Chapter 70

“Quiet,” Laila breathes, her voice a hush. “Let me concentrate.”

Even as the six of us lean forward to get a better look at the map and the divination tools scattered across it, we remain very quiet, waiting, barely daring to breathe lest we disturb something.

Laila looks left and then right at both Orion and Midnight. “I think I have my reading sorted. Would either of you care to go first, so I can see if mine lines up with yours?”

Orion just slowly shakes his head. “My mother was always adept at this, not me,” he murmurs.

“I can do it,” Midnight says. Jesse turns his head towards her in surprise. “How do you think I always knew where you were in that stupid castle?” Midnight murmurs, rolling her eyes at him. Then she leans forward and points to a little pink rock that has landed fairly close to me. “Rose quartz, the stone of love and desire. That will be her boy – that’s where he is.”

I look up at Laila, my eyebrows raising when I see that she’s nodding. “Yes,” she murmurs, “the location of the bones confirm it, and also suggest that you’ll have an easy journey when you go to find him.” She looks now at Orion. “Do you know where that is?”

Orion stands and leans over the map to get a better look. “Sure,” he says, nodding. “Um, it’s…weird, though.”

“Weird?” I ask, snapping my head up to frown at him.

He looks down at me, standing so close that I can smell his lovely musky scent, all sea salt and plum and cardamom. “He’s in the doldrums.”

I just stare at Orion, waiting for more. He just stares back at me. Sighing, I whip a hand up and smack it against his chest, pushing him back in his seat. “And what does that mean?”

“I was getting to it, bossy,” Orion says, grinning at me.

“Oh, barf – again, barf.” Jesse murmurs, sighing and turning his back to us. “He’s flirting with my baby cousin. Barf barf barf.”

I glance over to see Anton patting Jesse consolingly on the shoulder. I ignore them, thinking that even if I love my cousin we don’t necessarily need another boy in the Underground Bro Club. Two is enough.

“So?” I say, turning my attention back to the Underworld Prince.

He frowns a little, his concentration on me. “The Doldrums is a special place in the Deadlands. It’s not…better or worse than anyplace else, so it’s not like he’s suffering or anything. It’s just,” he shrugs, “it’s where my aunt keeps souls when she wants to ensure that they don’t get reincarnated.”

“Sorry, your aunt?” Jesse says, leaning forward towards Orion, seeking clarity.

Orion shifts his eyes to Jesse. “The Goddess of Life.”

“Oh, yes, sure, uh-huh,” Jesse says, nodding like this is a perfectly normal family connection. “Yeah, that tracks.”

“You’re one to talk,” Anton murmurs, smirking at his friend, my favorite cousin. A little thrill of warmth goes through me to see the connection that already exists between these two. I quite like it, Anton being close with my family, though I’m not sure I understand why.

“So, she doesn’t want him to be reincarnated?” Laila asks, drawing my attention back to the question at hand. She frowns, not understanding.

“I mean, it’s just a holding place,” Orion says, gesturing towards it. “It’s not like the Oubliette, where they go if they’re never going to be reincarnated. But the Doldrums are…just a temporary hold. She’s…waiting for something.”

“Damn,” I murmur, my mind racing to Faiza and what the Goddess said about not wanting me to go to her Temple. And now she’s got my boyfriend’s soul wrapped up in some kind of eternal holding pattern? Somehow…I can’t help but think that this has something to do with me.

I look up at Orion, curious. “Is she going to be mad when we go there? If she’s got him in some…special place?”

Orion just shrugs. “Only one way to find out. But Life – she tends to be pretty even-tempered. I can’t see her flipping out, like dad certainly will.”

I sigh, putting my chin in my hand, studying the map, not sure if I’m ready to incur the wrath of the Death god any further. “Is there any way to go in secret? I can’t risk pissing him off anymore.”

“You’ve been pissing off Death?” Jesse asks, taking the seat next to Laila and looking at me with interest. Midnight stands behind him and gives Laila a dirty look – apparently for happening to be sitting there when Jesse took the seat next to her.

