Erebus chuckled. “I am only wearing this neck Cuff to appease you. I can remove it whenever I please.”
“And if you truly love and respect me, as you claim with all your simpering, you will do no such thing. You will wait until I am ready to speak with you,” Kaya shot back.
“I would never seek to defy you, Princess.” Davin swept in with his British charm. “My only hope is to pursue your hand in marriage in the proper way, as befitting a gentleman. I know I am not descended from the Primus Anglicus, but there is much more that I can offer you, given the chance—exactly as Erebus means to. Although, unlike him, I respect your need to think about this, and I am only too happy to wait until you are ready to grant me an audience.”
Offer what, exactly? I had a few ideas, knowing him. But I didn’t even know if it was permitted for a non-Primus Anglicus descendant to enter this race. I guessed that was up to the royals here, if they let Erebus and Davin go ahead with their pursuits. Erebus had a slight upper hand, in that he was forged of Chaos itself, but Davin was crafty. And he evidently had a plan.
Kaya observed Davin with curiosity. “You would do well to emulate this man, Erebus.”
“Davin?” Erebus looked like he might explode. “He is the simpering one, Kaya. Do not believe a word he says.”
“Now, that is telling, isn’t it? It almost makes me trust him more. After all, isn’t the enemy of my enemy my friend?” Kaya smiled darkly. “And he is not unpleasant to look at. Why, I should say he has shown me more courtesy in this brief time than you ever have.”
Ryann-Lux stifled a snort, which fortunately didn’t draw Kaya’s gaze.
“You are simply trying to wound me, Kaya.” Erebus pouted.
“Or perhaps I might take a fancy to one of your… what should I call them? Your followers? Minions?” Kaya gestured at us. “The silver-haired one would fit nicely within our society and has a certain masculine energy that would make women go weak in the knees. Or that muscular fellow over there, though I suspect he already has an attachment. And then there is the somewhat amusing one. There is much to be said for humor in a partner. It can last long after the looks have faded.”
My jaw dropped. Great… I’m the somewhat funny one. The last resort.
“Not to mention, it’d really piss Erebus off if you chose me for a private chat,” I blurted, seeing an opportunity to get some kind of upper hand that might help us later. “I don’t know if you picked up on it before, but I’m his lackey. And we really have no idea why we’re here, so if there’s any way you could, you know, not lock us up, that’d be swell. He dragged us here, but we honestly had no idea about his plans. We didn’t even know Atlantis was inhabited.”
Nash nodded. “And we definitely didn’t know he was coming here to propose.”
“I’d have given him a talking-to about not harassing women who aren’t interested, if I’d known,” I went on. “I don’t know what he did to you, but we had no choice in coming here. I’m bound to Erebus, and he, in turn, threatened my friends so they’d have to follow wherever I went.”
Kaya squinted at me. “How can a person be bound to a Child of Chaos? They are not allowed to involve themselves in the mortal world, so you are either lying to try and save yourself, or… you know something that I do not.”
Hmmm… It seemed Atlanteans had gaps in their knowledge, just as there were gaps in Melody’s knowledge of Atlantis.
Davin snickered. “Finch knew precisely what he was getting himself and his people into. He would say anything for their sake. He is the Child’s servant, and I assure you, it is entirely possible for a mortal to bind to a Child. It must be done voluntarily, and it was indeed something Finch agreed to, despite knowing it would come with consequences.”
You slippery little blobfish! “You would know, Davin, since you were in the exact same situation not so long ago.” I couldn’t resist pointing out his hypocrisy.
“Two servants?” Kaya looked baffled.
“I am no longer in Erebus’s service, as I was clever enough to find a way out. As such, I had nothing to do with this endeavor of his. I came here of my own accord, purely for you, Kaya.” Davin batted his eyelashes.
“Only because I told you she existed.” Erebus glowered at his frenemy, apparently feeling less like a friend and more like an enemy at the moment. “Had I not told you of my love for her, and my past attempt to be happy at her side, you would never have known of Atlantis.”
Davin grinned. “And I have not been able to stop thinking of her mysterious beauty ever since. Yes, you may have given me the idea, but my motivations are pure. I wanted to meet her. I wanted to see if she was everything you said she was, because I had already fallen in love with the fantasy of her. I knew the depth of my feelings the moment I laid eyes upon her. And they are as wonderful and overwhelming as I had hoped.”
Ugh, give me strength… Although, this exchange shed a tiny light on the previous relationship between Davin and Erebus. If Erebus had told him about Kaya, there’d been some degree of trust between them. Man, it must’ve burned Erebus up inside when Davin double-crossed him with the amulet. People and Children kept trusting Davin, and it never worked out well.
“Your Highness, if I may,” I cut in. “Davin is a slimy worm who’d say anything to get a ring on your finger and put himself in a position of power. He tried it with my mother—Katherine Shipton.”
Kaya squinted. “I do not know that name.”
Wow… you must be the only one who doesn’t.
“She tried to take over the world by ascending as a Child of Chaos, and he tried to stand by her side, as her lover, so he’d get all the perks of her success. So he and I are nothing alike. Yes, I made a deal with Erebus that forced me into his servitude, but I did it to save my sister’s life, and to save the entire magical world from my psychotic mother. I have no idea why Davin made a deal with Erebus, but you can bet your ass it had something to do with gaining power for himself. That’s all he wants, all the time, at any cost.” The words rattled out like gunfire while Erebus and Davin stared at me in horror.
Melody jumped in. “That’s why you can trust Finch, and you can’t trust the other two. He made that deal to save everyone, including Atlantis.”
Kaya lifted her hands. “Stop! I have heard enough from all of you, and frankly, I do not believe any of you. Not Erebus, not Davin, and certainly not Erebus’s entourage. I have not heard of any Katherine Shipton, and if someone really had tried to take over the world, then we would have known.”
I gaped at her, dumbfounded. “But if you just—”
She shot me a death stare. “I said, ENOUGH!”
My mouth snapped shut. She clearly had no idea what went on up top, and no amount of begging would make her listen. At least, not yet. Maybe she really did need time to process what she’d heard. But her unwillingness to hear us out put us in a tight spot. And I’d just irked Erebus for no payoff. That would come back and bite me in the caboose, that was for damn sure.
“We will proceed to the prison, and nobody will say another word,” Kaya commanded.
The Atlantean guard returned to shoving us, urging us up the hill toward the monolith of incarceration. As we walked, I stole a glance at Lux. She had her gaze fixed on the back of Kaya’s head, hatred burning in her eyes. She was seething at a raging boil, playing along for some unknown reason. It still seemed odd that Melody hadn’t picked up on any weird emotions, but maybe she wasn’t focusing on Ryann right now, or maybe Lux had installed some kind of emotional dampener. Either way, when was Lux planning to act, exactly? She could have swept in at any moment. That pissed me off royally, especially as I couldn’t unmask her without putting Ryann at risk.