by Lizzy Ford
“C’mon, Sofi, spill it,” he ordered.
She shook her head. “My hormones are going crazy today.”
It was a lie. They both knew it. Darian grabbed a few cookies, now frustrated by four women rather than one.
“Sofi, I can’t get ahold of Dusty,” Bianca said, uncertain gaze on the Oracle.
“Nor I Jule,” Yully added.
“I know,” Sofi said. “They’re safe.”
He sensed their fear. No one else said anything for a long moment. Sofi made herself a milkshake consisting of frozen blood from Damian, chocolate syrup, pickles, and a scoop of ice cream. Yully stared into space, troubled, while Bianca stacked more cookies on the plate before Darian, unstacked them, then restacked.
“I think I’ll go now,” he said, rising. Something was going on. Everyone around him held secrets, even the normally open Bianca.
“Be safe, Darian,” Sofi said.
Darian shook his head. He needed a distraction from the odd interaction with his brothers’ mates and the thoughts of Jenn. Her kisses had made his body sizzle. He’d meant what he said about finding out what her problem was, only he suspected he now knew. Their friendship had turned into something else, something she wasn’t comfortable with.
Oddly enough, he wasn’t as upset by it as he thought he should be. He Traveled to the Others’ portal to the immortal world. He sensed none of the creatures in the mortal world, and he still had Jenn’s necklace in his pocket. He had to return it as promised, even knowing it was a bogus rule.
The heat of the desert disappeared as he dropped through the portal to the immortal world. Darian felt the magic of the world bombard him, both welcoming home the man that had been its king and trying to figure out what he now was. He shuddered at the feeling.
His gaze took in the beautiful apple orchard that had been planted by a foremother of his and Damian’s. The orchards stretched from the palace to the city and had been open to the public for immortals all over to visit and enjoy.
Only there was now a wall at one end, he noted. He moved through the trees, trying to see the palace that had been his for a short time at the other end. He thought he glimpsed a marble wall and hesitated, peppered by memories and magic. He and Damian were born here, and their worlds had fallen apart here.
Darian started towards the palace. His pace quickened as he ran, his heart pounding with eagerness to see the magnificent hall that had been his. The marble he saw came into view as he crested the hill in the center of the orchard.
It was all that stood in the place where the palace had been. Darian stopped. A single marble obelisk marked the bloodline and legacy of a once powerful clan. All signs of the palace were swept away, replaced by neat lines of apple trees that ran all the way to the beach beyond.
Darian felt something else die within him. He’d remembered the immortal world with fondness, for it was the only place and time he’d ever been happy. He recalled growing up and running around the apple orchard with his little brother and the children of the palace. He recalled meeting Claire for the first time, right here.
She’d been wearing pale pink, as innocent as the flowers that fell from blooming apple trees and caught in her hair. From a lower immortal noble House, she’d been sent into the Guardians at a young age, a spare child to a House too poor to support her. She’d excelled as a warrior and been present in the orchard at the celebration of his twenty-seventh birthday along with half the city. Now, he suspected her presence was on purpose, their meeting not so much fate as manipulation by her father.
Darian looked around, expecting to see her again beneath the shade of an apple tree, as beautiful as she was deadly with the daggers she wore at her waist. She might as well have been swept into the sea like the palace. The fury he’d felt since awakening from the dark place the Black God kept him started to fade. He doubted he could ever forgive her, but he could at least pity her.
She’d never look upon the obelisk or her immortal home again. A traitor, she’d no longer be recorded on any obelisk in the immortal world, even her own family’s, especially the way Damian killed her. No one would remember her. No one would mourn her.
Except maybe Darian. The tightness that filled his chest whenever he thought of his betrayer and lover unfurled. Damian had killed her for her betrayal, left her soul in her body and burned her. She’d killed one White God and been killed by another. She died with the greatest shame: her soul imprisoned for all time and her memory erased from the immortal world.
Darian lowered himself to the ground and sat, draping his elbows loosely over his knees as he gazed at the obelisk. With his disappointment at the discovery of his immortal home no longer standing, he also felt a sense of peace that had eluded him. The black memories that made him wake up screaming at night, the fear he could still taste in moments of despair, were softened by the sense of stillness that settled into him.
At least their bloodline wouldn’t end. The magic of the immortal world would continue to record their children and grandchildren on the obelisk. Damian and Sofi’s son might already be listed. They weren’t lost, even if it seemed like everything else was.
Deep in thought, Darian sat for a long while, until the wind at his back shifted to carry the scent of the sea to him. The sun would set soon in the immortal world. He roused himself and trotted down the hill, towards the obelisk. It was pristine and white, rising out of the ground like a natural formation. The souls of his forefathers inhabited the obelisk, making it hum with immense power. In his time as White God, the obelisk had been the source and seat of power for the White Gods in the immortal world. The Schism changed that, severing the tie between Damian and the source. Damian’s son would be the first White God born outside of the immortal world, and not even Jule dared to guess what that would mean for the White God’s power.
