Goddess Of The Underworld (Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 109

Chapter 109

Envy

The laughter around the table was easy and warm, the kind that curled in your chest and made you feel like the world beyond these walls didn’t exist. Elliot was wedged between Haiden and Tommy, stealing bites from both their plates without shame. My coffee was hot, my mates were calm, and for a rare moment, it felt like the chaos outside had taken the day off. Then Dad cleared his throat. It wasn’t loud, but it carried. Every voice at the table faded, every eye shifting toward him. He sat tall at the far end, shoulders squared, his expression steady but unreadable. The kind of expression that meant whatever he was about to say was going to change the tone of the morning.

“I think,” he began slowly, “it’s time we decide what to do about Marcus.”

The name hit like a cold draft under the door.

My fingers tightened around my mug, the warmth bleeding into my skin. Marcus, still locked in the dungeons. Still breathing. Still a shadow I hadn’t shaken, no matter how far

I’d come.

“It’s been long enough,” He went on, his gaze sweeping the table. “He’s healed enough to stand, and there’s nothing left to be gained by letting him rot in a cell. The question is, do we end this now, or give him another trial he doesn’t deserve?”

I didn’t need time to think.

“End it,” I said, my voice quiet but sure. I met Dad’s gaze without flinching. “I want this chapter closed. For good.”

There was a pause, and then a small voice broke in from halfway down the table.

“I want to be there.”

Elliot. He sat up straighter, eyes locked on his pop, his little chin tilted in that stubborn way I’d seen a hundred times in the quads. The air in the room shifted instantly.

“Elliot-” Haiden started, but the boy cut him off.

“It’s my right.” His voice didn’t shake. “After everything Marcus did to me, to all of us…

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Chapter 109

It’s my right to see him at the end.”

The adults exchanged uneasy glances, Noah’s jaw tightened, Levi’s gaze flicked between his dad and me, and even Aleisha’s usual smirk had faded.

“He’s just a kid,” Xavier said finally.

“I’m not just a kid,” Elliot shot back. His voice cracked slightly, but he didn’t look away. “I’m someone he hurt. And I want to know he can’t hurt anyone else. Ever again.”

The room was silent for a long moment, the weight of his words pressing down on all of

1. us.

I reached out, brushing my hand over his, grounding him. “Then you’ll be there,” I said.

Dad studied me for a beat, then Elliot, before he gave one short nod. “After breakfast, we

settle this.”

No one went back to eating. We sat quietly for a moment before I stood, and everyone

followed.

The air grew colder the deeper we went. The stone under my boots was damp, slick with the condensation that clung to these underground walls. Every footstep echoed too loud, too long, bouncing back at us in hollow reminders that we were descending into the bowels of the packhouse, into the place where we had kept Marcus caged like the rabid thing he was. Elliot walked between Haiden and me, his shoulders square, chin high. There was no trace of the boy who had been hiding under the breakfast table this morning. His silence was sharp, heavy with something coiled tight in his chest. The guard at the heavy iron door stepped aside at dads’s nod, unlocking the multiple chains that had been laid over it. As the final lock clanged open, a stale, metallic scent seeped out, the

smell of blood and rust.

Marcus sat shackled in the corner of his cell, head tipped back against the wall. He looked up at us with eyes still burning, despite the bruises and weeks of confinement.

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