Godkiller (Hidden: Godkiller Saga Book 1)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  A deep burgundy carpet led up a flight of rounded stairs to the entrance of the palace, where two stoic guards stood, flanking the door. These were much larger and bulkier than the beings who had captured us, human-looking. They wore armor of the same pearlescent material as the palace, and they didn’t react at all as we passed them.

  We stepped into the palace, into a foyer with soaring ceilings, curving staircases at each end of it leading to a central arched doorway that would take us to the rest of the palace, I supposed.

  A male hurried forward, and the beings who’d escorted us in stepped back, bowing to him respectfully.

  “Mollis Eth-Hades,” he said, bowing low to me. “It is a pleasure to have you here.”

  “Can’t say I feel the same,” I said.

  He flashed a smile and nodded. He was tall, trim. He had short dark hair and a goatee, warm brown eyes. He wore a dark gray suit and tie, similar to the one I’d seen Volodhal wearing when I’d spoken to him in the mind of one of his scouts.

  “Understood. I am Nammov. I am Lord Volodhal’s second-in-command. Welcome to Volod.”

  I looked around the foyer, then looked at Nammov again. “So did he name the realm after himself, or himself for the realm?”

  Nammov smiled again. “Nyx named the realm after him.”

  “Of course,” I said quietly. I felt her everywhere here. Saw her everywhere, even in the appearance of the beings…

  “What are the people called here?” I asked Nammov.

  “The Volod,” he said. “It is simple.”

  “But there are different types of beings. Those like you, and those like them,” I said, pointing to the beings who had escorted us in.

  “Oh, them,” he said with a dismissive wave. “They are Volod’s scouts. We produce them in a factory.”

  I glanced back at the beings. “They’re not robots.”

  “Robots? Oh. You mean machines, yes?”

  I nodded.

  “No, they are fully organic. We grow them in incubation chambers. They are all the same, and we can create an endless supply of them.”

  “Why do they look like that?” Where the Volod were almost painfully beautiful (at least the ones I’d seen so far) the scouts were small, furry, green, and ugly. “I mean, everything else here is so streamlined and pretty.”

  “They are tools. Tools don’t need to be pretty or elegant. They’re designed to get the job done, and their job was to infiltrate your realm and bring back information. And, when the time came, it was their duty to bring you. Their form allows them to blend into trees or shrubbery or even grasses with little chance of detection. They are also quite strong and tireless, as you may have noticed.”

  “I may have,” I muttered, and Nammov flashed another smile.

  “I would love to answer more of your questions, and I will be happy to answer any you may have, but my Lord is impatient to meet you face to face. Come with me, please.”

  I nodded and Nammov held his arm out and waited. I looked at him, waiting for him to move forward so we could go to Volodhal. Nammov looked at me expectantly.

  I think he wants you to take his arm, demon girl, E said in my mind.

  I reached out and set my hand on his forearm, and he gave me a small nod and began to walk toward the staircase on the left.

  “How old is this building?” I asked as we ascended the curving staircase.

  “I think time likely passes differently here than in your realm,” Nammov said. “This building was constructed during Year One.”

  “And what year is it now?”

  “Year 39,999.”

  I felt my stomach turn as I let that sink in.

  “How many days is a year here?” Hephaestus asked. “Do you even have days? You have a sun.”

  “Yes, we have days. The rising and setting of the sun, the rotation of the planet… all of that is similar to your world. A year here lasts 500 days.”

  “Seasons? Do the seasons change?”

  Nammov shook his head. “We orbit our sun in a very steady, unchangeable manner. It is always the same. I am surprised Nyx did not think to give your world the same gift when she created it. It makes life much simpler. In some ways, at least,” he added.

  “I’m sure,” I murmured. I did wonder why Nyx had put so much beauty, so much ease into this world, and left ours with so many trials and difficulties to overcome. Their ease had allowed them to develop technology and beauty far beyond what anyone in our world could even hope to produce in the next few thousand years, even with Hephaestus living among us.

