even the gods can escape? It’s the perfect place for her until she can figure out how to be what we need her to be.”
He narrowed his eyes, shaking his head. “Nah, there’s some fucked up things in that place.”
“What fucked up things?” I demanded carefully. My hands crunched against the table, and it whined from the strain.
Iridescent eyes lifted, and Asher studied me. “Tell me you didn’t throw Synthia into that fucking pit.” When I just stared at him, the color drained from his face. “Ryder, tell me you didn’t toss your pretty wife to the monsters that I left in that fucking hell!”
“What monsters?” I asked, feeling my stomach twist with his words. I observed his ashen face as he opened and closed his mouth before fully figuring out what the fuck words were.
“You think it was fun and games down there? There were creatures so fucking evil and vile that they couldn’t be killed. There’s no magic down there. You either learn quickly to adapt, or you die. It took me centuries to get the slightest bit of magic during my time in that hellish pit. If you left her there, she’s without magic, alone, and with monsters that we weren’t strong enough to kill, even once we obtained magic after thousands of years.”
“She’s been there for three days, and has yet to enter the caves,” I muttered, scrubbing my hand over my mouth.
“You don’t get it. That pit isn’t even an actual pit. It’s a fucking gateway into the realm of monsters. You see one thing, the person within sees something else. It causes confusion, and time moves very differently there. The Hell of the human world has nothing on that hellhole. I learned that quickly. I was tossed into the pit three days after my brother, and yet to him, twenty years had passed since he’d entered.
“Every day, I looked down to be certain he was safe. I saw the same thing every day until I entered it myself and found him ripped to fucking pieces and hung on the walls of the cave. The thing is, down there, you don’t die. You just wake up the next day to be hunted by monsters again. You tossed your fucking wife to those creatures, and I assure you, what they do to women isn’t pretty.”
“I didn’t toss Synthia into that pit, she jumped. I just didn’t help her get out, and I have watched her every day since I left her there,” I argued, repeating what he had basically just said. My heart clenched, beating wildly as my brothers closed rank against me with the agitation they felt.
“No, you have seen what they wanted you to see. Pray what comes out of that cave has even a sliver of resemblance to the woman you left there. If she has been there for three days, she’s been fighting to escape for twenty years, if not more. It may have changed, but Danu dying wouldn’t have changed everything. It sure as hell didn’t kill Malachi, and if he has gotten to her, she may be so far gone that you may need to put her down because she’ll be so lost that nothing will reach her.”
I leaned over the table, grabbing Asher’s shirt as I yanked him forward to stare at him through narrowed slits. “You think to play games with me? She’s been calling my name nonstop.”
“I’m not fucking with you, Ryder. I told you that place was utter hell. I told you it was the shit of nightmares, and yet you left her there? That isn’t on me. I wouldn’t throw my worst fucking enemy into that hellhole, and I’m a cold bastard who enjoys watching people suffer.”
“She jumped,” I growled.
“Then you should have pulled her out. Only someone from the top can get you out.”
“What’s down there?” I asked carefully.
“The shit we couldn’t kill no matter how hard we fucking tried. There was an army of us, and she’s alone. She is powerless down there, unguarded, more than likely unarmed, and utterly fucked. We spent one thousand