Aurora shifts to hold my hand, steadying me as the lights shift, the room brightening and the stage dimming a little bit. I blink rapidly. “I…I can’t do this.”
“What?”
“Ursa wasn’t supposed to bid. She wasn’t supposed to win.”
Aurora turns me to face her and clasps my shoulders. One look at my face, and she glances at Meg. “I think she needs a drink.”
“Take her back to the office.”
They’re talking about me like I’m not here—again—but I can’t hold it against them. I feel like I’m not here at all. Like I’m floating and this is a dream or a nightmare or some twisted combination of both. Aurora guides me through the room and into what looks like an employee locker room. Another door. Another hallway. Then I’m back in Hades’s office and she’s tucking a blanket around me. “Just keep breathing. It will be okay.” She tries for a smile. “Ursa’s really not that bad.”
“My father would kill her if he could.”
She blinks. “I’m going to get you that drink now.”
“Seriously, Aurora. If I do this, I can’t go home. Not ever. He’ll never forgive me.”
She pours a healthy splash of amber liquid into a glass and brings it back to me. “I know a little something about never being able to go home again. Sometimes it’s true. Sometimes it’s all in your head.” She waits for me to take the glass before she continues. “You chose to do this auction for a reason. Is it a good enough reason to go forward with this?”
Alaric.
I almost forgot about him in the midst of this. I take a sip of the alcohol and wheeze a little as it burns a path down to my stomach. I told Alaric that his freedom was worth the price of seven days. How is it less true because Ursa’s the person who won? Easy answer. It’s not. “Yes. It’s still a good enough reason to move forward with this.”
“Then you have your answer.” Her smile falters. “Hades will go over everything, and I suspect Hercules will be checking in on you, but if you’ve changed your mind, it’s not too late to back out.”
“I haven’t,” I respond before I can think too hard about it. I haven’t changed my mind. I knew the risks when I accepted the Sea Witch’s help. I just never expected this.
I’m swimming with the sharks now.
It’ll be everything I can do not to drown.Chapter 7UrsaI can barely keep my satisfied smile off my face as I walk through the public playroom. This has all gone according to plan. The price went higher than I expected, but with the show Zurielle put on… I lick my lips.
It’s going to be such fun to have Triton’s daughter playing my sinful games. It’ll be even better that all evidence points to her enjoying them despite herself. Preferable that way. Alaric promised that she wasn’t the good girl her father believes, but men have a habit of seeing what they want and ignoring all evidence to the contrary. What man doesn’t believe that every virgin is a little slut waiting to happen? Only for him, of course. Only ever for him.
Fools, all of them.
Malone strides up like a great slinking cat. She narrows her eyes at me. “Did you drop a million on her solely to spite me?”
“Of course not, darling.” I grin. “It was only the icing on the cake. It’s good for you to be acquainted with disappointment from time to time, instead of getting everything you want without a fight. It keeps that pretty head on your shoulders instead of in the clouds.”
Malone smirks. “And here I thought it was because you wanted to give your little boyfriend a toy.”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re speaking of.” I’d hardly call Alaric my boyfriend. It’s such a mundane title and implies a trust I don’t have in him. Alaric is the kind of man skilled in telling others what they want to hear in order to pave his way forward. If I have a fondness for him, I would have paid his debt myself if not for that tricky little caveat in Hades’s bargain.
Well, it’s not something I’m going to get into here in the Underworld.
She raises her brows. “Uh-huh.”
I can’t quite resist ribbing her in return. “Don’t think I missed the way you licked every bit of our virgin off Aurora’s fingers. Was that all for the taste or the pretty submissive offering it?”
“Bite your tongue, Ursa,” she snaps. “You know better.”
Yes, I do. But the advantage of friendship is that sometimes we dance over each other’s lines without apology. “You should take her, darling. She’s primed for it, and maybe it’ll put you in a better mood.”
Malone gives a delicate sneer. “Worry about your own household.” She shakes her head. “I suppose you’ll be too busy with that virgin pussy for drinks this week.”