  “Do you worship Nyx here?” I asked Nammov.

  He grimaced. “It is a fraught subject, as you can well imagine. We owe our bountiful existence and the beauty of this realm to her. She is remembered and honored here for that. But it is also known that the story ends in treachery and rage, and that we have Volodhal’s strict leadership to thank for our knowledge and drive. We may remember Nyx and celebrate her on her holy day, but it is Volodhal who is worshipped here.” He paused. “Much as you are in your own realm.”

  By then, we’d reached the top of the curving stairway and Nammov led us down a long corridor. Enormous artworks lined the walls, but I didn’t bother looking at them. Ahead of us was a set of enormous, intricately carved white doors. My stomach twisted.

  I hated that I couldn’t sense them. Nammov seemed pleasant enough, but for all I knew he was fantasizing about sticking a sword through my eye socket while he made conversation.

  Nain had been silent the entire time, but I could feel him. His emotions were a storm, even more so than usual. Something about this place, something other than the fact that we were here against our will, summoned by a creature who wanted me, had him on edge. He was unsettled, differently so than the rest of us.

  There were two more guards outside the carved doors, and they each silently reached for a handle and pulled the doors opened as we entered. I vowed to ask Nain about what was going on with him later.

  Assuming I’d be able to talk to him later, I amended.

  We walked through the doors, past the guards, and into what was clearly a throne room. The ceiling soared to a dome. The walls and ceiling were all of the same pearlescent material as the outside of the palace, as were the rows of intricately carved benches that flanked the aisle we were walking down.

  At the front of the room, on a raised dais, Volodhal sat on a throne. It was simple, almost austere looking compared to the rest of the room. He was wearing his human-like form, but I could see shimmers of his other form behind it if I looked at him too closely.

  In person, he was both beautiful and intimidating. His dark hair flowed to his shoulders, and his grayish-blue eyes stayed locked on mine, as if I was the only other being in the room. He was wearing a suit again, dark gray. He was much larger, much bulkier in real life than he’d appeared when I’d spoken to him before.

  He stood up, a movement far too graceful for someone of his size and bulk, and descended the three steps from the dais to where we were.

  “Lord Volodhal, I present Earth’s guardian, The Goddess of Death, The Angel, Mollis Eth-Hades,” Nammov said. He released my arm and stepped back.

  Volodhal stepped toward me, then bowed, eyes still locked onto mine. He held his hand out, and, after s moment’s hesitation, I took it. He pressed a warm kiss to my knuckles, and I fought back a shiver.

  “Mollis Eth-Hades,” he said. His voice was quiet, smooth. Somehow, not what I was expecting. “I know you are not here under circumstances of your own choosing, and for that, I apologize. It was important to get you here, and I am not a patient man.”

  “Volodhal,” I managed, and he nodded, slowly releasing my hand.

  “I’ll not waste time, Lady Eth-Hades,” he said, his eyes still on mine. “You know what I want. You’ve only seen a small portion of what I am willing to do to get it.”

  “You want me to marry you,” I said quietly.

  His gaze intensified, and I found it almost impossib
le to breathe. “The concept of marriage in your world is a sham. People wed and unwed as quickly as they eat meals. Your concept of mating bonds is closer, but even that pales in comparison to what I want from you. Your bond to your… husband…” he said, his gaze turning icy and unsure when he glanced at Nain before looking at me again, “is nothing compared to what ours will be. I will give you the kind of power you’ve only ever dreamt of, and I will have yours in return. We will rule two realms, and, when the time comes, we will rule all the others as well.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I dislike being told what I can and cannot do. Nyx imprisoned me in the very world we created together. She thought to neuter me, even as she lied, as she told me she was doing it to save me. She made me powerless. Now, every one of the worlds she thought to protect me from will fall. And her descendant will help me do it.”

