by Laura Kaye
“Do not be afraid” came a deep voice out of the darkness.
Anna’s gaze darted right and left, seeking out some shape or movement, but she couldn’t see anything nor tell from which direction the words had come. Her mouth went dry. “Who are you?” she finally managed.
“I think you know.”
Anna licked her lips, her brain racing. “Uh, no.”
“But you called on me. Twice today, as a matter of fact.”
“I don’t…” She shook her head. Who had she called for? Playing back her thoughts of the past few minutes, she couldn’t think of anyone. And then the words Darkness, come flickered through her mind. Anna’s entire body erupted in goosebumps. “Darkness,” she whispered.
“Yes,” he said.
Anna had no idea what to say. The only thing that came to mind was the way the Anemoi had reacted at learning who her father was. And now, it seemed, he was actually here. Slowly, she sank to a knee and bowed her head.
Warmth wrapped around her hand and urged her up again. “Not necessary, my child.”
Heart sprinting inside her chest, Anna sensed the presence congregating immediately in front of her. “Can I see you?”
A long pause that made her wonder if she’d offended him. One of the most powerful and ancient gods in existence. Him, as in her biological father. Erebus. “If you wish.”
She nodded, and the dimmest light filtered through the pitch black. The light didn’t come from any fixture, but rather seemed to come from the retreat of the darkness into a figure standing a few feet in front of her. Even when most of the hall—including where she stood—possessed the gray light of the day just before sunrise, dark shadows surrounded the god’s physical form.
Anna’s gaze lifted up over the polished leather shoes, finely tailored black suit, black shirt, and black tie, to his face and eyes, which remained shrouded in clinging shadow. Impressively tall, even taller than Devlin, he wore his black hair short and parted on one side, and except for the obviously abnormal shadows that clung to his body and covered the floor all around him, he was so stylish and debonair he could’ve appeared on the cover of GQ.
“You look just like your mother,” he said. “It’s uncanny. How are you called?”
“My name is Annalise, though most people call me Anna. And you’re Erebus?” Did her voice sound as shaky as she felt? Not from fear, though his power hummed in the space between them as if it was part of the very air, but from the desire to please him, and her amazement that this was happening at all.
“Indeed.” He stepped closer, close enough that his shadows fell over the front of her. Inside the circle of that darkness, his face became clear. With his strong brow and shadowed, dark eyes and swarthy skin, he might’ve been Italian or Greek, but whatever he was, he was unquestionably handsome and moved with a grace born of confidence and power. “I didn’t know about you,” he said, gaze running over her face. “Until today.”
“I didn’t know about me, either,” she said. “I mean, about all this.” When he didn’t respond right away, she felt compelled to fill the silence. “I guess it’s a good thing I did, though, or else I would’ve been dead pretty soon.” Her stomach flip-flopped.
Erebus went absolutely still and darkness shrouded his face again. “What do you mean?”
Oh. Anna had assumed since he knew about her that Iris must’ve been the one to tell him and that she would’ve told him everything. “Uh, Iris didn’t tell you about the curse?”
His voice went quietly lethal. “I haven’t seen Iris yet. I learned of you from one of my sons, Thanatos. Who by the way also tells me I am allied with you and these gods here in some sort of battle.”
Anna could’ve sworn one of his eyebrows lifted in a questioning, disapproving scowl. But more disconcerting than that was the fact that she didn’t know what he was talking about. How had this Thanatos learned of her? And, she had a brother? That news rocked through her. Somehow she’d gone from a girl who’d lost—or would soon lose—everyone in her family to a goddess with a family tree that would make her head spin. “Oh,” she managed. “Um, I don’t know about any alliance, though if it were true it would be amazing.”
“The curse, Annalise,” he said.
