Chapter 69: THIRD POV.

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and looked up, staring at her sister once more.

"I meant nothing wrong when I said what I just did," Artria said, her voice a bit stronger now. "I know you found him first... But that doesn’t mean you get to have him just because you want to. He isn’t a prize to be claimed."

"You’re saying you’ll stop me?" Persephone flashed a disdainful look, like someone looking at a delusional insect.

She stood tall, her human form looking strong and imposing in the dim light of the cave.

"You think you have the power to keep him from me if I decide he is mine?"

"No, not at all." Artria merely shook her head.

She leaned back against the stone, her body aching, but her mind was clear.

’I have something better in mind,’ Artria said to herself, smiling inwardly. She knew her sister’s weaknesses, and she knew that brute force wasn’t the only way to win a war.

"Why don’t we settle this fairly?" Artria suggested. She looked at Persephone with a serious expression. "We both work together to find him. We use my bond and your strength to cross the sea. But when we do, and we finally stand before him... he should get the chance to pick, himself."

"If he picks one of us to be his mate, the other can’t have any objections."

" No fighting, no killing, no more games. We accept his choice."

She paused, watching Persephone’s reaction. "Do we have a deal? Or are you worried he doesn’t really like you as much as you think he does?" 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Of course he does!" Persephone scoffed, her pride wounded by the suggestion.

She crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes flashing. "He stayed with me for so long, of course he cares for me more than he ever could for a boring girl like you."

" I did prove how better I am than you at everything, or have you forgotten?"

"Then you have nothing to fear from a fair choice, do you?" Artria countered.

"But why should I agree to this?" Persephone asked, glancing down at her sister with an air of superiority. "What’s to say I don’t simply kill you off when we do find him? Once he’s in my sight, I won’t need your bond anymore. I could end you right then and there and take him away."

"Because I know you won’t," Artria said with a light, knowing smile.

"And what makes you say that?" Persephone frowned. She didn’t like the way Artria was looking at her, as if she could see right through all the anger and the threats to the soft heart hidden underneath.

’Because even now, you refuse to do anything that would truly hurt him... Just like I,’ Artria said to herself.

She knew that if Persephone killed her, Jacob would hate her forever. He would never forgive the person who murdered his friend.

Persephone was a lot of things, but she wasn’t a fool. She knew that the only way to truly "have" Jacob was to have his heart, and murder wasn’t the way to get it.

Maybe not now since all she wanted was to make things right.

"Just a hunch," Artria said out loud to Persephone, her smile growing just a little bit.

Her smile only irritated Persephone even further. It was a look of confidence that Persephone didn’t think her sister deserved.

She wanted to strike that smile off her face, to remind her who was in charge. But she looked at Artria’s neck, seeing the bruises already forming, and she knew she couldn’t push any harder.

She needed Artria. More specifically, she needed that bond to guide her through the miles of trackless ocean to find Jacob.

"Fine," Persephone spat, turning her back on her sister. She walked toward the edge of the water, her movements stiff with suppressed anger. "We have a deal. We find him together. But don’t think for one second that this makes us friends, or that I’ve forgiven you for what you did."

"I wouldn’t dream of it," Artria replied. She slowly leaned against the wall, her tail feeling exhausted, but she forced herself to stay upright.

She felt a strange sense of relief. For the first time in her life, she was on equal footing with her sister.

"Hey old man, what’s your name?" Jacob asked the cranky old timer who’d scolded him earlier.

He tried to make his voice sound friendly, even though he was sitting in a cramped cage with iron rings biting into his skin.

He needed to build some kind of connection if he was going to get out of this mess.

The old man looked like he had been through the wringer, but there was still a spark of stubborn life in his eyes that Jacob respected.

"It’s Dinklehimer. What’s it to you?" The man said, giving him a one-over look. He looked Jacob up and down as if he were trying to figure out if the boy was worth the air he was breathing.

He shifted his weight, his own chains rattling against the wooden floor of the ship’s hold.

’You’ve gotta be kidding me...’ Jacob’s body trembled as he held back a laugh. He bit his lip hard, feeling the sting, but it didn’t help much.

He had expected something tough or rugged, like ’Granger’ or ’Old Jonathan.’

He never expected the man’s name to sound so cartoonish. Was that even a real name? It sounded like something out of a children’s book or a silly show from back home.

’Dinklehimer, what kind of name is Dinklehimer?’ The thought kept bouncing around in his head, making it harder and harder to keep a straight face.

He could feel his shoulders shaking.

"You making fun of me, son..." Dinklehimer’s expression darkened, seeing Jacob trying to hold back his laughter.

The old man leaned forward, his face twisting into a scowl that made his wrinkles look like deep canyons. He didn’t appreciate being the punchline of a joke, especially not in a slave hold.

"Of course not, just got something in my eye, hehehe," Jacob said, chuckling at the end.

He wiped at a fake tear, trying to look serious, but the giggle escaped anyway.

’Dinklehimer, hahaha!’ Jacob laughed inwardly.