His brow twitched down before smoothing again. “I thought perhaps we could catch up on lost time.”
Suspicion slipped down my spine like a cold rain. “By that I’m assuming you mean you’re here to check up on me.”
He eyed the round dining table and strode to it, taking the seat facing me. “Sit, Atlas.”
“I’m fine on my feet.”
Again, a hint of displeasure colored his features. “I insist.”
It took several seconds to convince myself to comply. Never’s defiant nature truly had rubbed off on me. But it was also the thought of her that led me across the room. I might hate my father with every fiber of my being, but he held her future in his hands.
It was wise to play nice.
I eased into the chair, crossing my ankle over my knee. “Do you have any news of Never?”
“I’m afraid not, but I have given this arrangement of ours a great deal of thought. I believe it was unfair of me to tie your fate to hers.”
On the contrary, that was precisely how I wanted it. She was mine. If she suffered, I wanted to share in her suffering. If she died, I wanted to die beside her. I certainly wouldn’t expect someone like him to understand what she meant to me, but in the interest of discovering what nefarious game he was playing, I inclined my head for him to go on.
“How would you like to return to Othrys, for good this time?” he asked, feigning a fatherly warmth he’d never actually possessed.
The answer to that was easier than it had ever been. I wasn’t the least bit interested. And yet, he had to have areason for asking. “Have I served my sentence to your satisfaction?”
He paused as if in thought. “You have done reasonably well.”
So, no, I had not. Which made the offer nothing more than a calculated move, and I was pretty sure I knew what he was after. “Will Never be joining me when her time in the Alius is up?”
He raised one pretentious brow. “She is doomed to fail in her effort. You must know that.”
If he truly believed that then he understood nothing about her. “Shall I take that as a no?”
Iapetus pulled in a deep breath through his nose before leaning forward and resting his elbows on the polished wood. “If you return with me today, you can never know what becomes of her.”
I shouldn’t have been the least bit surprised, but what had me scratching my head was how, in all these years, he hadn’t changed even the tiniest bit. Everything he did, everything he said, was a maneuver of some kind.
“Respectfully, I must decline,” I said, keeping my expression neutral.
Disappointment flitted across his brow. “I’m offering you a chance to come home, Atlas.”
“I appreciate that, but I won’t trade Never for a new life in Othrys.”
He shook his head and straightened with a disgusted huff. “You can’t be serious. You do understand that when she fails, she will be destroyed, as will you. You won’t be reunited for a tearful final farewell. Your life will end with hers, without so much as a single word ever passing between you again.”
I was fully aware, and while his words were meant to cut deep, they changed nothing. “I will not give up on her. It might be a miserable and trying thousand years, but our connection is stronger than ever. I have no doubt she knows that I love her,and I will continue to remind her what she’s fighting for every day. Every moment.”
A dry smile twisted my father’s face. “Ah, did I forget to mention that detail?”
“What detail?” Dread turned to stone in my gut.
“You may feel what she is feeling, but as far as she’s concerned, your connection died the moment she stepped foot in the Alius.”
All I could do was stare at him. How damaged must a soul be to find pleasure in hurting others in such perverse ways?
I’d always known he was a heartless bastard, but this was a new low even for him.
I swallowed down the hate that rose in the back of my throat. “As I said, I will not give up on her. Ever. There is nothing you can offer me that will make me change my mind.”
His lip curled. “Still the same reckless fool, I see. I had hoped your time in the Nassa would have brought you a bit more perspective.”
