Page 3 of Can you take it?

Now that was a power move.

She only reached his shoulders in height, but it was obvi- ous who the stronger predator between them was, which was baffling in and of itself considering Walter had literally been a captain of the Unseelie army, the Unseelie prince’s brother, and a fucking beast of a man, and I wasn’t just saying that because he could shift into rats and wolves and things. Seriously, aside from Mendax, he had always been one of the most intimidating men I knew. He could turn it on and off and be the most likable, friendly guy ever, but somehow that only added to his intimidation factor.

“I should send him to the first tier just because he’s a friend of yours.” Her brow raised ever so slightly in challenge.

Oh, shit, the first tier. How had I forgotten about the tiers? I couldn’t go through the tiers. Especially before I found Adrianna. I needed to get the pendant to her so she could escape this place, and hopefully I could follow. Tartarus was not just the playground of miscreants but also the punishing realm. It was said—though, after seeing this room alone I don’t really know what to think or believe anymore—that when you went to the Underworld, you were sent to Eromreven, the waiting room of Tartarus, if you will. There, you would be met by the three Shepherds, three of the most hideous and dangerous beasts alive…or dead? Hmm…their life status was left out of the stories, but everything in Tartarus was dead anyway, the Shepherds would scour your mind and body before deciding where they wanted to send you. It was also said that because they were so hideous and evil, they didn’t shy away from playing with their victims a bit, especially the male victims. I once had a private tutor tell me about a Seelie that landed himself in Tartarus for cheating on his wife repeatedly. Apparently after his arrival in Eromreven, the Shepherds…err…roughly fornicated with the man until he was torn into shreds and tossed to the ninth tier. But that wasn’t the only reason the Shepherds were so dangerous and feared; they were the three daughters of Kaohs. Not only did they have the god of the Underworld wrapped around their hairy, thick-knuckled little fingers, but it was said he loved his daughters with all the love he had to offer and, as any good father, did not like anyone that they touched and would cause their every day in Tartarus to be worse no matter if they were Seelie or Unseelie, male, female, or anything and everything in-between. It was said he cared for nothing but his three hideous daughters and his protégé, a young man he had stolen from the gods to take his position.

Glancing around the room, I saw no hideous Shepherds there to violently molest me. In fact, I saw nothing that rang true with any of the stories I’d been told. For a quick moment, I wondered if all the bloodcurdling screams I’d heard had simply been a figment of my imagination. They had felt so…heavy.

“From the look of it, he wouldn’t make it past the ninth tier anyway,” she said, eyeing me slowly, pausing on where I still held my crotch.

I cleared my throat and moved my hands as far away from my dick as possible. The ninth tier was lust, and it was said you were met with the ghost of a Ladon dragon that would dip your body in hot coals before it ate you.

“Please, Eletha, I could use a friend here,” Walter practically whined, reminding me of a puppy being scolded. I had to fight a scowl in his direction.

To his credit, he clearly knew what he was doing, because her voice suddenly carried a gentler tone. “What about me? Am I not your friend?”

Walter swallowed. “I don’t want to be your friend.”

Was he blushing? I caught myself leaning in to watch the tense yet stifled chemistry between the two. It was chaotic and heavy, like it was being stopped short of its destination.

Walter slowly grabbed her hand and dipped down. “Please, as the ward of Eromreven, you are a force only⁠—”

This was getting awkward. He was literally on his knees begging her. Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful to Walter for trying to keep me out of the Ten Tiers, but it seemed so unlike the man I knew, and I felt like I was intruding on a weird lovers’ quarrel.

When Cal had brought Walter into the castle as a pet rat, he and I had become friends…not friends enough that I would expect him to beg the warden of Eromreven for me, but also when did he ever beg? He was Mendax’s right-hand man. He didn’t beg for anything. I was reminded that this man was here because he had died protecting Cal. He had died because my mother, the Seelie Queen, had killed him. I suddenly wanted to disappear into the wall behind me. I couldn’t let him do this. “I’m only here to find a lost soul who goes by the name of Adrianna. She is my dear friend Calypso’s younger sister. She is Artemi and is unable to ascend to Moirai without the last droplet of her powers.” I clutched the warm metal vine around the pendant of ashes and raised it for her to see. “The Fates have tasked me with freeing the child and then we both will be gone from this realm.”

In unison, their heads turned abruptly to me, each with their own surprised expression.

“Ughh, get up! Fine,” she grumbled, turning back to Walter as she curled her lip and stormed off, stopping where the first row of seated fae began. She waved her hand in an irritated wide sweep and the rows began to vanish completely, chairs, fae, and all. She continued this until she had cleared out what looked to be several hundred fae, each sweep of her arm quicker and more aggressive, until at last the seemingly endless room was nearly empty of the crowd, the room itself shrinking until it was the size of a large ballroom.

Walter and I watched, completely captivated, his eyes darkening with lust that I half expected them to pop out of his head. “Thank you, you didn’t have to do that,” I said. “Especially after what my mother did. I would have understood if you had let whatever it was that was about to happen, happen.”

The large Unseelie warrior tousled his brown hair, making it look somehow even better than before. I tousled my own hair. By now my chest had lost the warmth of heroism and had begun to feel heavy. The thought of never being able to talk to her again physically ached.

“Come, let me show you around. I want to hear everything and more importantly how you ended up here, but we need to get out of the threshold before Eletha comes back and sends you to the Ten Tiers just to spite me.”

Chapter 2

ELI

Walter took off and I followed behind like a duckling as he guided me out of the so-called “threshold,” weaving in and out of corridors and hallways of every size—literally every size. He had made a point to take me a route that was obviously never used, which made me think something strange was happening. At one point he had to crawl through a little copper-framed doorway that, had it been one single inch smaller than it was, neither one of us could have fit through. As it was, we both had to practically dislocate our shoulders to wedge our bodies into the space. When I gave him a concerned, appraising look, he only shrugged and continued on until at last we came to a watermelon-sized black hole in the ground where he tried (unsuccessfully I might add) to force his large, muscular body through.

“Dude.”

He looked up at me from the ground, where he was trying to jam his waist through. “Huh?”

I kneeled beside him. “Are you taking me somewhere to torture me for what my mother did to you? Is that why you begged the warden woman to not send me off—you wanted me all to yourself? Also, can I even die…again?”

He moved to sit on the ledge of the hole, still trying to shove one thigh in. “What? Why would you think that?”

“Where are you taking me?” My arms were crossed and my tone serious, but I couldn’t seem to get rid of the laughter in my eyes as I watched the six-foot-five Unseelie continue to try and fit through a hole the size of his head. At this point his beefy thigh had gotten wedged in and wouldn’t budge, so he just sat, staring up at me with a whole leg through the floor.

He opened his mouth to defend himself but then let out a small laugh and ran both hands over his face, shaking his head slowly. “Man, she’s got me all kinds of messed up.” His eyes glittered with mischievous sparks as though he didn’t mind her messing him up at all.

He removed himself—or rather, his leg, since that was all that had successfully fit—and sat down in the small, closet- like room. For the first time, I took a good look around. I couldn’t have found this room again from the threshold if my life depended upon it. The room was poorly lit, but in the filtered orange light from the hall, you could see that even the small cubbies of this place were spared no ornate intricacies. I had always assumed Tartarus was a grimy, dingy pit of despair and horror, as that’s what we had always been told. This looked nothing like a pit of despair.

I took pity on the shifter and sat on the ground next to him, pulling a knee up to my chest. Whatever was going on with him, I now considered myself his friend and would be there for him, if he wanted. I waited a few minutes for him to explain and then took over when he didn’t.