Page 80 of Can you take it?

‘She said yes; aren’t you listening to me? I just told you I have someone I need to kill. She is under my protection; he is not,’ he growled.

Goose bumps covered the skin of my arms. ‘Thank you. For keeping an eye on Tarani for me,’ I said.

‘I’m not doing it for you. Calypso and Tarani have become inseparable. She is important to Caly, which makes her important to me. She has my full protection whether she wants it or not.’

‘Still, thanks,’ I said. Grateful beyond words that everything was going so well for all of them. Time seemed to move on so quickly with them.

The tie felt empty, and I knew Mendax had left. Too much appreciation for one broody king, I suppose. I glanced around the wide-open field to where the others were busy scouring every surface they could for the portal to the next tier.

Tarani is engaged to be married. My heart began to beat faster as I struggled to bottle my frustration and anger.

Tarani would soon be married. Calypso was married with a child arriving soon. My people and castle had all changed. All of these things I would miss out on because I had to be the good guy and fix everything for everyone else and wound up here. Why did I always do that? Why did I always have to sacrifice myself?

My eyes raked over Anna’s body as she inspected the one leafless tree in the field where she continued to hunt for the portal that would take us from Fraud to Acedia. Would she hate me for taking her to the Elysian Fields? Did I care? In that moment, as I watched her, I felt selfish enough that I didn’t care if she hated me. I wanted her and I wanted out of here. It was time I started listening to my true feelings and not what I thought was expected of me.

“Find anything? I know it’s somewhere around here. It’s going to be where we least expect to find it,” Anna said.

I walked into her until my hand found the curve of her waist, the other grazed the side of her neck, and I pulled her to me as I backed her up against the tree. “I did find something where I least expected to.” I pressed my mouth to hers.

She melted against me, kissing me back with movements laced with the ache of wanting. As soon as our skin touched, it was like magic blurred everything that surrounded us. “I want you, Anna,” I said between breathy kisses.

“I want you too, but I’m not leaving Tartarus,” she whispered as she wrapped her arms around my neck.

“Yes, you are,” I stated.

She pulled away slightly to look at me with heavy lids, no doubt surprised by my change in demeanor. “I’m not going with you to Moirai,” she stated with a cautious tone.

I kissed her again, this time less wholesome and more demanding. “No, you are going with me to the Elysian Fields,” I stated. “We will make some type of arrangement with the Fates so that I can be with you in Moirai and you can do what you were meant to do and be with your own kind.”

Anna pushed me away and moved off to the side of the tree, her wide eyes darting over my face as if I had grown horns.

“Everything okay, Anna?” Bexley called.

She stared at me for a moment before answering him. “Yeah, everything’s fine, thanks,” she replied. “So I can do what I was meant to do? I am doing exactly what I was meant to do, take over the Underworld for my father. What a sad, lonely world you must live in to think that you only have one destiny in your lifetime. But that’s true, isn’t it? If you’re not the good knight in shining armor that everyone believes, living in the Elysian Fields, then what does that make you? Bad? Normal?” She made a clicking sound. “You know, I made a mistake earlier, when I told you to be more selfish. You already are too selfish.”

“I’m selfish?” I asked, exasperated. “How so?”

“If you really cared about me, even a little, don’t you think you’d be more interested in what I wanted instead of deciding what exactly it is that you think is best for me? Or is it that you’re simply too prideful to be tied to somebody in the Underworld?” she asked.

Feeling hurt and wounded, I lashed out, saying things I didn’t really mean. “You’re right. I refuse to be tied to this disgusting place in any way, and that includes you. I will not give you the pendant until the Fates give their word that I will no longer be tied to you.” Then, because I felt like being a complete asshole: “Please forgive any behavior from me along this jour- ney that has led you to believe that there might be something between us. I am incomprehensibly attracted to you, but I see now that even that has run its course.” I flinched at my own words, not one to typically be so harsh. I knew my frustration with this situation had built and built until it boiled over, but what did it matter? Anything involving her and me together was a stupid idea, and it needed to end now. I wasn’t going to kidnap her and force her with me, and I wasn’t going to stay.

Her mouth dropped slightly, shocked at my words, but she recovered quickly by flipping me off and wandering over to look for the portal near Bexley.

I was so frustrated, I wanted to scream. If the tiers didn’t drive me to madness, then this whole thing with Anna would.

“You are lonely, hurt, desperate, and horny,” I told myself under my breath as I watched her. “Nothing good ever came from decisions made in that state of mind.” Angrily, I stomped back toward the front, near the fence with the hanging painting, grumbling at Walter whenever he asked me something.

For hours we searched. Every splinter on the worn fence posts had been checked by me, every tuft of grass or flower overturned by the others. Nothing. The only semi-interesting thing we found was that as we continued to widen our search, it was halted abruptly by an invisible boundary at the edges of the field. It was as if we walked into a soft wall of air that wouldn’t let us pass. I feared it was just an odd fae painting after all and that we would have to find a way to reenter the ballroom to get into the next tier.

“We’ve checked everything there is to check,” I griped. “I’m going back through the painting and into the ballroom to look.”

Anna’s head snapped in my direction, but she said nothing. “How? The painting of the ballroom burned up,” Bexley added.

Shit, it had turned completely black when it had burned.

“I don’t know, but I can’t stay here another second.” I glanced back at Anna.

“I get it now. Mine and Eletha’s bickering—I understand why you found it so annoying,” Walter said, making a point to look between Anna and me.