Emon’s teeth bared, but I steadied him, my hand resting on his knee.
I understood how he felt, but I also could hear the truth in my brother’s voice. Frowning, I looked around me, taking in the room we were in for the first time. "Tower? Where are we exactly?”
Heavy transparent black glass walls surrounded us, pitching upwards into a spiraling peak straight into space, stars surrounding us on all sides, shimmering against the glass. Behind me, Riella gasped, pulling on my sleeve and pointing wide eyed at a bright fiery comet shooting across the sky, casting shadows within the room in its bright light.
Reluctantly, I had to admit, this part of Sheol was breathtaking.
Kade grinned at my unveiled awe, "Welcome to the Voltum of Sheol, a city within the Eithne, where our mother and Shea live.”
My brows rose, "Not you?"
Kade's eyes darkened. "I wouldn’t call it living, but yes, I stay here as well. Someone has to.”
Emon’s claws slashed in the dark and he leaned forward. "I sense you are playing games, Kade Stellan Shea Dark. Are you sure this is where you want to take this?" he hissed.
Riella broke the tension between us, her question bursting from her loudly as if she could no longer hold it back in her tiny body. "You are so lucky you get to stay here!” She peeked around my body, “You get to eat all the stardust you want!” Hand placed on the bed, she leaned further towards Kade. “What does yours taste like?”
Kade's eyes widened and then a small smile formed on his lips. It was the first time I saw him without darkness in his expression—the Kade I used to know.
Clearing his throat, he winked at Riella, “I think I’ll keep that one a secret little niece.”
She looked up at me, “What is a nice?”
“Niece,” I corrected her, “it means you are the daughter of his sister, which is me. You would call my brother Uncle, but he has yet to earn that title,” I sent him a sharp look.
Kade’s brow raised, “Indeed. Everything must be earned with you.”
Both Emon and I growled our warning in unison.
“When it comes to my daughter, yes, brother,” I snapped.
“Well then,” he dropped his booted foot to the ground and winked at Riella, “I should start earning my keep so that your little bird may call me Uncle someday.”
Taking a deep breath, I moved to drop my legs over the side of the bed and leaned into his space. "In that case, start talking Kade," I hissed.
He was far too relaxed for a fae that knew what I was capable of, brother or not.
Studying my face, he snorted and leaned back in his chair, slinging his arm over the top and stretching his dark gray shirt over his well defined physique—his build, I suddenly realized, was much like our death god father.
"Sheol is the land of the dead…and it is only for the dead…unless you're a god, then you may live amongst them," he frowned then, "if you call it living."
The ghosts were back in his eyes and it sent a chill down my spine. "What of the others? What about our court? Are you telling me that…that they are dead? Is this what will happen to our family?"
Emon inhaled sharply next to me and Riella whimpered.
“Mother, they can’t die.”
Emon slid forward next to me, pulling Riella into his lap, purring, “Of course not, my cub. We would never let that happen.”
My brother sighed, his hand rubbing across his lips. "No. Not dead, they won’t die. Not yet anyway, but not alive either. They are asleep…just."
My movement was quick, hauling Kade’s body out of the chair by the collar of his gray shirt, I snarled into his face. "You are making this extremely difficult, Kade, and you are upsetting mydaughter. I care not for your dark mood. Give us answers or leave. With or without you, we will have them."
Emon chuckled behind me,"I love the vicious side of you, little umbra."
Ignoring my soulmate, I shoved Kade away from me, watching him stumble with shock, before he regained his balance, his eyes cutting angrily in the abrupt space between us.
"What is your choice, brother, are you with us?”
