Heart (36 page)

“Exie,” I asked carefully. “Are you
okay?”

She didn’t answer, she didn’t even
acknowledge me.

I looked to Sloane, who had started crying
again. She shook her head helplessly. Exie was not okay.

“I came to save you,” I whispered, hoping to
instill some life back in my broken friends.

“How?” Sloane rasped at the same time Exie
said, “You can’t.”

“I can,” I insisted. “I have a plan.”

“What are you going to do?” Sloane scooted
toward me, showing the most amount of energy I had seen from
her.

“I haven’t figured it all out yet, but I
will.” Doubt clouded Sloane’s expression and so I hurried to
reassure her. “First, I need to figure out how to transport. You
know, like the gods.”

“Ivy!” Sloane hissed. “You have to be a
goddess to do that!”

I cleared my throat. “It turns out I kind of
am one…”

“What?” Her voice echoed through the
hallways.

“Shh!” I quickly filled her in on the story.
I told her who my father was and how dominant I could be if I ever
unleashed the true nature of my powers. I told her what Nix planned
to do with me and what had happened on Olympus before I left with
him.

“So you’re going to take him to your
island?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I’ll be in control
there. I’ll be able to kill him.”

“How?”

I hadn’t gotten that far, but it didn’t
matter. I would figure it out. I was desperate. He
had
to
die.

“I’ll find a way,” I promised.

Light sparked in her eyes. It was faint and
barely there, but I saw it. I saw some piece of her return.

“Exie, I’m going to get you out of here,” I
said firmly.

She started to cry again, hiccupping sobs
that stabbed at my heart. “I don’t want to go,” she wailed. “
I
don’t want to go
!”

Feeling sick to my stomach, I turned back to
Sloane. She didn’t offer an explanation. She turned her head and
stared at the wall.

As quickly as the light had flared in her
eyes, it extinguished.

I could only pray that I wasn’t too late to
save them.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

An hour later, I still hadn’t been able to
transport. I couldn’t move my body an inch, let alone flash from
here to the island.

I knew I had the power in me, but I couldn’t
manifest it into tangible action.

I could feel it moving in my blood though,
snaking through my arms and legs, wrapping around my heart. The
ancient energy sung a song that only I could hear.

I could feel Tortola from here. I could see
the foaming, aqua waves crash and somersault against my white
beach. I could smell the heady, salty air. I could feel the sultry
sea breeze on my skin.

I could picture myself at the edge of the
tide, digging my feet into wet sand and letting the sun warm my
face.

And yet I couldn’t get there.

The imagery was so clear, so perfectly vivid
I knew I was close to figuring out how to get there.

Just not yet.

I should have been able to transport two
places, Tortola, my home, and Olympus. I toyed with the idea of
going to Olympus instead and hoping that Ryder stood ready with the
god-killer, but I couldn’t risk showing up there without anyone to
have my back.

If I went to Tortola then at least I knew I
would have control.

I would be strong.

I would be stronger.

A crashing sound echoed down the hallway. I
jumped to my feet and immediately backed up against the wall. I
held my hands out defensively and prepared for what came next.

My friends didn’t move from the bed. I was
starting to worry they couldn’t walk anymore.

After our initial conversation, they’d fallen
into tense silence. Exie never looked at me and whenever I caught
Sloane glancing my way, she quickly turned back to stare at the
wall.

With each passing second my heart ached more
for what they had endured over the last year. Thalia was right to
hate me. I certainly couldn’t blame her for wanting to hand me over
to Nix.

If Exie or Sloane were my children, I would
have stopped at nothing to rescue them from this place.

“What is that?” I whispered as the crashing
happened again.

“Nix,” Sloane murmured. “He’s coming for
us.”

I strained to hear over my beating heart. I
wasn’t ready to face Nix yet.

Panic infused my blood and sent my heart
galloping in my chest. “What’s he going to do?”

Exie finally turned to look at me. She lifted
her body off the bed with weak arms and stared at me with dead,
soulless eyes. “You better hope he kills you,” she stated
simply.

