I wasn’t paying attention.

  I was the only one who could actually get out of the prison, but I had just gotten too much information for my mind to process anything else. I knew who my mother was and she was dead. Slece had Desolated her over a decade ago over what the Grim Goddess had called a kidnapping. Since there was a legitimate reason for war and Gar had refused to surrender the male Grim that she’d taken, none of the other Gods in the Ward had gone to her defense. Though I was now understanding why Tres, Mive, Harror, and Klix hadn’t joined Slece in the offensive. There had been something with Klix and Harror with Gar, something that I was going to have to ask them about later. And they’d mentioned Covanus, Ekah, and Roth too. I knew that all of those were Goddesses of other Cities. I would need to look into them more as well once I got out.

  “Atlas!” Rix poked me in the ribs.

  “Yes?” I turned to look at her, but she turned my face back to the three Gods.

  “Are you listening?” Klix moved like she was prowling as she came towards me.

  “I’m listening!” I swallowed and tried to keep my mind from wandering back to my mother. “But I didn’t understand, so maybe we can go over it again?”

  Klix shook her head, then grabbed my face so hard that her claws bit into my cheeks. “You can daydream all you want as soon as we get out of here, but until then, you need to focus. Time might move a lot slower out there while we’re in here, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t moving. We need to close this thing before the demons get back or we’ll all be stuck.”

  I nodded. “Okay.”

  She released me. “Good.” The Ivory Goddess nodded at Mive, “You’re going to have to tell him again.”

  I was expecting him to request to negotiate, but instead the kitsune took a deep breath. “Between what Harror has learned and I’ve been able to add, we’ve decided that this curse is rooted in me and since the tentacles are only pulling experience from everyone else and funneling it into the demon, then it is reasonable that without me attached to it, it would die. So if I were to be Desolated, that would be enough to destroy the curse and free everyone else.”

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  Now they had my attention. “What do you mean, DESOLATE you?” I looked at the two Goddesses. “That will kill everyone in the city!”

  “Only those who aren’t Godkin.” Klix shrugged. “All of my Scarlets will survive and so will your father.”

  “You can’t…” I turned to Harror. “You’re a Healer! How can you be okay with this?”

  “Two of my Roots won’t survive.” The green Goddess looked deflated. “But what other choice do we have?” She looked up. “If you leave us all attached to that thing, then once the demons finally kill you and the Hound, they’ll be able to make a Tier Nine.” She shook her head. “With that much power, they’ll be able to sweep up more cities until they’ll burn down the whole world.” She closed her eyes. “Two Roots is a small price to pay.”

  “It’s not just two Roots!” I looked at Rix, hoping for some support. “It’s Gesai, and Aelin, and Oz, and…” I turned to Mive. “Will my priest survive?”

  The kitsune nodded his head.

  “I can’t do that!” I started backing up. “I’m not going to kill all my friends just to..!” I thought of a reason it wouldn’t work. “Mive is Tier Eight anyway, there’s no way that I could Desolate him.”

  “That thing has already drained Mive of almost all of his experience.” Klix grabbed my shoulder and started pressing her thumb into it. “Are you telling me that your friends are worth more to you than the lives of everyone else in the world?”

  I started to nod.

  Klix shook me. “You don’t get it! If you don’t do this, then in a few minutes? Hours? The demons are going to overwhelm you and mine out there and then they won’t just kill you quick. They are going to toy with you like they’ve done to the Fox. They’ll make you watch as they destroy everything that you care about.” She let me go. “This isn’t a choice about if your friends get to live. It’s you choosing how they get to die.”

  I wanted to scream. I wanted to fight. I wanted something. But I could see it on all of their faces. The clock was ticking and this fight was over.

  “What if I just cut the tendril?” I looked around. “There’s only one connecting him to it. I could just cut the tendril and…”

  “That thing is a Tier Six or Seven.” Klix shook her head. “It still has most of the fox’s experience and is sharing the traitor’s mantle.” She sighed. “Not even the Hound could cut it.”

  “But levels shouldn’t matter in the…”

  “I already tried cutting it.” Harror cut me off.

  I looked at everyone, hoping for another option, but all I saw was sadness.

  “Fine.” I started unraveling the spell in my mind. “I’ll do it.”

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