As they almost fell out of one reality into another, she felt his hand sliding down to her wrist and she swore as she looked down to see a simple gold chain around her wrist that was almost identical as the one around her ankle, binding her without actually containing her.
Looking up, she glared up at the God, his face set and grim.
"What do you want, Sobek?" she snarled, shaking her hand but the stupid chain had shrunk to fit around her wrist.
She was still angry at him for binding her, though they still hadn't figured out what that would mean for her really, and he was tense as she backed away from him, glancing around the small room that was made of stone and had a wood roof.
"I am sorry, if I had tried to speak to you, you would have ignored me. You have been avoiding me."
"Gee, I wonder why," she said sarcastically, and he grimaced, looking away from her.
"You are still talking to Daemon," he said.
"Daemon will not be ignored. He might actually die if no one paid attention to him."
Sobek snorted and nodded his agreement before he turned away from her and she watched him as he started to pace.
"Would you let me back in if I were like that?" he asked, and she lifted a brow.
"I can only handle one traitor, attention seeking God at a time," she said bitterly.
He froze, turning on her. "I am not a traitor," he hissed.
"No? What would you call betraying your ally then?"
"A necessity. You are dangerous."
"You're a traitor," she growled.
He was on her before she saw him move, gripping the front of her dress and lifting her off the ground with a feral snarl.
"I am not a traitor!"
"Put me down," she snapped back, kicking him hard in the stomach but it only made her foot hurt and he didn't so much as flinch.
"Say it!" he snarled, but she only shook her head, refusing to give him what he wanted. She would not take back her words.
Clutching at his arm, she tried to pull herself up, but he growled and threw her away.
Hitting the ground with a huff, she frowned as she looked up at the ceiling.
Could her life get any worse? Could it?
She laid there, trying to contemplate what a normal life would be while he approached and she looked up at him, her face set in a stubborn glare.
"Don't make me hurt you…"
"Haven't you done enough? Why can't you people just leave me alone?"
"Because you are powerful and unreliable. We cannot trust you to be on our side."
She was indignant, so much so that she was struggling just to say anything.
"I saved everyone! I got my uncle killed to save you ungrateful jerks! And then to repay that you decide to turn against me!"
He frowned down at her, crouching as she lay there refusing to get up. She was sick of the lot of them.
"Next time, you can sort it out yourself and I'll sit back and watch. How does that sound?"
He growled, grabbing her arm and dragging her up onto her feet.
"Stop touching me! Why do you always have to touch?"
Jerking her arm free, she moved back from him and fumed. They were always touching her, always trying to arrange her how they wanted.
"Stop being such a child," he snapped, and she saw red for an instant, furious that yet another male was calling her a child.
But then she remembered the last male to call her that and her fury died as a drop of ice fell through her and she took a step back from him.
"Don't touch me," she breathed, his head tilting to the side at the sudden change in her mood.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked, more curious than anything, but she only shook her head and tugged at the chain on her wrist. It wasn't going to come off unless he removed it for her.
"What do you want?" she asked, sounding exhausted.
He was still furious at her, but he seemed to have calmed down enough to not want to smash her face.
"The Gods and I have decided that you needed to be contained further," he said.
It took her a moment to realise what it was he had said. "What?" she asked, feeling as though she hadn't heard him properly. What further could they possibly do to her, and why would they do it? What had she done that made them think she wasn't contained? Lifting her hand, she looked down at the gold chain and terror shot through her.
"I'm sorry, Etani, but we have to be certain you don't decide to wipe us all out," he said gently.
"You can't do this to me..." she whispered.
It was happening all over again, they were moving her, but instead of taking her body, they were taking her magic.
"We have to," he said simply.
"What is wrong with you?" she asked, terrified. "How could you?"
He was moving forward, and she backed away quickly, realising suddenly why he was wearing the armour.
"Just be good, stay calm," he said, his words only making her panic, and she thought desperately of anyone who could help her. She couldn't use her magic to escape with that chain, couldn't tap into any magic at all, but that didn't mean she was going to go down easy.
He reached for her, and she swiped at him, the sound of metal on metal screaming as her nails caught and dug into his gauntlet.
Looking down at it, she started mentally screaming for someone, anyone, but it was pointless, they wouldn't hear her, and they wouldn't be coming for her.
"Stop fighting," he said in frustration as she backed away.
"You are a traitor... you, and Daemon, and all of the Gods…" she whispered, and a tiny seed of hatred started up in her soul. She wanted them gone, wanted them all gone.
No, she wanted them dead.
"I'll kill you... all of you…" she whispered.
His eyes widened before narrowing on her. "No Etani, you won't," he said simply.
"Just leave me alone, I just want to be left in peace," she pleaded, desperate for an escape but there was no escape. Her eyes went to the door but even as she looked at it, the door faded into the wall, and she whimpered. "Let me go, Sobek. Please just let me go."
"Just accept your fate," he growled as he moved forward.
"Did you ever stop to think that I would want this stupid prophecy to come true only because you are trying to stop it? I never would have done anything!" she cried, tracking his slow approach. "It never would have come true if you had just asked me! If you had just treated me like a person and not a tool!"
"We could never be fully certain," he breathed, backing her into a corner in the small room.
"All it would have taken was a promise, you idiot!" she screamed.
Finally, he paused, frowning at her in confusion. "Would you have?" he asked.
"Yes! If it meant I got to keep my magic, then yes!"
