STRAYED

by Amber Lynn Natusch

  “They do precisely that,” she purred, standing before him. It wasn't a challenge, but it wasn't a friendly gesture either. “Do not presume to judge me; you who clearly has demons of his own. Tell me this: Have you always done your utmost to keep Ruby safe? Have your riddles been so helpful to that end? I think not, Uncle. Either you can help us or you can't. Which is it? If you have nothing useful to offer, consider us gone.”

  She stood defiantly, waiting for his response. When none came, she walked out the open door to face whatever fate awaited her. Awaited us.

  “I have no ability to aid you in this situation,” he called after her, his voice full of sadness. That sadness quickly turned to hostility before he continued. “There is only one who may have enough clout with Persephone to persuade her, though I doubt even he can. Especially not given the situation.”

  “Who?” Scarlet demanded, coming back inside.

  “The dark-eyed one.” As always, he spoke that name as though it was offensive to his tongue.

  This just keeps getting better.

  “How can he help?” she pressed, turning back to face Gavin. She wanted specifics, and she wasn't about to play Gavin’s games with him. She was a woman on a mission, however suicidal that mission may have been.

  “Persephone has a certain weakness for him. It is because of that weakness that she may be willing to change the terms of your agreement.”

  “I know of their history―parts at least. Why do I feel as though there is an inherent catch to this?”

  “Because there is,” he explained, staring her down to emphasize his point. “That weakness was undoubtedly why she was so eager to accommodate whatever request you came to her with. She wants Ruby to punish Sean for casting her aside long ago. Persephone got a taste of something she wanted in the dark-eyed one. And, like the petulant child she can be, she does not enjoy being told no, nor does she like being fooled. That is exactly what Sean did. He played her to serve his purpose. She has now played you to serve her own. She may still want Sean, but I cannot think of anything she wants more than revenge. She knows of his obsession with Ruby. It seems she would now rather punish him than actually have him as her prize. Even if Sean offered himself in her place, I don't know that she would agree. She craves power and pain. She has both over Sean if she owns Ruby. I don't know that Sean's flesh would be enough to outweigh that.”

  “But you think there is a chance? A chance that he could rectify this?”

  He nodded once. “A small one.”

  “Then we take it,” she snapped, heading out the door. But before she set foot outside, she turned back to face him. “And how will we evade Deimos in the interim? I have the sneaking suspicion that he is not easily shaken once he's caught the scent of his prey.”

  “I will do what I can about that,” he replied, unwilling to expand on how he might be able to help. “You will need to stay in your building until you hear otherwise from me, though. You will be vulnerable anywhere else. Deimos enjoys the chase―remember that. Inspiring fear is his drug. He will milk that for all it's worth until he no longer can.”

  “Duly noted.”

  “I will accompany you home,” he added, looking at Cooper's scowling expression. “That is not a request.”

  “And if he attacks?” Scarlet pressed.

  “I will do what I can then too. I may have hidden for centuries, but it does not mean there is no fight left in me. I just choose to fight differently than you,” he said with a mischievous smile. “Do not underestimate me, niece.”

  He was met with a wry grin in return.

  “I won't.”

  Chapter 34

  Once the short, crowded, and very tense car ride home was over, Scarlet went directly into the building and up to our apartment, leaving Cooper and Gavin in the TT. She refused to relinquish control until we were in the relative safety of the apartment. I agreed, given that she knew what we were up against and I had no clue. But as soon as we set foot into the house, I demanded she let me out.

  And then I really let her have it.

  “You fucking bitch!” I yelled, slamming the apartment door shut behind me to punctuate my statement. Cooper came bombing through it a split second after. “You have done some things that were beyond fucked up in your time, but this takes the cake. You sold me to the goddamn Queen of Hell, Scarlet, and I want to know why!” I demanded, my eyes searching the room frantically for something to focus on. It was so strange arguing with someone you couldn't stare down.

  Do you? she asked. Because it certainly didn't go well for Sean when he told you the truth. You don't like hearing it anymore than you like hearing about the past. You act as though it helps you somehow, but all it does is unravel that tiny mind of yours to an irreparable state. What you want and what you can handle are hardly the same thing.

  “Holy shit, Scar! It's over. Now is the time to come clean so we can find a way out of this together!”

  You don't know what you're asking.

  “Don't I? What I want is for you to own up to your shit for once. That's what I want, and I want it now. Not later. Not when the mood strikes you. Not five seconds before that henchman kills me or drags me to the Underworld to face God only knows what. I want to know now. I'm tired of being an ignorant casualty in your wake.”

  He will not kill you, she said plainly, as though that was somehow supposed improve the tone the conversation was taking.

  “Great. Does he know that? He looks like the type who would rather enjoy that sort of thing, you know?”

  He won't kill you because he has come to take you, not to end you. Persephone wants her prize. Crossing her would be ill-advised on his part.

  “Isn't that exactly what you've done?” I retorted. “Crossed her? Did you really think you were going to get away without paying her what you agreed to if she's that crazy?”

