godfather tells me, and before I can reply, he disappears into smoke.
“I don’t like him,” Finn announces, wrapping his arm around my waist. “It is time we—”
“Wait!” a small voice calls out. I pull away from Finn, despite his annoyance, and follow where the voice came from to find a little boy behind the bars. He has bright purple eyes, a nasty scar on his right eyebrow, and thick but dusty blond hair. In his arms is a toddler, a baby really, tiny and wrapped around his neck. “Are you going to save us?”
I sigh, feeling hopeless right at this moment. “I’m no hero, kid, but yeah. I’m going to do everything I can to get you and every Unseelie fae out of this place.”
“Then you’re a hero,” he tells me, flashing me a toothy grin. “My mother died last week from disease, but she said she saw me in a field, holding the hand of a girl with black hair. She said we would be in the Otherworld soon.”
“I hope you are there soon. I’m sorry I can’t do anything for you right now.”
“You give us hope,” an elderly woman nearby cuts in, and I meet her bright blue eyes. “Hope is worth its weight in gold.”
“We must leave,” Finn demands, placing his hand on my shoulder. I see the boy’s eyes as Finn uses his magic to portal us away, and I feel the boy’s eyes haunting me, haunting every decision I make going forward from now on. There is a face to who I am rescuing, and that makes my stomach almost drop from the weight of it. I turn to face Finn, needing an escape, something to distract me.
So I do the most selfish thing I can think of. I kiss him even as the gold dust still floats in the air around us. He doesn’t push me away; instead, he pulls me hard against his body and sinks his hands into my hair. His tongue invades my mouth in the best way, and I swear I could come just from his kisses alone.
“This is disappointing,” a female voice drones. I jolt, and very slowly Finn breaks his lips from mine, pulling me to his side. An Unseelie stands in the middle of Finn’s apartment, her eyes glowing gold and her feet floating off the ground slightly, a gold haze to them. The Unseelie is clearly a slave, judging by her clothes.
“Who are you?” I gently ask. “I mean, you’re welcome here—”
Finn pushes me back. “That’s my mother, Artemis, and she is using moonlight to possess the Unseelie fae woman.”
Damn, there is a goddess in Finn’s apartment, and I was just making out with her son.
I am speechless.
“Son, I did warn you that mortals can offer such pleasure, but they must be resisted for the mission at hand,” Artemis replies, her voice changing in tones with every word, making it hard to listen to her. I can feel her power now, like sunlight cracking through holes in a steel box. There but distant.
And her power is extreme, it is just like Aphrodite’s.
“Mother—”
“No, this one has no goddess or god blood. You will marry the Riverlite girl that isn’t in the test and complete your mission with a child from her before coming home. You will find the next queen of the Reaper Realm and make sure the crown is on her head soon. This was why you were sent to Messorem, have you forgotten?”
The goddess’s words take a second to hit me, but when they do, my heart beats faster than ever, even as I feel it being ripped apart. Finn and Laelia?
“I have not forgotten. I was side-tracked.”
“I can see that. I am glad to hear you are on track. I will be back soon,” she promises, her eyes never leaving Finn before her eyes fade from gold to purple, and then the woman stares blankly ahead for a second. A gasp leaves her lips, and then she collapses onto the floor. I rush over, turning her on her back and feeling her neck for a pulse.
“She is dead, trust me on that,” Finn somewhat coldly replies. I grit my teeth and lower my head, sucking in a deep breath.
“I’m sorry,” I tell the woman, not even knowing her name, as I close her eyes. I can get Sebastian to help me bury her with the other Unseelie. I pull myself up and finally look at Finn. Angry words escape my lips. “You’re fucking engaged