He sneered. “Of course, you are.”
I flinched as the sharp, slicing motion cut even deeper into my heart, leaving its own kind of mark. The burn returned to my throat, crowding my eyes as a burst of something bitter and hard swelled inside me. I couldn’t take in air. The rawness clogged my throat. I couldn’t allow it. I shut it down. Shut it all down. Breathe in. In my mind, I slipped on that veil. It was harder than all the times before, and it felt flimsy and sheer, in a way it never had. Hold. I became nothing but the blank canvas, an empty vessel that couldn’t be hurt by words or actions outside of the ones I caused myself.
I exhaled. “Danger has come to the Shadowlands because of what I did. I will not stand back and do nothing when I can fight.” I lifted my chin, meeting Nyktos’ chilly stare. “I am no threat to any of your people.”
His head tilted. “You are no threat to me.”
I stiffened, but that was all. “I can help, but you do whatever you want. Lock me away or take me with you. Either way, you’re wasting time.”
Nyktos’ chin dipped as he stared me down. “While the idea of locking you away holds much appeal at the moment, there is no time to ensure that you’d be secure and wouldn’t escape. So, you’re coming with me.” In the span of a heartbeat, he was within a foot of me. I tensed, managing to hold my ground. “But if you do anything that jeopardizes any of my people, being locked away will be the least of the things you’ll face.”
I didn’t miss the looks of disbelief that Rhain and Ector exchanged, nor did I doubt Nyktos for one second. “I don’t want to harm any of them.”
“No.” His smile was a tight mockery. “Just me.”
The veil slipped. “I didn’t want to harm you either.”
“Save it,” he snapped, grabbing my hand. The jolt of energy was a warm buzz. His grip was firm but not painful as he led me from the room.
Nyktos tugged me past the thrones and off the dais. Ector and Rhain were right behind us. The darkened room was eerily quiet except for the clap of our boots. It was a struggle to keep up with his long-legged pace. All I focused on was keeping my mind from going back to the chamber and why he was now Nyktos to me. I couldn’t think about it as we neared the foyer. Nyktos walked so fast, I missed the slight rise in the floor, the barely-there step between the open chamber and the foyer. I tripped—
Nyktos’ hand tightened on mine, catching me and keeping me from tumbling face-first into the hard shadowstone.
“Thanks,” I mumbled.
“Don’t,” he bit out.
I pressed my lips together as the veil slipped even more. His anger was no surprise. I couldn’t and wouldn’t blame him. It was my inability to remain in that nothingness that caused my chest to twist.
Saion stormed through the open doors, drawing to a halt as he spotted us. “Something’s happening at the wall, along the bay.” His gaze flicked to our joined hands, but he showed no reaction. “I’m not sure what yet. Rhahar is readying Odin. Bele has gone ahead.”
“Do you know if there have been any injuries yet?” Nyktos asked, striding forward.
“One of the smaller ships capsized,” Saion advised, a step behind us. Ahead, Rhahar led the massive, midnight steed toward where several horses already waited. “Rescue efforts were halted when one of those ships turned over.”
“What in the world is in that bay that could capsize ships?” I asked.
“There shouldn’t be anything,” Nyktos shared, surprising me since I half expected no answer.
“The waters have been dead for years. Not many things can survive in them for long,” Rhain added. “Not only that, the waters are pitch-black—”
“Which makes rescues even more difficult,” Saion said. “If not impossible. Anyone, god or mortal, goes into those waters, they’re not likely to come back out.”
A chill swept over me as Nyktos took the reins from Rhahar. He turned to Ector. “I need you to grab me a hooded cloak and meet me at the gates to the bay.”
Ector sent a glance in my direction, brows pinched. He looked as if he wanted to say something but reconsidered. “Of course.” He turned, racing off toward one of the many side entrances hidden under the staircases.
“Have the other gates to the city been sealed?” Nyktos asked.
“In the process, from what one of the guards shared,” Saion confirmed. “And they’ve started evacuating those along the bay, moving them inland.”
