Godkiller (Hidden: Godkiller Saga Book 1)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  “Tell me,” Nain said in a low voice.

  “They’re, like, demons,” I said, shaking my head, “but not like the demons we know. The one I talked to, the one I saw in that AntiTheist’s head, says he’s Volodhal. He says most can’t see his true form, and then he showed me the form he usually wears. He looks human. Like he could slip in here and no one would be the wiser.”

  Nain blew out a breath and sat back, keeping his hands on my hips, refusing to let me off of his lap, refusing to let me withdraw, because he knew my first instinct was to do exactly that when I feel overwhelmed. “So he has telepathic powers then. Fucking strong ones, if he can create a conduit between him and you by using someone else,” he said, thinking out loud. “Or it could be technology-based,” he added, and I nodded. It hadn’t felt like anything natural to me. “Their tech isn’t like anything Heph has ever seen, and it’s pissing him off that he can’t figure out how it works. He’s not used to feeling inadequate.”

  “None of us are. Not when it comes to fighting,” I said, running my fingertips up and down his chest and stomach. I took a breath. I wanted to talk about something, anything other than Volodhal and Nyx. “Speaking of feeling inadequate… I failed as a parent earlier tonight.”

  “What happened?”

  I told him about my conversation on the roof with Hades, what I’d said to him, and how he’d responded. I was just finishing up when Zoe walked in, escorted by my mother.

  “Yeah, speaking of that,” Zoe said. I got up from Nain’s lap, and he reluctantly let me go. “Hades wants to move into the palace. I told him I will freaking end him if he does. It’s the only place I don’t feel crazy—”

  “You’re not crazy,” Nain said and she waved it off.

  “I feel crazy, whether I actually am or not. Not much of a difference when it comes down to it. You can’t let him move in there. He’s going to ruin it. He’s going to start sneaking his giggling groupies in and there won’t be any peace and quiet anymore.” She stopped talking, seeming to take in our general mood. “What’s going on?”

  I shook my head. Zoe had only been a toddler during the worst of the battles I’d fought. She’d heard the stories, seen the videos online, of course, but we never talked about it and I knew that both of our kids lived every day assuming they were safe.

  Because Nain and I and the rest of our friends and family had busted our asses and destroyed any threats, determined that they would be. That they wouldn’t have to deal with the shit we’ve had to deal with. We’d seen how our enemies would use them against us once, and we’d refused to let it happen again.

  “It might be nothing,” I said.

  She was watching me, every bit Nain’s daughter at that moment, as if she could see straight through me. “Whatever it is, I want to help.”

  “Zoe—”

  “I’ve trained my entire life to help if I was ever needed. I’m ready.”

  “You’re not,” Nain said.

  “I am. I can kick the ass of just about everyone except the gods. Athena’s been training me on the side—”

  “Since when?” I asked.

  “Since I asked her to a few months ago.” I caught a wispy tendril of a thought, that she’d started feeling out of control again. Training helped. “I can help,” she pressed.

  “No,” Nain said again, and I glanced at him.

  “What have you all been training me for?” Zoe demanded. “I can use seventeen different types of blades. I can shoot. I can kill a werewolf with my bare hands. I can remove a vampire’s head before he even knows what hit him—”

  “Enough,” Nain said.

  “I can—”

  “This isn’t a game!” Nain thundered, and I felt it from him, overwhelming, overpowering.

  Fear.

  The shit he’d seen in my mind had him afraid, and if I wasn’t already freaking the fuck out over it, knowing that he was actually afraid would have done it.

  Zoe stared at him.

  “Mom,” she said, appealing to me, knowing I usually had her back.

  “We don’t even know what this thing is yet,” I told her. I want to protect her. I refuse to leave her clueless and unprepared. “It appears that they’re from another realm, that they’ve breached the barrier into our world…” I shook my head. “We’re trying to find out all we can. But they can do some shit even I can’t do.”

