Unspoken (Unborn Book 3)

by Amber Lynn Natusch

“Sacrifices must be made sometimes,” she said, her eyes drifting to his knife and then to me. “A true ruler must be able to make the choices that others cannot—will not—and they do so without hesitation. They are driven by reason, not feeling. You, Casey... that is what you were bred for: action without emotion. I’m offering you the chance to seize your birthright.”

  I could see the tension in Casey’s back as I flanked him. Hecate endeavored to manipulate Casey as she had so many others. I could have, at any time, interceded and ordered her death, putting an end to her grand machinations. But instead, I watched. My interest was not in her antics, but rather the reaction of my brother. She appealed to everything that Casey had ever wanted, and if he let her, I feared she might be able to give it to him.

  It seemed as though he were entertaining her promises.

  “I can see that you want this,” Hecate continued, taking advantage of Casey’s silence. “I can feel it. All you have to do is take it. Kill them and join me, my son. Sit by my side and rule the very beings that call to you. Rule like the king you are. Like the king I bred you to be...”

  “If I do this, we will not be equals. You will serve under me. You will be my second. Anything less than that and I will not comply with your instructions.”

  Oz went rigid beside me, and I placed my hand on his arm to hold him off. I did the same to Kierson with a sharp sideward glance.

  Hecate’s serpent’s smile spread wide across her mouth before she spoke, her forked tongue spewing forth more of her manipulation.

  “Of course,” she said, with a slight bow of her head, “my king.”

  A harsh laugh escaped Casey. “Swear an oath to me,” he demanded, stepping closer to her.

  “I swear on my life that I will serve you as your second. That I will offer my skill and knowledge so that you may rule this kingdom,” she said with genuflected eyes. “You are my family. I could wish for nothing else.”

  When she brought her eyes back up, they fell upon Casey’s cruel profile. His body was turned to me, weapon raised. I could almost feel the exhilaration pulse through her as her scheme played out. The tide had apparently turned in her favor.

  “Family...” he said, the darkness eclipsing his voice unmistakable. I prepared to stand against my brother; yet another poisoned by Hecate’s plan. He stepped closer, blade raised, and I turned my body in such a way as to minimize his target.

  “Casey,” I warned, my wings spreading wide behind me to hold Oz off. If my brother truly did intend to kill me, then I would fight him without Oz’s aid.

  “There is no point in fighting me, Khara,” he said, stopping just before me. “I know who my family is.”

  His dark eyes searched mine for a moment before a smile much like his mother’s overtook his countenance. Then, in a flash, he launched toward Hecate and sunk his blade hilt-deep into her chest. Her heart, to be more exact, or at least the spot where one should have been. I was not certain Hecate had ever possessed one.

  “If you knew me at all, Mother, you would know that I would never betray those I have aligned with. You may wish to rule, but we will see how well you do that when you are dead.”

  With a twist of his blade, he yanked it from her chest. She flopped to the ground, the light in her pale eyes fading as blood soiled her robes.

  “Your end is coming,” she whispered, those rheumy eyes turned to me. “We will meet again…”

  With her final breath, the air in the Underworld shifted. It crackled and the souls scattered as if they knew an angry force was coming for them. As if they knew their king was returning. I looked at the others to see if they felt it as well but saw no note of recognition—only relief.

  A rush of power blew past me, rustling my hair. I turned to see my father running toward me, Persephone at his side. Deimos and Aery were right behind them.

  “Khara!” Hades yelled as he headed toward where we all stood. “You are all right—”

  “I am fine, Father.”

  “I was so worried when the Dark One showed up in the in-between.” He grabbed me in his arms and spun me around as if he’d thought he might never hold me again.

  “We thought Phobos had come for you. I sent Oz immediately—”

  He dropped me suddenly, looking at Hecate’s corpse lying just beyond my brothers.

  “What happened here?” he asked.

  “She betrayed you, Father, though we may never know the full extent of her treachery. She was working with Phobos to kill you and me both.”

  “I see…” His expression darkened. His power flared.

  “I found Deimos,” Aery shouted, heading our way with him far behind her. “Though it doesn’t seem like we need him now.” She winked at me, then spotted Kierson. The moment she did, it was as though I no longer existed. She ran to him and flung her arms around him. “You’re okay!” She buried her face in his neck, and he held onto her like she was his world—like nothing could ever pull them apart.

  Amusement tugged at my lips, a smile slowly forming.

  “How come you never greet me like that, new girl?” Oz asked. I shot him a sideward glance, my glare all the explanation he needed. His laughter rang out through the vast space. “If that isn’t the look of love, I don’t know what is.”

