"I want you to lift it."
"Never."
She held her medallion out to him. "Do it or..." She gave Zarek a sideways glance. "Does this have any power to hurt him?"
"Only if he hurts you first."
Damn. What kind of protection was that? She needed to have a talk with whoever came up with these things.
A calculating glint lightened Camulus's eyes. He sighed as if bored. "Oh well, since I can't kill you, I guess I'll have to content myself with killing Talon instead."
Terror consumed her. "What?"
Camulus shrugged nonchalantly. "It's rather pointless to let him live happily ever after with you when my intent was to make him suffer. Since you can't die, he'll have to."
Her hand shook as she held the medallion in her suddenly sweaty grip. "Won't Artemis be mad if you kill one of her soldiers?"
He looked at Dionysus, who burst out laughing. "Artemis, darling that she is, would most definitely care. However, she won't start a war with the Celtic pantheon over it. Unlike me, Cam is safe from her wrath."
"Doesn't it just reek?" Camulus asked. His happy smile belied his dire words.
Sunshine wanted to cry. This couldn't be happening.
By saving herself, she had condemned Talon to die.
No! She couldn't let this happen. "Okay, there has to be another way."
Camulus narrowed his eyes as if thinking about the matter. "Perhaps there is. Tell me, Sunshine. How much does Talon's happiness mean to you?"
"Everything," she said sincerely.
"Everything. Well, that certainly is a lot." His look turned steely cold, frightening. "Does it mean as much to you as your own soul?"
"Sunshine," Zarek said. "Don't."
"You, heel," Dionysus snarled.
Zarek cracked his knuckles. "Don't tell me what to do. I don't like it."
Sunshine ignored them. "What are you saying to me, Camulus?"
He tucked his hands into his pockets and acted as cool as someone chitchatting about the weather, not sealing the fate of her immortal destiny. "A simple trade. I lift his curse. You give me your soul."
Sunshine hesitated. "That seems easy."
"It is."
"So what are you going to do with my soul once you have it?"
"Nothing at all. I'll keep it with me, just like Artemis keeps Talon's."
"And my body?"
"A body doesn't need a soul to function."
Zarek put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't do it, Sunshine. You can't ever trust a god."
"Sure you can," Styxx said. "Trusting them is the best thing I ever did."