Sifting through her memories, the beings she saw were close to what she described. Short, squat, wearing armor. Her cell had been dim, and she’d been confused and frightened. Details were scarce. “Have you seen anything like them before?”
She shook her head.
“And the one you assume was their leader?”
She gave a little shudder. “I only saw him from behind. He was wearing armor, but not like the others. He also wore an intricate helmet. It looked like it had antlers on the top or horns, or something.” I verified that with what I found in her memories. He’d barely turned to her, most of him swathed in shadow, one hand gripping Nyx’s arm, who struggled behind him. He was enormous. That was the only thing I was sure of.
I waited, and she continued. “He was a big… hulking thing. His voice was deep, and I could not understand the words he said to Nyx. But the sense of him…”
“What about it?”
She took a breath. “That is the thing, Mollis. I couldn’t feel him at all. He may as well have been a piece of furniture for all the sense of life I got from him. But he was very much there, and Nyx was most certainly not happy to see him.”
I grabbed her arm and rematerialized into the dungeons below the palace where my office and our sometimes-home was located. The demon guards, along with the souls who helped keep the dead in line, stared at me in shock.
“My Lady?” one of the demons asked, recognizing Persephone. I felt his rage spike at the sight of her. I had the feeling there would be a lot of that as more beings realized she was here.
“Yeah, I know,” I said to him. “I’m going to put her in the Vault,” I said, indicating the cell we kept for high-powered or high-threat prisoners. I was the only one who could get in or out, the locks and security measure specifically coded to my biology. Hephaestus, again.
“I have no fucking idea what’s going on, but I’m trying to find out.” He nodded, and I used the special key Heph had crafted for me, as well as a bit of my power, to unlock the dungeon cell door for Persephone, then I not-very-gently shoved her inside. The room was sparse, cold, and damp (because if there is one thing every being alive hates, it’s feeling damp, and I’m all about making my prisoners suffer if that is their fate). It was more than she deserved.
“If you had anything to do with this, I will make sure you suffer. I’m not Nyx,” I said. Before she could answer, I slammed the door shut and locked it again, pressing my hand against the side of the door to ensure that the security system, which included my father’s old dog, Cerberus, and my two Netherhounds, Kurt and Courtney, as well as a few other surprises created by Hephaestus. I’d never had a prisoner, living or dead, escape from the Vault.
As I walked away, I passed Cerberus and the Netherhounds, all of which butted my shoulders with their heads as they loped past. Persephone wasn’t going anywhere, but I had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do next. The only thing I knew for sure was that if she was here, nothing good would ever come of it.
I sighed. And here I’d been so sure I’d be getting lucky tonight. I guessed the universe had other plans for me.
What else is new?
Chapter Two
After securing plenty of guards for Persephone, I debated who to break the news to first. Nain would want to kill her immediately, probably. So would Hephaestus. So would E. And Brennan. Brennan and Nain probably wanted her dead the most.
I blew out a breath as I paced the corridor, trying to decide. I didn’t especially want to tell any of them. The news would do the same for them that it had for me. It would take them back to those dark, terrifying, sickening days. It would bring back all of the death and loss and fear and the knowledge that though we’d fought, and we’d won, for far too many it simply hadn’t been enough.
There was no getting over that. Not when you’ve dedicated yourself to protecting those who can’t protect themselves. We failed them. There are no two ways about that.
So, I wasn’t in a rush to tell my mate or my friends.
And then there was my mother. Her relationship with Persephone had always been tense, full of secrets and resentment. There had been a certain closeness between them after my father’s death, when they were united in mourning the immortal they’d both loved. But the instant Persephone had even had the thought of touching one of my children, she’d sealed her fate. The fact that she’d actually done it, actually kidnapped and then killed Hades not just once, but repeatedly, to harvest his heart for her insane “bring Hades back to life plan”… no amount of torture would be enough, as far as my mom was concerned.
But the dungeons were the domain of the Furies, which meant word about our newest prisoner would reach her eventually, and it was better she hear it from me than from someone else. Shit.
It wasn’t hard to find her. All I had to do was follow the screams. I suppose one would think it’s cruel, what the Furies do. What they do, what I do, is nothing short of repaying souls for every bit of pain they caused during their lives. In some cases, it requires hardly anything at all. Most of them, actually. Most people, when it comes down to it, don’t do that much harm. But some people… well. There’s a hell of a lot of pain they need to feel before they’re released to the great beyond, whatever that means for them. I have no idea. I suspect the afterlife is a very individual thing, based on how one lived their life.
It’s not like I’ll actually ever find out. Immortals don’t have souls. When we die, we’re gone.
Which was why it was utterly fucking insane for Persephone to try to bring my father back at all. There was nothing there. Even if she somehow found a way to construct Hades’ body through some kind of Dr. Frankenstein bullshit, there would have been nothing to fill it with. I guessed that was where my son’s heart had come in, both as a life-giving source and her hope that there would be something of my father in his grandson’s blood, something that would bring him back.