Her heart beat faster. “All I know is that to punish Iris for being with you and having me, I was taken away from her and put in the human world with limited powers, and to keep me from getting powerful, I was cursed to die on my thirtieth birthday before being reincarnated again with a new set of limited powers. Because they couldn’t just kill me. But apparently the curse doesn’t work in this world. Or something.” That totally didn’t sound crazy. Right?
His hands fisted and the darkness around him grew. “I should have known something—” He shook his head. “I will talk to Iris and learn more about this curse.”
“Okay,” she said, hugging herself as she dropped her chin to her chest. And she’d thought she couldn’t get any more overwhelmed by this day. Had the battle started yet? Was Devlin still safe? The others? She heaved a breath that failed to calm.
“What troubles you, child?” The shadows retreated again and he moved closer. Fingers on her chin, he tilted her head upward until their gazes met.
“Someone I love is in great danger. I might never see him again.” Actually, two someones—Devlin and Dad.
“Might this be the young god whose energy surrounds you?”
Anna’s cheeks went immediately hot. She didn’t exactly know what her, uh, father was sensing, but her gut told her it probably had something to do with their making love not long before. “Yes. Devlin, the Cardinal Anemoi of the East Wind.”
“Ah, yes. This is the god who revealed your existence to Thanatos. I owe him words of thanks for that.”
“If you were at all open to the idea, your help would be appreciated, too.” The words were out of her mouth before she’d even considered whether saying something like that to him would be appropriate. But what did she know? Not much. She’d been dumped into a world in which she didn’t really know the rules. Yet another reason she needed Devlin.
Erebus chuckled, a low, dark sound that was part amusement, part incredulity. “Fearless, aren’t you?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m actually pretty terrified right now, if you want to know the truth. But I’m willing to take a risk for the people I care about. And they don’t have a lot of time.”
Rubbing his fingers over his lips, Erebus stared at her as if trying to unlock some puzzle. “Hmm” was all he said.
A long silence made Anna about half crazy, and then she shook her head. “Look, I would like to get to know you more, if you’d like that, too. But right now, I need to do something to help here.” She took slow sideways steps in the direction that led back to the living quarters, thinking she might find the other women with Seth, Owen, and Megan. Erebus’s gaze tracked her movement. “I’m sorry I asked you. I’m sure I violated about ten things-you-don’t-ever-say-to-a-primordial-god rules just now, and I’m sorry. I don’t mean any offense.”
Still he didn’t answer, just watched her with this stern expression on his face.
Walking backward, Anna gave a little wave and felt ridiculous. “Okay, well, then—”
“Ever since the war with the Titans, I have worked to remain free from the fights of others and entangling alliances.”
Anna nodded. “Sure, I get it. Again, don’t—”
“Annalise?” He turned toward her.
“—feel like you have to—”
“Annalise.” His volume echoed through the darkening air around her, as if it came from the darkness itself.
She froze. “What?”
“I’ve just learned I have a daughter and she’s asked me for help. How could I say no?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
This storm was a fucking monster.
Devlin flew in between Chrysander and Zephyros, and only four things gave them a fighting chance. First, that Iris had neutralized the Harpi
es, and Thanatos, the Keres. Second, that Eurus had lost the East Wind. Third, that Chrys and Zeph were each protected by infernal iron. And finally, that Devlin possessed and had significantly honed his infernal powers. Thanks to Anna. So now it was the three of them with a little infernal assistance versus an extremely pissed-off, powerful god without a conscience and with a magical ring that controlled them all.
And an escalating storm that nearly spanned the length of a continent.
Approaching the U.S. East Coast over the Atlantic was a lot like flying at a brick wall. At least, that’s the way it appeared. The hurricane was a roiling mass of clouds that extended from the sea to the top of the sky. Jagged bolts of lightning flashed yellow and orange and purple through the clouds and over the water. Here and there, waterspouts coiled like ancient sea serpents reaching up from the depths to drag them down.