  It was unsettling, the way he looked at me, the way his gaze stayed locked to mine. It was even worse that I couldn’t seem to make myself look away. “She believed you to be dangerous,” I said.

  “She was right. I am,” Volodhal said. “But not as dangerous as I’d like to be. We are outgrowing this world. The very bounty Nyx bestowed on us is a curse. Our people reproduce readily, and every life is beautiful and precious. Even with our favorable climate and astounding technology, it is not enough. Starvation begins to kill our people. We produce food in factories, and it is still not enough. We produce pills to provide every essential nutrient, and it keeps our people alive but not thriving. By sentencing us to this small realm, she has sentenced my people to death.”

  Shit.

  Focus.

  “What did you do to Nyx, to make her think she had to contain you here? We were warned, that you’re violent and merciless and that you don’t care about anything but revenge.”

  “Again, all true. I am violent. I am merciless. And I want revenge on Nyx and her realm for what she’s done to us. But I do not believe I am the one she warned you of.”

  I studied him, and he shook his head. “Do you think I was her only lover?”

  “I assumed so.”

  He laughed, a humorless, low sound, and shook his head. “Nyx is the mother of many realms, and has had lovers far more brutal than me. Yes, she had many lovers. But she loved only me.”

  “Or so you’d like to think,” I said.

  “So I know,” he said calmly. “But what we had was fated to end, because I was always meant for another.”

  I balled my hands into fists, dug my fingernails into my palms, trying to give myself something else to focus on, something to ground me. “Again: what did you do to make her close the realms off like that?”

  He stayed silent for several long moments. He either wasn’t going to tell me, or he was going to lie. I knew it.

  “Don’t bother coming up with a lie. I really don’t want to hear it.”

  “I have no reason to lie to you, my Lady,” he said quietly. “Despite it all, you understand me. The same darkness that resides in the depths of me is also in you, that same drive to prove yourself, to destroy those who have opposed you. I see it in your eyes, in the set of your jaw, in every action you’ve ever taken, and those you have not. I foresaw you, my Lady, and when the breach finally began fracturing, I sent my scouts to your realm. They brought back information about you, and you have made for a most fascinating topic of study.”

  All I could do was stare at him. Any other time, I’d be saying something smart ass, something to throw my adversary off, something to make me feel more in control. But the fact was, I was not in control now. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

  “And the truth of it is, the more I learn about you, the more I accept that you were meant for me. Nyx never intended it, of course. Nyx could not have foreseen what you are. Destroyer and creator of gateways. A being with such power that your mere existence has changed not just your realm, but every other realm as well. I have foreseen us, Mollis Eth-Hades, and deep down, you know it just as well as I do.”

  I could barely breathe. His eyes on mine, his voice… the fact that, as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t disagree with any of it.

  It wasn’t until I heard Nain loudly clear his throat behind me that I remembered that Volodhal and I were not the only ones in the room. I shook myself out of it and the rest of our surroundings came back into focus. Primary among the sensations that roared over me was Nain’s rage, and it centered me.

  Volodhal seemed to realize it, too. He took a step back, then finally looked away from me. “Of course, we are not alone. We have much to discuss, my Lady, but it will have to wait until your companions are settled. Until then,” he said, giving me a low bow.

  We were ushered out by Nammov, and, despite myself, I looked back at Volodhal, and his eyes met mine again as he settled onto his throne. I forced myself to look away, and I hated the fact that something in me wanted to turn around and go back to him.

  What the fuck was wrong with me?

  Chapter Fourteen

  To my surprise, we were settled not in some dungeon or other hellish place, but in lush rooms on the second floor of the palace. Our doors were heavily guarded, and we were warned by Nammov that the windows were unbreakable, but we were being afforded relative comfort. Our rooms all connected, a suite of rooms probably meant for a family of visiting dignitaries or something like that. After Volodhal sent an efficient medic to treat Athena and Heph’s wounds, we were left alone, sitting in the central parlor of our suite. Our rooms and a large bathroom surrounded it, like spokes on a wheel.

