by Belle Malory
I cleared my throat and shut the door behind me.
My gaze went straight to Dad. I blinked, doing a double take. He usually looked like a tidy, younger replica of Grandpa, always clean shaven, in pressed clothes and shiny loafers. But tonight, he looked rough, barely resembling the father I knew. In the few months I’d been away, he had aged years. His reddish blonde hair was ruffled, he sported a full beard, and the lines in his face were more pronounced. The poor guy looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks.
“Sheridan.” His arms came around me at once. I breathed in his cologne, feeling a lump swell in the back of my throat. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed him.
Riley snorted. “And just like that, she’s back to the perfect angel again.”
Dad looked pointedly at me. “You were supposed to keep your distance.”
“I know.” I pressed my lips together; there was no point in making excuses. “I’m sorry.”
He took my face in his hands and sighed. “I’m just glad to find you both alive.”
Ah, the emotion in his voice was killing me. He was too soft to play the bad cop. He loved us too much.
Grandpa, on the other hand, had no problem taking that role. “You can have a seat too, Sheridan. Over there, across from your sister.”
Dad patted my arm. “We’ll catch up later. For now, let’s deal with the situation at hand.”
I nodded. Without a word, I dropped myself into the nearest chair.
Grandpa hovered over Riley, his expression deadly serious. He looked every bit the experienced military veteran, ready to go to battle. “Now, then.” He leaned down to her eye level. “Your father had his turn. Now, it’s mine. All I want is to ask one simple question—is it genuinely your goal to murder your sister?”
“She tried to kill me first,” Riley answered simply.
“That’s an excuse, not an answer. The question is, do you want your sister dead?”
My whole body tensed up, and I curled my fingers around the arms of my chair. I wasn’t sure why I cared to hear this; I already knew what her answer would be. From the moment Riley arrived at Arcadia, she made her intentions abundantly clear, playing a deadly game of cat and mouse.
“Answer me, girl.”
“Yes.” She swallowed. “I want her dead.”
We all stayed quiet, waiting for what he would do next.
Grandpa simply nodded. “Okay, then.”
He walked around his desk, reached into the top left drawer, and pulled out a small pistol. “Here’s your chance.” He spun the cylinder around to show her it was fully loaded with bullets before clicking it shut. Circling around the desk, he tossed the gun into Riley’s lap. “Kill her.”
I immediately stood. Dad shuffled around the desk, and we both rushed to speak at the same time.
“Grandpa, you can’t—”
“Have you lost your mind?” Dad’s eyes bulged, making it obvious he didn’t have prior knowledge to this insane plan.
“What? I’m letting the girl carry out her vengeance.” Grandpa leaned against the side of his desk, his arms crossed over his chest, as if he didn’t just hand my murderous sister a deadly weapon.
“You are playing with fire, Pa!” Dad shouted, his face red and blotchy. “You know the seriousness of their situation.”
Grandpa steered him back, guiding him to move out of the way. “Stay over there, Daniel. This might get messy.”
I shifted my gaze between Grandpa and my sister, unable to believe what was happening.
Then it hit me.
Grandpa was forcing Riley to face her demons head-on, because he didn’t think she had the guts to actually go through with it. She said she wanted me dead, and she probably meant it. Or, at least, she believed she meant it. If she couldn’t pull the trigger, she would have to face the fact that it wasn’t what she truly wanted. Then we could all get down to the business of searching for a cure. Finally.
Good grief, if his plan wasn’t so crazy, it would be brilliant.
Riley fumbled with the gun for a few seconds, stunned, looking unsure of how to handle it. I stood still as she aimed it at me.
“Get on with it, girl,” Grandpa said, his tone impatient.
Dad let out a long breath, his forehead creased with worry. “This is madness,” he said, shaking his head. “Absolute madness.”
Grandpa ignored him, focusing on Riley instead. “Everyone is tired of dealing with this damnable curse. End it now, so all of our lives can return to normal. I haven’t slept in the last seventeen years and neither has your father. The two of us have spent every spare moment searching for a cure. All of that work, the sleepless nights, the worrying—it will be for nothing, but that’s fine. Kill her. Be done with it. Put us all out of our misery.”
Grandpa was ramping up the reverse psychology. I had to hand it to the guy. He knew how to take risks. I just hoped he was right about this one.
“I know what you’re doing,” Riley snapped, visibly trembling. “You don’t think I’ll do it.”
She had always been smarter than people assumed. I wasn’t surprised she was onto him.
Grandpa shrugged. “Prove me wrong. You’re the one holding a loaded gun. Hell, kill us all. Plenty of bullets to spare.”
Behind us, Dad groaned, running a hand over his weary face. “This is going too far, Pa.”
“Keep quiet, Daniel. We’re at the end of a road here. It’s time we all face that.”
Riley tightened her grip on the gun, looping her finger around the trigger. She was shaking so bad that if she did shoot, I wasn’t all that sure she would make her intended target. Perhaps a bullet to the leg, arm, or a graze on my side. I swallowed and held my breath, afraid this might not end the way Grandpa expected.