  Zoe took a deep breath. Her emotions, as usual, were all over the place, switching from rage to fear to calm to depressed and back to rage, all within seconds. Her demon fighting her shifter. A constant war raged inside my daughter, and there was nothing I could do to fix it. The fact that most of the beings we knew were astounded by her calm demeanor was a testament to the iron grip she usually kept on her self-control.

  “And they’re here? Now?” she asked.

  “Scouts, at the very least. We caught one today. Heph is investigating some tech we took from it.” No need to tell her the rest. She didn’t need to know.

  “So you and dad are working on it. I heard Brennan and E were around, so they are, too. Heph. Athena said she’d assisted you tonight, but wouldn’t say anything else. Everyone in your little inner circle, pretty much.”

  I nodded.

  “Am I part of this family, or not?” she asked quietly, meeting my eyes.

  “You are. I wouldn’t let your brother get involved in this, either. Even if he showed the slightest bit of interest in it,” I added.

  “I’m not Hades. I’m not okay with goddamn sitting back and taking advantage of everything you guys have done and not lifting a finger to help.”

  I sighed, tamping down my impatience. Where the hell does she get this stubborn streak from?

  As if that’s even a question. It obviously comes from Nain, because I’m not a stubborn pain in the ass at all.

  “If it comes to the point of fighting, and it’s more than I can handle, and I call in reinforcements, I’ll consider calling you. That’s the best I can give you right now,” I said, tempted to push some of my power into my voice, tempted to make her drop it. I’ve never done that to my kids, and so far it’s a line I haven’t crossed, just like looking into their thoughts without their permission. I refuse to control them, no matter how tempting it is sometimes.

  Her emotions raged, an endless tornado, but she stood there looking like a statue, green eyes on me. She was about to say something when we heard the “crack” of an immortal appearing, and Brennan, E, and Brennan’s son, Sean, stood in the living room.

  “Heph’s coming too,” Bren said. He and E both looked shaken. Sean did, too, but he still gave me his usual grin, looking so much like his father it was like Bren had his own mini-me. Then he saw Zoe standing near me.

  “Hey, Zoe,” he said.

  “Hey.”

  Before anyone could say anything else, Heph, Meaghan, their son, Michael, and their daughter, Rose, appeared.

  Okay. So apparently my immortal, ass-kicking friends were afraid to leave their demigod kids alone. A trickle of ice went down my spine.

  Michael and Rose went and stood between Sean and Zoe, all four of them watching the rest of us closely.

  “So, that armor shit I took from the green thing?” Heph said, not wasting any time with greetings or jokes, which was so unlike him it took me a moment to realize what he’d said.

  “Yeah?” I asked hesitantly.

  “It tried to kill us.”

  I stared at Heph, felt the mood in the room darken even more than it already had.

  “How?”

  “Shot out this… beam of energy. Never seen anything like it before,” Heph said. He seemed to shrink. “Demeter’s gone.”

  I shook my head, sure I’d heard wrong. “What?”

  “It shot Demeter. She’s dead.”

  Persephone’s mother, despite everything, had continued to live with Heph, Meaghan, and Gaia, the Titan. It was like an Earthwitch/Earth goddess coven over there. Demeter hadn’t visited her daughter since Persephone ha
d been back, ashamed and angry over the death and destruction Persephone’s actions had caused.

  “Trapped in the old Aether and Nether now, then,” I said. Someone would have to tell Persephone. Fuck.

  “No. I mean… dead. Like Mollis Eth-Hades killing an immortal, dead.”

  “Her body remains,” E said, the first time she’d made a sound since they’d arrived. When an immortal died at anyone’s hand other than mine, their body dissolved, their energy reincarnating in the old Aether and Nether, which were now, after everything, a barren wasteland ruled by monsters and vengeful souls. Not a nice place. If one were able to choose between permanent death and being trapped in the Old realms, one would choose death, without a doubt. If I kill a god, the body remains, their energy completely destroyed.

