"Nick?" he breathed, his heart shattering.
What had he done?
"You cursed him," Artemis said quietly. "I'm so sorry."
Ash ground his teeth as guilt consumed him. He knew better than to speak in anger.
His will, even when not thought out, made reality. One wrong word...
He had damned his best friend.
"Where is he?"
"The bower room."
Ash started to leave, but Artemis stopped him. "I didn't know what else to do, Acheron. I didn't."
She held her hand out and a dark green amulet appeared. She handed it to him.
"How many lashes?" he asked bitterly, thinking it was Valerius's soul she offered him.
A single tear fled down her cheek. "None. It's Nick's soul, and I have no right to it." She pressed it into his hand.
Ash was so stunned he didn't know what to say.
He placed it into his backpack.
Artemis swallowed as she watched him tuck it carefully away. "Now you're going to learn."
"Learn what?"
"Just how heavy a burden a soul is."
He gave her a dry stare. "That I learned a long time ago, Artie."
And with that, he stepped back and willed himself to Nick's prison. He opened the door slowly to find his friend in a fetal position on the floor.
"Nick?"
Nick looked up, his black eyes rimmed in red. The anger and pain Ash saw and felt from Nick tore through him. "They killed my mother, Ash."
A new wave of guilt slammed through him. In one fit of anger and with nothing more than a single sentence, he had altered their fates and had stolen from Nick and Tabitha the two people that neither of them should have lost.
It was all his fault.
"I know, Nick, and I'm sorry." He was sorrier than Nick would ever know. "Cherise was one of the few decent people in this world. I loved her, too."
He loved the New Orleans crew a lot more than he should. Love was a worthless emotion that had never served him anything but misery.
Even Simi...
Ash ran his hand over her tattoo as he fought back his emotions.
He made himself numb, then reached out to Nick. "C'mon."
"Where are we going?"
"I'm taking you home. You have a lot to learn."