Page 44 of Can you take it?

She shot a look at me as if I’d been feeding him information. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean I want to hurt people. Perhaps I want to help people.” She said it with such conviction that I almost believed her. She was good. She was really good. “Bexley, I think you’ve had a lot of terrible things happen to you, and I think you’ve spent a lot of time in Tartarus, and I don’t think that’s helped you.”

He began to tremble as if thinking of the memories was too much.

“It’s okay,” she said calmly. “You don’t have to think about them. You see, when I take over Tartarus, I’m going to make sure that everyone can have a good time, even the people who don’t like violence and don’t love hurting other people. There’s no reason we can’t have lighter things in Tartarus too.”

“Is there such a thing?” Bexley said.

Anna’s eyes shot to mine. “Of course there are, Bexley,” she said. “Why do you stay here? Why do you stay in Tartarus?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Why do you stay? I know for a fact you’ve made it through the tiers before. Why do you always pick the portal to return to Eromreven if you hate it so much? It doesn’t make any sense,” she said gently.

Sadness etched across his face in a way that made me ache for him.

“I go into the tiers with the hopes of dying,” he said, his eyes fixed on a spot on the dusty ground.

“You don’t want to die, not really,” she said putting her arm around his shoulder.

As I watched the two of them, I began to feel as if I was watching a private and very delicate conversation.

‘Cal,’ I called out in my mind. With everything going on, I had my own urge to smooth things over with Cal.

‘What do you want?’ came a startlingly dark and heavy presence. Mendax.

‘Hello, darling, it’s been so long’, I sang back. ‘Do you miss me?’ My jokes stopped abruptly when I felt someone familiar. ‘Are you with Tarani? What’s going on?’

‘We are having dinner with Tarani and a few of the Fallen Fae. Also, your sister has terrible taste in men. She’s seeing that one guy that turns to fire; can you believe it? Seth or something. He keeps touching Calypso’s stomach.’

It was like everything around me blurred away and for a minute I was filled with the need to hug my sister. Suns, I missed her so much. ‘Wait, what do you mean she’s dating someone?’

‘Yeah, don’t worry, I’m keeping my eye on him,’ Mendax said.

Oddly, his words were comforting.

‘Well, does she seem happy?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘She laughs a lot; she’s always smiling.’

Something inside me calmed a little, thinking about Tarani being settled and happy. Still, it killed me that I couldn’t be there for her. ‘Where’s Cal? I want to talk to her,’ I said.

‘Well, she obviously doesn’t feel like talking to you right now,’ he replied. Even through the bond, I could feel his protectiveness of her, and it too put me at ease. As much as I missed being there with them, it did provide me a bit of calm to know that the women in my life were being protected by one of the most menacing men there was.

‘So, wait, you’re having dinner with Tarani? Where?’ I asked.

Mendax let out a mental sigh.’ I don’t think I’m supposed to be the one to tell you, but the Fallen are moving from the Seelie castle. And we’re moving in.’

I felt the blood drain from my face down to my toes. ‘You bastard!’ I shouted. ‘You’ve overtaken the Seelie castle. You’ve taken it from my sister!’ Rage and fury poured through me. How could he sit here and talk to me like this all while he was ruining everything my sister had?

Pure joy—pure joy bubbled up through the bond, catching me off guard. Mendax chuckled.

‘Why are you laughing?’ I snarled.

‘Because even after all of this, you still assume the worst in me. It brings me comfort,’ he said.

I rolled my eyes and let out a sigh. It was surreal talking to Mendax while I watched Anna and Bexley.

“Dude, you okay?” Walter said, bumping my shoulder.