  The fact that what we’d thought was nothing more than empty armor had killed one of the original immortals was beyond terrifying.

  “Where’s Gaia?” I asked numbly.

  “Preparing Demeter for burial,” Meghan said softly. “I don’t know where. She said she’d tell us when it was time.”

  I nodded. The room was silent. The fear and anger washing over me from my friends and family made me feel like I was drowning.

  I took a deep breath. Falling apart now wasn’t an option.

  “Everyone to the Netherwoods. Bring whatever shit you’re going to need for a nice long stay, because you’ll be there until we get this figured out,” I said. Heph opened his mouth, and I held my hand up. “It’s the safest place. Between Gaia’s shields, the demons, and the souls guarding the place, it’s unlikely anyone could find it, let alone get inside.”

  He clamped his mouth shut and nodded. I glanced around and noticed that my mom and aunt had joined the group in my living room. I exchanged a look with her, and she gave me what I guess was supposed to be a reassuring smile in return.

  “We need the other immortals alerted. I want everyone in the Netherwoods within the hour.” The group split up, going separate ways to gather the other immortals.

  “We’re leaving the Normals unprotected,” Brennan said after E left to find Triton and Poseidon and their family.

  “They’re after us first. You don’t develop god-killing technology unless your focus is on destroying gods.”

  “And if they can’t get to us, they’ll go after them.”

  “Dude, do you really think my mom, of all people, is planning to leave them unprotected?” Zoe asked, rolling her eyes.

  Brennan met my eyes for a moment. “Sorry.”

  “We’re going to them.”

  “How? Eunomia’s been searching for days and hasn’t found a single sign of it.”

  “We’ll get a group together. Start looking. Trace where we’ve seen them and go from there. One of us will feel something.”

  “Well, I’m going,” Bren said, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Gather any stuff Sean’s going to need and meet us back at the palace,” I said. He gave a terse nod and disappeared with Sean.

  I glanced at my mother, who’d remained to see if I needed anything else. “Can you try to track down Hades? He’s off somewhere being secretive and broody.”

  She nodded.

  “I’ll go with you,” Zoe said to her, and my mom smiled and took her hand, and then they were gone.

  Nain and I looked at one another.

  “You think we can find the breach, really?” he asked.

  “We have to try. Let’s get to the Netherwoods. There’s something I need to do.”

  We spent a few minutes gathering weapons, armor, anything else we might need for what was ahead of us. We locked up and rematerialized in my office in the palace in the Netherwoods, and he kissed me firmly before setting off to talk to the demon guards about what was going on.

  Alone in my quiet, dark office, I closed my eyes and tried to breathe. I had no idea how we were going to find something even E hadn’t been able to get a read on. I had no idea what the fuck we were going to do when we found it. I double-checked my sword and scabbard, added another thin layer of armor, this one looking something like a trench coat, over my clothes, then walked out of my office and down the corridor before I had time to convince myself that this wasn’t something I needed to do just now.

  I made my way through the maze that led to the dungeons, and stood outside of Persephone’s cell much sooner than I’d have liked. I really should learn to walk slower or something.

  I let myself in and found Persephone, as always, sitting on the bench in the corner of her cell. She looked up at me, studying me wordlessly as I closed the door and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “I uh…” I began. Then I blew out a breath. “We’ve been having some issues. Beings that seem to have breached the barrier between the worlds.” I didn’t say that it was her fault they’d been able to do that, which shows how totally kind and tactful I can be sometimes. “I think they’re the same ones you saw struggling with Nyx. They have some tech that isn’t like anything we’ve seen before.”

  She continued to watch me, face like marble.

  “Some of the equipment they left behind… activated, or something. Your mother was caught in the blast.”

  “Is she hurt?”

  “She’s gone,” I said quietly. I felt her disdain and irritation turn to anguish at the words, though her expression stayed as blank as it had been before. I could have just told her that water was wet for all the emotion she showed.

