Page 58 of Dead End

Ray appeared unconvinced. “I don’t see why they wouldn’t shake down every one of your friends until somebody told them where you went.”

A sound point, as always. “Then I’ll go where they want me to go, and I’ll let them know that I’m doing it.”

Kami’s eyebrows shot up. “You can’t go back to Paradise!”

“No. Not Paradise.” It was somewhere I was bound to end up anyway, and the key selling point was that the people who lived there were already dead. The Corporation would get their wish; they just wouldn’t be able to benefit from it. Once I was safely there, I’d be beyond their control.

“Then where?” Kami asked.

“I’d rather not say yet. I need to call an emergency meeting.”

Nana Pratt glanced up from the potatoes. “At this point, you should simply call them meetings, dear. The emergency is implied.”

I spoke to Kane first. It was only fair.

I cornered him in my bedroom, ironically, as he was unpacking the bags he’d brought from the club. “I need to talk to you.”

He glanced at me as he finished placing a dress shirt neatly on hanger. “You have my full attention.”

“I’ve called an emergency meeting. It starts in an hour.”

“To discuss strategy?”

I drew a steadying breath. “To tell everyone I’m leaving Fairhaven.” My throat ran dry, and I forced a swallow. “If I go, The Corporation won’t bother anyone here.”

Kane’s whisky-colored eyes turned molten. “No.” He hung the shirt in the closet with a tight, staccato movement.

“This is my decision.”

“And it’s a wrong one,” he said. “It’s a bad idea. I don’t care for it.”

“You would like it even less if everyone around me was dead, including you.”

“Where could you possibly go that you won’t endanger others?”

“Ouch.”

He sighed. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know, and you’re right. That’s why I’m going to the underworld to accept Hestia’s offer to rule.”

He offered a crisp nod. “Good plan. I’ll join you.”

I couldn’t quite meet his gaze. If I looked into his eyes, I’d falter. “No,” I said in a voice too loud and too clear. “I have to do this alone.”

“Why? Hades had Persephone. Why can’t you have me?”

“You’re not a god, Kane. You’re a demon prince from hell.”

He crossed the room to close the gap between us. “Precisely. We’re both creatures of darkness. I belong in the underworld every bit as much as you do.”

“They won’t accept you. They’ll use you as a reason to challenge my authority. Next thing I know, I’ll be fighting off a rebellion like the one you started in hell.” I already anticipated pushback from those who would view me as a stranger in a strange land. A usurper. I wasn’t the same Melinoe they’d known. Having Kane by my side would only exacerbate those issues.

He threaded his fingers through mine. “Then let’s teach them to accept me. Together.”

The dryness of my throat spread to my lips. They felt cracked and raw, just like the rest of me. “I can’t.”

He withdrew his hands from mine. I felt a sudden chill that had nothing to do with the air.

---