I turned to Odin, unsure exactly how I was supposed to mount a horse of his size. I’d have to figure it out because I wasn’t foolish enough to ask for my own mount. I reached for the strap on the saddle as Nyktos gripped my hips, lifting me with shocking ease.
I started to thank him but kept my mouth shut as I slid a leg over the saddle, seating myself.
“Is she really coming with us?” Rhain asked, hoisting himself onto the back of his horse.
“You want to stay back and make sure she remains wherever we put her?” Nyktos swung himself up behind me, and I clamped my jaw shut.
“No,” Rhain answered.
“Then she comes with us.” Nyktos reached around, tightening his hold on Odin’s reins. “Hold on.”
I firmed my grip on the pommel a second before Odin launched into a gallop that quickly picked up speed, kicking up dirt and stirring dust. Out of instinct, I tipped forward as Nyktos guided Odin around the side of Haides and along the Rise. Saion and Rhain fell in line beside us. We raced through a narrower gate, across hard-packed dirt that glittered with specks of embedded shadowstone. Bare-limbed, bent trees that reminded me of the dead ones I’d first seen upon entering the Shadowlands surrounded the road. Mist gathered and seeped around the gray trunks. Through the gnarled, heavy branches full of blood-tinted leaves, I caught glimpses of the Rise, where it began to climb so high, I couldn’t see the tops of the ramparts. Sweeping towers appeared through the trees, spaced hundreds of feet apart before the Rise appeared to flow outward, farther away from the road until I could no longer see it.
Nyktos guided Odin sharply to the right, off the road. He leaned in, his chest pressing against my back. The feel of his cool body against mine threatened to short out my senses and my not-so-rigid control on myself. The contact was…gods, I couldn’t let myself even think of that as we flew between the blood trees. White mist pooled and thickened, whipped into a frenzy. The mist—the eather—rose higher and higher, causing my heart to feel as if it too were being stirred into a frenzy.
“We’re going to take a shortcut.” His arm dropped to my waist, his grip tight. “You might want to close your eyes.”
My eyes were wide open. “Why—?” I sucked in air as the trees disappeared ahead and the very ground itself seemed to fall into a misty abyss of nothing.
A scream lodged in my throat as Saion broke forward, riding low over a black steed almost as large as Odin. Saion and his horse disappeared. I started to press back against Nyktos—
Odin leapt into the mist.
For a moment, there was nothing but white mist and the feeling of…flying. I couldn’t even take a breath in those seconds of weightlessness—
The impact of Odin landing knocked whatever air there was out of my lungs, throwing me back against the Primal’s hard, unyielding body.
Nyktos held onto me as we rode at breakneck speed through the film of eather, Odin’s hoofs thundering off rocks. I couldn’t see anything. Nothing but mist. But if we were going to ride off the face of a mountain or whatever it was we descended, I wouldn’t go out with my eyes closed.
Odin leapt once more, and then we were free of the thickest of the eather, rushing across patches of gray grass and hard dirt. It took me a moment to even know what I was seeing as Rhain and Rhahar joined us, remaining at our side. I saw who I believed was Saion, riding along the wall where the mist gathered in thinner, wispy pools.
I looked back at the mountain of mist to see dozens of guards on horseback, erupting from the wall of mist. Nyktos called out commands I couldn’t hear over the
thunder of hoofs.
A closed stone gate appeared ahead, and on the Rise, torches glowed from the height of the wall where I saw the distant forms of guards, all turned to what lay beyond the Rise.
Nyktos slowed Odin down, coming to a stop a distance from the group of guards. A guard broke free of the others. I squinted, recognizing Theon. One of the few gods who hadn’t been present when my treachery became known. I doubted it would take long for him or his sister to hear. Or would the others obey Nyktos’ command to not speak of what they’d witnessed?
“Something’s in the water,” Theon said, grabbing Odin’s bridle, barely sparing a glance in my direction. “It came from the sea, whatever it is, cutting through one of our supply ships. Snapped the son of a bitch in two.”
“Fuck,” Nyktos growled, jumping from the horse. He turned immediately, extending his arms to me without a word. I took them, a bit stunned that even in his cold fury, he was still…thoughtful. “Any sign of what it is?”