They needed to get on the other side of it so they could halt its progress over land. No one and nothing could survive a storm as catastrophic as this. And they had to do it fast, not just for those immediately affected, but for the world as a whole. Now that Devlin possessed the power of a Cardinal Anemoi, he could sense the East Wind and the season of autumn unlike anything he’d ever experienced before, almost like another presence in his mind or a shadowy second set of senses. Either way, the East Wind was telling him that the scale of this storm was already causing coastal flooding and interfering with wind and water currents through the entire Western Hemisphere. Chrys and Zeph were getting the same messages from their winds.
Left unchecked, this storm would be a world-killer.
Which meant Eurus must be totally out of his fucking mind. Not even he benefited from a scenario where he ended absolutely everything.
Going around the storm’s northern edge would be too cold and therefore dangerous for Chrys. Going around the much-larger southern edge would take too long. Flying close to the water surface and going under the storm was sure to beat them to Hades and back and leave them in no condition to fight. So that left going over the top.
Up, up, up they went, the wind shear coming off the massive clouds sucking at them and making it difficult to fly the closer they got. The screaming of the abused winds under Eurus’s control was so loud that Devlin couldn’t hear much of the other gods’ telepathic communication in his own head.
And Holy Zeus and all the Olympians, the storm was way bigger up close than it appeared from a distance. They flew a good six miles upward. So high that the air pressure threatened implosion even in their elemental forms and they could make out the stars through the top of the daytime sky. When they finally made it to the top and began to cross, it was like flying over the pits of Tartarus itself. The winds wailed and reached up to them in desperate pleas and angry grasps, trying to pull the three of them down into the churning air. They flew hundreds of miles, maybe even a thousand, before they finally cleared the far side of the storm a good hundred miles inland.
Which meant the outer edge of the hurricane had already made landfall and now approached Anna’s hometown.
They banked hard to the right to face the storm.
And it was the most horrifying thing Devlin had ever seen. The entire side of the lowest-hanging clouds was in the grotesque shape of a face. Eurus’s face. Twisted in anger and hate. Eyes flashing with lightning. Mouth open as if he literally intended to devour the world. In the form and color and shading of the clouds, Devlin could even make out the scar that slashed down his face from the fight with Aeolus when he’d stolen the ring.
Holy. Fucking. Hades, Chrysander said.
I don’t even have the words, Zeph replied, his thought-voice like sandpaper.
Time to take my new powers for a spin, Devlin said. In his mind’s eye, he saw the ferocious tornadoes in the Eastern Realm exploding when he’d launched balls of infernal fire into them. Same tactic as before. You two fly hard north, and I’ll come at him from the east. From Devlin’s position of power—one that Eurus didn’t possess in the same way he had before. Whether or not that would play out in their favor now, though, Devlin couldn’t say.
He could only hope. Which wasn’t something he had a whole lotta experience doing.
Then again, he’d never had so much on the line before. For him. For Anna. For his family.
For the world.
You got it, Chrys said, banking away.
Expect anything, Zeph said. And watch your back.
With Eurus, always. Devlin cut around to look for the best attack position. He needed to get closer, close enough that his fire would cut far inside the storm. A hit against the exterior walls of clouds wouldn’t do enough, and having never tested it at this level before, Devlin wasn’t sure how much juice he had in him before he’d drain.
He had to make every hit count.
In the distance, Chrys cried out.
Fall back, fall back! came Zephyros’s gritty voice.
Devlin focused and saw a frosty white wind roar through the sky. The North Wind. Chrys was going to be most vulnerable to Eurus’s control over the North, but as long as Eurus controlled all the winds he could project any of them anywhere. As the more temperate seasons, Devlin and Zeph had more tolerance, but the far extremes could harm them, too. Hesitating, Devlin debated going to their aid.
We’re good over here, Devlin. Do what you’re doing, Zeph said, reading Devlin’s thoughts—a new side effect of Zeph’s status as the ruler of the winds, apparently.