Darian knelt and found their father’s name. Dristian. Beside it was the name of their Oracle mother, Kinila, who had gone crazy soon after Damian’s birth. Damian, Sofia, Adrian were written beneath it, and Darian grinned, wondering when Sofi had picked a name for her son.
Although older, his own name was present under Damian’s, as if it had been erased during the long years of his slavery and newly added. Not only was Claire’s name gone, but a new one was in its place.
“Holy shit.”
Darian, Jenn.
Suddenly, the secrets of those around him began to crack open. Jenn knew. She had to. It was the only thing that explained why she tried to push him away. Sofi knew, or she wouldn’t have told Damian to send Darian to check on Jenn.
Which meant Damian knew. And the Others. Why else would they want Jenn, if not because they’d seen her name written as the mate of the one creature who could prevent them from executing goals as mysterious as those of the Watchers?
Everyone knew! Darian stared at the names. When they were written on the obelisk, it was meant to happen. How long had her name been written? Since he was freed from his imprisonment to the Black God?
Since he realized he wanted more from her than to spar?
Seeing her name there surprised him, but it seemed only natural a woman he’d watched and admired from a distance so long would be his mate. He simply hadn’t wanted to face what his instincts told him. He’d been drawn to Jenn since he’d started to recover his mind. It was not the hard, fast, lustful connection he felt with his first mate, but a deeper connection. Attraction had given way to admiration and respect over the months as he sparred with her and saw her in action. He’d mated with Claire days after meeting her. He never knew more than lust for her.
But Jenn was different.
His gaze went to the line above his. Adrian. Damian would have a son, a future. Darian never thought it possible, yet seeing the name of his little brother’s son made him want more out of life. Would the name of his own son or daughter ever be written beside his and Jenn’s name on the monument?
Darian rubbed his face, his fingers running the length of where the deepest an
d most knotted scar had been. Sometimes he still felt it there, even knowing it wasn’t. He pulled the necklace Jenn had taken from the immortal world and rose, wanting to see why it was so special to her.
He made his way through the orchard and over the wall at the other end, stunned by the mess that had been the immortals’ imperial city. Distressed by the damage, he jogged to the central square, where smaller obelisks marking lesser immortal Houses rose out of the ground.
He searched until it was almost too dark to see, finally coming to the one with the same marks as Jenn’s necklace. He knelt and then hunched to see the names at the very bottom of the small obelisk.
Jenn, Finian, Talia.
A husband and a daughter. As the lower ranking of the married couple, the name of Jenn’s betrothed was added to her family’s record, indicating he was likely the son of another servant. A small dirt hole was in front of the obelisk where she’d dug up the necklace.
Darian sat for a long moment, comprehending why Jenn viewed the immortal world with such bitterness. He didn’t know if she still yearned for her husband during a time when marriages among servants were arranged, but there was nothing that could soothe the ache a mother felt at losing her child.
Her loss was darker than his. He began to understand her reluctance to be involved with him and how thick the walls around her heart were, if she spent the years since the Schism learning how to shut people and emotion out.
Why she’d been able to walk away from him when he knew he couldn’t have walked away from her. Which was stronger: her fear of being close to anyone again or her sense of duty to protect a fellow Guardian from the Others?
Probably both, he told himself. She doesn’t realize I have nine lives, like my cats.
He buried the necklace again, satisfied the Others would have no overt reason to grab her. She’d be in danger no matter what, but he wasn’t about to give them the rope they sought to hang her.
As much as he didn’t know what to think about having a new mate after the disastrous relationship with his first, he knew one thing: her life was now his priority. He’d been content to play around with the Others and test his magic. If he wanted to protect Jenn, there would be no more playing. Hunting, extermination, as methodical and merciless as he knew himself capable of. He’d learned a few things about killing from the previous Black God, lessons that would now serve him well.
He trotted back towards the orchard, pensive. Of course, Jenn herself wasn’t completely off the hook. They were overdue for a discussion, one she’d been unwilling to start but that he would see through. He’d have to figure out how to start a conversation she didn’t want to have. She was strong and stubborn enough to walk away from him.
He had a mate.
Darian paused mid-step, not at all certain he was worthy of a mate. Her name was written on the obelisk. He’d admired her for so long, and their kiss in the basement made him feel as nothing ever had. Some part of him had known long before he saw her name written.
Darian ran to the wall of the orchard and vaulted over. He landed hard and looked around at the only remaining beauty in the immortal world. As mixed as his feelings were, he knew he couldn’t let the Watchers and Others do the same thing to the mortal world.
He stepped through the portal through worlds and landed in the desert. It was afternoon in the mortal world. He sensed several Others and Watchers on earth. He needed more weapons before he began hunting them down. This time, the Watchers wouldn’t get off easy. He’d rid the planet of both.
Resolved, Darian Traveled to Texas, his presence in his sister-in-law’s room waking her.
“Darian?” Sofi asked, her blue-silver eyes glowing in the darkness of predawn.
“You can’t tell me you’re actually surprised to see me,” he teased. “Your fortune cookies forget to tell you I’d figure out what you didn’t tell me about Jenn?”
“You know I can’t tell you those things.” Sofi pushed herself into a sit and rested her hands on the top of her stomach.