Nix appeared in the doorframe, fresh from a
shower but disheveled. He fumbled with the key in the lock for a
minute before he managed to rip the door open.

He stalked into the room like a tiger
circling its prey. His onyx eyes landed on each of us briefly
before moving back to the hallway.

When he turned back to me, resolution had
settled in his jaws and forehead. He had decided something
permanent.

“Start singing,” he commanded.

“Wh-what?”

He lunged toward me, grabbing both of my
biceps with a punishing grip. “Sing.”

“Sing
what
?” His grip was so tight
that I couldn’t catch a breath. My arms burned until they prickled
with pain. His fingernails dug into my bare flesh and I wanted to
scream at him to get his hands off me.

“
Start singing
,” he ordered again. “I
need you to get this entire island under your control.”

I raised my eyebrows and gritted out, “Even
you?”

“I’ve got a high tolerance for this sideshow,
Sweetheart. Don’t you worry about me.”

I pressed my lips together to keep from
proving him wrong. I knew I could influence him. I knew I could win
this battle of wills.

But instantly I knew it would cost me more
than I was willing to give if I tried.

If I gave into the power, it would demand
payment. It would take pieces of me, large chunks of my soul and
will, until it completely ran the show.

I wasn’t naturally evil, but this ancient
power could so easily push me past the point of no return.

Then what?

I didn’t want to find out.

“Sing, Ivy,” he growled.

I licked my dry lips and told him honestly,
“No.”

“
Now
.” He shook me hard enough that my
vision went blurry and a headache burst to life at the back of my
skull. “You’re my property now. You do as
I
say.”

“Make me.” The words were daring and stupid.
I should never have challenged him.

I should never have come here with him.

Ryder could have fought him off. Zeus could
have protected me. And yet I’d put myself in this position because
I thought I could handle it.

But how? I had been an idiot to believe I
could take on the god of the sea and win.

He dropped me so hard, my knees buckled
beneath me. I would have fallen had the wall not been right behind
me.

I slapped two open palms on the white-washed,
textured wall and forced my legs to hold firm. I couldn’t show him
weakness after all my bravado.

“Make you?” he taunted, taking a few steps
back. “I think I will.”

I watched his eyes decide what to do before
his hand ever reached out and I knew I made the wrong decision.

I had been selfish again. I had only thought
about myself, when I should have finally been taking my friends
into account.

I had already abandoned them once. I should
be doing anything I could to keep them from getting more hurt. But
I couldn’t seem to reason logically where Nix was concerned. I
always opened my mouth first, then paid for his cruel and elaborate
consequences later.

His hand trailed over Exie’s spine in a slow,
caressing manner. His fingertips pushed her thin shirt up to expose
her bruised, protruding spine. I bit back a sob that threatened to
wrench its way from my throat.

His fingers brushed gently over her until
they reached the back of her neck. He suddenly grabbed her so
roughly she yelped and scrambled to push her body into his
punishing hold to ease the pressure. He yanked her from the bed and
held her like a rag doll in front of me.

Exie appeared haunted as tears fell from her
eyes and her nails scratched at Nix’s hands and arms. She started
to choke as he added a second hand and began squeezing. He lifted
her until only her toes dragged across the floor.

His eyes never left mine. “Sing.”

I took a step forward, but he pulled her
back, warning me with a glance. I couldn’t hold back the tears
anymore. I started to panic. I didn’t know what to do. He’d left me
with two options and both were impossible.

“Wh-wh-who am I singing for? There’s n-nobody
here,” I argued weakly.

He glanced at the cell door as if he expected
people to rush through it any second. “Just sing. They’ll hear
you.”

Exie made a whimpering noise like she was
trying to talk, but I couldn’t understand her. I dared to look at
her, even while I knew Nix didn’t have the patience for me.

She tried to mouth something, but I couldn’t
make it out. Her face had started to turn purple and her
once-pretty blue eyes bugged out of her gaunt face.