“Not yet,” Theon answered.
Nyktos took a step and then stiffened at the exact moment I felt a throbbing in the center of my chest, a warmth. Under the starlight, the shadows lifted from the thin mist running along the ground. His eyes closed as his features appeared to sharpen.
“Death,” I whispered.
His head whipped toward me, eyes opening. “You feel it?”
I swallowed, nodding. “I feel death.”
A muscle ticked along his jaw. “What you feel are souls separating from their bodies.”
Theon swore under his breath, and I stared up at Nyktos, having not thought of the fact that as the Primal of Death he would be able to feel it. Feel death when it happened.
As I did.
Chilled, I turned to see Ector arriving, bearing down on us. He drew the horse to a stop, scattering the mist, and tossed a black cloak down to Nyktos. The Primal nodded his thanks and then turned to me, draping the soft material over my shoulders as guards raced up the rampart stairs.
“You will remain with Ector and Rhain,” he said as Ector dismounted. He tugged the hood up over my head.
I glanced at them. They looked less than pleased by that, but I nodded.
“Stay with them,” Nyktos ordered. I reached for the buttons on the cloak, but he was faster. His fingers made quick work of them, and his gaze met mine, still shockingly bright. “Remember my warning.”
Theon frowned at the Primal’s tone, but one sharp look from Rhain silenced him.
“I remember,” I said.
Nyktos’ gaze held mine for a moment longer, and then he looked at Rhain and Ector. “Make sure she stays alive.” He returned to Odin’s side, seating himself and turning toward the guards. I watched him ride forward, trails of shadows cutting through the mist as he leaned sideways in the saddle, snatching up a bow and quiver held up by another guard. Saion, Rhahar, and Theon followed. The gates opened, and he rode out. Only the two gods and another, who was hooded like me, broke free of the guards on horseback and followed.
“He’ll…be okay, right?” I asked as Rhain came to my side, his reddish-gold hair windblown. “Going out there with just three gods? Will they be okay?”
“Do you really think I believe you are concerned?”
I looked over at him. “Will he be okay?”
“He’s the Primal,” the god answered. “What do you think?”
What I thought was that he lived and breathed. Therefore, he could be harmed. And gods could be killed.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Ector stated.
“But I am.” I turned to the steps and started forward, affixing that mental veil once more. “What could be in the water?”
Ector brushed past me, reaching the steps first. He looked over his shoulder. “Do you believe in monsters?”
My stomach dipped. “Depends.”
He smirked before he faced forward. I glanced back at Rhain, but he stared ahead. I followed at a quick clip, not allowing myself to think about exactly how high the steps were carrying us.
“Whatever you do,” Rhain said as we neared the top, “please don’t get yourself killed. I’m sure Nyktos wants the honor for himself.”
“Wasn’t planning on it,” I told him.
“He’s not going to kill her,” Ector said from ahead. “Not when she carries the ember.”
Rhain sighed behind me, and it struck me then that Ector was right. Nyktos wouldn’t. Not until he figured out what it meant for me to carry the ember besides returning life to the dead. And if that were it? Would he kill me? Possibly sentence the mortal realm to a quicker death if Aios was right? Or keep me locked away, safe from those who meant me harm and those he believed I could harm?
My stomach took another tumble as I walked along the wide roof. In the distance, there was nothing but rocky hills and flat ground. I didn’t see Nyktos or any of the guards. I followed the curve of the wall, my pace picking up as I looked both ways, seeing that we were now entering some part of the city—a district of low, squat buildings that reminded me of the warehouses in Carsodonia. I kept on, my gaze tracking the nondescript buildings until I finally saw the city within the Shadowlands for the first time.
My breath caught as I stared out. It was larger than I expected.
As far as the eye could see, starlight glistened off tiled roofs, most homes and businesses stacked one upon another with tight, winding alleys between them, reminding me very much of Croft’s Cross. Specks of illumination from either candles or gas lamps shone along the streets and from windows. There were no Temples in the sprawling city, none that I could see, anyway, and there was a rather large portion that had been cut into the slope of a hill where buildings were staggered all the way down.
