Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 111898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 559(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 559(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
His head whipped up, fury radiating from him, just as it had done during her premonition.
Dread punched her. Was she already too late?
She followed his gaze, ignoring the influx of pain, and groaned. Sure enough. The Astra had arrived in reality and now imprisoned the teenager with his arms.
“You have twenty-four hours to give me the orb, or I will execute your son. I look forward to hearing from you.” With a nod in their direction, Azar vanished, taking a struggling Maximus with him.
Rathbone yanked an arrow from Neeka, demanding, “What did you see? Tell me!”
Despite the pain, she remained lucid. She knew she couldn’t not divulge the truth, the full truth, and only the truth. “If you fail to give the Astra what he seeks, he acquires the orb another way and Maximus dies. Lore still wins.” And dang it, this looked bad—for Neeka. Like she’d set everything up for another perfect betrayal. Distract Rathbone with the old get-arrowed-and-fall bit while the Astra collected Maximus, then hang back and persuade the king to risk the end of the world to save the boy. “By giving him the orb, we help Lore destroy us all, anyway.”
He drew in a deep breath, then pulled out another arrow. “I’m the only one able to dismantle the orb.”
“Not according to my vision,” she muttered. The absolute worst thing she could say in her own defense, and yet, truth was truth.
A vein pulsed in the center of his forehead. “Very well. I’ll give the Astra what he seeks. I’ll also convene with Hades and convince him to let you speak with Siobhan. We will find the remaining bones, ensuring Azar cannot resurrect Lore, even with the orb.”
A great plan. So why was her stomach churning and her instinct burning?
29
“Tell me what payment you seek.” Rathbone stood in Hades’s throne room, Neeka at his side. “Let my female converse with the goddess in your mirror, and I’ll pay your price, whatever it is.” Why waste precious minutes arguing over semantics when Rathbone was willing to give up everything he owned?
And there would be an argument if he attempted to bargain. He and Hades were family, yes, but business was business. There was no way Hades would allow the two females to interact out of the goodness of his heart.
“Um. Maybe I should do the talking,” Neeka said from the corner of her mouth. She probably thought she whispered, but she did not. Her words echoed from the walls. “You kind of suck at negotiating.”
“She isn’t wrong.” Hades pet the cat in his lap. “Why pay for this? And you know I’ll make you pay dearly.”
Rathbone snorted. “Offer an answer free of charge? Hardly.”
“Perhaps the answer is my payment.”
“Perhaps isn’t good enough. Verbally accept my offer, and I’ll explain everything.” Hades might not do something out of the goodness of his heart, but he often did things for the sake of his rampant curiosity. The only ace Rathbone currently possessed.
“Does this have anything to do with rumors about your secret son?” Hades asked. He kissed the cat’s face and held it out for Pippen to collect.
The servant claimed the feline, who clawed his arms into a bloody mess before diving to the floor. Pippen revealed no reaction.
“Maximus is your great-nephew,” Neeka piped up. “Family is supposed to help family, I’m told.”
“I am my family, and I help me,” Hades said.
Rathbone measured his breaths. He hadn’t given the Astra the orb—yet—but a countdown clock consumed his mind. An ominous ticktock he couldn’t escape. Only twenty hours, seventeen minutes, and forty-three seconds remained. Forty-two. Forty-one. Enough time for Neeka to chat with Siobhan, learn what she needed to learn, find what she needed to find, and hopefully spark a vision.
Unless she was aiding the Astra and setting Rathbone up for further failure? The thought had crossed his mind a time or twelve. Look how susceptible he’d been to Lore’s lies and schemes. To those of Neeka herself. But they’d been on different terms then. And his oracle wasn’t his former wife. One lacked integrity. The other wouldn’t violate hers for any reason.
No, Neeka wasn’t aiding the Astra.
“What if I demand the Kingdom of Agonies instead, hmm?” the king asked.
Rathbone flinched inside. This, he’d suspected. If he agreed to do it, if he handed over the kingdom he’d fought so hard to acquire, Hades would accept, no doubt about it. Would Neeka be disappointed and therefore less likely to become his queen?
I’ll win her another kingdom. “Verbally accept my offer,” he said, “and Agonies is yours.”
The king double blinked, a sign of his unparalleled shock. He looked to Neeka as his cat jumped to the top of his throne and perched. “You wouldn’t mind losing your new kingdom?”
She shrugged. “Who says we won’t win it back?”
Hades was the one to snort this time. “As if I’d want your hovel of a realm. The renovation alone would empty my treasury. No, I desire something that will cost you far more. An admission that I was right all those eons ago when I told you about Lore’s trickery.”