Page 78 of Scion of Chaos

I narrow my eyes and shake my head. “We’re not talking about her.”

I take hold of her upper arm when she reaches me, then teleport us to the Pandemonium. She wrenches out of my grip as soon as she lands and rounds on me. “I want to meet her in person.”

“No.”

I push past her to the door to the room I landed us in. I have my own small apartment in the resort, which gives me a location to come and go to avoid notice.

“Does she know you’ve imprisoned her?”

“She’s safer there. No one can get to her.”

“Safer? In a prison? Where the absoluteworstdregs of the supernatural get sent to remain for eternity—unless they break out, of course? It’syourfault we’re in this fucking position. You should be using every goddamn tool you can to get us out of it.”

We exit, and I stalk down the hallway with Erika on my heels. When we reach the elevators, I spin and face her, glowering.

“She. Is.Safer.Here.” I tap my temple, acutely aware of Nemea’s presence within me. It only takes a sliver of my awareness to find her in Asterius’ library, listening to him talk as he hunts down the tomes that can answer all her questions.

“Safer fromwhat? The Titans you plan to aim her at the second she can fight? Safer from your fuckingcontrol?”

“We need to go.” I step into the elevator and swipe my keycard, then press the button for the penthouse.

“If you care one iota about this woman, don’t fucking lie to her, and don’t isolate her, or you’ll regret it,” she mutters, and I can feel her piercing glare burrowing into the back of my head.

I tilt my head back and sigh at the ceiling. “She wouldn’t have come if I told her she couldn’tleaveagain. And it’s the only way I can keephimaway from her.”

“Him?” she asks, frowning. “Him who?”

I twist to look back at her. The key-half glimmers against her chest, and I glance down at it meaningfully. She looks down too, then presses her lips into a tight line, recognition filling her gaze when she returns it to me.

“But you agreed to give Fate access to Tartarus in exchange for this. How is that keeping her safe from him? Plus, Fate’s not ahe…” She trails off and glances at the rising elevator numbers. “You don’t mean Fate, do you?”

I shake my head. “Fate’s damage is already done. They’re the reason we found her to begin with.” I hate the way emotion tightens my throat as I think about how she became ours. I don’t get overwhelmed this way about anything. “Now I need to keep her safe until she’s ready to fight with us. Fair warning that bargaining for the other half of that is going to be tricky, though.” I point at the key-half, and she looks down at it, hefting it gently in her palm.

“We’ll just have to be clever, I guess.”

The elevator doors slide open then, and I nod in thanks before I step out into the lobby of Chaos’ penthouse. It’s a wide corridor with a couple potted plants and a narrow table beneath a mirror, but no other furniture. His office doors are to the right, the apartment he resides in to the left. I go right, stepping through the door to the reception area where his assistant, Sergio, stands behind a sleek ebony desk, glowering at a printer.

“He’s waiting for you and Ms. Rosencrans,” he says in a tense, harried tone, barely shifting his attention away from the machine. He doesn’t even blink at the fact that I have a companion today. Of course Chaos is already aware of our visit, despite me not sending word.

“How does he know we’re coming?” Erika whispers before we reach the inner door.

“His mate is an oracle. She can see the future.”

I push the door open, gritting my teeth in anticipation of this meeting. I’m greeted by a smiling man in a chef’s jacket standing behind a counter stacked with bowls and spoons and…waffle cones?

“Ice cream?” he asks, holding up a scoop and an empty cone.

Erika stops and looks at me, eyebrows raised.

“He has a sweet tooth,” I explain.

“You’ve arrived just in time!” A booming voice says from across the room. We both turn toward the big desk at the far end to find Chaos rising from it. He’s dressed in his usual dark suit with the most obnoxious necktie that looks like a prismatic dragon puked all over it. He comes around to greet us, smiling his crooked smile at Erika as he takes her hand between both of his and squeezes.

“Ms. Rosencrans, I’ve heard so much about you! You are a legend among the higher races and gods alike. We have our eye on you, young lady.” His eyes sparkle with amusement, but Erika doesn’t smile back.

“I’m not sure whether I should be honored or terrified,” she quips. Chaos just chuckles and pats her arm.

His smile fades to a more serious tilt of his mouth when he greets me.

---