Page 17 of The Grip of Death
“Most definitely,” I said with a straight face, quietly amused. You had to admire his chutzpah. “And that’s fantastic news! We can’t wait to see you at the wedding. You’re going to look amazing, buddy. Everyone’s going to love it.”
If gryphons could smile, Zephyr would be smiling. He raised his beak in the air and sniffed. “And there will, of course, be some form of compensation. Yes. A meal that befits a guest of my status.”
“Absolutely,” Xander said. “We’ll have a glorious feast laid out especially for you. You won’t regret it.”
Zephyr cleared his throat. “In gryphon etiquette, it is of course customary to serve the dishes in ascending order of prey. I understand that this should also allow for optimum time to properly cook each animal.”
I cocked an eyebrow as Xander eagerly made note of Zephyr’s wedding-specific dietary preferences. Gryphon etiquette, eh? Cute. But whatever it took to get him to show up. We wanted all our friends there, human or otherwise. And Zephyr most of all.
Whether or not he knew, Zephyr had been instrumental in getting me and Xander together. Allowing the two of us to take a ride on his back, “accidentally” stranding us on a clifftop, bringing us closer in every way? Gods above and below, I couldn’t have asked for a better wingman.
Xander and I left Zephyr’s roost in high spirits, which was only funny to think of because we actually were way up high, counting on the slow descent of my hovering boots to take us safely down to the ground.
I embraced him tight, hands encircled around the small of his back. He held me even tighter, his shoes planted firmly on top of my boots, his fingers clinging for dear life. Kudos to Xander for coming with me to visit Zephyr every time, even if the painfully slow levitation made him a little nervous.
“One of these days,” I told him, “you’ll learn a flying spell that’ll zip us up and down these cliffs in no time. Could be super useful for when we do some hunting and harvesting too, don’t you think?”
He frowned. “Come on, Jack. You know that’s my weak point. Sore point? Both. Flight and teleportation, they’re both very challenging to pull off. I always had a tough time with them at Grayhaven. Never did get a good handle on transportation magic.”
“We always thought you could be good at it with just a little more work.”
My blood froze even in the dry heat of the blistering sun. There she was, just past Xander’s head. The goddess of magic floated gently downward, matching our pace. The way Xander’s eyes had gone wide, staring hard past my ear, I could tell that he was facing his own copy of Hecate.
She was a triune goddess, after all. How could I forget? And where was the third Hecate? Probably waiting for us down below.
“Neither the right time nor the right place, Hecate.” I leveled my copy of the goddess with my gaze, keeping both my voice and my demeanor stern. “I can’t imagine why you’ve come to see us out here, but something tells me this isn’t just a courtesy visit.”
Without ever slowing or speeding up, perfectly following our descent with her own, Hecate’s body rotated upside down. When she was standing before, she had now entered a swan dive, falling headfirst, her pure black gaze as nonchalant as ever.
I could have excused it as something so playful, part of her madness and whimsy, but I knew better. By quietly underlining Xander’s lost potential for learning to fly, this was Hecate’s way of reminding us that her mastery of magic was unrivaled. She could fly in any formation she desired.
She could swat us out of the sky any time she wanted.
“You are correct, fleshling. We have come to inquire about your impending ceremony of betrothal. It seems our invitation has become lost in the ether. And to celebrate your love in the palace of a fae king as well! What a truly momentous occasion, indeed.”
She couldn’t be serious. After everything we’d been through? I resented her more with every passing second, feeling foolish about having to field a meddling goddess’s questions while Xander and I were so vulnerable. We literally had to hold on to each other to survive. Why the ambush? Why here? Why now?
This close, I could hear Xander gulping, a mouthful of nervous saliva going down his throat. “I’m sorry, Hecate, but you aren’t invited to the wedding.”
“Is that so?” True to her sinister nature, the goddess held her silence for a beat too long. “May we ask why that is the case?”
Anger flared in my body, hotter than the sun above. “Are you really asking that? Because we don’t trust you, Hecate. Not anymore, not after this long game you’ve played with Grayhaven, not after you planted a bomb inside my body with a kiss.”
Xander squeezed my hip, then coughed softly, as if signaling for me to slow down. “You’re a goddess of Earth, Hecate. Even in your guise as Madame Cathee, the fae will sense that something about you is amiss eventually. Old rivalries run deep, and while I’m sure the Verdance is glad to be rid of Titania’s destruction, the fae won’t take kindly to the knowledge that you’ve murdered one of their own. A queen, no less.”
Hecate rotated again, putting herself upright this time. Her expression still hadn’t changed, neither a smile nor a frown. But it was always difficult to tell with her ever-shifting features, harder still when we were having this conversation in free fall.
“More’s the pity,” she said with a sigh. “We were so hoping to witness such a wondrous wedding. And you may not believeit, fleshlings, but we are actually very good at picking out gifts. Nothing at all like that old tale that you like to read to your little children. The one about the powerful sorceress who wasn’t invited to a royal wedding. The one who felt so spurned and gifted the kingdom with a curse.”
“Sleeping Beauty.” Xander’s breath hitched. His fingers dug into my side. “And it wasn’t a sorceress. It was an evil faerie.”
Hecate chuckled mirthlessly, waving a hand. “Details, details. We must accept that you do not wish for us to make an appearance at the ceremony. This is understood. We only regret that we are unable to bless you with our divine presence — and our gift.”
I realized I could hear both her copies, like standing between two speakers. With a sickening twist of my stomach I realized I could hear a third speaker far below.
“Jackson, please,” Xander muttered, his hands squeezing tighter. He could tell by the look on my face alone.
“Is this some kind of sick threat, Hecate? I know the kinds of gifts you like to give, and we’re not interested. How much more chaos are you planning to wreak? Your kiss, the blast that killed Titania — I’m starting to think that this isn’t the first time you’ve done something quite this bombastic. Quite this explosive.”
