by Setta Jay
More years slid by.
She watched as he secretly searched for an artifact hidden by the evil Gods Ares and Artemis. Reporting to his cousins, Drake and Sirena. She wanted to shrink away from the dark palaces filled with the stench of death and despair. There were naked mortals bleeding in locked cages like animals, their blood flowing to the ground. The Gods had been feeding off the dark energies caused by their torment. Pothos’ inability to free them ate at his gut. A dark-skinned male stood at his side with furious fire in his eyes. Sander… Another warrior with dark hair beside them. Jax. They had to keep their presence secret or risk never finding the golden box that would allow them to call the Creators back to their world.
Another year.
He arrived, crouched for battle against three malevolent males. The trio wouldn’t die; each slice of his blade healed in an instant… Than, Deimos and Phobos. The Tria… Each massive male was pale as ice and had soulless eyes of pure evil. Their hands and bodies were coated in blood she knew wasn’t their own. It was hard to even look at them. She could feel sinister tendrils of tainted power coming from them as their poisonous laughter filled the air.
And then she gasped at the sight of the twisted bodies on the floor of the palace. One female that looked nearly dead, her entire body was mangled, not far from the two half-dead young males. Alexandra, Alex… And her twin brothers Vane and Erik. She’d seen the older, Vane, at the lake. Pothos was sick and furious as he fought beside his aunts, his father.
They were all combining power to keep the males from teleporting away, and the evil trio were viciously fighting against their hold. Three Gods were there, Hades, Athena and Aphrodite, along with the two females’ warrior consorts beside Pothos and Drake, and still the Tria were nearly breaking free. He felt, as well as heard, his father’s commands. They were each to recite a spell, and the three Gods were preparing to sacrifice a portion of their life force to transport and hold the malevolent three beneath the surface of the Realm of Tainted Souls. She felt the power of the chanting words, and she knew the moment Pothos added his own portion to the spell, as did the consorts and Drake. She saw and felt Hades’ displeasure at Pothos’ sacrifice, but in a whirlwind of furious power and rage-filled shrieks, the three were gone. Locked away for eternity.
A short time passed.
He stood on a mountaintop beside his cousin Drake, the artifact to call the Creators in his hands as other Immortals stood behind them. A rush of power so immense and pure filled the world until they nearly dropped to their knees from the force. She saw the bright luminous lights in the sky. Their Creators had come back. They were in his mind, taking his knowledge as to why they were summoned back to Earth. She felt the wind turn icy with fury that their sons and daughters, the Gods, had caused so much pain and suffering.
Pothos spoke for his father and his aunts. Hades, Athena and Aphrodite had been trying to stop the evil wrought by their siblings, so they didn’t need to be punished. She felt the sorrow of the Great Beings as a living breathing thing. It was soul deep. And then she heard their voices and it was like soft music. They denied him before giving him a choice to be a Guardian of his world. She heard their punishments. The Gods were all to be put to sleep. They could not be trusted with humanity any longer. Neither could any more powerful being.
With a force she was sure their entire world felt, the Immortals were freed from Apollo’s island prison and exiled to Tetartos Realm. A confinement spell surrounded it, not allowing the Immortals to leave.
Pothos was nearly crushed with guilt at the knowledge that his father was to be included with the other Gods. He tried to champion the God again to no avail. The Great Beings had spoken to the world at large. When Hades was brought forth, Pothos tried to fight to get to him. Their relationship had been strained for years, but his father did not deserve a prison.
His father roared and fought the Creators’ hold to get to his son before he was wrenched away into the spelled containment. The harsh wave of guilt and sorrow that he hadn’t been allowed to explain or even say goodbye to his father gutted him. Twelve Immortals, including him, Drake and Sirena, were deemed Guardians that day. Power flooded in their veins as they were told to make vows. With their new power came a curse of ten times the pain they inflicted against any mortal returned upon them. Humanity was to be allowed to evolve, and they were charged with great purpose. To watch over the Realms, as one day the Gods of their world would be needed once again. And then the Great Beings were gone. A flash of light and no way to call them back.
Centuries passed.
She saw years of battles and the building of cities in the Immortal Realm. Then she watched as the Guardians formed their own family. There was laughing, arguments and fighting at one another’s backs. It was a closer bond than if they were of the same blood. A bond that would never be severed, because she wouldn’t allow anything to happen to those he loved. She would fight for their world as she would fight for her own. She saw their meetings to deal with the lack of mates and Immortal young, which was so much like Thule’s struggles.
In all the meetings and patrols she saw that he always stayed somewhat at the edge. Not by choice so much as by necessity. His lack of belief in his ability to control his power always kept him in the shadows, part of the family, but never too physically close to those he loved. And then she watched as the Tria found the ability to send demon souls to possess humans; they also sent beasts to battle in the other Realms. The evil beings saw to it that the Guardians were constantly fighting some threat, never allowing them to have much time to themselves.
Less than a year ago.
