She sniffed as if tears had escaped.

Don’t cry.

Fuck, please don’t cry.

“I’m not so sure. He’s no better here than he was there. I’d hoped...” She inhaled hard. “I’d hoped he’d snap out of it the moment he smelled the beach and heard Pika but...”

Pika?

What the hell was a Pika?

“These things take time.” The man’s presence moved closer.

I snarled in my mental cage.

“At least the police are gone. I don’t know what you said to them, but I’m grateful. They’ve been a pebble in my shoe for days. Getting underfoot while I tried to keep my patients alive.”

“They’re coming back, though,” Eleanor said. “With a search warrant. They suspect we’re keeping things from them.”

“Ah.” The man clucked his tongue. “That is not good news...not for Sinclair at any rate.”

“I need to release the goddesses,” Eleanor said. “Now. Today.”

Goddesses?

What the fuck was she on about? Was I in purgatory after all, and touched an angel instead of a human girl?

“You need to talk to Calvin. He will help arrange it.”

“Will he, though? He’s not exactly been glad of my existence. Why would he help me destroy everything he helped Sully create?”

“Because he knows it’s time too. Enough is enough.”

“He’ll still hate me.”

“Does it matter?” the man said. “Come, I’ll sit with you. I’ll offer moral support while you tell him what needs to happen.”

“Can he come here? I can’t leave Sully.”

“Cal can’t travel, especially over the sand. He’s not strong enough yet. It’s best if you go to him. He’ll help you with the logistics of freeing the goddesses and show you what documentation and evidence to destroy before the police return with their warrants.”

“Why are you helping me keep Sully out of jail?”

Jail?

What the fuck?

Jail?

What the hell had I done to deserve jail?

My willingness to remain awake faltered. No wonder I couldn’t snap out of this limbo. Self-preservation had kicked in if my fate included being locked up like a beast.

“He’s paid enough. And I don’t want you to suffer any more than you already have. You love him, and I’d be an idiot not to see that he’s head over heels for you too. If anyone can change the king of these islands, it’s you.” The man moved closer still.

I growled, wanting to rip him apart for being so close to what I loved.

I couldn’t protect her in my current state.

I had no way of keeping her safe.

Get away from her!

“And the honest to God truth, Eleanor? It made me fucking sick to my stomach for what I caused. Instead of going behind Sinclair’s back, I should’ve served up my warnings directly. Actually, I did tell him—after what he did to Jupiter, Neptune, and Calico—that I’d had enough. That he’d overstepped too many rules. I’d hoped we had enough mutual respect that he’d at least think about what he was doing with those goddesses’ lives. But...anyway, that’s in the past, and I cannot change what I’ve done—just like he cannot change what he’s done before you came along.”

Eleanor sighed softly as if he’d touched her.

Don’t lay one finger on her!

Don’t go near her!

The man continued, “I’m at your service, Goddess Jinx. I will help you free those girls. I will do whatever it takes to give them back their happiness, and I will do it without sending Sinclair to jail because that would mean I’d break your happiness, and that is a price I cannot afford.”

My brain bled with information.

Facts I couldn’t compute. Words that held no meaning.

Goddesses?

Goddess Jinx?

So...she was immortal, after all?

Why else was she named after a deity?

And who the fuck were Jupiter and Neptune? Were we in a different galaxy where such planets were touchable? Unlike on Earth where they were so, so far away?

I choked as the darkness thickened.

I clutched harder to the glowing string. My only light and constant.

“Come, I’ll take you to Calvin. We can begin dismantling Goddess Isles immediately.”

A pause before Eleanor murmured, “I can’t leave him.”

“Of course, you can. He’s in good hands with the three doctors in the other room. They’ll keep watch.”

“No, you don’t understand. Each time I stop touching him, he crashes.”

The man scoffed. “I’m sure you’re reading into things. The long journey will have made him weak, but he’s home now and has a stable environment. Come...the sooner we do this, the safer he will be.”

The longest pause in my sorry excuse of a life.

“Eh...” Eleanor’s fingers feathered around mine. “Sully...I’m not leaving, okay? I’ll only be half an hour or so. I’m not leaving, you hear me? Just...hold on and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

No.

You can’t.

I was weakened from the nonsense they’d spoken.

I was riddled with confusion and exhausted from my lack of memories.

I was afraid.

Fucking terrified of what I was and what I’d done and why this man spoke of me as if I was a demon.

Don’t go!

“I love you. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” A soft kiss on my cheek. “I love you so much.”

And then...nothing.

The glowing string vanished.

Darkness plummeted.

Nightmares closed in.

Sharp teeth gnashed in the black.

No!

Eleanor.

I fell backward, free-falling with nothing to hold on to.

No anchor, no grip, nothing to stop me from vanishing.

Eleanor!

I spiralled.

I forgot everything I’d just reclaimed.

I fell in perpetuity, never hitting the bottom, tumbling and tangling.

Fading and dissolving...pain.

Pain spooning out my insides. Pain crushing my skull.

Stop

Come back.

Fuck, please come—

“Sully!”

The string reappeared, glowing silver and crimson instead of just gold.

I grasped it, bleeding and panting, weaker than I had been in a while.

I dangled from her bond.

I didn’t even have the strength to lift my head and focus on their conversation again.

All I could do was sway there like bait on fishing line just waiting to be swallowed by something far more vicious than me.

From far, far away, Eleanor said, “See? I can’t leave him. He gives up if I do. I...I’m sorry.”

I couldn’t hear the man. I no longer had ears that worked, but I felt Eleanor curling into me.

Her heat warmed my icicle-riddled soul.

Her love once again had a flavour.

When I’d fallen for her while taking her in Nirvana, love had tasted sweet and sour. It’d smelled of fresh rain and new beginnings.

Now it tasted of comfort and longing. A scent of commitment and orchids.

I love you.

I’m sorry.

I blanked out.

Chapter Twenty-Three