“She has been,” Anton says, taking the seat to Jesse. “Big time. And he’s threatened to kick her out of the competition if she continues to piss him off. And take one of your sisters in her place.”

Jesse whips his head to Anton in shock and then turns towards Orion with a snarl, his canines extending. “If you fucking touch any of my baby sisters –“

“Whoa,” Orion says, his hands snapping up in a plea for mercy. “Whoa, whoa – all of this is news to me, okay?”

Anton and I go still as Jesse continues to snarl.

“Wait, you didn’t know about that?” I whisper, utterly surprised.

“No, Juniper, and obviously I wouldn’t let that happen,” Orion says, a little angry, though I’m not sure his rage is for me. “To begin, I don’t want to marry a baby, and next, you were chosen specifically as a mate candidate, not them, and! Finally!” he looks around at all of us like it’s obvious, “Juniper is bound to this competition by strong magic! She can’t leave until it’s done! Not even my father can get her out of it. He’s bluffing, hard.”

I look immediately at Anton, joy and surprise rushing through me, chased – as always – by a great deal of rage.

“He was tricking me,” I growl, my own canines threatening to extend as Jesse tucks his away.

“June, he loves to fuck with people,” Orion says, reaching out and sliding his hand over my clenched fist, giving it a squeeze. “And he’s incredibly good at it. I’m very sorry, he shouldn’t have done that.” He sighs, rubbing his free hand over his eyes. “He’s messing with the competition, which means he could be messing with the signs that the priests are trying to decipher…he shouldn’t be doing this shit…”

I consider this, frowning at Orion, not moving my hand from where his large palm is pressed over it. “Are you sure he’s even on your side, Orion?”

He drops the hand from his face and frowning at me.

I shake my head. “Is this...if he’s telling me lies that could mess with the results, just trying to keep me in line because I’m pissing him off, putting the results at risk – does he even want the real results? Or is he just manipulating you to get the results he wants?”

Orion frowns at me, uncomfortable. “He loses as much as I do – as we all do – if I don’t find my mate and ascend my throne by the time of the eclipse.”

“Are you sure of that?” I whisper, leaning towards him. “Or is that just what he’s telling you?”

The judgmental click of a tongue sounds behind me and I turn to see Midnight crossing her arms, looking down her tiny cherub nose at me. “You shouldn’t second-guess the Gods, Juniper. They don’t lie.”

“Oh please,” Jesse says, frowning up at Midnight. “Orion’s dad is just as divine as our mothers, and they lie all the time.”

“Then why aren’t your mothers gods,” Midnight says, tilting her head back to frown up at Jesse. “Instead of just women who tell lies?”

“I don’t know, Mids,” Jesse says, leaning forward to challenge her a bit. “Maybe they’re just not as ancient as Orion’s crusty old dad – maybe some day they will be –“

Anton snorts with laughter, turning his face away.

I turn back to Orion, wanting his opinion.

“My dad certainly lies,” he murmurs, looking down at the table and thinking it through. He lifts his eyes to mine after a long moment. “I don’t know, Juniper. I really don’t. But…maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s time we start looking through these prophecies ourselves.”

I perk up at the idea of being included in this. “I think that’s a really good idea.”

“Of course you do,” he murmurs, the corner of his mouth turning up a bit. “You always like to be right in the center of the trouble, don’t you, Juniper Sinclair?”

I stretch my arms smugly over my head, smirking at Orion. “Trouble just likes me. It’s a family trait.”

Someone smacks at my hands and I fall slightly to the side before I snap my head up to glare at my cousin, who got up out of his seat just to lean over Laila and smack at me.

“You stop flirting with him now,” Jesse says, frowning down at me. “I don’t approve of this romance, and Uncle Dominic is going to rip the head off of any Prince that first kidnapped and then threatened to kill you on a weekly basis –“

I snarl up at my cousin, a blush rising to my cheeks.

God, who the hell invented cousins? And why did they make them so embarrassing?