"Would you now?" he asked slowly, his eyes going to her wrist.
She hesitated, staring at him for a long moment, but he smiled grimly at her hesitation.
"If your immediate answer isn't 'yes', then you cannot be trusted. Yes, we should have asked first, but it is too late for that now."
"I will promise," she said, but he was shaking his head, and panic went through her as his arms lifted, ensuring she was backed into the corner of the room.
"It's too big of a risk. Even if you are right and we had no reason to fear, we now have to ensure you aren't capable of getting revenge."
"Please Sobek, don't take my magic," she pleaded, pain crossing his face at her words.
"It's too much," he said, his hot fingers wrapping around her arms.
"I trusted you!" she screamed, hating him. She would never trust the Gods again; they were all traitors.
She slammed the heel of her foot down on his, and he snarled in pain, though he was wearing leather boots, his grip tightening on her until she felt bruises forming.
When he didn't immediately let her go, she drove her knee into his gut, but then swore as pain radiated up her leg into her hip.
As a last attempt to get free, she reached for the join in the armour at his hip, prepared to disembowel him, but he caught the movement and he slid his hands down her arms, lifting her wrists just as her nails touched his skin and blood ran.
Her fingers caught the underside of his armour, refusing to let go until he snarled. They both knew what her nails were capable of, and if he stopped trying to pry her fingers off him, he was going to get hurt.
Making the choice, he shifted, and his armoured knee hit her thigh.
She buckled as her knee gave out and he yanked her hands free of him, his hand sliding up to her wrist, and she screamed as his fingers closed around the chain, trapping it between his hand and hers.
It burned, and she could smell cooking flesh as the metal heated under his touch, tightening until it was cutting into her skin.
"Stop! Please!" she screamed, but he only clenched his jaw as he looked down at her, her face turned up to him as pain flooded her.
She could feel it, the way her magic withdrew into her and while she could still tap into it, she wouldn't be able to use it outside of herself.
Winter was screaming inside her, hating the restriction, and she cried for it, she cried for herself, and for the loss of her trust in those that she had called friend.
The pain faded and she no longer felt the chain against her skin, his dark eyes pained as he met her agonised face.
"I'm sorry, Etani. We still love you, we do," he whispered, but she didn't believe him. They didn't love her. She was not the first God to be bound by their fellows, but she had never thought they would try and contain her.
He released her wrists, and she dropped all the way down from her kneeling position to sit between her feet on the cool wood, her hands resting in her lap.
She looked down at them, seeing the gold chain had changed.
It had gone from being a simple hoop of chain around one wrist to form two thin bands of gold around both wrists, tattooed onto her skin.
Crouching down in front of her, he brushed her hair back from where it had fallen around her face, shielding her face from view.
She couldn't think, first Jaia and now this? It was all too much, and her brain was refusing to process anything. All she could do was stare at the pretty gold that was boldly contrasted with her pale skin.
Lifting her hand, she pressed against the gold, but it didn't feel like there was anything on or in her skin, it was just colour, and she pinched her skin slowly. It was just like a freckle or birthmark, it was simply there, on top of her flesh, and there was nothing she could do to take it off.
Looking up at the God slowly, she took advantage of his closeness, and his hands shot up to deflect her sudden grab for him, but she was quicker, and her hands caught his face, pulling him down and her head lifted, his lips hot on hers.
Savage glee filled her at the thought of killing the bastard who had taken her magic, and she shoved herself down into him with a viciousness she rarely showed, only to have her mind slam up against a barrier.
She froze as he jerked back from her, horror filling her as she realised, they had not only bound her.
She wasn't able to kiss anyone.
She stared at him, realising he had condemned her to a slow death of starvation, over and over again for eternity.
He had fallen back against the floor, pale and terrified as he realised how close he had come to death.
Her hands fell into her lap once more, trying to wrap her head around the idea of starving.
It wouldn't kill her permanently, but she knew what happened when she was starving. People died when she was starving, lots more than if she had simply eaten.
She remembered the village, the blood and the carnage, the corpses stacked together to form a throne for her as she revelled in the destruction and the feeling of coming back to herself after being hungry for so very long.
It was the one and only time she had killed a child, her rage and hunger turning her into the monster she pretended not to be, and she had obliterated the village, tearing into them and no one had survived, not the children, not the pregnant women, not the elderly.
They had all fallen before her rage and blinding hunger.
Ayathian would end the same way if she starved. She would have to go to Epharis and ask him for more of his elixir.
The thought of going to her husband and begging him for help repulsed her, but what else was she going to do?
"You took away my ability to eat…" she breathed, and his face was confused, his fear at his near death turning to wariness
"What?" he demanded, his voice rasping as he came down from the adrenaline.
"You took it… it's gone…" she whimpered as his fear seeped into her. "I can't eat any more."
His eyes widened but then he stood.
She felt his rage at what she had tried to do to him. She had tried to consume him.
"You tried to kill me!" he raged, but she only looked down at her hands, seeing the gold bands and trying to come to terms with it all.
"You betrayed me," she whispered in response to his rage, and he growled, furious at her. "Remove it…"
"No, you need to be contained. We didn't know you were able to kill a God…" he was almost radiating fury, and she closed her eyes.
"Please Sobek…" She knew it wasn't going to work, but she had to try.
He didn't reply, instead he reached for her and as his hand touched her, the world faded away and she felt the hard wood under her changing into soft carpet.
Surely, he would realise what he had done once he had calmed down? Right?