Page 27 of The Brothers Bane

I silently curse whichever other mind pushed that secret thought to be spoken. I’m usually more careful with my words.

Nemea gives me a smug look as if I’ve just proved her point.

“I promise you would have loved it,” I say, lowering my voice, but the last syllable comes out strangled as Alcides tightens his grip on my throat. I’m still gratified by the way her cheeks flush.

She shakes her head. “That’s not the fucking point. You could have told me leaving would be difficult. I even had my own key, didn’t I? And youtook it awayfrom me. Where is it?”

I frown, until I recall the small bauble she had in her possession when I brought her into the prison.

“Let me go so I can talk,” I wheeze at Alcides. He reluctantly releases me and steps back.

With a flourish, I produce the globe of glass she’s referring to and hold it up on the tips of my fingers, letting my magic crackle around it.

“This little trinket?” I ask, amazed yet again at the perfect detail of the prison in miniature.

She steps forward and reaches for it. I hold it up higher.

“This isn’t a toy, Nemea. And it wouldn’t have let you out, anyway. It is only a key to enter, not leave.”

She pierces me with an irritated glare. “Why do you even have doors if you can’t go through them?”

“If an escape occurs, we want to control the direction the prisoner goes. The door entices them, lets them believe it’s a way out, when what’s on the other side is worse than what they’d leave behind. Keno would slow most prisoners down long enough for us to capture them before they made it too far,ifthey survived.”

“But it didn’t slow down the Titans.”

“Not if Hyperion had regenerated even a fraction of his powers. The void demons would have fled from his light.” At her frown, I add. “That’s the level of power we’re up against. That’s why we need you. What you did with your voice a moment ago… you amplified Pan’s power. You and I are alike in that way; we are amplifiers for other beings’ magic that is channeled through us. And the bonds we share with them amplifies our magic.”

“I won’t go back if I don’t have a way out,” she says. “And even if I did, I’m not sure I’m ready to stay there. Not after you lied to me… or hid the truth, or whatever.”

I’m mentally prepared for more recriminations from Pan and the others, but they’re conspicuously absent from my mind now. All except for Campe, who has already heard her name spoken, who has been ready for her freedom ever since I told her what was expected of her.

They’re all with Nemea now, I realize, a sinking sensation in my belly when the implications of that hit. They may have been present for our meeting earlier but the moment she opened her doors to them again, they must have fled into her sanctuary. A place I’m evidently no longer allowed to visit.

I redirect my focus to the globe, conflicted about what I must do, but knowing I have no choice if I want to regain her trust.

I push a surge of power up through my fingertips into the glass, mentally altering its magic. The light within shimmers and the doors visible at the top of the tower begin to glow, purple light seeping from around their edges.

Then I hold it out to her. “There. When you’re ready to return, this will let you back in. And if you desire to leave again, the doors will open for you and you alone. They will send you wherever you desire, bypassing Keno entirely.”

Offering this to her physically hurts. It’s a vulnerability I can’t afford, especially when she already has a way to enter and leave locked within her own mind. This is merely a symbol of my trust, or my effort to trust.

Her existence has already weakened my walls, enabled the worst kind of breach. But I can’t blame her. Fate’s the one whose magic wormed its way in, creating fissures in the prison’s defenses. I just hope this gesture doesn’t make things worse.

She gingerly reaches for it, cradling it in both hands. She peers up at me, understanding evident on her pretty face. “What’s to stop me from staging a breakout for everyone? They’re all trapped there. The Danaids. Prometheus. They don’t deserve their sentences.”

I grimace, reluctant to tell her everything. But Typhon has returned to my mind, slipping in like a curious serpent, ready with blame if I don’t give Nemea everything she deserves.

Andeverythingmeans the truth.

“Nothing at all. You could break me with this, Nemea. Release all the prisoners once and for all, flood the prison with void demons, and condemn humanity to torment at the hands of creatures even worse than Hyperion and his brothers. So I beseech you, please keep this safe. And even if you never return, please don’t shut the others out. Let them help you continue to strengthen your magic so we can beat the Titans and return them to their pit.”

As difficult as it is to say, this missive settles much of the agitation roiling inside my belly. Hopefully it will also calm the seven creatures who’ve been ready to take my head if they didn’t think it would be more likely to send them all back into a cell rather than kill me.

“They weren’t the ones who fooled me,” she says, dashing my hopes of having built any goodwill with her. With a surge of power that manifests around her hands as crackling black lightning, the globe disappears into another dimension, yet another piece of me I know I will never get back. Still, I can’t help but be impressed by the demonstration of how far her control of her power has come in a matter of days.

Her glare makes me take a step back in an attempt to stave off the rising anguish. I have too much to do, too many tasks as I prepare to betray my creator. But she holds out a hand to stall me.

“Wait. Can you tell me what Chaos or the Titans even want with me?Whydo I need to be protected at all? Especially if I’m as powerful as everyone seems to think.”

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