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The destruction the wave produced paled in comparison to what Leviathan did to the reapers. If I had any doubt of Promethis’ death, it was certified when Leviathan tossed his head at my feet.
He tended to a half dozen wounds, licking the blood away before focusing back in my direction. “Not quite as meaty as your friend would have been, but vengeance helped satiate my appetite... for now.”
Seeing this monster in action chilled me and made me wonder why he hadn’t dispatched me so efficiently. “You could have done that to me?” I pointed at the bloody battlefield.
He grinned that wicked grin of his, his eyes gleaming with a level of mischief that left me skittish.
“Why didn’t you?” I needed to know.
His smile faded. “Because I’d heard the rumors. And because I hated Promethis with every fiber of my being.”
“Rumors?”
“A king had been born. A king with the power to set me free.” Leviathan bowed his head. “The minute your sword cracked the chain, I knew those rumors were true.”
I reached up and gave his snout a pat. “Glad to help,” I said, not really knowing what to do with the reverence in his voice. “Now you’re free.” I stopped before I added ‘to go wherever you please’, because I could see him opting for our world and the abundance of what he considered a delicacy. That would be a disaster.
I turned to Ben. “Did Noah make it?”
They both gave me a nod. “Things didn’t quite play out true to Fate’s book, but it wasn’t your doing. Promethis screwed with the play book, making us all think we had more time than we really did.”
“But Fate told me it couldn’t be tampered with.”
“He hadn’t changed the names, only the date and it was within what Fate calls ‘the margin of error’, which meant it took the book a few days to get it sorted out. When it did, it was too late.”
My mouth dried up and I had to ask the question that popped into my head. “Julia’s okay, right?”
“Yes, Julia is fine,” a voice announced from the side.
My father stepped out of the shadows, giving Leviathan a wider berth than he needed to. His gaze still wary of the beast and when he stopped in front of me, his gaze locked on mine.
Without him asking, I unclasped the sheath and handed it to him, with the knife inside. “Thanks for getting this to me, it helped.”
My father took it and crouched, attaching it to his calf before drawing his jeans over it. “You won’t be able to have it where you’re going anyway,” he said and stood, trading glances with Ben and Danny.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve called in some hefty favors and been given the go ahead to turn the clock back to before you ordered the reaper away from your grandmother.”
I stared at him and glanced at the plain littered with reaper bones. At one time I would have jumped at the offer, but now it just created a conflict in my psyche. My gaze traveled back to Leviathan and the implications of what would happen to him if the clock was reversed hit like a brick. I saw defeat in his expression and I dropped my gaze.
Fate said there’s always a price.
Leviathan would never be freed but weighed against having all Julia’s parents and my mother alive and living in Maine, he lost. Even though I knew it wasn’t right to send him back into captivity, the lure of the offer was just too great.
I turned away from the group, gathering rocks in my hand and stepped to the edge of the building, tossing the pebbles as I weighed my options.
There’s always a price and it’s usually a pretty damn hefty one.
Fate’s words echoed and I realized Leviathan’s freedom wasn’t the price I’d pay. After all, if he successfully did what he did when I was younger, I would have no memory of this. I had already lost my mother and Maine and lived with the knowledge my actions caused the death of Julia’s parents for the past four months, so there was only one consequence that would be worse than anything we had already experienced.
One loss that would go beyond what I was capable of dealing with.
Julia.
“No,” I answered and dropped the rest of the pebbles, turning back toward my father.
Leviathan let out a long breath. “I was afraid I’d have to eat you,” he said and I couldn’t help but smile. After all, he didn’t need to know he wasn’t the rationale for my decision.
“Just keep your nose out of trouble, okay?”
Leviathan bowed and I gave a wave to Ben and Danny before turning to my father. “I’m good to go.”
My dad reached out, wrapping cold fingers around my wrist and the sky lit up white.