Page 5 of Can you take it?

“You all right?”

I blinked a few times and realized I had been frozen, staring at the cabinet filled with candles. “Yeah, I’m good. Just processing everything. Is this your bedchamber?” It seemed a bit seductive with the lighting and decor. To be honest, I’d have thought it would be a bit more manly looking, but it smelled like sex and that somehow fit his aesthetic.

A choking sound came from the muscular fae. “No, I have Eletha. This is…a different kind of room.” He smirked. “It will likely be filling up soon, so we should move on.”

I snorted. “Yes, it very much seems as if you ‘have’”—I air quoted—“Eletha. Especially when you ran into a hidden maze to get away from her. You flirty son of a bitch. I’ve been doing it all wrong. And what kind of room is this?”

The shifter let out a crack of laughter. Despite him being from the land of death and darkness, Walter was surprisingly likable and easygoing. “Okay, Eletha’s not mine…yet.” His face turned to mine and I saw the determination practically pulsing behind his irises. “But stars willing, she will be.” His words were filled with a hopefulness I was far too familiar with. “Also, this is the room where the ladies bring the paying customers. These rooms are used like a brothel for the pros.”

I swallowed my own loneliness down. My eyes roamed his hard expression, looking for anything that might clue me in a little more on this seemingly odd pairing, and then, like a bolt of lightning, it hit me. “She’s a dog.”

The hair on my arms immediately prickled at the sound Walter made. “Sorry, not a dog—right? A wolf? Wolf-dog? Fuck, what is it?” Another reverberating sound from Walter’s chest shot straight to my instincts, reminding me that he wasn’t always as friendly as he was with me.

“Eletha and her sis⁠—”

My schooling came flooding back to me so fast, I began choking on my own gasps. “Eletha and her sisters are the Shepherds of Eromreven! Suns! No wonder she won’t give you the time of day. She’s a fucking Shepherd. You called her the warden!” My back hit the nearby wall, startling me all over again. Oh suns, had I said anything I shouldn’t have? I had told her about Adrianna, but there was no real reason why that would be an issue, at least none that I could think of. If anything, she might be able to help me return Adrianna’s powers and pendant. Surely one child leaving Tartarus wasn’t a big deal. Walter’s eyes remained uncomfortably hard on me. “Yes, Eletha and her sisters are the Shepherds of Tartarus and the daughters of Kaohs, but since the other sisters have left, they call her the warden of Tartarus.”

The air crackled between our stares, and I knew that my future in this pit of death very likely depended on my next words. The Shepherds were always portrayed as three hideous lupine-like monsters that chose which tier you went to. It had been obvious Eletha was far from a monstrous-looking beast, at least in her fae form, and I could almost hear Walter’s internal dialogue, daring me to say a single word about how beautiful she was.

“When will I meet the other sisters? I guess it’s a good thing you and Mendax are close with Kaohs then, huh? If you plan to make him your father in-law. That has to be a point in your favor.” Relief washed over me when the Unseelie broke his stare abruptly and moved toward the door across the room. I followed him out, with a thousand questions about the wild room we were just in.

“You will never meet Eletha’s two sisters because the two of them abandoned the Underworld to run off to the human realm with a couple of idiot human men and got banished. Eletha was no better, barely missing her own banishment by running off to marry some stupid fae. Only one of her sisters remains here, and she is the last person you want to meet. And it is most definitely not a point in my favor that Mendax and Kaohs are close,” he mumbled under his breath.

“Why is that?” I questioned.

“Because I was the stupid fae Eletha ran off to marry. Mendax told Kaohs, and Eletha was hauled back here and never allowed to leave again. Kaohs despises me.”

Chapter 3

ELI

Walter and I emerged from the room into a dimly lit hallway and quickly passed several similar rooms, each with a different color of fabric hanging in a similar fashion. I was so busy gawking at the bright colors, I lost Walter as he kept moving.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going, man!”

Startled and off balance, I caught myself just before my head smashed into the smooth slate floor, having tripped over a group of people huddled along the edge. “Oh, I beg your pardon.”

The largest of the three, a man with thick, swollen features, looked down at something he held between his forefingers. They were so large, it was hard to see what he was gaping at, but it looked like a small glass…saltshaker?

“He spilled the last of it!” “What? No! I needed that!”

“I’m out of memento! I can’t get any more dust!”

They all rose up from the ground to hover over me in their filthy, stiff-looking clothes. A chill ran through me. They looked ragged and confused, and I had no doubt I could take them in a fight, but for the first time in my life, I realized I didn’t have my powers to back me up if things got out of hand. If they still had their powers—whatever they might be—then I was in trouble.

I scrambled up from the floor as quickly as possible but was stopped by a kick to the ribs. “Fuck!” Yep. I could definitely still feel pain.

“You’ve cost us our last hit!”

I tensed, preparing for another kick when a firm grip tightened around my bicep and pulled me to my feet. “Let him be, you maggots.” The stranger patted my back as the three goons slinked down the hall passed us. I knew from the voice it wasn’t Walter who had helped me, but I was even more startled when I looked at the kind stranger.

“You’re Seelie,” I blurted. “Thanks for helping me. I don’t have my—I don’t have any weapons on me.” I stumbled over my words, thinking better of sharing my lack of power. It wasn’t a good idea to advertise that I was powerless without knowing anything about this place or the people.

The man chuckled politely. “Don’t worry about it. Always glad to help a fellow Seelie when I can. We have to stick together down here, ya know? Where ya headed?”

I felt the tension in my shoulders release a bit. Maybe this man could help me find Adrianna?

I glanced around as we stepped into a sprawling, busy space at the end of the hall. No Walter, though it was impossible to see every face in the dimly lit area, which overflowed with people. “Just looking for my friend. What were those guys doing back there? The ones I bumped into?”