“What?” I asked, infusing my voice with confidence.
I fought the urge to recoil from his powerful stance. Stupid, that was how I felt. Stupid for thinking I had feelings for him, and that he might actually have feelings for me. Micah was the person who got all the girls at the party and never settled for one. Ugh, he was the god who actually had an on-and-off affair with a goddess. Even if she was the source of evil and everything that was wrong in this world, she was a goddess. I could never compete with that.
Who said I wanted to? I didn’t. I was caught up in the moment, in the feeling of solitude, in my misery. He had been there, free and loving, offering me attention, which was all I wanted at that moment. I had been naive and stupid. Plain stupid.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Micah demanded.
“The same place you’re going.”
“Hell no.”
Seriously? Of all the things we could discuss and be mad about, he chose to yell at me about helping them?
I thrust my hands on my hips and glared at him. “Why not?”
“Because it’s dangerous.”
I scoffed. “First, you’re the one who said we can trust them. Second, you know I can take care of myself.”
“Like you just said, we can trust them. No need for the two of you to come with us.”
I pointed to his belt. “Then why are you taking a sword and two daggers?”
“Precaution.”
“Well, take us as precaution too.”
“By the Everlast, can you two stop?” Ceris interrupted. “You two act like an old married couple, bickering all the time.”
Micah’s jaw popped. “I don’t want them to come.”
“Unfortunately, I agree with Nadine, Mitrus,” Ceris said. What the hell? My head snapped to her and watched her with wary eyes. It was a trick. She never agreed with me. “I can take one or ten people using the same amount of power. I don’t see why we can’t take them with us. As precaution.”
Apparently, it wasn’t a trick, and hell was probably freezing over.
“I don’t like it,” he snapped.
I leaned closer to him and whispered, “Nobody said you needed to like it.”
“Now that that has been settled.” Victor stood, his voice carrying an annoyed tone. “Can we get this over with?”
After checking weapons and lanterns and water, and Micah slipping a dagger inside one of my boots—what was his deal?—we put on winter coats, gloves, and beanies, and walked out of the bunker.
It was incredibly cold here, and according to Ceris, if we stayed out like this for more than ten minutes without appropriate clothing, we would end up with hypothermia. I didn’t want to test her theory. I rushed my steps and crossed the invisible barrier of where Ceris had cast the shield.
She held our hands and transported us out.
This time, we visited only three places—and took our winter stuff off at the second one—before showing up at the right place.
This morning, Ceris told us she talked to one of the Death Lords, and he agreed to meet them on an abandoned beach in South Africa.
Ceris dropped us exactly on the sand, which looked more like dirt than sand. To our right, high waves crashed onshore, looking like they could swallow us whole if we got too close and drag us to the depths of the black ocean.
“I can feel something,” Ceris said. “This way.”
We marched south, with the ocean to our left. Victor and Ceris walked in the front, Keisha behind them, and Micah with me several steps back.
“Do you like defying me?”
I gaped. “Excuse me?”
“I’m a god. You do know that, don’t you? Then why do you insist on defying me?”
“Because I’m not your slave, or your doll, or your blind follower. And jeez, that ego of yours.” I kicked a broken shell on the sand. “Why do you do this?”
“This being …?”
“I don’t know—this.” I gestured between him and me. “One minute, we’re fine, you’re behaving, we can even pretend to be friends—”
“Or more,” he added.
I swallowed, certain my cheeks were red. “Then the next minute, you’re acting like you hate me and I disgust you and you wish me dead already.” He stepped in my path, and I bumped into him. “Hey!”
He leaned into me, his eyes hard, hurt. “Do you really think I want you dead?”
I held my chin high. “That’s the thing, I don’t know. And I don’t care.”
The last part was a total lie, but I would never admit it. Because I couldn’t even admit it to myself. I had agreed to die; it didn’t matter who wanted me dead or not.
I started walking around him, but he grabbed my arm. “I do—”
“I see light ahead,” Ceris called out from the front.
My heart pumped furiously in my chest, but I forced myself to concentrate on the task at hand. I jerked my arm free and marched to where the others stood.
Twenty feet down a dune, five attractive men dressed in black—what a shocker—stood side by side. A dozen beach torches created a wide semi-circle behind them.
Five? I thought there were eight.
With furrowed brows, Micah came to a halt by my side.
“Well, Lady Ceris, you said you had something important to discuss,” the one in the middle said.
“Yes, Dane.” She took a step forward, her gaze searching the area. “Where are the others?”
“I won’t answer your question until you answer mine,” Dane said. “What is it that you need to discuss?”
Ceris glared at Micah, but he only nodded at her.
She cleared her throat. “This may sound insane, but Mitrus isn’t dead.” She gestured to Micah, and the heavy gaze of the men fell on him.
Micah opened his mouth, but Dane cut him off. “Is this some kind of trick?”
“No,” Micah said. “It’s me. Dane, Amiel, Jed, Riel, Keon. It’s really me. When Levi”—he gestured to Victor—“killed me, we were reborn as humans.”
“Humans?” Dane watched them. “How is that possible?”
“The same way it was impossible to kill a god,” Victor said. “Yet, it happened.”
Dane’s eyes became two thin slits. “Can you prove this isn’t a trick?”
Ceris scoffed. “Can’t you feel his aura?”
“Yes.” Dane pondered. “It’s the same feel, but not the same intensity.”
“That’s because I’m trapped inside a human body.” Micah advanced another step. “Where are the others? Deven, Eklan, and Chael?”
Dane shook his head once. “After you died, we were lost. Deven, Eklan, and Chael didn’t want to go on with their duties. For the first time in their long lives, they were free to decide. They became their own Lords and disappeared. We never heard from them again.”
Micah gestured to the five of them. “And you stayed.”
“We stayed,” he said, his voice proud, his chin high.
“Dane,” Ceris interrupted. “We aren’t here for a social visit or for you to acknowledge your master is back. We are here because we want your help.”
“With what?”
“Defeating Imha and Omi,” she said.
He frowned. “You want to kill them?”
“Unfortunately, we can’t. We plan on neutralizing them and hope they go back to their old selves while we clean up their mess.”
“And what’s in it for us?”