God of the Abyss
Page 44
“How is that foolish?” I asked.
His smirk was gone. “Did you bring Mordon with you?”
“Why would I bring my brother with me on my honeymoon?” Dylan asked. I was of like mind, but Vretial sighed.
“When you are away from each other, you cannot be balanced. That is the reason you grew up with the universe acting against you; you were too powerful and didn’t have him. How did you get it in your head that being separated for any real length of time was a good idea?” He spoke to Dylan as if explaining something to a slow child… but he had often used that tone on my brothers and me.
“I’m with Divina. That should be enough.”
“When you are away from her for long periods of time, you will be unhappy. When you are away from Mordon for long periods of time, you will be dead. The balance is inside your youngest son and he’s not strong enough to control himself. The longer you are away from Mordon, the more the balance will push Ron to kill you.”
“I can handle my son,” I said.
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “A family of fools, the lot of you.”
“You seem to think you can just return to the way things were before you took Avoli’s world,” I told my brother. “But that is not how this works. I will never trust you like I did. Your advice means nothing to me.”
“Then at least you married a man who can see reason,” he said.
Dylan shook his head. “In matters of the gods, I will always side with her.” Vretial opened his mouth, but Dylan interrupted him. “I’m not saying I won’t take precautionary measures. I trust my son will not be so driven to destroy me that he actively hunts me down. I also trust that being around Mordon will restore this balance. So I will spend my week-long honeymoon with my wife as I had planned, and then I will spend the next day at Mordon’s, playing cards or hunting sheep or whatever my dragon brother wants to do. He did just gain the ability to shift after all…” He turned to me. “We need to import sheep. Dragons love chasing sheep in the movies.”
“Talk to Erono, love, Duran is his world.”
He regarded Vretial again. “After I have spent the day with him, I’ll go home and everything will be fine.”
“Is a vacation worth the risk to you?”
“Spending time with my wife is worth the risk. If I can’t outsmart the universe, I’m not all that fit to be with her anyway. Now, if you don’t mind, I think the bath water is getting cold and I want to get my wife wet and covered in bubbles before it is. Do you have a problem with that?”
“She’s my sister.”
Dylan vanished, having finally pulled himself back to the real world. “He does like to make an exit,” I said. My brother nodded. Vretial was sitting on a large rock under a huge apple tree. “Why did you choose an apple? For the tarot card.”
He smirked. “I thought you were better at seeing what was to come than I was. Obviously, that is not the case. When Dylan finds out who and what you are, you are both at a river.”
“Dylan told me you said that he hated apples.”
“That was a clever lie. If you remember, I’m quite the clever liar. Not as good as you, of course. There was an apple there, but that wasn’t what I heard him say. In fact, I believe he throws an apple at you. He didn’t say he hated apples, he said he hated you.”
“Dylan would never hate me.”
“He will when he knows what you are.”
“I am Iadnah.”
Vretial laughed cruelly. “That is funny.” He dropped all pretense of being kind. “You remember everything, don’t you? When you absorbed the power of my book, it jogged something in the back of your mind and brought back those memories that you and our brothers forgot. From the time my father brought you to me.”
“And before.”
“Then you remember that there were thirteen of us that made it through to this universe before my father ended the war.”
I froze. I tried to remember what he was talking about, but there was no way. “There were only twelve of us.”
“No. There were thirteen, but you were young and wanted to destroy everything. It was him or Avoli and I chose to spare my brother from your wrath. You weren’t really even angry; you just seemed to want to kill something. The thirteenth Iadnah was a stranger to me. I believe he was Regivus’s brother on his mother’s side, and they were very close. When you destroyed him, I lied to Regivus about what happened.”
“You protected me?”
“Both of you. I was protecting you because I knew you needed a family, and I was protecting him because I knew you would kill him if he had confronted you. It worked out well enough; when the others turned against me, you went right along with them. You showed me mistrust after everything I did for you.”
“I didn’t remember. Not until I absorbed some of your power. I thought I was actually your sister and that you had attacked our brother. I didn’t want to believe it, but you were acting irrationally. Regivus demanded I stay away from you and I thought I should listen to him because he was older.”
I hated it, too. Vretial had always been the one I trusted. He was always the first one I turned to, the only one I would believe without fail… but then he admitted to attacking Avoli, who was always so vulnerable. “Why did you take Avoli’s world?”
“His people were out of control and I didn’t want to see them all die. My actions thereafter were a result of the balance. And now it is your son who must carry the burden. Luckily, he is much better adapted than I was, thanks to Samhail.”
“Who Dylan told me is your son.”
“No secrets in your marriage on his part, at least.”
“I do realize things would be very different if not for you. I have done what I could since I met him to make sure things go smoothly. The first thing I did was prevent the Sight from coming in. I try to study the paths in depth to determine the best outcome for him.”
“Taking away the Sight was not right. I thwarted your magic when he was on Dios, searching for the pantacle, and he was able to save his friend. Limiting his powers will not help him. Teaching him how to use them properly, on the other hand, could save his life several times over. He will not thank you for handicapping him.”
“The Sight is too dangerous for someone like Dylan. With my boys it is different; Samhail can see and Ronez can interpret. Ron has his father’s tactician skills, but he isn’t burdened with visions.”
“Then force Dylan’s visions onto Mordon. Eventually, Dylan’s power will become too great for you to control. It’s already starting; he’s had a vision of what would happen if the gates to Earth open. He is not mortal, and if he doesn’t learn to limit his power, he will just keep getting stronger.”
“How is it possible? Samhail is your son and Ron is mine, so I understand their power, but Dylan is not Iadnah. What is he?”
“I have a theory about that, but I’m not sure yet.”
“If I am not Iadnah, what am I?”
“You are not entirely Iadnah.”
“Then what else am I? What made me such a threat when you first found me?” I asked. He gave me a sympathetic frown, but didn’t speak. “Regivus’s brother was not the first Iadnah I killed; I remember others. Please. I must know. I have a son, and I have to know what he is.”
He sighed. “I think your mate has waited for you long enough.” He flashed me back to the hotel room.
About the Author
Rain Oxford is a middle school teacher who is compelled to spend every free moment writing. The Asian-influenced cultures she creates were inspired by Japan, where she attended Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto on an exchange program. She does most of her writing in a secluded cabin in the woods, with a four-pound Maltese as a companion. When she’s not teaching or creating worlds, she usually enjoys cooking, playing the piano, or photographing exotic wildlife.
Books by Rain Oxford
Guardian Series Book 1: The Guardian’s Grimoire
Guardian Series Book 2: The Dragon’s E
yes
Guardian Series Book 3: God of the Abyss
The Awakening