“
Sing
!” Nix shouted, shaking Exie at
the same time.

Sloane started crying loudly. She’d pulled
herself tightly against the headboard like she couldn’t decide if
she should run or just give up. She rocked back and forth,
whimpering frantically.

“Help her!” she begged me.

I opened my mouth to sing. It was more
instinct to save my friend than anything else. I shouldn’t. I knew
that. My blood seemed to scream it at me.

Don’t sing. Don’t sing. Don’t
sing
.

I could save Exie, but I would lose
myself.

I would give Nix everything.

Nix shook her harder. “I’m going to kill her
if you don’t start singing. Now’s not the time to weigh your
options. You have none. Sing or I’ll break her neck.” His body had
elongated and filled out like before. I could see the god in him
swelling and taking over.

He was terrifying. He was evil incarnate and
every nightmare come to life.

I had no doubt he would follow through with
this threat. It was up to me to either sing or let Exie die.

Obviously, there was only one choice for
me.

Exie clutched Nix’s forearms, struggling to
pull herself up. Her blonde hair had become limp and matted over
the last few months. It lacked the luster and shine that had always
been her signature. We’d always teased her about looking just like
Malibu Barbie, but she wasn’t that person anymore.

She was a ghost of her former self. More than
her beauty had faded… she’d lost so much of her soul.

“Let me go,” she croaked on a gasp of
air.

“What was that?” Nix smiled at her. “Can you
hear her, Siren?”

He loosened his grip just long enough for her
to repeat, “Let me go.”

His voice was carefully controlled when he
said, “Help her, Ivy. She wants to be let go.”

But I knew my friend. Even though she could
no longer speak, even though his grip had tightened until her eyes
became glassy and her arms weakened with lack of oxygen, I knew she
wasn’t talking to him.

She held my gaze and she pleaded with me to
let her go.

I had a hard time accepting what she was
asking. I physically couldn’t make myself give up on her.

“No,” I cried.

Nix misunderstood me, just like he’d
misunderstood her. “No?” He bellowed. “You dare say no to me after
all of this? You tried to run, but I still found you! You tried to
be free, but you are still
mine
! Your friend is about to die
unless you start singing
this goddamn second
!”

Exie struggled to shake her head. “Please,”
she mouthed. “Let me be free.”

It was that command that I couldn’t say no
to. I knew what she was asking me. I might not have been able to
imagine all of the horrors of her last year, but I knew what it was
like to be free and I could not deny my friend that simple
request.

She couldn’t be free on this earth or in this
life. Even if I somehow managed to defeat Nix after I sung, she
would never be liberated from his memory or the terrors that he’d
forced her to face.

I closed my eyes briefly and imagined the
Elysian Fields. Their sweetness and splendor. My friend wouldn’t be
forced to endure the Underworld. She had lived through hell on
earth.

She would be a hero for saving me from
singing.

She would be blessed.

Her eternal life would be bliss and absolute
freedom.

When I opened my eyes I couldn’t speak. I
couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t do anything but mourn the loss of
someone I had held as close as a sister.

“I love you,” I mouthed to her.

She saw my goodbye and the loveliest smile
appeared on her face. Even while her eyes rolled to the back of her
head, even while her body started shaking uncontrollably, even
while Nix’s hold became impossible to endure, she became beautiful
again.

“Thank you,” she rasped.

She closed her eyes and gave up.

“Sing,” Nix snarled.

“No,” I said with more confidence. I wiped
the backs of my hands over my eyes and felt more confident than
ever. I met his glare with one of my own and decided that before
this day was over, I would have his blood on my hands. “I will
never
sing for you. You’ll have to kill me first.”

He screamed a sound that was less than god,
less than even human. His muscles bulged as he finished squeezing
the life out of Exie and finally broke her neck.

When he dropped her on the ground, her body
crumpled lifelessly. I had willingly given her up, but I hated
myself as soon as it happened. I should have fought harder for her.
I should have made her live and showed her how to get over Nix.
There were a million different things I could have done.