Page 342 of The Spider Queen
An idea had me pausing mid-step. If we were in Poseidon’s realm, did that mean the ghosts belonged to him? And in some way, servants of Poseidon were helping us?
I shook my head, dislodging the thought. It didn’t matter. In the end, there was only one thing that did: finding the final pearl and gaining my freedom.
I’d come so far in my quest. I’d found two of the three pearls, and yet, I felt like this next leg of the excursion was what I needed to prepare for. It was more than the unknown.
I wondered if I’d come out the other side successful.
The three of them were already in the dining room, sitting around the table. Aloysius’s hair was damp and he was in clean clothes. He’d bathed, too. Clearly.
Breakfast was already laid out. I took my seat across the table from Aloysius. Though I’d be telling the three of them my story, from beginning to end, it was Aloysius who I truly wanted to hear it.
I reached for a piece of bread and took my time slathering it with butter and jam. The others were quiet, not openly willing to push me into talking before I was ready.
I took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. Washed it down with warm cocoa.
“You’re killing me, here,” Meghan growled. “I want some answers.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Ask your questions. I’ll answer them.”
She leaned forward, elbows on the table. Her long blond braid was slung over one shoulder, her eyes intense. “All of them?”
“I don’t know. Can I trust you?” I fired back at her and then held her gaze.
“You can,” Aloysius voiced for her. “You can trust all of us.”
I nodded, brow furrowed thoughtfully. “What do you want to know first?”
“How you have the essence of a merrow in you if neither of your parents are merrow?” Meghan said. Her tone was demanding, curious.
I sat back in my chair. “You know what? It might just be easier if I tell you everything from the beginning…”
Chapter 31
An hour later, when I finished telling them my history, I was met with three wide-eyed stares of shock and bemusement.
The food before us was untouched, but now, I found I had an appetite again and reached for the strips of meat that looked like bacon. It could’ve been bacon, or maybe it wasn’t. If I’d learned anything from my brief time in Hell, it was that food wasn’t the same as it was in the mortal realm.
What I wouldn’t give for a good pastrami on rye. There were some things New York did better than anywhere else, no matter what realm it was up against.
“Will someone finally say something?” I asked when it was clear no one seemed inclined to speak.
“I don’t know what there is to say,” Meghan said, the first to find her voice.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Aloysius stated. He pushed back from the table and left the dining room, his plate of food still full.
We all watched him leave. I frowned in confusion and then shot a look at Dorian and Meghan.
Dorian rubbed the back of his neck and then stood up. “I got this one.”
Meghan nodded.
When Dorian was gone too, I said, “Okay. What was that about? I thought he would be happy to hear the truth about me, my beginnings, this quest.”
“Yeah, this quest.” She sighed. “I think we just didn’t realize the—ah—undertaking?”
“What? Are you saying if you’d known the entire story of my parentage, the reason I had to run from Lucifer, you would’ve what? Let me wander in the desert for years?”
“No,” she said slowly, “but I think we might’ve done things differently. My brother would’ve done things differently.”