“How many people live here?” I asked as Ector strode ahead.
“Hundred thousand.” Rhain edged around me. “Or close to it.”
Good gods, I had no idea. Were they mostly gods or mortals? How many of them were Chosen—?
A sound like thunder came from the ground below. From the streets, shouts grew louder, mingling with screams. Pressure clamped down on my chest, and I moved to the nearest parapet, just as Rhain and Ector had. Placing my hands on the rough stone, I leaned out, squinting into the murky gloom.
A mass of people barreled through the narrow streets, some on foot and others on horseback or in carriages. Horror seized me as they pressed forward, pushing and falling, clamoring overtop one another as they ran—
“They’re running from the area of the harbor,” Ector shouted, peeling out of the parapet. “Shit. I thought the area was emptied.”
“They were in the process of doing that.” Rhain hurried along the wall, looking ahead. “What the fuck is in the water?”
I heard guards shouting orders, trying to calm the people and restore some semblance of order, but their yells were swallowed in the panic. The cries of pain were sharp, and I flinched as I backed away from the disaster unfolding below. People were getting hurt in that crush. They would die in their desperation to reach the safety of the castle grounds.
I forced myself to turn away and leave the parapet, the skirt of my gown whipping around my legs. I couldn’t afford for this ember to seize control again. Guards scrambled along the eastern wall as I hurried behind Ector and Rhain, reaching the section that overlooked the bay. None of the other guards paid me any attention, either completely unaware or simply not caring, too fixated on what was happening down below. I walked out onto another parapet, passing unused shields, quivers, and curved bows. The stale wind reached inside the hood, lifting the strands of my hair and tossing them over my face as the glistening surface of the bay loomed ahead.
What I saw brought forth a decade-old memory of the day a ship carrying oil had run abroad, hitting another. Ezra and I had climbed out onto the bluffs to watch the men King Ernald had sent out to stop the spill. The ship sank, and the oil spilled into the waters, enraging Phanos, the Primal God of the Skies and Seas. He had erupted from the sea in a terrifying
cyclone, his roar of fury creating a shockwave that caused our ears to bleed. Within seconds, he’d obliterated every ship in the port. Hundreds had died, either drowned, flung into the buildings below, or they simply ceased to exist, along with the dozens of ships.
The waters had been free of pollutants ever since.
But there was no Phanos in the water, as far as I knew. And still, what I saw stopped my heart. In the bay, a supply ship had been ripped in two, across the center, sinking beneath the surface of the violently churning waters.
Another ship rocked unsteadily as men struggled with the vessel’s rigging, shouting at one another. Wooden dinghies, from those who must’ve gone out to help those on the fallen ship now floated overturned in the rough waters. I saw no person swimming or treading water, and I thought of what Nyktos and I had sensed at the gate.
Death.
Something was in that water. The guards lining the wall had their arrows nocked and pointed.
“Holy fuck.” Rhain drew up short in front of me.
I saw them then as they broke the dark, glimmering surface of the bay.
My lips parted. Good gods, they were the size of horses, climbing up the sides of the ships, their heavily muscled bodies glistening like midnight oil. The ships docked in the harbor trembled as if they were saplings. Wood cracked and splintered under their grips. Their feet punched holes through the decks.
I had never seen one outside of sketches in the heavy tomes that dealt with Iliseeum, but I knew they were dakkais—a race of vicious, flesh-eating creatures, rumored to have been birthed from bottomless pits located somewhere in Iliseeum.
Featureless except for gaping mouths full of jagged teeth, they were rumored to be one of the most vicious creatures that existed in Iliseeum.
“Why are they here?” I looked over at Rhain.
“They are like trained bloodhounds, able to sense eather. They’re drawn to it.” The god’s luminous gaze landed on me. “Whoever sent them, sent them here for you.”
I turned back to the docks. A sickening horror settled in my stomach. The dakkias would reach the city in no time, and there was nothing between them and the homes on that hill, where many still desperately tried to gain higher ground. They came for me, and innocent people could die—
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