  “Your ignorance knows no bounds, Dark One.” I walked toward the Acheron, Oz’s laughter following me like a pet. Then Deimos stepped into my path. “You and I have unsettled matters,” I said, daring a look back at Aery. “There is a price to pay for hurting those I care for.”

  Deimos’ eyes flared with anger, but he reined it in before disappearing down the hall that housed his room of torture.

  I turned back to Oz. “What of Phobos? Was he there—in the in-between?”

  “Nope. Nowhere to be found,” Oz said. “Which can’t be a good thing.”

  “Tell me everything,” Hades said, his voice soft and full of sorrow. “Tell me how it came to this.”

  “Hecate used our suspicion of Persephone and the threat of Phobos to force my hand—to make me turn to her for help with the Underworld. She locked me and my brothers in the Oudeis. Unfortunately for her, she did not know how this realm reacts to me. How much it wants me…”

  “Fucking bitch,” Casey muttered under his breath.

  “Once you were gone,” Persephone said, daring to come closer, “I can only assume that she used her magic to keep you from returning. With your loss of power and the souls loose, it would have been within her ability, hypothetically speaking.”

  “Has your power returned?” I asked Hades.

  The uncertainty in his eyes did not bode well.

  “Yes, but there is something strange about my connection to this realm. It is as if it does not fully recognize me. What an irony that would be; the ruler of the dead whose realm does not respond.”

  “And without a necromancer to help manage it,” Persephone added, concern worrying her brow.

  “I think I can help with this,” I said, looking at the sea of souls, then at Casey. “We cannot leave him here until I know he is well and capable of handling this place.”

  Casey gave a tight nod of understanding.

  My father brushed a stray hair from my face and smiled at me. “What a force you have become, my princess. And I will be fine without Casey’s assistance.” His eyes cut to where Oz stood. “I may not approve of the choices you make, but your life is yours to live as you see fit. Just promise me that you will be careful—especially in matters of the heart.”

  I followed his gaze to Oz, who looked on with suspicion.

  “They do seem capable of leading us astray, do they not?” I asked. “Perhaps you and I are similar in that regard.”

  He bent down and kissed my forehead. “I love you, Khara.”

  “I love you, too, Father.” With my arms wound around his waist, I closed my eyes and whispered to the world I was about to depart. “I relinquish whatever hold I have on this realm to Hades, King of the Underworld, Keeper of Souls. As you woul
d obey me, so too shall you obey him.” I pulled away to look at my father and was met with a wide stare. We both felt the shift in the magic that time—his surprise was a testament to that. “All should be well soon, Father.”

  “You may return home anytime, Khara. You know that, don’t you?” he asked. I merely nodded. “Phobos cannot reach you here. If you need somewhere safe—”

  “It is not I who will need sanctuary. When I find him, I will strike him down. Do as you wish with his soul, though I might have a suggestion for where it should go.” Father pushed me away just enough to see the smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. “The Oudeis is quite lovely…”

  His booming laughter shook the ground we stood upon, the Underworld responding to him as it once had. The feeling of warmth in my heart was foreign and indescribable but welcome all the same. My father’s reign had been restored, just as I had wanted; his traitor brought to justice.

  “Khara,” Kierson called from behind me, “we should go now…”

  “Be well, daughter,” Hades said, giving me a final hug. Then he turned his formidable stare to Oz. “Watch over her, even if she no longer needs you.” Oz let the amusement he felt play in his expression as Hades’ went cold. “And know that Deimos will be sent after his brother and not permitted to return until he has been found and dealt with by whatever means necessary.”

  I could only imagine the look on the terror-inspiring demigod’s face when he learned this news. He would not be at all pleased with the order but would do it to maintain his station—and because of his vested interest in dealing with Phobos—not that my father was aware of that motive.

  “We really should go, new girl. Phobos isn’t the only loose end we need to tie up,” Oz said. I turned to find him staring at me, his expression unreadable.

  I reunited with Oz and my brothers, and we headed for the Acheron. After a quiet discussion with my father, Aery joined us by the river. Drew and Pierson stood on the bank, waiting for us; they had been left to keep watch for anything that might come for us—any ambushes. As we crested the hill leading to the river’s edge, it became apparent that the evening’s peril was not yet over.

  Aery doubled over, grabbing her head as she screamed, babbling on about an army of darkness headed for the Underworld. About blood and death and pain. When she came out of it, she searched the group until her eyes met mine. She did not need to speak, though. I knew what she had seen. Kaine had kept his word—had kept my father safe until he could be restored to his throne—and now he was coming for what I’d promised him in return.

