Chapter 11

“Give it to me!” Circe growled, her voice low so as not to wake Jasmine who was asleep in her arms. “I will get it back to Dante. He won’t shoot the messenger, especially when I tell him why you did it. Arya, what other choice do we have? He’s going to find you sooner or later, and we better get ahead of this. There still might be hope for Jasmine!”

  Everything Circe said made sense, but Arya could not send her best friend into the line of fire.

  But what choice do I have? Her life or Jasmine’s?

  She felt sick that it had come to such a choice and she protested weakly but she knew that whatever arguments she offered Circe would be overridden.

    “This is not your problem,” she murmured. “I’ll go. You don’t need to be involved with this. Just please…stay with her. And…hold her?” she choked on her emotions with the last words, the image of her precious baby girl dying without her mother actually causing a burning tear to rip down her chest.

  “No!” Circe ordered. “You’ll be killed on sight. There will be no negotiations. You stole the fucking Chasm of Guile. You’re as good as dead. At least I have half a chance.”

  Arya slowly nodded miserably, knowing her friend spoke the truth, her eyes welling with tears again.

  Jasmine lay lifeless in her arms and Arya could feel the toddler slipping away from her as the seconds ticked by.

  “You’ll be safe here,” Circe promised, leaning down to embrace her best friend and the child gently. “No one will look for you at my place.”

  Arya was sure she would never feel safe anywhere ever again.

  One way or another, it will all be over soon, she told herself, gulping back the lump in her throat. Either we will be saved or we’ll be dead.

  Circe rose, her face an expression of confidence which Arya knew she could not possibly feel.

  “I’m Norse,” she reminded Arya. “No one fucks with us. Not even the overlords, okay? You don’t need to worry.”

  Arya tried to smile through her tears, but her face only crumpled in a grimace of pain.

  She squeezed Jasmine closer to her body and willed herself not to sob.

  “You have to trust me, Arya. You got in too deep, but we’ll get out of this, I promise- “

  “No!” Arya cried and Jasmine stirred slightly before falling back limply against her. “Don’t promise me anything except that you will be safe. If you sense danger, get the hell out of there. If you – “

  “Arya, you know me. I’ll be fine. The next time you see me, I’ll be back – with a Shroud of Protection for our Jasmine.”

  She didn’t give Arya an opportunity to reply, blowing a kiss as she flew out the door to the garage.

  Arya closed her eyes, rocking her daughter gently in her arms as she kissed her softly on her damp head.

  She didn’t need anyone to tell her just how close they were to the end.

  It felt as if Jasmine was barely breathing in her arms, and with each jagged inhale, Arya’s own life seemed to be slipping away too.

  She closed her eyes, holding tight to what could potentially be the final moments with her baby, her mind whirling with any last-minute ideas to save them all.

  But she had already been down that road a dozen times.

  There was nothing left to do but wait.

  Wait for Rowan to find her.

  Wait for Dante to kill her.

  Or wait for Jasmine to die.