  “How is that possible?” she asked, her voice shaking the tiniest bit.

  “Like I said, their tech isn’t like anything we’ve seen before. Godkiller technology. This was apparently a world that has some sort of beef with Nyx, and as soon as they got their chance, they came for us.”

  She didn’t answer for a long time, though the pain, the anguish washing over me from her were enough to make me want to fall to my knees and scream. I turned to go, because I had nothing else to say and if I had to stay there with her much longer, I felt like I’d lose my goddamn mind.

  Another emotion joined the anguish, even heavier and more suffocating. Guilt.

  “They were able to enter our world because of me,” Persephone said quietly, and it took everything in me not to stare in shock. Immortals, most of them, at least, never fucking admit when they’re wrong. “Because I weakened the barriers with the dark magic I used.”

  I turned back to her.

  “I am right, aren’t I?” she demanded, and after a moment, I nodded.

  “I would have expected more gloating, more I-told-you-sos,” she said.

  “It’s not like anything I could say would make you feel worse than you do right now. And I’m not a complete asshole, despite what you’ve always seemed to think.”

  She shook her head, and her calm facade slipped, for just a fraction of an instant, enough to see the devastation in her eyes. “I’ve lost everything,” she whispered. “Everything I fought so hard to hold onto… gone. Dionysus, even though he was never really mine. Hades,” she said, her voice breaking. “And now Mother.”

  “Gaia is preparing her body,” I said in a low voice. “I suspect she’ll say a few words. You can be there if you want.”

  “You’d let me out for that?” she asked, a jolt of surprise lancing through her pain and guilt.

  “Under heavy guard and at my side, yes,” I said.

  She looked at me suspiciously. “Why?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You missed the ‘I’m not a complete asshole’ part again.”

  “You hate me.”

  “I have every right to,” I said. There was no point in denying it, even if I wanted to. “You took my son’s heart. Numerous times. I want to fucking kill you where you stand. I hate the sight of you. I hate that I let you live. My father? He would have killed you in an instant and slept like a baby afterward.”

  “I know he would have,” she said in an almost indecipherable voice.

  “I’m not my father. Sometimes, I wish I was.”

&nbs
p; “You’re more like him than you think. You think you won’t make a choice that would cause someone you care for to come to harm, but if you were pushed hard enough, you’d do what it took. You’d sacrifice whoever you needed to in order to win. You just haven’t been pushed that far yet,” she said, wiping a hand over her eyes.

  “You don’t know a goddamn thing about me, lady. Do you want to go to the ceremony or not? Because I have shit to do and I’d rather not kill you just now. I just washed this uniform.”

  She looked down at her hands, clasped in her lap. “Yes, please.”

  I nodded. “I’ll come for you when it’s time. Give me even the slightest reason to suspect you’re up to some shit, and you’ll be joining her. Maybe you want that, maybe you don’t. I don’t know. Sorry for your loss,” I muttered, and then stepped out and locked the door behind me, taking a breath of relief.

  Hearing her speak again had done it. I could mostly tamp down my murderous rage around Persephone for what she’d done to my son. Right now, all I wanted to do was make her bleed, the same way she’d made my baby boy bleed, over and over again, trying to bring my father back to life. An immortal son of a bitch who’d tossed her aside the second my mother decided to give him more than just one night. Yeah, I’d totally think killing babies, causing the deaths of billions, and destroying our realm’s safety was a fair exchange for a prize like Hades.

  I shook my head and walked back through the corridors. The thing was, and I’d known this since I’d been trapped in the Nether — the immortals are all fucking nuts. Every single one of them. Even the ones I love. They’ve been alive so long. They’ve seen everything. They’re bored and jaded and half of them secretly want to die, while the other half hold onto existence so manically it was clear that immortality was its own form of religion. With no one to worship, they worshipped the fact that death could not touch them.