to a place where mountains appeared to be held aloft by clouds, the temples were far larger than their exterior appearances accounted for, and creatures from different mythologies were real. I’d discounted the former as glamour and the latter as unusual, but maybe it was more than that.
I took in a breath that did nothing to ease the sudden tightening in my body. “If I’m not in ‘my world,’ where am I?”
Ashael patted me the way you’d soothe a startled beast.
“Some call these places fae worlds. Others call them the home of the gods. Some consider them purgatory. Technically, they’re all correct because no two bubble realms floating on the lip of the netherworld are the same. They become whatever their ruler designates them to be. Phanes modeled this one after the legends mortals told of him, but in all these realms, time passes differently because of their proximity to the netherworld. In some, it speeds up. In others, it slows down. I didn’t know which one this was until now.”
I’d been shaking my head as he spoke. Logic had nothing on denial. By the time he was done, I was fighting a shriek. Yes, I knew that time passed very differently in the netherworld. I’d been killed often enough to notice that the few minutes I spent in that dark void before my father resurrected me could equate to hours back in the living world. But I didn’t know that “bubble realms” like this existed, let alone that I was in one.
“So, how long have I been here, according to you and Ian?” I managed to ask through a new lump in my throat.
Ashael sighed. “A little over three weeks—”
My horrified scream cut him off.
Chapter 9
Ashael clapped a hand over my mouth, giving an alarmed look around before tightening his grip.
“In case Phanes’s reaction escaped you, my kind is hardly welcome here. If you scream again, someone will assume I am assaulting you, and it will not go well for me.”
I forced myself to stop. To take in a breath instead, and not think about how the whole time I’d been getting bathed, massaged, and then displayed like a trophy for this stupid feast, weeks had passed where Ian was. And he’d had no idea where I was, why I’d left him, or if I intended to come back.
No wonder he’d looked at me with such rage! He must’ve thought that I’d abandoned him just like I had after my father erased most of Ian’s memories of me.
I felt my back hit the wall behind me, and I leaned against it because I suddenly needed the support. Now, I didn’t feel like screaming. I felt like weeping.
A new thought shot anger through me, until I straightened as if I’d been yanked up by an invisible hand.
Phanes must have known. This wasn’t the first time he’d gone back and forth from my world to his. Oh, yes, he knew, and he’d insisted that I come here to “talk.” Once we were here, he’d stalled again, telling me that he needed a night of pretending before he’d reveal how to save my dad.
What would his excuse have been tomorrow? That he had to wait until after lunch before telling me how I could free my dad? How long would Phanes have put me off, knowing that every hour I spent in his world equated to being gone for days in mine?
“I’m going to kill him,” I ground out.
Ashael gave a wary look around. “Who?”
Phanes! both parts of me replied.
Neither of us said it out loud. Most people who noticed Ashael and me seemed too intent on reaching the stadium before all the good seats were taken, but a few of them had lingered because of my previous scream. I caught their eye and forced a smile as I patted Ashael’s arm to show that everything was okay.
No matter my anger, I wouldn’t threaten to kill Phanes within earshot of anyone who was loyal to him. Oh, no. I’d continue to pretend to know nothing.
“I have to tell Ian that what he heard was an act, and I had no idea I’d been gone that long,” I whispered to Ashael.
He frowned. “I told you, the trials start soon, and again, if you’re caught doing anything that’s considered interfering, your life and Ian’s life will be forfeit.” Then Ashael’s tone softened. “But I am his second. If I can manage to tell him without being overheard, I will. Regardless, be ready to leave