Page 10 of The Catacomb King
“They’d better not. If they did, I’d have to come and get you.”
Warmth rose behind my cheeks. “Please, Calix. There’s nothing to worry about. We all know there’s a reason they haven’t taken me, even though I keep coming back here.”
“Oh? And why’s that?”
I didn’t know if it was Calix’s nearness, or my anger, or the fact that I really believed it, but for the first time I voiced the thought I’d been thinking every time I’d gone to the underworld and returned un-kidnapped: “It’s obvious, isn’t it? It’s because they’re going to take Josie.”
Calix stilled. “Why would you say that?”
“Because they always take someone beautiful. Josie’s the best-looking girl around.”
“Do you seriously think that?”
“And,” I continued doggedly, “half the time they take healers. The last three girls who were stolen were healers or midwives.”
“Josie’s not a healer.”
“She wants to be. The only reason she’s not a nurse right now is because her parents wanted her to get married instead of going to college. And she’s the only person who’s better at taking care of my mom than I am.”
“Josieisgoing to college,” Calix said to me, slowly.
My heart dropped. “What?”
“At the beginning of the next academic year. Her family is moving to Corcagia this weekend. To get her out of Limer before the next kidnapping. They’ve rented an apartment.”
For a second I couldn’t breathe. “So you’ll both be there together? Without me?”
“It’s not like that.”
“When was she going to tell me?”
“Persephone.”
“Where am I supposed to get another job?”
He sighed. “Josie’s trying to talk her parents into keeping you on, to keep the house in good shape for when they get back. They’re planning to come back after… after someone gets taken. Once they know Josie’s safe.”
I couldn’t wrap my head around this. I didn’t even like Josie, but… “She takes such good care of my mom.”
“Persephone,you’retaking care of your mom.”
“Great! Go get me those edenica herbs, in that case!”
Calix’s face shuttered.
And I realized, through the haze of my anger, that he wasn’t going to be able to do it.
He was too scared.
A thread of pity shot through the rock foundation of my anger.
I mean, could I really blame him? We’d all been raised to be afraid of the underworld and the godlings. In the capitol city — where most people had never even seen Tourmaline Sea or the shadow of the Primordial Mountain, let alone the eerie mist that hovered over the underworld’s territory, or the lone girl who’d crawled back, gibbering, from the godlings’ clutches — the fear was probably even worse, the underworld even more frightening and strange.
So over the last few months, Calix’s terror of the godlings had probably hardened. While mine, somehow, had lessened. Not only because I’d been tromping around on underworld territory and no one had taken me yet, but because a much uglier monster — my mother’s demise — had stretched its mouth open. Its teeth needle-sharp. Its jaws slavering.
I was just waiting for those jaws to close.
I took mercy on Calix. “Fine,” I said. “Forget the herbs.” And: “I guess I’d better say goodbye to Josie.”
