He tried to explain, but his tongue seemed to thicken in his mouth as fear seized him. How could he even begin to make her understand? "It wasn't like that."
"Then explain it to me."
"I'd already made the deal when Hades set down the terms. I had no choice. He sent me here before I could even try to renegotiate."
"And so you intended to kill me," she repeated.
"In the beginning, yes, but-"
"But what?" she asked, her tone ragged with pain and rage. "There's no but here, Arik. You fully intended to kill me. How could you?"
"He's Skoti."
"Shut up!" he snarled at M'Adoc. Arik turned back toward Megeara. "Please, baby." He reached for her again.
She stepped back. "Don't touch me."
Arik couldn't breathe as he saw the tears in her eyes. The betrayal. She was hurting, he knew it. He could feel it like his own pain. It cut through him, lacerating his heart. "I would never hurt you. You have to believe that."
"Great words for a man who'd planned my death from the beginning, huh?"
She was right. How could he ever convince her that he'd changed? He was Skoti and Skoti were nothing.
He turned on his brother, hating him for telling her. "Damn you, M'Adoc."
"There's nothing to damn me over, Arik. I'm not the one in the wrong here. You are. You should never have made that bargain."
He wanted to kill M'Adoc for this. But he was right. It'd been wrong of Arik to come here. He should have been content to stay with her in her dreams.
M'Adoc spoke calmly. "Skoti are forever selfish, Megeara. It's why we must police them. They become mad with their hunger to the point they don't care who they harm or how they harm them so long as they get what they want. Arik wanted you and so he was willing to kill you for it." He met Arik's gaze. "If you truly mean what you say now, then for once, do the decent thing. Surrender yourself to me."
Every instinct inside Arik rebelled at the very idea of it. Every one. They would kill him and he knew it.
But then he would die anyway. Hades would never allow him to renege on their bargain. No one backed out of a deal with the devil.
And perhaps this was the kindest end. Megeara hated him now. She thought him the lowest of forms. If he left with M'Adoc, she wouldn't grieve for him or ask herself if maybe there was something she could have done to save him.
She would be at peace.
That would be the best gift he could give her.
"He's right, Megeara," Arik said, forcing all emotions out of his tone. "I would have killed you once I returned to my natural state. I'm sorry."
Geary couldn't breathe as he spoke those words. Part of her had still believed in him over M'Adoc. She didn't want to think that her Arik could ever harm her.
But if what they said was true...
It stung her so deep in her heart that she felt as if she'd die from the pain.
Arik turned to M'Adoc and whispered something to him. She couldn't hear it, but M'Adoc inclined his head before Arik sighed. "Then I'm ready to go."
His crystal gaze met hers and the love she saw there singed her to the spot. "Good-bye, Megeara."
She noted the satisfaction in M'Adoc's eyes.
Satisfaction...
" Even in human form we feel nothing." M'Adoc should have no emotions at all. None.
But he was satisfied.
Realizing that if M'Adoc could feel, he could lie, she opened her mouth to stop them. But before she could make a single sound, M'Adoc placed his hand on Arik's shoulder and the two of them vanished from the boat.
"No!" Geary shouted, her heart pounding as reality crashed through her.
Arik was gone.
He was going to kill you, her mind tried to rationalize. But the scariest bit was that part of her didn't even care. It wanted him back no matter what.
She felt the boat slowing down.
Kat came out on deck and approached her slowly. "Where's Arik?"
Unable to even begin to explain Arik's disappearance, Geary burst out laughing hysterically until she started crying and gesturing hopelessly toward the prow. She honestly felt like she was having a nervous breakdown. How could she tell Kat everything? The woman would think her crazy and who could blame her?
Gods in the real world? None of this would be believed. Ever.
Kat scowled. "Hon, are you okay?"
"No," she said, trying to gain a handle on herself. "No, I'm not."
Kat cocked her head in a gesture that reminded Geary of Solin whenever he was "listening" for
something preternatural.
"What are you doing?" Geary asked.
Kat let out an uncharacteristic curse. "M'Adoc was here? How could you let him take Arik?"
That snapped Geary out of her hysteria.
Surely, not...
"If you tell me that you're one of them, then I'm absolutely going to freak out."
Kat's face was deadly earnest. "Then you better freak."
"Good God, is no one what they seem? Is Kichka the Egyptian goddess Bast in disguise?"
"No, Kichka is a cat."
Uh-huh. She was supposed to believe that after the bomb Kat had just dropped on her? "And let me guess. You're a god, too, right? Which one? Athena? Hera? Oh, what the heck? Aphrodite?"
Kat gave her a droll stare. "No. I'm not a god. I'm a servant to Artemis."
"Artemis?" Yeah. That just sounded so much better... not. "The goddess of the hunt, huh?" Geary looked down at the wood deck. "There must be some kind of vapors coming up off the floor of the sea-like the oracle of Delphi. That's why I'm seeing and hearing all this insanity." She nodded, liking the sound of that argument. "I'm hallucinating, aren't I?"
"Oh, get a grip," Kat said irritably. "If you can accept Solin, Arik, and M'Adoc, you can certainly accept me, too."
"One would think that, wouldn't they? But I've known you too long to think that all this time you've been hiding a secret like this from me."
"And now you know why I wasn't thrilled when you found Atlantis and wanted to start digging around the city."
Well, since she put it that way, it did make sense. "And were you in on my death plan with Arik, too?
Are you the one who killed my father?"
Kat's eyes blazed in anger. "Excuse me? You don't need to be tossing around ludicrous accusations like that. I had nothing to do with your father's death. I loved that man. He was weird and strange, but I loved him and I would have done anything to keep him safe. While you were off in America, I was here with him, doing the best I could to help him and keep him alive even though he was bent on killing himself."
Tears filled Geary's eyes at the truth. "I'm sorry, Kat. I'm just upset and I don't mean to be taking it out on you."
Kat nodded. "No offense, but you should be sorry. How could you let M'Adoc take Arik?"
"Arik was going to kill me."
"Hardly."
"It's true," Geary said past the lump in her throat. "Arik admitted it."
Still, Kat scoffed. "Arik loves you, Geary. It's so obvious it's painful. No man, god or otherwise, watches over a woman the way he does you and then lets her die, never mind kills her. That's just stupid."
"Yeah, he loves me now, but when he loses his emotions next week, what then? M'Adoc said that he'd kill me without question. He said that Arik would have no emotions or choice but to do as they said."
There, it sounded rational. Kind of.
"Arik?" Kat asked incredulously. "Do what he was told? Please. He hasn't followed the directions of any god in thousands of years. That's why he's Skoti."
All of Geary's fears that M'Adoc was lying came rushing back. "What are you saying, Kat?"
"No offense to you, kid, but what I'm saying is that you just ordered a man who loves you to his death."