  For a long time, we sat in stunned, confused, tense silence.

  “There are things he is not telling us,” E finally said.

  “Definitely. He’s afraid of something. Something more than just his people starving to death.”

  “This other lover of Nyx’s, perhaps?” E asked, and I nodded. It was exactly what I’d been thinking.

  “He wants to shore up his strength. He’s preparing for a larger fight. Not just our world, but something worse than him,” I said, thinking through it. “Nyx wasn’t more specific about this lover of hers when she told you about all of this?” I asked her.

  E shook her head. “You know how Nyx is, demon girl. She’s either overflowing with information or speaking in riddles.”

  I rubbed my hands over my face. “Athena, was The Odyssey real? Odysseus, all of that stuff… did it really happen?”

  She nodded, gray eyes searching me. “For the most part, that story is accurate. Why?”

  “Penelope wove her tapestry by day, and then unwove it by night, stalling the suitors,” I said. “She had no intention of taking any of them, but she knew she was powerless to fight it head on.”

  “You’re not powerless,” Nain rumbled.

  “For the moment, I am,” I said. “We know nothing about these beings. We can’t rematerialize to get away, and they can kill us with no effort at all if they want to. They were clearly told to bring us here alive, or they would have killed us at the breach.”

  “So you think to let Volodhal think you are at least considering his proposal, in the hope of buying us time to try to find a way home,” E said softly, and I nodded.

  I knew Nain wanted to argue. And later, we would argue. But not now. “I can’t think of another way. If I at least act like I’ll consider this, maybe we’ll find a way out. Maybe I’ll at least be able to send you all home.” They started to protest, and I held up my hand. They fell silent, but I could feel all of their anger and disbelief.

  “We are not just leaving you here,” Athena said.

  “It might be the best way to help me. I can be reckless if it’s just me. I can’t do that if he can use the rest of you as bargaining chips. Think. Put your goddamn emotions aside for a minute and actually think. You know I’m right,” I said, speaking over Heph and Brennan.

  “I won’t leave,” Nain said. “But I think if you can get the rest of them free, you should.”

  It was nothing less than
I expected, but it was good to have him in my corner, even if partially.

  “And what are we supposed to do if we leave you behind?” Heph asked.

  “Prepare our world for war. You’ve seen them now. You’ve seen how far ahead of us they are. If you can get home, I’ll need you to do everything you can to ready our world for the invasion. Because they’ll invade. Not if, but when. I’d rather not have our people slaughtered. Again,” I muttered, turning to glare at Persephone, who was sitting silently, still staring at Hades.

  Hades apparently noticed, as well. He blew out a breath. “Can you get this chit to stop staring at me?”

  “I brought you back,” Persephone whispered. “You were gone, and I brought you back to life.”

  “That’s not the Hades you knew, you daft woman,” Heph said. “There’s nothing of Hades in this thing.”

  I nodded. But… I remembered this being instinctively fighting at my mother’s back, in tune with the movements of her body as if he’d spent eternity watching her.

  “Whether I’m the Hades you knew or not, I am Hades,” he said. “I’ll have my power back, but I recognize that you’re the only one of value here at the moment, as far as the Volod leader is concerned. For now, I am your ally.” He turned to look at Persephone again. “And I am nothing to you, whether you believe you brought me back or not. Why would I ever want someone like you?”

  Persephone froze, and again I was reminded that this was not my father. He never spoke cruelly. He’d kill for a glare, sure, but he never used his words as a weapon. My father would have refused to say anything at all, and let his actions speak for him.

  I glanced at Nain, and he met my eyes. “So if we’re all in agreement, I’ll see what I can do,” I said softly. They all agreed and, by ones and twos, headed to their rooms. I took Nain’s hand and led him to ours, and closed the door behind us. He reached past me and locked it, and then used his big body to pin me against the door.