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“Yes.”
“Why?”
Maximus has hardly stopped shaking his head. “So, thesepowers… They’re who, exactly? Is this, like, the judicial branch of your government?”
Arden raises a smooth eyebrow. “That would be implying the underworld is a democracy.”
“Where did they take her?” I’m so agitated, I’m shocked my skin’s still intact. “And again, why? She’s not acriminal.”
“Nobody agrees with you more than me, little sister.”
The tacks in his tone aren’t lost on me. But if he added the new nickname as some kind of bonding tactic, he failed. Badly.
“That’s not an answer,” I bite out.
He tilts his head, seeming to concede. “Not a criminal,” he repeats. “I’d say she’s more like…a prize awarded for good behavior.”
My throat constricts. Tears push at my voice, but I battle to gulp them down. “A…prize?” I stammer, too late to block awful assumptions of Kell in that dismal castle bedroom, gazing out at Dis’s dismal hellscape. “For what? To whom?”
There’s a thoughtful—and unreadable—flicker across Arden’s face. I yearn to close my eyes, battling supreme frustration. If he’s contemplating lying to me, even by one syllable, violence will be an easy afterthought for me.
Thankfully, he firms his stance and meets my gaze. He doesn’t even blink.
He’s going to give over the truth.
“Rerek.”
“Rerek?” Falling apart helps nobody right now, especially Kell. “That’s…nonsensical.”
He jogs his chin up, smooth and haughty. “It is also the truth.”
“What was Jaden’s lockdown, then? Just a down payment? Was Kell always part of this deal too?”
As swiftly as it came, his attitude subsides. A minor tic starts at the corner of his right eye. I don’t want to watch. Not a thing inside me wants to acknowledge that my stress has bloomed enough to agitate him too. He can’t convince me that he actually cares for my sister. Not ever. But especially not right now.
“My best guess?” he finally ventures aloud. “Rerek probably jumped in, more than willingly, to help Hades with the chaos across the city during the earthquake swarm. In addition to the favor it obviously courted—”
“You mean imprisoning my brother.”
I’m unable to control my furious injection, earning me conflicting scowls in return.
Arden’s is solemn and sympathetic. “With a hex, sadly, powerful enough to hold more than just Jaden.”
Maximus is drenched in a slew of new questions. “Kell too? But he cast it right on Jaden. I know that much for certain. I was able to leave the place without any issue, but Jaden looked like a bird ramming a plate-glass window.”
Arden rolls his eyes with a lot of purpose. Strangely, the look gives me leave to breathe again. His arrogance might be aggravating from a dozen angles, but it’s also familiar to the point of reassuring.
“It’s a basic holding hex. Its parameters can be stretched easier than plastic wrap,” he states. “Certainly even you know that, oh learned one?”
“Stop.” Flames climb to the forefront of my gaze. I don’t attempt to hide them in the glare I fling across the clearing. “Just get to the point as if you’re not impressing a room full of swanks at a Van Gogh appraisal.”
He purses his lips but settles his figurative feathers by adjusting his sweater cuffs. “It was probably all of five minutes’ work for Rerek to expand the curse, wrapping Kell as well as Jaden in the boundary. While it’s a troubling situation to contemplate, there’s a chance of turning it around in our favor. It’s why I was able to talk Veronica into coming here in the first place.”
My gut knots. “A vibe I didn’t help with at all. If I’d known…”
“Or perhaps if your mother had put aside her pride for a moment,” he adds coolly. “But yes, the outcome indeed could have been different. But it’s water under the bridge now, which means there’s no time to be tossing in our wishing pennies.”
Maximus clears his throat. “So, thischanceyou’re talking about… Can you elaborate?”