I shook my head as I reached the door to the dungeon my mom was working in. I nodded at the two demon guards and opened the door, stepping inside. My mother sat in a chair, looking perfectly at ease. She was painting her nails a metallic black color and humming some Cyndi Lauper song in preparation for her evening out. Meanwhile, the soul she was punishing was on his knees, screaming in anguish and tearing at his hair.
I remembered this one. He was getting everything he’d had coming to him.
My mom glanced up and raised her eyebrow.
“You are angry and tense,” she said. Typical Fury. Like me, she never had to ask things like “how are you doing?” She could feel my emotions. There was no hiding it from her, and I reflected, yet again, how I now understood why my friends had always been so irritated that I could sense them. There was no such thing as privacy with an empath around. Not really. And I’m the biggest bullshitter I know, but emotions don’t lie.
“We have a situation,” I said, as I stepped further into the room and sat on the floor beside my mother’s chair.
“A situation that has you ready to rip someone’s spleen out,” she said, brushing paint on another nail. “What is it?”
I took a deep breath. “Persephone is here.”
I watched her. She slowly, methodically put the nail polish cap back on, screwing it on carefully. She pressed her lips together, and then brushed a strand of her jet-black hair back from her face. She turned to me. “Where?”
“Before you go stick sharp things under her fingernails or something, I want to run the story she told me past you. It’s… it’s weird.”
She gave a single nod, rage rolling off of her in waves. “Tell me.”
So I did. I told her about finding her at the side of the road, and the story she’d told about Nyx and the armored beings and the enormous guy who she could get no sense of. I told her that I’d seen everything, that she wasn’t lying. That she did not know what had become of Nyx.
When I’d finished, we sat in silence for a few moments as she thought it over. “Our first course of action s
hould be trying to contact Nyx.”
“Agreed. I’ll get to work on that as soon as I leave you. Persephone’s in the Vault. I have five of my most trusted guards on her door, as well as Cerberus and the hounds, and now you know as well. She has some of Heph’s special cuffs on and the demons have been instructed to call you, me, Aunt Meg, or Nain if she even breathes funny.”
She nodded. “All right. I will go check in on her. Please let me know as soon as you hear from Nyx.”
“I will.” With that, I stood up and focused, then reappeared in my office.
This was the one room in the palace that felt like it was really mine and not my father’s. He’d created this place, out of nothing but the way his power tied him to the power of the Nether. Black stone everywhere, imposing as hell. It was a fortress, and the rooms had not been built or decorated for comfort. But here in my office and in the rooms Nain and I had claimed as our family’s suite, it felt less cold and imposing. Two comfortable red sofas were placed near the massive fireplace, a leather ottoman between them that was usually piled high with books, weapons, and throws. My desk, in the corner of the room near the windows, was an absolute disaster, but at least it was my disaster.
Nain was sitting on one of the sofas, waiting for me. He looked up from the book he was reading and I went to him.
“Running late again, Molls,” he said as he pulled me down beside him. I curled up against his big, solid body, letting myself have this moment of sanity before I launched into telling him what was going on and trying to find Nyx.
“Have you been here long?”
“A little while,” he said as he ran his fingertips up and down my arm. “It feels weird to be alone together,” he murmured, and I smiled. “Are you still pissed at me?”
“Not pissed enough to bar you from my bed or anything like that,” I told him, and he rested his hand on my hip.
“Well. We’ve never reached quite that level of pissed.”
“You just like arguing with me,” I said.
He shrugged. “It turns me on when you get all ragey and your eyes start glowing and shit. I like living dangerously.”
I snorted and shook my head. “You’re insane.”
“Probably,” he agreed. “But here I was waiting for you, and I considered waiting naked so we wouldn’t have to waste any time, but now you’re here and you’re pissed and stressed instead of lusting after my body.”
“I always lust after your body,” I murmured.
“Obviously. But you’re more freaked out than lusty. What’s going on?”
I took a breath and sat up so I could look at his face. And then I told him everything, felt his emotions fluctuate between rage and confusion and back to rage again.
“So I can’t kill her yet,” he said, the hint of a question in his voice.
I shook my head. “We need to find Nyx and figure out what the hell is going on. I know Persephone wasn’t lying. I was able to see what she saw. But there’s no sense of what happened to Nyx after Persephone lost consciousness and that has me worried.”
“This being she saw, the one she couldn’t sense… what did you pick up about him?”
I shrugged. “Not much. He was huge and armored from head to toe. Spoke in a language she couldn’t understand, and from what I could pick up in her memories, I couldn’t understand it, either. From what she remembers, he had his hand clamped around Nyx’s upper arm, and they seem to be struggling. And then everything goes black.”
Nain was quiet for a while. “Someone should tell Heph she’s here. He’s due to be around tomorrow and that would be a nasty fucking surprise.”
I nodded.
“You told Tisiphone?”
“Yeah. She was about as happy as you are to have her back here.” I blew out a frustrated breath. “How the hell is she even here? She was banished. The Old Aether and Nether are utterly cut off from the rest of the realms now. This shouldn’t even be possible.”
“So you’re going to try to contact Nyx?”
I nodded.
“Okay. I’ll talk to Heph and then I want to talk to the guards.”
