“We’re not,” he said. “I might have a shot if I lie low for a while, until they have bigger things to bother with. But this is where we’re parting.”
I scowled. “I’m the one who helped free you, and I don’t exactly C17;="0have anything important to do in the next six months. I want to help you. Please.”
“You’ve already done plenty.” He stopped in a small clearing and squinted up at the sky. The sun was directly overhead by now—it was impossible to tell which direction we were going by looking at it. “And six months won’t be enough. Six years, maybe, but until then—”
“Are you kidding? You can’t possibly let Casey stay down there for six years. Let me help. I promise I’ll find a way to get him to you sooner, and I’ll distract Henry and—”
“No need.” James’s voice cut through the trees, and I jumped, shifting so I stood between him and Lux. Whether or not he’d helped us escape, I hadn’t forgotten that it was his fault Casey and Lux had been caught in the first place.
“What are you talking about?” I said. “Where’s Ella?”
“About a hundred and fifty feet that way, trying to come up with a way to explain to Walter why she let Lux go.”
I frowned. “Well, great. Thank her for me next time you see her. What do you mean, there’s no need to distract Henry?”
“Exactly what I said,” said James. “Casey isn’t in the Underworld anymore.”
Beside me, Lux went rigid. “Where is he?”
Which was the million-dollar question, but there was another surfacing in my mind as well. “Wait, you mean Henry just—”
“No time to explain,” said James. “I’ll take care of Walter when he comes back. In the meantime, you’ll find Casey at the place where this whole mess started.”
I had no idea what James was talking about, but Lux nodded. “Thank you. Even if I should break your jaw for leading the others to us in the first place.”
James shrugged. “Rain check.” But something snuffled behind him, and Ella’s slobbering dog—Cupcake—stepped out from the other side of a cluster of trees.
My blood ran cold. Had she reneged already? “Er, James—” “Oh, right.” James patted Cupcake’s furry neck and focused on Lux. “Speaking of broken jaws, in exchange for letting you go, Ella wanted you and Casey to look after Cupcake while hers heals.”
Lux swore. “Why us?”
“You are the one who punched her, aren’t you?” James shrugged. “I’d do it if I were you, man. You know what Ella’s like when she’s pissed off.”
Lux grumbled something unintelligible and stepped forward. “I swear, if you try to take a bite out of me again, next time I’ll aim for your neck.”
Cupcake whimpered, and I frowned. “Hey—play nice.”
James handed Lux a burlap sack stuffed to the brim with what looked like beef jerky. “Cupcake’s things. Ella said she’ll pick her up when she has the time.”
“Yeah, in another blood century,” muttered Lux, and Ja Cd Lp when shmes shrugged.
“Not much I can do about it. Kate, I’ll see you in a few. Take care of yourself, Lux.”
But Lux didn’t seem to be listening. He was already a good ten paces in front of me, and I gave James an apologetic look. “Lux, wait!”
I raced to catch up with him, and he slowed down, but only barely. “Bloody dog. We’ll never get rid of the damn thing now,” said Lux, moving through the woods without making a sound. “At least James isn’t all bad. No idea why he treats us so well.”
“Maybe because that’s the kind of person he is.” I crashed across the forest floor, having to run to keep up with his long strides. If Walter wanted to track us down, I was making it embarrassingly easy. Not that Cupcake’s loud footsteps were helping much either.
Lux scoffed. “They like to pretend they’re good people every now and then. Lets them keep their high opinions of themselves. But you’d do well to remember that the council does nothing unless they can reap the benefits.”
In the face of everything I’d witnessed that night and day, his bitterness was rubbing off on me, but I’d seen a much different picture of the gods during my time in Eden. They may not have done anything without having a reason, but they didn’t always need a direct reward. “They’re not as bad as you think they are.”
“And they’re not as good as you think they are either.” He slowed down enough to peer at me out of the corner of his eye, and I flushed underneath his gaze. “I like you, Kate Winters. You’re better than them, and you’ve got the guts to stand up to them, too. It’s been a long time since the council’s been infused with new blood, and if you stick to your guns, you might have a prayer of making them see past their own pointy little noses.”
“I’m not interested in changing them.” But as I said it, my insides twisted uncomfortably. If this was what my future held—facing the ghosts of the council’s decisions and seeing the lives their choices had destroyed, all for the sake of rules and pride—I wasn’t so sure I could do it.
“We’ll see about that.” Lux was silent for a long moment. “You’re not one of them. You don’t match, and because of that, one of two things is going to happen. You’re either going to let them taint you, or you’re going to fight like hell and get shat on until you don’t think you can take it anymore. But you can,” he added. “For all of us who have suffered because of them, just remember that you can.”
I grew quiet. This was my family he was talking about—the same people who had granted me more time with my mother, who had shown me kindness throughout the past six months, and who had allowed me to squeak by in my tests even though I’d nearly failed several times. Despite the myths I’d learned, it had never occurred to me that they were anything but benevolent. They were gods, after all. What did they have to lose by being kind?
But in the four days since I’d left, I’d seen enough to know that Lux was right. They weren’t perfect. They weren’t always kind. And sometimes they made mistakes. They were as human as the rest of us, even if they’d never taken a mortal breath in their lives. It would Ces.saksimply take some time for me to rearrange my thoughts to accept this new reality.