Page 134 of Surrendering Hope (The Hope Legacy)

“Wrong answer,” Ty says. The click of the empty chamber causes my heart to stumble.

I grit my teeth to try to stop my trembling. “I can’t lie.”

His finger tightens. “That’s correct. Can you get it?”

Fuck, fuckedy, fuck, fuck. I reorganize and adapt our plan, the pieces of the puzzle turning over in my mind as I race to figure out a solution. “Give me today to retrieve it.”

“Do you have the key?” he asks.

“Don’t you fucking dare,”Zac shouts through the link.

“Yes.”

“You will give it to me now.”

“And you will let my grandfather live?”

A wicked smirk tilts his lips as his finger loosens on the trigger. “Yes.”

“Swear it.”

His eyes narrow on me. “I see you’ve learnt to play with the gods, Natia.”

“Swear it.”

“I will make you a binding oath.” Keeping the gun trained on my grandfather, he offers his other hand. I move towards him, assessing every minuscule movement he makes.

I offer my arm. He clasps mine. “I, Typhon, born of Tartarus promise you, Pandora, that I will allow your grandfather to live, provided you in return give me the key.”

A big push at my mental shields causes pain in my skull. Ty is demanding an audience with my brain. I pause and glance at Gramps. I know he’s pleading with me not to do this. The gun kicks back against an empty chamber, Gramps flinches. I stare in horror at Ty.

He tilts his head. “You’re taking too long.”

I drop my shield.“You must swear an oath to make me whole, not just give me the Jar.”

How many words can you make with fuck in them? I nod as I shred the plan I’d come up with.

“You need to swear it privately, if those less than welcoming god’s hanging around outside get wind of this, they will never let you go. They may even kill you. So you will keep this part of our oath a secret between me and you.”

Tears burn, as Ty stamps all over the plan that Zac would hear me, and end me if he believed I was a threat to Archan.

“I, Pandora, promise that I will give you the key and, within twenty-four hours, deliver the Jar.”

“And make you whole,”I finish for his mind only.

The flare of power pushes us away from each other. His hand grips mine. He frowns, looking shocked. With the stack of oaths I was handing out, I wasn’t surprised. Someone would own my ass at the end of this.

He drops my hand, clamps his hands on Gramps’ shoulders. “Key?” Ty asks.

I pull on my power and teleport to grab the key from its hiding place, within ten seconds I am back in front of Ty, key outstretched. He grasps it, smiles, and winks at me.

“Pity you’ve mastered the art of teleporting with clothes. Be seeing you soon, Natia.”

The lights flick off, shrouding us in midnight darkness. The team rush forward, a gunshot sounds next to my ear and my face splatters with liquid. I touch my face, it comes away warm and sticky. I shake my head and fall on to my knees in front of the chair. I unbuckle the straps, my movements clumsy and slow in the dark and the panic. He can’t be dead, I won’t survive it. No amount of strength or courage would allow me to carry on in a world where I was responsible for my own grandfather’s death.

The lights flicker back on. I blink at the empty chair. My eyes dart around the room. “Wait, you promised.”

Ty’s voice echoes around the room. “I promised he would live, not that I would leave him with you.” A business card floats from the air down to the chair. “When you have the Jar, send me a message and I will return your grandfather. Take longer than today, and I will return him to you a piece at a time. But I said nothing about your other loved ones. A little taste of what’s coming until you join my side.”

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