Right, then. Devlin flew around until he only saw the cloud-face in profile, but couldn’t find any openings or weaknesses in the cloud structure. Flying lower, he fought against the g-force created by the storm and his own velocity through the air. It pressed on him so intensely, Devlin felt like he might explode apart. But he pressed on, examining the bottom of the roiling storm for the best place to attack.
For a split second, Devlin’s gaze dropped downward. And saw utter devastation.
At the edge of the storm, twisters tore across the ground. The flooding was so significant already that Devlin could see water standing on the streets and fields below. Whole neighborhoods of buildings were gone, leaving only shapes of the foundations to prove anything had ever stood there. Debris careened through the sky like a hailstorm of bullets in battle.
Appropriate, since that’s exactly what this was.
He had to hurry.
Flying back around toward the face, Devlin kept waiting for the moment Eurus struck out at him. Why hadn’t he done so already? He could tell from Chrys and Zeph’s running commentary that they were dealing with a shitstorm. Devlin didn’t trust the good fortune, even as he came close to the front of the face.
The mouth.
A shiver of hopeful triumph roared through Devlin’s being.
If he could fly into the mouth of the clouds and attack from within, he might have a chance.
Without giving it a second thought, Devlin rocketed through the sky, shifted into his physical form, and called forth his infernal powers. Fire and electricity rippled into his hands and grew and grew.
There you are, you backstabbing little shit, Eurus said, his voice echoing through the sky and setting off massive cracks of thunder. I figured you were sniveling in a corner somewhere letting others do your dirty work.
Devlin ignored his father’s berating words, because he’d heard them many times before and had pretty much become immune. What was more interesting was the fact that Eurus apparently hadn’t sensed Devlin at all.
He poured on another burst of speed and drew more force into the fireballs in his hands. But when Devlin was maybe an eighth of a mile from the jagged, gaping hole of the mouth, it began to close.
Now or never.
Devlin hurled the fireballs. Then two more right behind them, and the release of so much energy at once felt a lot like someone tearing his arms right off his body. The pain didn’t matter, though, especially when the first two entered the clouds moments before the mouth closed, and the second two immediately after. A massive exp
losion erupted from inside the cyclone, taking out the whole bottom half of the face and sucking all the power out of the surface clouds anywhere near the explosion.
Devlin pulled back hard, but still got caught up in the blast wave that rolled him uncontrollably through the sky until he didn’t know which way was up.
Lances of lightning barreled past him, but he didn’t have enough control to avoid them. One caught the edge of his energy and Devlin howled.
Got ya! Chrys said a moment before Devlin slammed into the Southern god’s energy. Thanks for the heat, D. I’m ready to kick some more ass now.
You got him? Zephyros said. He was a few hundred feet in front of them, using his powers as storm god to deflect the lightning bolts away from them.
You good? Chrys asked.
Yeah. Thanks, Devlin said. And he was, especially once he noted that the explosions had taken out a whole swath of the storm. The clouds were gone, twisters had fallen apart, and rain had stopped in one whole sector of the sky.
We’re good, Chrys called.
I’m going in for round two, Devlin said, already looking for another in.
Stay behind my shield and I’ll get you closer, Zephyros said.
The hit to the mouth had been devastating because Devlin had gotten the bombs inside the storm. His gaze rose to the eyes, roiling and flashing black holes sparking with lightning.
Bingo.
Head upward, Devlin called. Zeph guided them within range of the eyes as Devlin drew forth his power again. Get out of here now.
Zeph and Chrys fell back, banking off to the side in a coordinated attack on another part of the storm wall.
You are a miserable disappointment as a son, Eurus thundered. You are nothing compared to me.
That’s probably the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. And it was true given Eurus’s evil points of comparison. For once, Devlin was proud not to have lived up to his father’s expectations. Without giving a second thought to the vitriol continuing to spew into the sky, Devlin hurled another set of four bombs directly at Eurus’s eyes.
