Page 64 of Jinx

“No.” She removed her hands, and I almost whimpered at the loss like a desperate puppy. She took her seat next to me, and her gaze swept around the table. “I can feel it, remember?” She rubbed her knuckles over her sternum. “You’re worried about something. Time to put it all out on the table.”

I chewed on my words for a minute, trying to decide where to start. “Do you remember what happened when you tied the final heartstring with Quinn?”

She blinked those big blue eyes at me. “I passed out, I guess. I don’t remember anything until I woke up with you and Rami.” Her cheeks went pink, and her gaze flicked around the table to each of us. “I take it you beat the demon mimic things?”

“No.” Quinn’s rasp drew our attention to the archway where he was leaning against the wall. “You did.” He took a step into the room and Bellamy lurched to his feet. Quinn’s hair hung in limp tangles to his shoulders, and his eyes were still clouded by the lingering pain that Rami was helpless to take away. He looked terrible, and Cordelia looked stricken. Her guilt was like a razor, slicing over my own ribs, and I knew the others could sense it too—even Quinn.

Her lip trembled, and she squeezed her hands into fists on top of the table while Bel helped his twin to a chair. “What—” Her voice broke, and she swallowed, the delicate column of her neck working. “What do you mean I did?”

Quinn slapped Bellamy’s hand away when he started to fill a plate for him. “Fuck off,” he growled. “I don’t need a nursemaid.” He left Cordelia’s question hanging there while he stubbornly got his own food, fighting a wince the entire time.

“Quinn.” I kept the warning gentle, but he’d only get one.

He clenched his jaw but kept his eyes on the table in front of him. “You did pass out,” he relented, “but only for a split second. When you opened your eyes again, whatever had woken up wasn’t you. You turned a mimic to ash with a touch and destroyed voids with a thought. I’ve never felt power like that. It was⁠—”

“It was her.” Cordelia’s whisper cut him off, and he finally looked at her. We all did.

“Her?” I leaned forward. “Pixie, do you know what happened?”

“Yes.” She lifted her shaking hands in front of her face, staring at them as if they belonged to someone else. “I mean, I don’t remember any of that, but it must have been her. My magic. She—” She broke off with a sharp breath, eyes flicking to Quinn before falling back to the table. “I had to let her out. It was the only way. I couldn’t…I couldn’t just sit there and watch you all die.”

Rami mirrored my posture, moving closer and coaxing her gaze. “Who is she, kulta?”

“I still don’t really know.” Cordelia shook her head slowly while she sifted through her thoughts. “I was born with her inside me. It’s her magic, the reason I was hidden. She, uhm…she called herself the…” She paused, trying to remember. “The Reckoner.”

We all looked at Quinn. His brow furrowed as he dug through his impressive mind—there was a reason he taught history. “The Reckoner,” he repeated, eyes losing focus while he thought. “It’s not familiar,” he finally huffed in frustration. “It’s not enough. We need more.”

Cordelia flinched but sat straighter, speaking up before I could. “Well, I’m sorry, but there isn’t more. She didn’t exactly give me a business card.”

“Let us talk to her now then,” Quinn ground out, and his tone had me taking a breath to remind him what respect was. Pixie got there first.

“It’s not a switch, Quinn.” There was a bite to her words that made me proud. “And I’d really prefer not to enter into another life-threatening situation to satisfy your curiosity.”

The table fell silent, each of us sharing a look over Cordelia’s head, stunned by how much she suddenly knew. We’d entertained a lot of scenarios, but our Heart being host to some divine entity wasn’t one of them.

“So, you finally spoke with her, huh?” Bellamy’s voice was softer than his twin’s, and it visibly melted some of the tension clutching Cordelia’s shoulders, allowing her to nod.

“Yeah. Before I woke up.”

“What else did she say?” Lucian’s silver eyes glinted with interest.

Cordelia shrugged. “She pretty much said that the world was out of balance and we were going to put it back. She said some people wanted to stop that from happening, which is why I was locked in a proverbial closet my whole life. She said I had to make a soul-bond with each of you to ‘release her wrath’. And she said I’m in control of our magic now.” She sucked in a breath after her words ebbed, and I could see the exhaustion still lining her face. “Your turn.”

Again, I looked at my brothers, and they all deferred to me. I took Pixie’s hand. “I told you that the five of us are bound in a drift and that you are the Heart at the center of it.” She nodded, and I faltered, suddenly unsure of where to even start.

“I’m in it now,” she said, and I hated the waver in her voice. “Just start at the beginning.”

“Okay, the beginning then.” I blew out a breath. “Millennia ago, this world was ruled by a pantheon of gods led by Zeus⁠—”

She snorted a laugh. “Stop. This is supposed to be serious.”

I just blinked at her, willing her to understand.

“What—” she faltered. “Wait…you are serious?”

My gaze didn’t waver. I wasn’t exactly surprised by her denial—any mortal human would have reacted the same way.

“Zeus,” she continued to stutter. “Like, the Zeus. Thunderbolts and Mount Olympus?”