Then suddenly his Guardian brother Uri found a mate. It was Pothos’ cousin Alexandra. She’d been hiding in the mortal Realm with her brothers. After that initial mating, Guardians started pairing nearly one after another. And then the news of a Guardian baby to Gregoire and Alyssa. He could see the beauty of the bond, but since mated pairs became more powerful, it made them all edgy that the couplings were leading to some bigger purpose for their world. Gefn knew his assumption to be correct.
A few months later.
She watched Pothos using his power to calm an enraged Drake, who was denied his female, Era. Worry flooded him that his cousin would never be able to claim his female because of her torture by the same enemy who’d freed Apollo into the world.
She felt their knowledge of something wrong before a portal opened to their world. P had sensed something coming, and then all the Guardians had felt the way the air charged when a powerful doorway was opened from Thule. And then she witnessed the battle with Hroarr’s warriors when Dagur had sent them to Earth to take Apollo. She wished she could close her eyes against the deaths that cut into her soul.
And then she saw the sleeping unit containing his father. Hades was lying peacefully inside. She felt Pothos’ dread and anticipation at waking the God to help find Apollo through their sibling bond. His relief when his father hadn’t blamed him for his captivity.
A few days later Pothos was rocked with the knowledge of his mother’s identity. He’d been unsure of his place in the world, angry at his father’s lies. Angered more that he’d been kept from the meeting where Kara started a battle with Hades.
And then she was in the garden with him, feeling all the emotion and need from him.
Feeling the connection and relief while they were in Fólkvangr at being able to be with her without fear of his power turning her into a being without thought. The rush he felt at her touch. The way she soothed him. He craved her.
She moaned.
She felt his certainty that his connection to her was the most precious thing he’d ever known. She gave him a sense of peace and freedom he’d never thought possible. Beyond lust and destiny, he wanted her. She felt powerful and needed, but also like they were halves of a whole.
Chapter 17
Fólkvangr, Falls of the Dead – Thule
Pothos slipped into Gefn’s memories. Small blips at first, gaining detail
as he moved through time.
He looked on as a small golden-haired Gefn, an angelic little cherub with a brilliant smile, toddled amidst little miniature tornados in a bright room of pink and gold. She rolled and grabbed at the two massive cats easily ten times her size. Her melodic giggles filled the room as a trio of beautiful females beamed down at her. Her priestesses. They were each unique in their beauty and coloring, just like Hroarr’s þrír. He watched as one massive beast lay down to allow the babe to get on its back for a ride. Velspar, the one who’d sat in front of him at the lake. He wasn’t sure where the knowledge came from, but it was there. He didn’t see her powerful Creator parents. Had they already left her world, even though she was so small? Fuck if the sight of her chubby arms didn’t give him thoughts of the tiny baby girls she might give him. His heart thudded against his chest at the idea of her swollen with his child. Their children would have parents. He would be as his father had been with him. He mentally smiled when he considered Hades as a grandfather. The God would be a nightmare with little baby granddaughters.
He was taken from those warm thoughts and thrown decades later. To image after image of death. Years of bloody battles with evil warring siblings. Her cats and priestesses at her side.
And then he was whipped into memories of all the mortal guards she’d befriended through the years. Some dying peacefully in their dreams while others lay in pools of blood on desolate battlefields. Their sightless eyes looked up at her when she slept at night, jolting her from rest. He was given the knowledge of every name, of every fucking life lost to her in a scrolling list of death.
Years passed.
Then he was with her as the ground shook violently, signaling the fact that her evil siblings had started systematically destroying Gods and priestesses to steal their power. Each one rocked Thule, forcing her and the other Gods to calm the tsunamis, hurricanes, and earthquakes that destroyed more lives.
Another flash of time.
He saw Gefn working with Hroarr and Dagur on a confinement chamber for their evil Gods. Then he watched as the Goddess P had never seen with his own eyes, Kara, stepped into the room. The female’s icy gaze burned with tears as she handed over all the scrolls depicting the work of their most reclusive brother, Agnarr. He’d been devising his own prison plans before the male had been killed by Tyr.
Pothos realized his female knew a great deal more about a threat to their world than he and the Guardians knew about the one to Earth. He had a soul-deep feeling that the threats were one and the same. Some cosmic darkness set to descend.
Decades later.
The cats led her and her brothers to a world with special artifacts they needed to complete their God prisons. The desolate dark world had held magical bronze pieces that were the key to finishing the God prisons. The new discovery could allow them to siphon the power of a God into Thule itself. She left Hroarr and Dagur to work on the chambers, with hope after centuries with very little.
Another flash whirled him into a far deeper memory. So deep that he lived it through her eyes.
A furious roar rocked the polished stone of Gefn’s ivy-laden palace.
Instinct had her hands gripping the twin blades sheathed at her back before she knew what was happening. With a rush of power, she called air to sweep her in the direction of her powerful beasts. She came soaring to a halt beside the felines. Their pointed golden ears had flattened against their massive heads, and both heavily muscled animals stalked forward, fur rising as if ready to launch across the entire room of healing pools. Gefn’s gaze flew over the space, not seeing a thing out of place around the sacred waters, but it was silent.
