Page 36 of Monsters of Midnight

I wanted Caroline, though. It didn’t matter what I would have to face in order to get her.

“Come back with me,” I said, my voice was, deep, trapping all of the emotions, and all the desires I had for this woman. My heart was crumbling as I stood there, looking at her, knowing I would need to break every promise I had made in order to have her, yet she was worth every broken promise.

She looked confused by my words, her head cock to the side as she looked up at me. “They told me I can’t come back.”

I tried hard to read her expression to see if it was actually something she wanted or didn’t want, but it was almost as if her brain didn’t want to compute any of those ideas and just wanted to move onto the idea that it wasn’t a logical request.

“There’s always a way around the rules,” I said.

“Rules are here for a reason,” she said. “I think there’s got to be some sensibility around the plan. And me returning to a world where I die instantly doesn’t sound like a very good plan to me.”

“That’s not the plan,” I said gruffly. “The plan is you come back and we go back to the way things were.”

“The way things were?” Caroline asked, a frown flooding across the fine lines of her face.

“The way things were recently,” I clarified.

“Once you’ve been to Undirheim, you can’t really return,” she said. Lines of confusion flitted across her face.

“I’m telling you there’s a way to make anything work,” I insisted, leaning forward, even as Thrain moved closer toward us.

“She can’t come with you,” Thrain said ominously.

“You’re not the only demigod in the room,” I pointed out.

Thrain glowered at me, his nostrils flaring. “Do you think I answer to the demigods?”

“Maybe not,” I said. “The only reason why you’re letting me in here today is because of the demigods.”

“So maybe you better rethink your stance on the demigods,” Thrain responded. “If they’re the ones that got you in here, they’re probably the ones who can get you back out.”

“I don’t see why they can’t get us both out,” I said.

“Undoubtedly they could,” Thrain said with a nod, turning the staff he held his hand so the orb glowed toward me. “If I would allow it.”

“Why would you not allow it?” I asked, slowing my palms to calm the irritation and chaos. I could feel chaos beneath my skin. The last thing I needed was to have an all-out battle with Thrain. They would remove Ratchet from me, and even though Ratchet wasn’t the most helpful demon at the moment, he was still my best friend, and not someone I could afford to lose, not after everything that had happened. Though if battling Thrain could get Caroline out of Undirheim, I would do it in a heartbeat.

“The same rules apply to Caroline as apply to anybody else in Undirheim.”

“And what are those?” I queried.

Thrain narrowed his gaze at me. “Anyone in Undirheim can leave and return to earth. If somebody comes to get them.”

“Check.” I waved a quick hand toward myself in a brief motion.

Thrain tilted his head. “And they have to want to go.”

“No problem,” I said confidently.

“Might be a bigger problem than you think.” Thrain shook his head.

“With no help from your magic,” I said.

“My magic has no impact on those in this part of the omega verse,” Thrain said. “Undirheim is a magical town. It lifts the pain and suffering of anyone’s experience on earth away from them. Not only does she not feel the love and desire for you that she once did, but she also doesn’t feel all the pain of all those nights, where she didn’t know where you were, what you were doing. Here they can just experience life with no attachment.”

“She is attached,” I insisted. “She is attached to me. And nothing you or the gods do or say is going to change that. It doesn’t matter if we die a thousand times, we will always return to each other.”

I said the words confidently, but as I glanced over at Caroline, my heart sank. She wasn’t looking at me with the same sense of a longing, of homecoming, that I know I felt around her. She was looking at me with the casual interest of an almost stranger.

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