by Eve, Jaymin
“Thought I might have gotten rid of you,” I said in greeting. “Haven’t seen you for a while. It was nice.”
He grinned, not even remotely deterred by my prickly comments. As he straightened from where he was leaning against the wall, I noted that he looked particularly put together tonight, wearing a black dress shirt and pants, hair perfectly styled.
“We’re bound, my little princess,” Sonaris said with a drawl. If I was anyone else, that power and tone in his voice might have sent a shiver down my spine, but I’d been around Atlanteans for two years now and I was somewhat immune. “You’ll never get rid of me.”
“Famous last words,” I spat, because it had already been an emotionally fucked day and the last thing I wanted to be dealing with was this absolute tosspot of a cocksmoker.
“We should swim,” he said suddenly, and it was completely my own fault that I wasn’t prepared for him when he snapped his hand out and grabbed on to mine. In seconds, he zipped us away from the Academy, using that instant transmission way of travelling only the gods could do. And it was fucking annoying.
I had no idea where we were, but it was daylight here, and we were on a picturesque beach with palm trees and crystal-clear waters.
“I like your hair,” Sonaris said. “It’s almost fitting that this year you chose my favorite color.”
“Take me back. Now,” I bit out.
He shook his head and I reached for my magic, ready to both kick his ass and open a step-through to get me home. “You don’t own me,” I said, my voice deeper than usual as power swirled through me. “Tell me right this second what the favor is, or don’t come near me until you’re ready for it to be fulfilled.”
Fucker was always smiling. I didn’t like it. I didn’t trust him. There was something about Sonaris that stirred my senses in the worst way. It reminded me of when I thought I was human, and I’d be walking somewhere late at night, somewhere dangerous, and every hair on my arms would be standing up. Because I knew I was in trouble. I knew evil lurked around me. Sonaris was the evil, I just hadn’t figured out his plan yet.
But I would.
His smile vanished, and maybe, just maybe, that was even more terrifying.
“Okay, if that’s your wish,” he said softly. There was an undercurrent in this tone, but it was hard to discern the extent of his anger. “I know what I want for my favor, and I’m ready now for you to know it as well.”
Riddle talking fucker.
“Well…”
He stepped closer and I wanted to back up, but that would give him the power. And I’d die before I did that. “I want you to spend one month with me, on my island, exploring my world and getting to know me. You think you have it all set with the young Atlantean, but how can you know when you’ve never given anything else a chance. You’re very young yourself, and to commit fully to one without exploring other options … not something I can allow.”
My head spun for a second. Was this some sort of cosmic joke? I mean, Jesse had just pulled the same move on me in the pool, only he’d at least been somewhat kidding. Sonaris wasn’t.
“When does this month start?” I whispered, knowing that I’d bound myself to this deal and could not back out of it. In reality, of all the things he could have asked for, this wasn’t the worst. Although, the timing could be better. According to Mab, one month was all the time I had until the gods released. Maybe Sonaris knew that and was doing this for that very reason.
I was no doubt about to find out.
“Right now,” he said. “This is my island. It’s perpetually summer here, and no one comes into my waters without my permission. It’s private and safe. It’s the perfect—”
“Prison?” I interrupted.
His features tightened minutely before he smoothed his expression again. I was finally getting to him, destroying his perfect facade. “I could have asked you for anything,” he reminded me. “Anything.”
I swallowed roughly, and he took another step toward me so there were only inches between us. “Remember that when you act like this is the worst kind of punishment you could receive. I assure you, it’s not.”
“I have school,” I said, shaking my head. “I want to graduate early this year. I can’t skip an entire month.”
He opened his mouth but I pushed on.
“Not to mention that I’ve heard from a reliable source that the gods will only remain in their cage for another month at the most. I have to figure out how to stop them before that happens. Otherwise we’ll all be fucked.”
Sonaris grimaced. “You curse a lot. It’s irritating and a sign of limited intelligence. I know you’re not of limited intelligence, so maybe tone it down.”
Did he just seriously…?
“Fuck. You.”
Now I was the one smiling. This piece of shit thought he could come in here and tell me how to…
My internal rant was cut off when he grabbed me, hands tight around my biceps, and it was in that moment I saw the true monster inside of him. A monster he’d been hiding … trying to woo me using fake charm. I hadn’t fallen for that, though, and now he was done acting.
I was finally going to see the real Sonaris.
Power surged under his palms and I reacted with my own, shooting energy back at him. He flinched but didn’t let me go. He was so strong, one of the strongest of the gods, and I’d been stupidly complacent, thinking of him as nothing more than an annoyance. A nuisance.
Now I was probably going to pay for that in some sort of horrific way.
His power wrapped around me, invisible to the eye, but it felt like thick coils of rope, binding every part of my body, including my own power, rendering me completely vulnerable.
That old fear of being held immobile still flickered inside of me. I’d mostly gotten over that since coming to the Academy, but I’d never lose it completely. At least if I focused on something else—aka destroying Sonaris—I should be able to handle it.