“I know.” He pulled a rocking chair from the corner to her bed and sat. “But everyone else knew.”
“You’re not here this early to bitch at me about that,” she said with some of the moodiness he’d come to expect from her since learning of her pregnancy.
“I want to kill Watchers,” he said. “Give me a reason not to, and I won’t.”
“They freak me out.”
“Is that a yes, go ahead?”
She hesitated. “You don’t need my permission.”
“I need what insight an Oracle can give me about something that might just cause the end of the world,” he pointed out.
“I hate the Watchers right now. I want them all dead. But I think your focus should be on the Others.” Her eyes swirled, and he felt her cool power surround him.
“Just give me any indication I’m not going to ruin everything,” he added.
“As long as you do your duty, you won’t,” she replied after a pause. “If Watchers and Others are allowed to do their will here, they’ll destroy both worlds. Darian, you can’t let that happen.”
“I just need to discourage them both from coming,” he said. “Even if I can’t close the gateways between worlds.”
“You can’t close the gateway. You will have some very difficult choices soon,” she said. “I don’t see your job getting any easier, Darian.”
“Sofi, tell me about Jenn.”
“Darian, I can’t—“
“Sofi, please. I know you’ve done so much for me already, but I need to know. I can’t go through what I did before. I can’t lose her like I did Claire,” Darian said quietly. “Could you live through losing Damian?”
“You’re not playing fair!” she snapped.
“I don’t play fair. That’s Damian’s job.”
Sofi was silent. He felt her grappling with his question and willed her to help him.
“You both have choices to make,” she said carefully. “How you handle this is important, Darian.”
“What the fuck does that mean? How I handle what?”
“I mean, you need her. She doesn’t know she needs you. If she pursues the course she’s on, well, it’s not good, from what I can See.”
“What course, Sofi?”
“The one that takes her away from you. She has some serious decisions to make. Yours are probably already made, if you’re half as stubborn as Damian,” Sofi replied.
“You think I should leave her alone to decide?”
“I think you need to be careful to keep from driving her away. I also know her—and our—danger increases every day. It’s not something she can fight.”
“I can,” Darian said, thinking of the Black God and the Others. “So I have to give her space and protect her. Then everything will work out okay.”
“Not exactly. It’ll only work out okay if she takes her place at your side. Every other path ends very badly.” Sofi’s voice took on a dark note.
“This is one shitty fortune cookie,” he said with a frown. “I can’t make her choose me.”
“No, you can’t.”
Darian scowled. It wasn’t the answer he wanted. The way things were going, Jenn would probably choose her own death over being with him. In her mind, she’d probably be protecting him. But she was his mate. There were no limits to what he’d do to protect her. There was a lot Sofi wasn’t saying, this much he sensed. He wondered what it was.
“Earlier today, you all acted really weird,” he said.
“I’ll tell you why next week.”
“After whatever happens, happens?”
“Exactly.”
“You’re in danger, too,” he said.
“We all are, Darian. There’s a lot riding on the choices you make as the Grey God.”
“I’m not sure I like how that sounds.”
“You shouldn’t. But you can do it. Trust your instincts, no matter what,” Sofi added. “Now, I have a question for you.”
“Shoot
.”
“How does time work in the immortal world?”
He studied her. “What do you mean?”
“What happens to people who move between worlds?”
“Why are you asking this?”
“Please answer the question.”
“Nothing happens to those who pass between worlds. At least, from what I remember, nothing did. The only time something happens is when you’ve been in one world more than twenty-four hours. Then you’ll become what you were, what you would have been had you been in that world your whole life. Mortals will age faster in the immortal world and immortals age very, very slowly in the mortal world.”
“Do those who cross over have increased powers?”
“Yes, if you’ve been there a day and until you get back to your own world for a full day. Sofi, you aren’t thinking of going to the immortal world, are you? You’re a powerful enough Oracle,” he said.
“Sometimes it seems like it’d be nice to have a bit clearer vision,” she admitted. “But I know it’s not worth running into Others.”
“Promise me you won’t go,” he urged. “There are ancient laws that forbid it.”
“I wouldn’t know how to get there,” she said. “Don’t worry, Darian. I have a good head on my shoulders.”
“I know.” He was about to press her to make an actual vow when she sighed.
“Now, get out of my room. I’m exhausted.”
“You have to tell me if you’re in any sort of danger, Sofi.”
“You’ll know soon enough. We’ll be fine, Darian. Just do what you were brought back to do.”
Darian rose, not wanting to leave when his family was in danger. Sofi waved him away before sinking into the bed again and pulling the covers up. Darian hesitated one moment longer before he located a small group of Others near Jonny’s lair. He Traveled to them, wanting to blow off some of the emotional build-up and kill those that threatened everyone around him.
When he’d gone, Sofi flung off the blankets. She got dressed and looked at the time, her heart pounding harder and harder as she moved towards the door. She’d had dreams of Damian, Jule and Dusty being picked off one-by-one by the Wathers. And now, it was her turn. She’d almost made it when she heard the voice.
