Page 114 of Gods of the Sea

“Maybe if you stayed still once in a while, you wouldn’t be in half the situations—” He stopped, clenching his jaw. “Never mind it. It doesn’t matter right now. Let’s go find him.”

Jacques grabbed my hand tight, pulling me with him. I looked down as he interlaced his fingers in mine, then raised an eyebrow at him. He understood the question.

“I don’t trust you out of my sight,” he said. “You need a leash.”

He squeezed my hand, the warmth from it canceling out the coldness of his tone.

“The prison is close to here,” Jacques said. “Adrian was there the last time I checked. If he isn’t, we’ll go to the king.”

“How’s Henrik doing?” I asked.

A heartbeat of silence passed.

“Not good,” Jacques replied. “But don’t go getting any ideas about it.”

“Why? What’s wrong with him?”

Jacques exhaled through his nose, pulling me forward next to him.

“Henrik has submitted to his demon,” Jacques replied. “He’s not fighting him. But even if he wanted to fight back, it would be too difficult. Demons feed on power, and being this close to the source of spiritual power has made the demon too hard to fight. We have to get Henrik away from the Eros.”

“What exactly is the Eros?” I asked. “I still don’t quite understand it. I understand that it’s powerful, but nothing else.”

He tugged on my hand again as we took the path to the prison. “The Eros is the freedom of the spiritual world. Before the Eros was created, the spiritual world was at the command of the Siren King. He could use his power to command any creature in the realm to do as he willed. However, the king found this to be a burden more than a blessing.”

“So he gave up his power? Wouldn’t that cause more chaos in the realm?”

Jacques shook his head. “There were two major problems before the Eros. Well, in the king’s eyes, anyway. One, thecreatures of the spiritual realm would do his will, but they wouldn’t do anythingwithouthis will. They were empty soldiers with no life in them. And second, well, have you seen the way that the Siren King feels about the creatures of the spiritual realm?”

I thought of the day that the sirens were judged. The way King Melchior fell to his knees in pain at the loss. The warm, gentle look in his eyes when he looked at Luc and myself.

“He loves them quite deeply, doesn’t he?” I asked.

Jacques nodded. “Just as you were afraid that your siren charms were controlling the people you love most, the king couldn’t stomach the same pain. So he locked his powers into the Eros, kept deeply hidden in his throne. As long as it’s in the throne, the spiritual realm has freewill. The will to do good or evil, the will to be loyal soldiers who return the love of their commander.”

Silence passed between us again as we started down the prison stairs.

“Did you really try to kill the king?” I asked.

“Yes. Twice.”

“Because of your demon?”

“Yes.”

“You were young when you were possessed, weren’t you?”

He paused on the stairs, turning to look back at me. Something painful flickered in his eyes, but he didn’t let it stay there.

“I was eleven,” he finally said. “I was possessed for ten years. Tragic backstory. Et cetera, et cetera. But don’t dig too much into it. The details of my past are not important anymore.”

He started down the stairs again, but I tugged him back.

“I think they’re important,” I said.

He laughed. “And why is that? Because we’re going to befamily?”

“No,” I said, gripping his hand. “Because I care about what happened to you. Simply as a person, Jacques.”

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