Page 49 of The Endless One

None of them could promise that.

Hugging herself a bit tighter, Jessamine continued her story. “There was one more thing. They said power is the only currency Ajax respects. The stronger the coven is, the more reason he has to fear us. The last time he didn’t touch witches until the very end, because he knew that the coven was capable of biting back.”

Once again, Agnes let out a little laugh that was as cruel as it was mirthful. “And so we are back here. The Deathless One must be sacrificed for the rest of us to remotely intimidate a god like Ajax. It is foolish to expect that we could ever spare him.”

There it was.

The one thing that Elric feared, all laid out in front of them in so few words.

Agnes had merely said what so many in the coven had thought. Jessamine knew that. There were plenty of women here who didn’t understand why Elric was still breathing, or at least why they didn’t have a plan to end him soon. They’d been sacrificing to him regularly. It didn’t matter that he gave them some magic back. It wasn’t enough.

“No,” Jessamine said. “We’re not doing that.”

“You’ll just bring him back,” Agnes argued. “It’s a temporary death. I don’t know why you’re arguing against it. He’ll return in just a few moments, right after we kill him! It’ll take all of five minutes for you to bring him right back to the same body he just left. And we can do it all over again once he feels ready. Until all of us have so much energy that Ajax would never even consider coming to this kingdom.”

“No,” Jessamine repeated, and then completely dismissed Agnes as though she wasn’t even in the room. “Anyone else have other ideas?”

Elissa cleared her throat. “We may send you back to the other gravesingers? Surely they know another way to kill the gods. Even if it hurts you to do so, Elric can bring you back before you die.”

But all of this seemed to only anger Agnes. The older woman shoved off the door and headed over to them, stomping so loudly Jessamine swore the floor shook with her wrath. “Absolutely not. This is the path of least resistance! Why not sacrifice him?”

Through it all, Jessamine looked at Elric. He had shrunk in on himself, his gaze on the floor as though every one of Agnes’s words was a strike to his form.

That was why she was so unwilling to offer him up to the power-hungry women in her coven. Because he would if they asked. Even though every part of him feared what they would do, and all the pain he would have to suffer, Elric would still do it at their word.

And that was why she never would. She’d made a promise to him that he would never have to endure what he had before, and she intended to keep it.

“Agnes,” she said, her voice firm and hard. “I will not entertain this thought.”

“Why? We all know you’re in love with him, and that’s very noble. But loving a god is like loving the wind. Some days it doesn’t blow.” Agnes threw up her hands. “How did you think this would end? Did you think you’d marry him? That the two of you would eventually sit side by side on the throne? You know how this ends just as well as I do, and it is not with him by your side.”

Jessamine was shocked. The words were sharp-edged and cruel, even though she knew where they came from.

“Agnes, go home,” she said.

“To what home? The one with my undead grandson or the one that doesn’t exist anymore? You tell me where you want me to go, Jessamine Harmsworth, and I will happily run in that direction. Anywhere is better than here.” Agnes spun and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Elissa drummed her fingers on the table, the sound almost too loud. “She didn’t mean any of that, Jessamine.”

“She did.”

“No, she didn’t. Those were cruel words. None of them were meant in honesty. She just… she hasn’t been the same since Hugo. You know how worried she is about all of this. He’s the last of her line.”

“She meant every word. I understand where she’s coming from, but it is not something we’re going to even speak of. We’re not hurting him, Elissa.”

The willow-thin woman looked at her for a few more moments before nodding. “I understand. Shall I go calm her down?”

“Please.”

The door opened and closed once more, clicking shut much more quietly this time before silence stood between the remaining three of them.

Sybil stood from the bed, stretching her arms over her head. “What if there was another way?”

“I will take any way but that,” Jessamine replied.

“What if we drained you?” Sybil pointed at Jessamine. “The gravesingers already poured more magic into you, and the magic you do have is rather… odd. We could strip it from you, and spread it among all of us. You’re a funnel for Elric’s magic anyway. We could siphon it off. Bit by bit.”

“If that would work, then that’s a way.” She looked over at Elric, hope making her chest ache. “Right?”