“No. Absolutely not.” She glowered. “Why did you torture me like that, always creeping around the edges of my vision, biding your time?”
“I couldn’t get to you where you were. You needed to come to me. Which you did.”
“You mean you can’t walk on Earth?”
Dare I tell her the truth?
She was my prisoner, so what harm was there? “Not in this form, no. Not in any way that makes me corporeal.”
“And thus you were unable to kidnap me.” She frowned. “But you were able to grab me in the library.”
“Your library is far more than it appears to be.”
She scoffed. “Oh, I know that.”
“There are doors there that connect to many places. Including one that goes directly to my realm.”
Her eyes sparked with interest. “It’s what I suspected, but . . .”
She would run for it eventually, going back to that library. I could see the plan forming behind her eyes. Hell, she had likely already plotted it, and this conversation had confirmed that it was a good idea.
She cooperated only so I would help cure her friend. I hadn’t planned that aspect of this—hadn’t been concerned with such collateral damage as an unwitting soul falling victim to my power—but it was turning out well for me.
“Is that what this is all about?” she demanded. “You want to be able to walk upon the Earth?”
“Hardly.” Of course I wanted that. But I wanted so much more. Needed so much more.
“What is your power? Telekinesis?”
“Of a sort. I can manipulate things and people with my mind.”
“Fire, too.” She nodded at the flame I’d created.
“Suddenly so curious?”
She shrugged. “Just passing the time.”
“No, you’re gathering information. Anything you can use to stop me.”
Seraphia
He wasn’t wrong about that.
The cold bastard was getting closer to his end goal. Now that I was on this godforsaken mountain, I could feel it. We were deep within his realm where he had all the power.
And I had none.
The best I could get right now was knowledge, and I was going for it.
“I don’t know what you want to do, so how do I know if I want to stop it?” I definitely want to stop it.
There was no way it was good. No way in heaven or on earth. Or in the underworld. And he planned to use me for it.
“Zeus wants to stop you from whatever you’re trying to accomplish,” I said.
“Of course he does. He lives to meddle in the affairs of gods.”
I laughed. “He’s Zeus. The Zeus.”
“And I’m the Hades.”
“Oh, so the machine has a bit of an ego?”
Something closed over his eyes, and he stiffened almost imperceptibly. I frowned. Was it the word machine he objected to?
The look was gone in an instant, and he nodded to the parcel of food on the floor. “You need to eat.”
“Don’t you?”
“Far less than a mortal does.”
“So, see? The fact that I need to eat means I’m not Persephone.” As if to prove my point, my stomach growled. Hunger ached inside me, and I thought of the terrible protein bar in my pocket.
I could eat it now, but then he’d wonder how I got it. I couldn’t let him know about Beatrix.
“Then eat.” He nodded to the food once more. “Eventually you’ll grow too weak to move.”
“I’m fine.” I laid down and rolled over. The sleeping pad was surprisingly comfortable, though the chill in the air was seeping into my bones. “I’m tired.”
Let him think I was Persephone, a goddess who didn’t require food. He already thought I was.
From behind, I could hear him shift as he rose. I stiffened.
A half second later, he settled onto the sleeping pad beside me.
I spun around, finding him reclining next me.
“What do you think you are doing?”
“Resting.”
“With me?” I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
“There’s only one sleeping pad, and I am not lying on the ground.”
“You should have brought two.”
“I assumed you would be on the ground.” He gestured to the mattress. “But alas, you are here. And if you want to stay, it will be with me.”
I huffed and climbed off. “No.”
“You’ll freeze on the cold ground.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
His cold gaze raked me, sending a chilly draft through my bones. “Suit yourself.”
I sat by the fire, staring into it, and studiously ignored him. He turned from me and laid down, pulling a blanket from the base of the sleeping pad. It’d been neatly stored there, and I hadn’t even noticed. Damn. I should have taken it before I’d bailed.