  I had hoped so, especially when she did not come to collect right away.

  “And that's why you kept quiet about it, isn't it? You thought that maybe you could escape being found out. That maybe I would never know that you had once planned to serve me up to that deranged bitch.”

  A pause.

  Yes.

  “There's something wrong with you. Truly. You need help. Do you even know what's going to happen to you when she gets her hands on me? Do you think you're going to somehow escape her wrath? Newsflash, Scar: you're a part of me. Where I go, you go.”

  Another pause.

  Did you not, at any point during my conversation with Gavin, wonder why I would sell you to the devil if it meant that I went with you? My heart stopped―literally. I traded you for something. Funny how you hadn't questioned what that was until this very moment.

  “What?” I whispered, staring Cooper down from across the room. “What did you trade me for?”

  Freedom.

  “What does that mean, Scarlet?”

  It means that I was going to be free of you. Your soul was to be trapped with Persephone, though I don't know what her plan was for it. At the time, I didn't care. She promised that once your soul had been removed, I would be free to reign over this body as if you had never existed―as if you were never a part of the equation.

  I could not believe my ears. While the room closed in on me, my breathing failed and I collapsed to the floor, clawing at my throat as if I could somehow manually force air in and out of it. Cooper was at my side instantly, trying to figure out how to help and failing miserably. How do you help someone about to spontaneously implode?

  “Sean. You need to get over here now,” I heard Cooper bark into his phone. “Something is wrong with her.”

  His words continued, but they were lost to me; the atmosphere surrounding my body cancelled all other stimuli. I was trapped, unable to do anything but panic. Scarlet had sold me so that she could live on her own, her hatred of me running so deep that she would do anything to escape me. I couldn't fathom how things between us had escalated to such a level. What had driven her to do something so loa
thsome?

  Then the words “it'll be your last” floated through my mind. It was the last thing she'd said to me before she locked me away in my mind after Matty's murder. She blamed me. She wanted to punish me.

  And it seemed she found one hell of a way to do it.

  You took what was mine, she said, as if she had heard my frantic thoughts. Grief does strange things to us all, Ruby. If I were you, I would not be too quick to judge my poor decisions. You haven't felt the strength of the mate bond. It's beyond comprehension. My sanity broke the second Matty's body hit the floor. You may not have been the one to kill him, but you were going to pay for it. Someone had to. The thought of having to sit back and watch you and Sean continue on with your botched romance was too painful. I wanted to be sure that didn't happen.

  “Why didn't you just kill me―kill us?” I asked, thinking it would have been so much easier to just off us both by jumping in the bay to drown us both alongside with her pain. She knew that would have worked beautifully―it almost had once before―unless Gavin showed up again. And that possibility wasn't completely out of the question.

  Because I wanted you to pay, not me. When I went to Ares and asked if there were anyone capable of separating us, he wouldn't tell me without knowing why. He laughed aloud when I told him my motivation. It turned out that handing you over to Persephone was going to stick it to Sean even more than I thought. Ares was happy to make that happen, and he arranged a meeting.

  “But how could you trust him?” I asked in complete disbelief. “You despise him.”

  Formalities, Ruby. Hatred can be put aside when the situation demands it. You're ruled by your emotions. I am not.

  “Bullshit! You just told me that your sadness drove you to do what you did, so don't you dare lecture me on emotion-driven behavior. You're the fucking epitome of it!”

  One emotion. One time. That's hardly a fair comparison.

  “Really? I don't remember trying to kill you because you pissed me off.”

  Only because you couldn't, but you've trapped me with that ring. Seems you don't like that feeling too well when the favor is returned.

  She was right. I hadn’t.

  “So what changed exactly?”

  It would seem that Sean's mother saved more than just your life that night. She saved mine too. She saved me from my grief and myself. She brought us back together in a way that nobody else could have. That is why I thought the magic that Persephone had put upon us was gone. I thought the angel had undone all that I had done, though it now appears that I was wrong.

  “But how?” I pleaded, needing desperately to understand something about the clusterfuck that was engulfing me.

  Persephone had already made us two, separating us by capitalizing on what I had already done by shutting you out. All that remained to do was for me to find a way to kill you. Once you had died without me there to save you, your soul would have been delivered to her. You would have gone straight to the Underworld and remained there for eternity. In return, she would have had your body brought back to life with me at the helm.

  “Death magic.” Lyla's explanation of Persephone's powers now had context, making my body go numb with the realization that my death would have meant Scarlet's permanent incarnation.

  However, through means beyond my comprehension, Sean's mother was able to rejoin us, healing not only your body, but also our bond. When you awoke, I was with you. I felt no grief. No need for vengeance. All was right with the world again.

  “And now it's a fucking mess again!” I shouted, slamming my hand against the wall. “I guess you should have been careful what you wished for, eh? Looks like you'll be getting just that.”

  You haven't asked me the most important question of all yet, Ruby.

  “Oh, good. You want to fluff over these details so we can get back to solutions, right? Okay, fine. What are we going to do in the meantime?”

  That isn't it.

