Page 74 of Edge of Stars

“We have to burn her out. Yank the hag into the light,” she pronounces. “A light we’re controlling.”

Maximus releases a suspicious growl in tandem with his father and uncle. “I already don’t like the sound of this.”

“Well, I don’t like the sound of delivery dudes who pump their bass at five a.m.,” Jesse inserts. “But it gets me up for predawn workouts.”

“We’re not talking bicep curls, damn it.”

“He knows that.” The defense bursts out sharper than I planned, but I don’t back down from a single note. It’s as much a stand for myself, since my senses are already blazing with the direction of my sister’s intention. Now I’ve got to brace for Maximus’s reaction to it—in every way I can.

Zeus hikes his head toward Kell. His gaze is as clear and searing as the August sky it invokes, looking like he’s already peeked at my sister’s flight plan, as well.

Still, he murmurs, “All right. What’s your play?”

Before responding, my sister swoops one more look my way. I send an approving nod.

“Hecate’s only going to budge for one reason.” She secures her gaze on Maximus with more strength than ten men. Damn, how I love her. “For one person.”

I’ve seen my husband in the throes of rage before. When he confronted Hades in the castle at Dis. The moment we learned that Nikoleta might’ve been exposed by a paparazzi’s stray flashbulb. Even a few times during the wedding planning, when rude or close-minded people got on his last nerve.

All just silly flickers compared to this.

How he spins on everyone like a cornered warrior with a sharpened broadsword. How he glares as if there’s already blood coating the blade but it isn’t enough. How he’s ready to take down the rest of whatever we’re calling a kingdom here.

Which is why I pull in a deep breath and push out the next words in the room.

“She’s right. Maximus—”

“No.” It’s a feral, awful sound from the center of his chest. “No, goddammit!”

“Maximus.”

He turns again, crouching low to face off at me. “I won’t allow it. You’re not going to do this, Kara.”

“You’re super right.” As I level it, I refuse to let him up. The steel in my bloodstream can triple-fill every cargo container on the docks at San Pedro, though he refuses to acknowledge it even as I guide his hand across the middle of my body. “I’m not going to do it. We are. Together.”

Nikoleta breaks into a soft but joyful pummel at my abdomen wall as if we’re kicking off down a metaphysical yellow brick road. Though I’m sure she’s responding to our little family embrace and not my motivational speech, it’s impossible to ignore her enthusiasm.

Maximus does just that.

Well…tries to.

With stiffened muscles and a sharp grunt, he keeps it up, insisting on clinging to his control like Oz’s silly wizard hiding behind his green curtain.

Refusing to see that his stubbornness is dragging us back more than helping us get home. That we’re not getting anywhere—when there’s so far left to go.

“What…are you talking about?” he demands from between his teeth. “I can’t…I won’t let either of you be at risk. Not for this. Not to lure her.”

“Not even for the sake of the realm?”

I double down on the point, flattening his hand tighter on my belly. I’m as unrelenting with my other one too, desperately tangling my fingers in his hair.

Because I’ll do anything for my cause too.

Anything for the world that’s given us this love.

“Maximus,” I whisper, my lips less than a gasp from his. “The stars didn’t give us to each other only to let us crash and burn.”

He’s still rigid in my hold. Unyielding to my touch.