Klix wanted to take Ether.

  My first love struggled in her sister’s arms, but she couldn’t get free. “I’m not going anywhere with you! I love Atlas! He’s..!”

  “I asked him, not you.” Klix glared at her granddaughter. “Or are you the only spine he has?”

  “I can speak.” I swallowed as I shifted closer to Ether, earning me a glare from Kara. “Ether is the core of my team. She has been my sounding board more than even my High Priestess over the last few weeks. I value her input and ask her opinion on almost everything…” The words seemed a little fake considering that just two days ago, she’d been so mad at me for not telling her that I was a Godling that she’d barely been talking to me, but it was still true. I’d tried to pull her into everything I could.

  “I’m the Prime.” Ether straightened. “I’m heir to the Vowler name!”

  “I can make more in a month than that pompous…” Klix shook her head. “Whatever.” She rested her chin on her hand and started tapping on her cheek. “I did try to add him…” The Goddess looked between us. “I’ll think about it.”

  “I’ll run away if you try to take me!” Ether glared at her grandmother. “You’ll..!”

  I didn’t see Klix move, but I felt the pain as I realized that the Goddess was straddling my lap and her claws were buried in my chest.

  “What if I just Desolate him?” Klix looked at her granddaughter. “We’ll all survive such a little explosion, then what will you do?”

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  “ATLAS! DON’T!!!” Ether strained in her sister’s arms. “LET ME GO!!!”

  “You need to understand just how weak you are.” She rested her left hand on the back of Kara’s head. “If you stay at school with him, then you’ll stay that weak for years. I can make you strong.”

  “What is strength if you don’t have a heart?” Ether gritted her sharp teeth. “What kind of power is it if all you do is hurt people and don’t protect those weaker than yourself?” Her eyes narrowed. “I have Noblesse Oblige.”

  “Why does this family have so many idealists..?” Klix pulled back her hand as she moved back to her seat. I looked down and if there hadn’t been black blood running down Klix’s hand, I wouldn’t have known that she’d even been so close to ripping my heart out.

  The Goddess looked at Ether. “We’ll table this for now, until I’ve had a chance to speak to Trent…” She looked between the two of us. “But that hound you have won’t do… Kara, you’re their babysitter until we get back to my city.”

  The guard looked back at her Grandmother and nodded, then put her helmet back on and sat down on Ether’s other side. My ivory Tank scooted closer to me and I squeezed her. This day was definitely not going the way I had thought it would play out.

  “Can you get the mark off of Astrid and wake Trent up?” The silence in the car was unnerving.

  “That’s a Harror question.” Klix was staring out the window. “The seals are basically curses, so she’ll be the one who will have to remove them, but it looked like a Tier Four spell, so the hermit shouldn’t have been trapped…” She shrugged. “And I don’t know what type of spell is on Mive, but it seems like something similar…” She shook her head, “We’ll just have to see.”

  Silence settled back over us as I tried to think of some way to break it, but the two women whose faces I could see didn’t look like they were in the mood to be talking. I just held Ether as she relived her life, putting the new information she’d learned into place and re-evaluating what it all meant.

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