"There’s nothing for you here, leave,” Brad surprised us all, “She’s not going with you.”

A heartbeat of silence. Then Mercy snapped, “Kitty beat you, why are you alive?”

The Prince’s gaze didn’t leave my face. “We are not so easy to kill, I tried to kill her millenniums ago, it didn’t work. Beheading is only a temporary solution, and not even that for some of us.”

It confirmed my suspicions, but I could see the idea that the Peacock and Blade were alive never occurred to the others.

He walked towards me, I took a step back. “Don’t be afraid,” he said, his voice gentle, not nearly as expressionless as I was used to.

“Leave her alone,” Brad got up, lifting his shotgun like a club only to have his arms drop to his sides like Heala and Lightning. Mercy and Shadow were also unable to move on the floor.

The Prince turned towards them, “You have no reason to fight me. If I wished you dead, you know that no weapons or hiding would prevent me from taking your lives. Perhaps the smarter decision would be to ask me why I’m here?”

“Okay, why are you here?” Mercy obliged.

“I thought you would like to know the outcome of your plan. The Princess now holds the gods, and soon the human race will cease to exist. She has already convinced them to kill all the Worshippers.”

“What do you mean cease to exist?” Brad asked.

“All the Worshippers?” I blurted.

“Ash is mine, he is safe.”

I sighed in relief. The others started to move; the Prince had let go of his hold on them.

“You didn’t answer the question, what do you mean cease to exist?” Lightning asked, standing up.

The Prince raised an eyebrow, “What? No more attempts to attack me?”

Was he being playful? What had happened since the fight that changed him so much? The rest fidgeted, not sure how to answer.

“Why are you here?” I drew on all my courage, “Can’t be just to tell us Kitty is about to kill all the humans. And…and I’m not going back.”

He turned back to me, his eyebrow twitched as if trying to frown.

Relaxed, that’s definitely the word for the change in him. Before he looked to be weighed down by something, now that was gone.

Instead of answering the Prince turned to Heala and Lightning, “I came to find Ethereal, she has gotten good at hiding, you are my only leads. She can help me find the others who would side against the Princess.”

Lightning and Heala exchanged glances, “So things will go back to the way they were, gods killing humans indiscriminately? Ethel will never agree to that.”

“No, I suppose she wouldn’t,” the Prince turned back to me, “That’s why I want to make you a deal. Come back to me and no god will harm humans for the duration of your lifetime.”

My heart sank to my stomach. Return to that room and never leave? I couldn’t do that.

“No,” Brad tried to come to my side but Lightning grabbed his arm.

“How long before she starts killing everyone?” Lightning asked.

It looked like the Prince was about to smile. Was he playing with us? “She’ll start slow, the slaves will be killed first, then the city.”

“Why?” Heala whined.

The Prince shrugged. He shrugged. The only time I had seen him do anything so normal was when he was pretending to be human. “That is the reason she sought the crown, no doubt she wouldn’t tell that to the humans she was using to get it.”

“You’re so different,” I blurted.

He looked at me, face blank again, studying me.

“You’re not so stiff,” I could feel my face heat up. I tried looking down but my eyes wouldn‘t leave his face.

“That is the nature of the anchor. The Prince or Princess of the gods is both a name and a title. But we are not their leaders, we are more than that, we are what anchors them to the earth, to each other, and to sanity. We are not a hive mind but,” he shrugged again, “that is the closest reference you may understand.”

We absorbed his words in silence. He leaned closer, his pupilless eyes taking up the entirety of my vision, “You were the only thing I could keep for myself, the only part of myself that I didn’t have to share with the rest of the gods. If not for you I would let her have the burden of the crown and watch humanity end.”

My heart hammered in my chest. Not entirely coming from fear or disgust at his words. How could I still care about him after everything he did to me? My mind shied away from the possibility that I would break down; eventually I would do the stupid thing and go back to him. I would tell myself that it was for all humanity but it wouldn’t be…

I suddenly thought of Ethel in the car with me, the only time I’ve seen a god panicked and terrified, “She was running from you?”

“Ethereal? Of course, she broke the bond a long time ago, she survived but she was weak. A god is only a shadow of themselves without the rest, without the anchor.”

“You would kill her for that?” Heala shrieked.

“Yes, she shouldn’t have survived the break in the first place.” His voice remained emotionless, his face blank.

“And you think we’ll help you find her? So you can kill her?” Lightning yelled, “Why do you need us at all?”

The Prince turned to fully face the Warriors, cocking his head, “Ethereal has learned to hide from all of us, you are a link to her she cannot hide. No, I will not kill her, she joined the Princess, so she has regained her full status.”

“Wait,” Brad shook his head, “You’re not siding with Kitty, why aren’t you weakened?”

Something in the shift of his stance told me the Prince was running out of patience, “I do not need a leader to anchor me, I am an anchor. Same with the Princess, she was not weakened by pulling away from me three thousand earth years ago.”

Why didn’t he just take the information he needed from them? I knew he didn’t need their cooperation. He could make them do anything he wanted. Was it for me? Or was I completely delusional?

Either way, whatever made him wait, he was losing his patience fast, and I could see they were going to ask more questions. I jumped up, “We need to find Ethel, we have to try to stop Kitty and if Ethel has a resistance started we should help.”

Whatever they were going to say, their jaws snapped shut. I could see the gears turning before Lightning nodded, “Okay but you guys should stay behind,” he indicated Shadow, Brad and Mercy.

“Like hell!” Mercy yelled while the other two shook their heads.

“Let them come,” the Prince rose, “They may yet prove useful.”

At his words, they hesitated. Going now meant agreeing with the enemy. I injected again, starting to feel the urgency of the situation, “We don’t have time to waste, the longer we wait the more people will die.”

Lightning nodded, “Continuing to argue is pointless, pack up, we’re leaving ASAP.”

At the words, the front door burst open and Ash moved past everyone to envelop me in a bear hug.

I flinched, expecting searing pain and melting flesh. But he pressed me closer, “I am so sorry.”

Anger, like a struck match, made me push him away. I realized that even though I still cared about him, I couldn’t forgive him.

“He killed Toni!” Heala moved to get past Lightning.

Lightning held her back, “He was protecting the one he Worships, he didn’t have a choice.” Heala turned on Lightning but he held onto her, “Right now we have to look past our hatreds, we have something far bigger to protect.”

She looked from Ash to Lightning and back, “Fine, for now.”

I marveled how people could act so different from moment to moment. I didn’t think Heala capable of revenge. I took the moment of chaos to move away from Ash. He looked at me, hurt in his eyes. It only made me angrier, he didn’t have a right to be hurt.

The Prince managed to walk outside while we were fighting.

Soon we were ready to once again move with nothing but the clothes on our backs. We took what weapons we still had left. The Prince replenished the ammo, though he said he didn't see the point. Mercy ran to the basement to inform her family. They followed her upstairs, the children peeking from behind their parents’ backs.

“They don’t look so tough,” Josh said in a loud whisper.

“The dark one does, he looks like he’s ready to explode,” Ruth replied.

We watched for a reaction from the Prince, but he didn’t seem to hear.