Hephaestus nodded, finally showing some sign that he was paying attention.
“That’s my sad story. Did it tickle your pickle? Can I go, now? Can I go find my daughter?” I uncrossed my legs and stood. My body’s aches hadn’t abated, and my headache had only increased in intensity.
Hephaestus opened his eyes and scowled at me. “Circumstances never excuse the crime,” he said, completely reversing what he had spouted thirteen seconds ago. “The Nephil Council will hold me responsible, if I do not hold you responsible.”
I nodded, biting my cheeks. It took all my willpower not to attack him again. I would have died, but in that moment, I didn’t really care.
“After hearing the full story, though, I do feel for your losses.” The giant Nephil limped to the workbench portioned near his forge and sat. “You may choose your punishment,” he said. “But you will still be punished.”
“What?” I asked, confused at his offer. I could choose my punishment? Was he serious? “I can… like make up what happens? Or you’re giving me options to choose from?”
“Options,” he said. “You have the right the decide your fate, I believe. I can strip you of your powers, here and now—for you have abandoned them and your pact, used them for personal gain, and then to attack me. You are not worthy of possessing such abilities. I will allow you until sunrise to save your daughter. When sun rises, I will come for you. And not only me, but the entire Nephilim Council, because if I allow you back into the world, you might just destroy it.”
“What the shit-stick? Are you kidding me? Sunrise in a few hours. You expect me to find Mel and defeat Hecate without any magic in that time? You’re fucking insane.” That couldn’t happen. I needed the magic to fight Hecate. She stood at a power level near Hephaestus, so there was no way I could defeat her without it.
“Your second option,” Hephaestus continued, “it to never leave this shop. As I said, and as you should know, you pose a great threat to this world’s survival. If you stay here, you will serve me eternally, helping with any creations and repairs for paying customers—but the Earth will remain safe.”
What the hell was he talking about? I knew that Hephaestus used his cursed servants—Automatons—to work in perpetuity for him. If I chose that option, I would spend the rest of eternity away from Mel, away from Xander, away from life, to serve my patron. It would be a death and a hell in and of itself. But…
“What do you mean I’m a danger to the world? That you’ll send the entire Nephilim Council after me to protect Earth, or that by staying here, so it will remain safe?”
“What will it be?” he asked, crossing his arms and frowning.
I rolled my head and cracked my neck, ignoring his cryptic warning and focusing on what mattered—my daughter. I couldn’t allow him to strip me of magic with Mel missing. How would I find her? How would I defeat Hecate and her Empousa? But serving Hephaestus in his shop forever as one of his cursed allowed no opportunity whatsoever at getting Mel back.
I really had no choice in the matter. If leaving the shop—even for few hours—meant losing my magic, then I would have to find my daughter Taken style.
“I have to go after her,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Well, keep in mind,” Hephaestus said, standing from the workbench and hobbling toward me, “there’s no happily ever after for you and your daughter.” He grabbed the manacles that dangled loosely from my arms and legs, breaking them free. “Remember, you have until the sunrise.” He touched my shoulder and the power he had imbued within me drained from my body. I fell to my knees and heaved, vomiting liquid. “Then the entire Nephilim Council and I will send everything we have at you. And, in the end, you will die, along with your daughter anyway.”
“Go shit yourself,” I coughed, planting my hands on the ground, struggling to stay on all fours without collapsing. When he drained my power, he had sapped what remained of my measly reserves of strength and energy. “Could you drop me off in front of the Snake Head Lounge? I have a lead to follow-up on.”
Hephaestus towered over me, his presence like a furnace. “Joseph,” he said, pausing to take a deep breath. “Be careful. Hecate… she is an extremely powerful Nephil. And I prefer to kill you myself.”
A thick cloud of smoke wrapped around me, as it had earlier. The fog settled tight around my body, pressed against my skin, filled my lungs, and darkened my vision.
11
The smoke dispersed from around my body. I sat on the curb and faced the sleepy, Thursday morning street. Rain lacquered the road, and the streetlights created a bright reflection on the dark ground.
I stood, grimacing from the lingering pains spreading throughout my body. I reached into my pocket to grab my cell phone and call Xander and check the time, but it wasn’t there. I checked my other pockets and found nothing. Thinking back, I cursed. The deputy had removed all my belongings before the interrogation. They rested inside a plastic bag somewhere at the jail.
I wiped my face, trying not to scream. Instead, I turned from the street and faced the Snake Head Lounge. The lights were off and the bouncer gone. After shuffling to the door, I pulled on the handle, but it didn’t budge.
“Holy shit,” I said, wondering how the night could get any worse. I dared not speak the question aloud and tempt fate.
“Joseph,” said a chirpy voice from behind me. The woman sounded way too excited, and I wanted no part in matching that kind of energy.
I dropped my forehead on the cool glass of the lounge’s window and closed my eyes. “Wrong person,” I grumbled, hoping
