“The rules of uncle are clear and finite.” I held up my hands and took a step back. “Once you say it, you are declaring yourself the loser of the fight, and you cannot resume the attack after you’re freed. That would be cheating.”
“You always cheat.”
“Only when you’re not looking.”
He paused for a moment. “How’d you know about the elephants?”
“Yeah, bud. What’s the deal with that? You really don’t like to see elephants suffering, huh?”
His stare raised my small hairs, something very few people could do.
I jerked my head toward the house, seeing Darius hadn’t just recovered but was already dressed and pristine and waiting for us behind the bar. Emery sat in a chair with his ankle resting on his knee, watching as Penny lazily swam through the water. They’d laid the power-siphoning spell for me and then gone about their leisure time. How nice for them.
“You mentioned that elephants were your favorite animal,” I said, “and you tensed for a fraction of a second, so I thought I might play off that. I had no idea you’d go full-scale soupy about it.”
“Soupy?”
“Yeah, you know…” I sagged my shoulders, slumped forward, and pouted.
“No. It is not clear.”
“It affected you, basically.”
“Would’ve been easier just to say that at the get-go.”
“And miss out on a colorful explanation?” I grinned at him as we climbed the steps leading up to the pool area. I stopped there and turned toward the ocean, breathing in the warm, salty air and taking in the lovely view, knowing it looked even better in the day, the clear turquoise waters sitting beneath the royal-blue sky. “I literally want for nothing right now. Through Darius, I have all the money I could ever possibly need. I have a life of luxury. I have love and support. Most people would find this a dream come true.”
“The struggle of life defines you. You are not a pampered pet; you are a savage hunter. You were born to it. You were bred for it. You yearn to throw off the robes of secrecy and reach for your destiny.”
Here he went again, with his visions of grandeur. I didn’t bother arguing. He never seemed to hear me when I said that my sole desire was to go home to my comfortable house in New Orleans, take up my old job of bounty hunting, and chase some shifters around for sport. I missed taking pleasure in the little things, like trying to force the overly loud were-yeti to call me ma’am, just for funsies, and checking in with my neighbors, a surly crew who would kill for me. Not that my friends wouldn’t kill for me—they had—but it didn’t mean as much in the magical world. Humans digging an unmarked grave meant bros for life. Or…bras, in this case, since I was a chick.
“You cannot hide here forever,” Cahal finished.
“I know. The plan is to hide until I am better acquainted with my magic. Which is really coming along, thanks to you. It’s lucky for me you saw my father training one of his heirs.” Not so lucky for my half-brother, though. His other half was human, and he’d died a miserable death in the Underworld.
“You asked about the elephants.” He fell silent for a while. “They are my favorite, yes, though my pain in seeing their death only…makes me soupy—”
“There you go. Now you’re getting it.”
“—because of my relationship with you.”
“I’m not following.”
“That is because you are incredibly impatient, and I have not yet explained.” His look suggested violence, and since I wanted to hear this, I pursed my lips in a show of silence. No baiting the druid when I wanted info. I’d learned the hard way. “I knew the last heir, as I’ve said. Not terribly well, but well enough that I was invited to watch him blossom under Lucifer’s care in the Dark Kingdom—”
“Wait.” I turned and put the edge of my hand against his arm to stop him. “You were in the Dark Kingdom?”
“Yes.”
“You got past the fog?”
“This was before the treaty your father was backed into by the elves. There was no fog. Any creature could come and go as they pleased, enjoying the sights, as Lucifer intended.”
“The treaty…” My perfect recall system, something I’d gained from my bond to Darius, brought up what he was talking about. Darius had been schooling me on all the politics—stuff I didn’t really want to know but probably should learn just in case. They were long, boring lectures only made bearable because of the frequent breaks he took to pleasure me. “Right, right. Lucifer tried to carve out a space in the Realm for his son, who was deteriorating in the Underworld because of his human side—he didn’t have the lineage of the gods like I do. The elves denied him. If Lucifer’s son had wanted to simply live in the Realm, under their rule, that would’ve been fine—or so the records say—but Lucifer wanted to create his own territory in the Realm. They tried to kick him out, he decided he’d just take their throne, and after a long, bloody battle, the elves forced him to return down below and his son stupidly followed. The son died, Lucifer was pissed, but the treaty held. What about the lack of oxygen, though? How’d you deal with that?”