There was too much anger in Riley’s weighted gaze. Too much resentment. The drumming of my heartbeat pounded in my ears, louder than anything else. At any moment, I was sure I would pass out from the lack of oxygen.
Several tense seconds ticked by. I didn’t move a muscle. I just stared at my sister, wondering if these were my last moments. If I was going to die at her hands, I wanted to look her in the eyes while she did it.
She lowered the gun. “Not like this,” she said through gritted teeth. “She won’t suffer enough.”
I let out a long breath. Thank God.
“Oh, we’re making excuses now?” Grandpa snorted derisively. “I have a full supply of weapons, both magical and nonmagical at your disposal. We can tie Sheridan down and you can spend the rest of the evening torturing her.”
I flicked my gaze toward Grandpa, scowling. He had better be calling her bluff.
Riley slammed the gun down on the desk beside him. “Physical torture is nothing,” she said, the frustration palpable in her voice. “I want her to experience total devastation.”
Grandpa got right up in her face. “Be more specific, girl. Exactly what are you after?”
“I don’t know.” Riley held up her hands.
“Your opportunity has been handed to you on a golden platter!” he said, refusing to let her back down. “What the hell do you want?”
Her eyes darted back and forth wildly, the frustration mounting. “I don’t know!” she insisted, shouting now. “I just…I want to hurt her as much as possible! Just as much as me.”
I pressed my lips together, those words absorbing into my soul. Just as much as me. Somewhere along the way, I’d hurt Riley, and not just by stabbing her with those scissors.
“Finally, something I can believe,” Grandpa whispered. He took a step forward, his gaze moving over both of us. “The two of you have done awful, horrible things to each other.” His voice was softer now, no longer egging Riley on. “But that doesn’t mean you’re without hope.”
“We’re cursed, old man. That’s pretty much what it means.” She flung herself back into her chair, letting out a defeated sigh. Her hazel eyes were calmer, her breath evening out.
“Curses can be undone.” Dad moved toward
her. “We will figure this out, Riley.”
“Delusional idiot.” She sniffed. “The two of you have been trying to figure it out our entire lives. What makes you think we’re any closer?”
At that point, I’d had enough. “At least they tried. You’ve only known about the curse for a few weeks and you’re already giving up.”
“A few weeks?” Riley looked pointedly at Dad. “I take it you didn’t tell her.”
Oh, no.
No more secrets.
But Dad’s guilty expression confirmed he was hiding something. Great.
“Tell me what?” He didn’t answer right away, so I continued to stare him down. “Come on, Dad. It’s time to get every piece of dirty laundry out in the open.”
He cleared his throat. “She’s known for two years.”
“Two years?”
“Selena sent her a letter. I wasn’t aware of it until only recently.”
Selena—Riley’s mother.
“I did my best to stay away from you,” Riley said, her voice thick with bitterness. “I made other friends, kept myself involved with school activities, all while trying to research curses in my spare time. Then Dad kept me confined to the house and ruined all the progress I’d made.”
My jaw dropped a little.
I believed we had grown apart, that my sister wanted nothing to do with me. But she kept her distance on purpose—to protect us both.
“I grounded you because you were getting out of control,” Dad said, shaking his head. “You make it sound like there was no crime behind the punishment.”
Riley groaned. “Did you ever consider that keeping all of those secrets in the human world might take its toll?”
“Okay fine, all of that makes sense.” I paced across the office. “But why Connor?”
She stared at me for several long seconds, making me wonder if she would give me an answer. Her eyes tightened at the corners. “I was sick of all of it. The curse, being a mage being in a nonmagical world, knowing our time was getting closer, the pressure to stop it, and I just…I looked at you and you were so happy. There I was, in that dark place, and I hated you for your ability to walk in the sun, without a care in the world. So, jealousy, I guess. I was tired of running. As soon as I stopped to catch my breath, the curse caught up to me.”
Hold up. She was jealous of me?
Almost impossible to believe.
I didn’t know what to do with that. For so long, I assumed she didn’t care. When really, she was dealing with her own set of problems, and a long list of them by the sound of it.
“Where do we go from here?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged, sighing in a defeated tone. “But I know one thing—using that gun is the easy way out.”
When I looked at her, I could see the weariness she mentioned. There used to be a spark in her gaze I hadn’t seen in a long time. She used to be effortlessly happy. But running from the monster inside was a nonstop job, one I was getting firsthand familiarity with.
I cleared my throat. “Well, I might have something. Grandpa doesn’t like it, but I think it’s a good option.”
“On Zeus’s grave, Sheridan.” Grandpa groaned and ran a hand over his face. “If you bring up Persephone’s Cure—”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” I laid on the sarcasm pretty thick. “Did you have any other ideas?”
“It’s too dangerous,” he stubbornly said.
“Do you know what else is dangerous? The two of us trying to kill each other every chance we get.”
“We will separate the two of you again until we can come up with something better. Send Riley back to Davidson.”
“No.” Riley shook her head emphatically. “I don’t want to go back to the human world. This is where I belong.”
“Separation won’t do any good anyway,” I pointed out. “When the effects of the curse grow stronger, all Riley has to do is conjure another monster and send it my way.”