Too silent under the charged air emanating from her mystical beasts. Both of their furious muzzles gaped wide, revealing razor-sharp teeth as they loosed another thunderous roar, sending waves from the depths of the pools.
Time stilled as her gaze flickered to the torchlit flesh of her three stunning priestesses stepping gracefully from the soothing liquid.
“What is it, Gefn?” Togn’s golden eyes flashed as they met Gefn’s. Grior and Skuld were beside her, with water slicking their nude bodies, all three shaded from light to dark. Power flickered over their palms as they readied to battle the invisible threat. The room was no longer filled with the usual mischievous laughter and playfulness of her family. Their tension radiated through the unique bond they’d shared with Gefn since her birth, and she knew they were feeling hers as well.
Gefn was denied the ability to answer as time stilled.
Everything happened in the same moment. Mortal servants scurried out the doors as her kilted guards streamed in, but Gefn’s eyes were caught on the glimmer of sharp glowing blades appearing out of the air directly at the throats of her females. The spelled metal arced in deadly synchronicity as killing slashes cleaved through bone and flesh, sending precious Immortal lifeblood into the crystal pools. The act stole the air from Gefn’s lungs as her females’ bond was torn from her. The grotesque absence nearly forced her to her knees as she gazed helplessly at the only real family she’d ever had. Their jewel-colored eyes dimmed to sightlessness. Horror and agony choked her as their broken bodies spilled into the waters.
A wild cry of rage and pain split her lips as her fingers tightened on the hilts of her glowing blue blades.
Her cats’ fury blasted inside the last and only bond she would ever have. It felt as if a piece of her had been pulled beneath the surface to drown in the bloody waters. As their Goddess, she should have protected them.
She couldn’t even hear the water closing over their lifeless bodies through the pounding of desperate pain and anger thudding in her head.
The beasts roared in renewed fury as she fought through the searing agony tearing at her spirit.
“Greetings, sister.” Tyr, the most evil of her siblings, stalked out of the air with two other Gods. His pale hair fell over sickly cloud-colored skin while half obscuring violent black eyes. The orbs were lit with the same triumph that curled all their lips.
Tyr would soon strike like the poisonous serpent he’d become. They should not have been able to slither through her wards and spells to gain access anywhere near this inner sanctum.
To those closest to her heart.
The three monsters before her had too much power. Tainted strength stolen from the Gods and Immortals they had killed over the past decades.
Her guards rushed to attack, but with the flick of her wrist she sent their bodies tumbling in the winds and out the doors. It was a fight her warriors would not have won, and she refused to see more innocent blood spilled. The second they were through the doorway, she slammed the heavy wood shut, locking her and the cats inside to battle.
Spa and Velspar snarled before rending another ground-shaking roar through the palace. The now crimson waters of the sacred pool spilled over the edges into the path of her brothers as they stalked forward.
She instantly built more power from within, but the blow to her heart, her soul… left her weaker than she should be. A weakness Tyr had obviously counted on.
“Now, I cannot wait to take your beasts’ lives and feel their power in my veins.” Tyr’s sneered threat was filled with covetous hate. His soulless eyes were half directed on her cats. All the Gods had watched and feared the mystical creatures, and the Deities before her were about to feel the full fury of their power. The air in the room crackled with it.
“You will never have their power. Or mine.” Her words were as icy as the steel of her blades.
As much as she detested her choices, opening a portal was her one wise course of action, but using that power took a toll, and she had only just used it returning home with her cats from her brother’s palace. Had the monsters before her been watching and planning this during her absence? How long had they been hiding so easily in her sanctum?
Tyr’s advance stilled for one brief moment as he seemed to take in all the energy in the room. She held her blades at her sides, anticipating an attack.
“So sure of your ability, sister? I’m surprised you have the strength to fight after your females were so easily slaughtered. The scent of their blood fills the air.” He was taunting her, she was aware of his tactic, but that knowledge did little to ease the sick pang in her stomach.
She sucked in a breath, ignoring the metallic scent. Refusing to allow him to split her focus. She would not be so easily taken. She felt power rush through the bond she held with her beasts, strengthening her just as Tyr loosed corrupted flames through the steel of his sword. Spinning, she met them with a blast of icy wind through her own blades. With a breath she stole the air from his burst of flames while watching her icy shots strike his chest with a force of lightning unlike anything she’d ever wielded. His furious roar told her that he hadn’t expected the sheer strength of power she’d unleashed.
Spa and Velspar leapt from the steps with deadly grace and accuracy, counteracting the two remaining Gods’ fetid powers. Shrieks of fury filled the space, shaking the walls and painted ceiling above. Stone crashed around them, sending the violent bloody waters spewing into the air as dirt and rock erupted beneath the ground. The Gods attacking her beasts stood little chance against their might. It mattered little how much power her tainted siblings had stolen from those they had killed.
She couldn’t watch the felines, she had to remain alert to Tyr, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t conscious of their every move as she dodged more fire and the crashing remnants of her once sacred room. The beasts were all that were left to her, and she refused to lose them too.