“If you’d ever figured out how to truly tap into your powers, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation right now,” he said angrily, roughly shoving me away. I sprang back like I was connected via an invisible string to him. “You’d be able to kill us all without blinking an eye. But since you’re still woefully ignorant, I’m going to take advantage.”
Fuck. He was lucky I couldn’t kill him with nothing more than an eye blink, because he would no longer be breathing.
“You’ll never make me love you,” I told him, my mouth the only part of me that could still move.
Sonaris laughed, throwing his head back, strong bronze neck corded with muscle and veins the only thing I could see.
“I don’t want your love,” he said when he stopped laughing. “Love is weakness. I want a powerful partner at my side. One who has energy that complements my own so I can utilize that source as well.”
And there it was. Finally we had the truth.
A truth that made sense.
He’d told me that he wanted a mate. That he was lonely.
But that was all bullshit. He wanted a mate alright, one he could share power with. And by share, he meant to steal their power. This bastard had tried to manipulate a true mate bond so that he’d have access to my energy.
What the fuck was it with gods always wanting more power?
My energy surged in protest, crashing uselessly at the binds holding me. My skin grew clammy as I fought, trying any spell I could think of. But nothing worked. A long drawn out battle scream ripped from my throat, and I focused more than I ever had before, not hiding from the heat that swirled in my gut. I let it all loose. Sonaris cocked his head to the side, examining me, the warm inviting smile replaced by a smirk. It was actually less creepy, because this was the real god now, no pretending to be anything other than a psycho.
“You’re absolutely spectacular,” he said, brushing a finger across my cheek. I snarled and jerked my head in an attempt to bite him.
I was under no illusion that I was the most beaut
iful, or smartest, or even the most powerful supe around. I was none of those things. But there was something in my energy that drew these powerful men to me. Jesse, Sonaris, even Asher—though I did believe we were truly soulmates. The connection went both ways with Asher. It certainly didn’t with the other two.
I tried a different tactic. “There’s a true mate out there for you,” I told him softly, quenching some of my sarcasm and anger in an attempt to connect on an emotional level. “It’s probably someone you least expect. Shit! It could be a human.”
He scoffed. “I need a power source to draw from, not a black hole to suck it out of me. If my mate was a human, I’d kill her before she could weaken me.”
My eyes narrowed. “You’re already one of the most powerful gods in the fucking world, and still it’s not enough. What if you did have my power? It wouldn’t be enough after a while either. You have to learn to be satisfied with what you have. Especially when you’re already blessed.”
His smirk wavered, just briefly, and for a second I wondered if I’d gotten through to him. His irises dilated as he remained unblinking, staring at me. Then that moment was gone. He shook his head like he could shake out my words in those two swift movements. He picked me up and threw me into the water off the side of the island.
As the cool liquid closed over my head, a sigh escaped. I was still bound, but being in here actually made me feel a tiny bit better. The water was surprisingly deep, and since I remained bound up like a mummy, I could do nothing but sink.
Shadows danced beside my face and I managed to flip over to see what was following me.
Sonaris.
“You need some time to think,” he said, conversationally. “Since I have you for a month now, I’m going to leave you here for a while. I’ll be back to check on your attitude soon.”
He moved through the water the same way he’d stepped through the air, like neither was a barrier to his movement, both there to support and help him. So graceful.
I wondered if he’d die just as gracefully. Because I was going to fucking kill him. Even if it took me the rest of my life.
I would figure out how to destroy that god.
Chapter 12
When I hit the bottom of the ocean floor, I managed to flip myself over to lie on my back. The pressure down here was not uncomfortable and I had no problem breathing or seeing clearly, but I was still bound. With no Sonaris to focus on, I was having some trouble with that old fear again.
Breathe. Just breathe. In and out. In and out. You’re okay. You’re alive.
The water was my home. Not my enemy. There had to be something I could do to help myself. Closing my eyes, I focused on the currents, drifting around me. After some time, even with my eyes closed, I could sense everything around me. The billions of creatures. The life and death of the great circle happening down here.
My heart beat in rhythm with so many others, and when I finally opened my eyes, I wasn’t surprised to see hundreds of creatures around me. I’d done this before. Called the sea animals to me. Not on this scale though.
There were so many. More than I could see or count. They spanned way back to what looked like a whale. It should have been eerie—okay, it was a little freaky—to have them all just hovering there before me, like a captive audience waiting for me to say something highly inspirational.
Inspiration wasn’t really my thing though.
“Can you get word to Asher?” I asked. “Tell him that I’m okay and I’ll be back as soon as I can free myself from the binds.”
Two dolphins, close to me, sent out their squeaks and whistles. I wouldn’t swear on it, but it definitely felt like they could understand me. In any case, they zoomed off and I crossed my fingers they were going to figure out how to “speak” to Asher.
Asher. Dude probably flipped out when I disappeared. Ten to one he punched Jesse thinking he’d killed me and buried the body. Hopefully their fight didn’t last long before they figured out there was another enemy in their midst, and that we had to stop fighting amongst ourselves.
“If only we had our mental link secured,” I muttered. “Would make it a hell of a lot easier.”