Riley nodded, in total agreement for a change. “That sounds like something I would do.”
Dad crossed his arms over his chest. “No,” he finally said. “Your grandfather’s right. It’s too dangerous.”
My shoulders drooped. This was so unfair.
The three of us spent the rest of the night arguing, only to reach an inevitable stalemate. Riley remained quiet in her chair, acting as if she didn’t care either way. Her only concern was for herself, and that she stayed at Arcadia. It bothered me. I wished she would’ve fought harder, but I was the only one who kept pushing to go to the Underworld. In the end, Grandpa cut off my arguments. He sent Dad to walk me back to my dorm, while he escorted Riley. They didn’t trust the two of us alone together. I found that ironic considering not long ago Grandpa put a loaded gun in my sister’s hands. But, no. The Underworld was somehow more dangerous.
Good grief, what logic.
For a while, Dad and I walked in silence. Now that it was just us, I had so much to say, but I didn’t know where to begin. Instead, I just watched him, trying to imagine him as a student, walking these same grounds. It wasn’t hard to do. As rough as he looked, he was still handsome, and he looked ten years younger than he was.
“Everything will be okay, Sher Bear.” For once, it was nice to hear that nickname without the snide tone attached.
“How do you know?”
“Because we’re all in this fight together.”
It was a nice thought, but not entirely true. “Riley seemed bored of it.”
“To be fair, she’s been aware of the curse a lot longer than you.”
I glanced around, making sure the connecting sidewalks and pathways were empty. It was time for us to have the conversation he’d been avoiding.
Here goes nothing. “Dad?” I waited for him to look up. “What happened between you and my mother?”
He sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s uh, a heavy topic.”
“You lied to me.”
His eyes tightened at the corners. “Only to protect you.”
“I deserve to know the truth, and to hear your side of it.”
He looked up at the crescent moon for several long seconds, then back at me. “Yes, you do.”
I swallowed, sensing he was finally ready to be open and honest. “Did Grandpa tell you I met Petra?”
He nodded.
“I was blindsided, Dad. Do you know how unfair it was, to hear it from her?”
“I’m not sure how credible her side of the story was.”
I blinked. “It’s better than what you gave me—nothing!”
“Calm down, Sheridan. Here, have a seat.” We reached the front steps to House Aphrodite, empty for the moment. I plopped down on one of the stone steps, and he sat beside me.
“How could you do it, Dad?” Already, tears rose. I loved him, but I was so, so angry with him, and I couldn’t keep it locked inside anymore. “How could you impregnate two women at the same time? I never took you for a manwhore—”
“Watch your tone, Sheridan. Do you want this story or not?”
I breathed out through my nose. “Let’s hear it then.”
“I loved your mother.”
I blinked again, not expecting that. That’s not what Xander told me. That’s not even what Petra told me.
“We were best friends from the day we met. Inseparable. She was my stars, my moon, my everything…I loved that woman more deeply than I’ve ever loved anyone, and I believed we’d be together forever.”
“Wait a second.” I wiped at my eyes, straightening. “Then why did you leave her for Selena?”
“It was complicated, Sher.”
“Patronizing, much?” I narrowed my eyes. “Riley and I almost killed each other over a boy. I understand that relationships are complicated.”
At the mention of that godawful night, his face went all twisty. “God, don’t remind me. You girls put me through hell and back—”
“My point is,” I frowned, realizing we were getting off topic fast. “I’m pretty sure I
can keep up.”
He let out a long, heavy sigh. “I know you can. It’s just hard to talk about.” He looked up at the sky again, drifting away for several moments. The next time he spoke, I felt the pain in his voice. “We had a fight, a big one. It ended with both of us screaming and saying things we didn’t mean. The thing is, Petra and I were both too stubborn for our own good. We were prideful Ares descendants; apologies and expressing emotions were like a foreign language to us. After we broke up, I would’ve done anything to stop thinking about her…”
He looked down at his hands in his lap, and I patiently waited for him to continue. It was obvious he didn’t want to talk about this, but he was doing it for me.
“My days were spent training, and my nights were spent forgetting. I did everything I could to forget—drinking, partying, and yes, I suppose I did my share of manwhoring.” He briefly glanced at me. “You see, Selena was never supposed to be permanent.”
First of all, ew.
Hearing about my dad’s promiscuous history weirded me out on so many levels. It was not in character with the straight-laced guy I’d known my entire life.
Second of all, his story did not line up with the one I heard.
“So…you didn’t fall madly in love with Selena?” I said, trying to get a clear picture of what happened.
“What?” He vehemently shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong, she was—and probably still is—a lovely person, but Petra always had my heart.”
I let that sink in for a few moments, realizing Xander told me the story backward. Guess that was bound to happen when love triangles went through gossip mills.
“But…” I thought back to the night Grandpa hooked Xander to the ollidipher, trying to remember everything he said. “Selena is alive and well, working as a psychic in the Hollowed Castle. Grandpa said when you found out, it would destroy you.”
“Yes, that was hard to hear. But not because I was in love with her. Because I assumed, like everyone else, that she was dead. And because I left them both in the Underworld, trapped, and I never once tried to help either of them.”