“Don’t go near her cell. I don’t want any of you anywhere near her crazy ass.”
“I won’t,” he said, though I knew he wanted to do exactly that and then probably put his ax to use.” He got up, then leaned down and claimed my lips. He tangled his fingers in my hair and angled my head so he could kiss me exactly the way he wanted to, exactly the way I needed him to.
“See what you can do about Nyx,” he said in a low voice as he released me. “We’ll handle the rest of it.”
I nodded and watched him walk out, following his muscled form until he closed the door behind him. And then I closed my eyes and focused, praying to Nyx, which was the surest way of getting her attention.
Immortals love that shit. Makes them feel important.
I sat for a long time, and eventually the sounds of life in the palace faded away, along with the emotions of those who happened to be nearby. I tried to politely get her attention. And then less politely. She’d always answered when I’d called to her before. Nyx is impossible to understand, but she seems to have some affection for me, I guess.
At the moment, it didn’t matter. I sat for hours and never caught even the vaguest sense of our Creator goddess. Wherever she was, she wasn’t answering prayers.
Or she couldn’t, and I could not let myself think just yet about what that might mean for the rest of us.
Chapter Three
Three days later, I still had no sense of Nyx at all. Not even a whisper of her, despite spending almost all of my time focused on sensing for her. I’d stopped in to see Persephone every day, hoping to glean something more from sifting through her thoughts and memories. So far, I hadn’t learned anything new.
I walked through the twisting narrow hallways that led to the Vault. Through several corridors and entire wings of dungeons, and the sounds of those we held captive surrounded me. Shouts, cries, moans, and screams. There were more than a few held captive there at any given time: spirit daemons, souls, the occasional vampire, shifter, or witch who is too dangerous to be out in the world, but who, for one reason or another, I have elected not to kill. Sometimes, they know things. Sometimes, I think they can be put to use.
And then there was Persephone. I hadn’t learned anything more from her and common sense told me keeping her around was more of a danger than it was worth. Nyx may have elected to keep her alive — why, I have no fucking clue. I wanted her dead, and so did just about everyone else, but in the end, it had been Nain who had convinced me to keep her alive, at least for a little while.
“Living is harder for her than dying,” he’d told me when I’d mentioned, for about the hundredth time, that I should just end her. And, in the end, I’d agreed with him. I could see that much just from looking at her. This, being here, in the home my father had created, was hell for her. Seeing me was hell.
It wasn’t exactly a fucking picnic for me, either.
I took a deep breath and unlocked the door, pushing it open. I entered the Vault wordlessly, glancing at Persephone as I closed the door behind me. As always, she pretended I wasn’t there. She sat on the hard stone bench in her long green dress, her coppery hair cascading in a smooth sheet down to her waist, clear blue eyes staring dead ahead.
I hated having her there. Every time I saw her, it brought it all back. The pain. The fear. The nightmares, especially. When I have those, I want to kill her. Worse. I want to torture her, destroy her, the way she’s destroyed so many. And then kill her, for real, because I am the only being, other than the Titan, Gaia, who is capable of killing an immortal.
Gaia, however, is an Earth goddess, a protector, and taking life is as alien to her as the idea of fish walking on land.
I have no such compunction.
And yet… here she was, alive and well. And the more time I spent trying unsuccessfully to reach my grandmother, the more I hoped that Id’ uncover something I�
��d missed in Persephone’s memories, some clue, some hint that would lead me to Nyx.
Nyx’s confrontation with the unknown being had unsettled Persephone greatly. I could see that. I could see how miserable she was being back here, surrounded by memories and by beings who wanted to destroy her. As much as I told myself that it didn’t matter, I’d repeatedly looked at the memories and sins she’d committed leading up to and during the Undead wars. She’d been insane in her grief over the loss of my father, and after everything else she’d been through, with him and my mother, Tisiphone, and with my existence in general… she’d snapped. I see everything, even when I don’t want to. Even when I’d rather not admit that the things I see are true. There are no secrets from me. She was not in her right mind when she did the things she did. It doesn’t excuse them, but I know how grief fucks with your mind. I’ve been there.
I set the apple I’d brought her down on the table beside her. She always ignored them when I gave them to her, but she ate them after I left.
I sat down on the bed, the only other place in the cell to sit.
Persephone sat as still as a statue, hands clasped in her lap, wrists clad in the cuffs that would prevent her from teleporting out of the cell, the way any immortal would normally be able to. Ankles, too, and those were connected with a chain, restricting her movement. Just in case. Just enough slack to move, slowly, from the bed to the bench and to the toilet to relieve herself, but not much else.
I had no idea why I did this. Why I sat with her, why I brought her food, why I even tried to understand her. It was pointless, and she was most likely useless to me. It’s not like I was keeping her around because of her sparkling personality. Persephone and I have never liked one another.
She was no help in finding Nyx. She knew nothing more about the beings who freed her and brought her here. So why did I keep going to see her? Why sit with her, when even the sight of her made me want to break shit?
Godkiller (Hidden: Godkiller Saga Book 1) Page 2