We hadn’t figured it out yet though, so we’d just have to wing it and hope for the best. Maybe Asher had learned to speak dolphin in the last few months. Weirder things had happened.
A shark, its teeth alarmingly close to my face, brushed against me. I decided to think of it as solidarity and not him sizing me up to eat. Not that gods could really be eaten by a shark, especially not Atlantean gods. I was mostly god, so that had to count for something, right? Right!
“If you can eat gods, I have a few for you ready and waiting,” I said, to cover my unease. I both loved and respected all the creatures under here, and that respect meant acknowledging the apex predator that was the shark. Emphasis on the predator part.
The shark brushed against me again, its sandpaper-like skin turning the bare flesh of my arm red, before it healed. It did it again, and I was starting to get the idea that it was trying to tell me something.
“Can you break my binds?”
It stopped rubbing against me and I sensed that meant no.
“Are you rubbing against me for a reason?”
This time it nudged me.
Okay, a nudge was a yes, and no movement was a no. I hoped.
“How do I get free?”
It bumped me for the fifth time and I was at a loss. It didn’t move back as fast this time, lingering close, continually scraping my skin. Each time it did, there was a strong tingle when our skin touched, and after a few minutes of that my skin no longer turned red. If anything, the shark’s sandpapery touch was almost … soft.
Sea creatures didn’t have power like gods, but every living thing held energy, some stronger than others, and this shark had quite a lot actually. Energy it was sharing with me … strengthening my own…
Clarity hit me. And with it came horror. “Stop! No more. You’re giving me your energy. Your life force.”
Nudge.
I tried to shake my head, but my limited range of movement was not really conducive to that. “No. Please. It will kill you.”
Nudge. Nudge.
“No!” I shouted, and the bindings holding me shifted just a little. Rage swelled again, swirling the water around me. Everything was tinted in shades of red and burnt orange, like fire had ripped across the ocean floor. Only it wasn’t fire.
It was me.
In an instant I was upright, still bound but no longer prone. The creatures surrounded me in a large circle, moving with the water that churned from my energy. Sonaris appeared in my line of sight, and he tried to blast through my animals, but they didn't shift, held in place by me. Something dark and foreign broke through the normal heat of my power and words spilled out.
“You made a mistake, Sonaris.”
My voice was amplified, blasting through the water.
The god didn’t look upset. If anything, there was something akin to satisfaction on his face.
“You. Are. Magnificent.” He uttered each word slowly, pausing between.
“If you say that to me one more time…” I seethed. I couldn’t seem to control my emotions, and the sea animals around me reacted, turning as one and … attacking Sonaris.
“No! Stop!” I screamed, but they didn’t listen. He was going to destroy them all. He was going to tear them into a million pieces of meat, turning the water red with death and destruction. Panic ripped through me. It almost overshadowed my fury. I couldn’t let innocent animals die, especially ones trying to help me.
I lost sight of the god, buried beneath hundreds of fish. I pushed forward, aiming for the general direction he’d been last. I zipped from one place to the next, and as I approached the largest mass of animals, it finally hit me that I was actually moving. My arms and legs, and all body parts.
Had Sonaris released me? Or did I break free on my own?
No time to worry about it. I had animals to save.
Using my power, I scattered the ones in front of me, moving them—gently—out of the way. Unlike when Sonaris tried, they moved for me. When I finally reached the epicenter, I expected to see death and destruction. This was where the god had been ... but there was nothing. No carcasses or blood.
Not even Sonaris.
It was like he’d just vanished completely.
“Where did he go?” I asked, looking between a pair of sharks.
Both shifted in the direction of the surface and I shot up. Again, a smart person would have just opened a step-through and gotten out of there, but I was beyond controlling myself at this point. The fire in my vision grew larger. That bastard had tied me up. Bound me with power. He’d wanted to hurt my fishy friends.
I burst out of the water, droplets scattering all around, and for the first time gravity didn’t yank me back down. My power surrounded me, and … I was drifting in the air. No, it was more like manipulating water particles in the air to keep me afloat. I could use those same water particles to shoot me around, and it legit felt like I was flying.
Probably the coolest thing ever, and in different circumstances I would have been whooping and hollering at how awesome it was. But that was the last thing I felt like doing at this moment.
Sonaris was going down.
I’d seen only a small fraction of the island before, but from my current elevation, twenty feet above the ground, I had a very good view of the surrounding area. It was an island with gorgeous white sand and lots of palm trees. Patches of forest appeared further back, and I could make out a waterfall near the center.
Sonaris’s private sanctuary wasn’t large by any definition, but it was stunning. Too stunning to be claimed by someone like him.
The water followed my mental command, sending me zooming over the trees toward the center of this island. Once I got near that waterfall, a small treehouse came into sight. Cleverly camouflaged into the surrounding landscape, I might have missed it if I wasn’t looking so hard.
“Sonaris!” My shout had power behind it and the foundation of the house shook. I tried to dial it back because I didn’t want to destroy something so perfect. It didn’t deserve my wrath, but maybe it was hiding the being who did.
