Elias and I will stay with Koda tonight. We have champions. You two should go to the feast.”

Before it’s too late, he doesn’t need to add. And what if it already is?

“Thank you,” I tell Niall and Elias.

Fear is a living, breathing dragon in my belly. I thought Ogun might champion August, but now even that support is dependent on me giving Anansi information that might damn my own mother in ways I don’t understand.

What was in that tea that sparked such a reaction from him?

I bite my nail, wondering if pointing him to the Pythia was the wisest thing to do, even though I didn’t outright lie. What will the trickster do when he goes to her and she doesn’t have what he wants?

August watches me, sensing that something’s still wrong, no doubt.

Elias scuffs the sand with his bare foot. “So, were you all given a weird prophecy, or what?”

I laugh.

Niall purses his lips. “Weird is such a strong word.”

Elias gives him a playful, weak shove. “How would you describe your gift?”

“Unhelpful, as of yet,” Niall decides.

Elias promises to question him about it until he screams later, earning a groan from Niall, but also a smile. The two head out, promising to return in time for us to make it to the feast at sunset.

I’m at a loss for words, but I need to tell August about Ogun.

He rubs the back of his neck. “Sit with me for a while?”

“Of course.”

In the open doorway, we sit and watch the waves lap the little island’s shore as Koda sleeps. August keeps glancing at the hole over my heart, and at the blood stiffening my white bodysuit against my skin now that it’s dry. And I keep staring at the holes burned into his rolled pant legs.

“He almost killed you today,” August rasps.

Torsten had the chance. It only takes a second to run someone through and leave them lying on the ground to die, but the Norseman hesitated when it mattered. “No, he didn’t.”

That truth surprises me.