  “Could you just cut to the quick and tell me then?”

  You haven't asked me if I would take it back.

  “Well, of course you want to take it back now. Sean is going to kill your sadistic ass the second I'm gone, and not out of sadness for my loss. You know damn well that the only reason he has tolerated your existence was because I balanced us out and you kept me alive. The second he knows that I'm gone, it'll be lights out for Scarlet. End of story.”

  Ask me.

  “No.”

  I deserve a chance to redeem myself, however futile it may be. Now ask me.

  “Fine. Would you take it back?”

  Yes.

  “Great, but I think I just said I knew you'd say that.”

  You were correct about the answer but not the reasoning. What you fail to understand is that, without the madness my grief drove me to, I can see things far more clearly. You have been dealing with your own emotions and the emotions of others your entire life. I, however, had felt none until that fateful night. When confronted with them for the first time, all I wanted to do was escape feeling of any sort. That, however, was an impossibility when all you proved to be was a constant reminder of what I had lost and why. I needed to escape at all costs―to shed your emotional persona to be rid of the constant emotional stress.

  That need appears to have clouded my judgment.

  My actions are unrecognizable even to myself at this point. How does one admit to such an act of betrayal? I was in too deep. When I thought that maybe there was a chance that I could get away with it without you ever knowing, I took it. It was the path of least resistance, a road you're completely unfamiliar with since you've never once traveled it.

  “I never would have done anything like that to you,” I whispered in a state of disbelief.

  Don't be so certain of that, Ruby. Had the shoe been on the other foot and I had been forced to kill Sean―forced to take his life because I saw something you didn't, something you weren't willing to see―you don't think you would have blamed me? Wouldn't it be easier than holding yourself responsible for killing the one that truly completes you on a cosmic level? A level that defies every measure of comprehension? If I killed Sean, don't think for one second that you would not take that out on me. I know you, Ruby. You may think you're strong, but there are some storms that cannot be weathered gracefully.

  “Sean and I aren't even together, Scarlet. I don't think your example holds much water at this point.”

  But does that mean you don't still love him? Please, Ruby. I'm hardly a fool. You may have left him, but your heart did not. I feel you grieving. Don't think that my memories bleeding into your mind are the only thing that has changed between us. It appears that your theory about the Universe is correct. She has an amazing sense of irony indeed. The one thing I tried hardest to escape is what I am now constantly trapped by―emotions. I hardly know how you can breathe with them assailing you at every turn.

  “I may love him, but I cannot forgive him.”

  And will you ever forgive me?

  “If I live through this clusterfuck you've caused, I'll think about it, but not before then.”

  Without giving her a chance to rebut, I turned to Cooper to see if the inevitable had any chance of being avoided.

  “Is he coming?” I asked, nearly choking on my words.

  He nodded once.

  “He should be here in a few minutes.”

  “Shit,” I cursed, frantically sorting through the ways I could avoid an encounter. I wasn't ready to face him yet. Facing him required a degree of strength and acceptance that I had not yet acquired. I was hurt and angry and raw, but Scarlet was right. What my mind knew as truth, my heart did not.

  And I could not allow it to betray me.

  “I have to get out of here,” I muttered under my breath, making my way hastily toward the door.

  “No!” Cooper yelled to me while Scarlet seconded his notion inside my head.

  It is not safe out there. Gavin was right. We cannot leave. Not yet.

  “I hate you,
” I growled, staring the door down.

  “Well, that's just fine with me. If hating me keeps you alive, then I accept the trade-off,” Cooper snapped, holding me back.

  “Not you, Coop,” I sighed, turning to face him once again.

  Before I could say anything else, the door to the building came crashing open followed by a frenzy of footsteps. Panicked, I ran to my room, closing myself in alone. I could not stand to see him. Knowing that there was no escape for me, I played the only card I had left.

  “You are going to tell him,” I growled to Scarlet in the darkness in my room. “You did this. You tell him.”

  He will not take it well from me.

  “I don't give a fuck how he takes it, but he will take it from you, and that's final. You want forgiveness? Then I suggest you start taking measures to save face. Consider this your first opportunity.”

  He will hurt you, though inadvertently. He will take one look at me and be too enraged to think clearly, and as a result, he will do something that ultimately harms you, she informed me as though I hadn't thought of that minor detail. The truth was that I didn't care. The thought of seeing him kick her ass, even if it meant my own excruciating pain, was worth it. It put her in a position where she would either let him have his way and submit, which I wasn't betting on, or it meant she would fight to protect herself and me from his brutality. I liked both options. One meant humiliation for her. The other meant that she was back on my side, fighting for me rather than against me.

  As his footsteps fell loudly while he approached my room, I knew I was about to find out exactly how the game would be played.

  Chapter 35

  With my head hung low so my eyes were shielded from him, Scarlet begrudgingly took over, slinking her way to the forefront in an uncharacteristic way. Her actions were not indicative of fear or retribution, but of shame. She was ashamed of what she had done.

  “What is wrong now?” he asked with an even tone, his voice lacking concern altogether.