  My brothers tensed, prepared to find an enemy they could not yet see. Their tension would only grow when they found out the sinister reason for the Dark Ones’ presence in the Underworld. The prize they had come to collect.

  They would die trying to protect me.

  “What’s happening?” Pierson shouted.

  None of us knew how to answer his question.

  “I knew using you as bait was going to bite us in the ass,” Oz whispered in my ear. “Shall I praise you for your omniscience now, or should we formulate a plan first?”

  The sharp cut of his features was highlighted by the eerie glow of fire and flame. He had no intention of letting them have me—even if it was my will to do so.

  “Somebody’d better start explaining what the fuck is going on here,” Casey growled from behind me.

  “Your sister’s fan club is coming to collect her.”

  “How long do we have to prepare?” I asked Aery, hoping something in her vision could help.

  “It wasn’t clear,” she said, eyes full of regret. Oz was across the river and back with Drew and Pierson in the blink of an eye.

  “It is all right,” I said to assuage her guilt. Then I looked to my brothers. “I made a deal with the Dark Ones to keep my father safe. Now I shall honor it.”

  The four of them and Aery stared at me in disbelief. Behind them stood my father, who had come at the sound of Aery’s distress. The sadness in his eyes sent a sharp pain through my chest. I clutched it and looked away. The guilt he felt was plain.

  But it changed nothing.

  “I would have done the same to spare any of you.”

  Kierson stepped closer, wrapping his arms around my neck. “And we love you for that. So much. But there’s no fucking way you’re going anywhere with them.”

  “There is nowhere I can go that Kaine cannot follow,” I said, pulling away from him. “He will take me eventually, if not today. He has come for me here already. This time, I will go without a fight.”

  “The fuck you will,” Casey snarled, drawing his weapons.

  “I’m afraid I can’t let that happen,” Drew said with a ghost of the smile I had grown to love. The pain in my heart grew at the sight.

  Oz moved from my side to stand before Casey. He eyed him tightly, as though contemplating something before speaking.

  “Hey, Casey, want to see just how much of your mother’s juice is running through your veins?” My dark brother just stared at Oz in response. “You always say you’re connected to the dead…”

  “What are you thinking?” I asked.

  “I’m thinking that we might not be totally fucked. Not if your brother here can command the fallen PC like you did. That’s an army fit to take on Kaine and the others.” Oz turned to look at me. “You are the Princess of the Underworld, Khara. Let it serve you…”

  As if already called, my ghostly brothers appeared—an army unto their own.

  “Against an army of Dark Ones, they face final death,” I argued, the vision of black wings shredding my brothers’ souls for eternity playing in my mind. “I will not allow that to happen.”

  “You don’t get to make that choice.” Oz let his wings spread wide, knocking loose the tattered shreds of fabric that remained on his torso. They floated to the ground like feathers. It was a show of strength, though for whose benefit, I did not know.

  While Oz and I stared each other down, Aery clutched her head again just as Pierson’s gaze went slack.

  “They’re coming,” the two said in unison, then shared a look. One held surprise; the other, fear.

  “That’s our cue,” Oz said, ushering me toward the river’s edge. But just as we prepared to leave, a sight on the far side stopped us both.

  A blinding light so impossible and glorious bathed the shore, the Acheron, and reached all the way beyond us to the Great Hall. I could see nothing but the warmth and love emanating from the being across from me.

  I would have known the feel of her anywhere.

  “Mother,” I whispered to myself, disbelief tainting my tone.

  That word seemed to take on a life of its own, growing in strength and volume as it crossed the divide to reach her ears. The bright light dimmed, revealing a white-winged woman with hair as dark as night and eyes as green as emeralds. Eyes like mine.

  “I remembered you,” she said, reaching her arms toward me, willing me to come. “I’ve been searching for you ever since, my love…”

  I dared a glance at Oz, who stood beside me staring at his former mentor—the one for whom he’d surrendered his wings, his station, and nearly his life. There was a sense of longing in his face—of sadness. I wondered just how much it hurt him to see her again, wearing the very wings he’d lost doing what she had asked of him—for me. All of it for me.

  “It’s her,” was all he could manage when he felt my gaze on him.

  “I’ve come to take you somewhere safe, Khara. To where none of them can reach you.”

  “Where? To your Heaven?” I asked.

  She smiled and shook her head. “Not quite, but close.”

  “The Hallowed Gates,” Oz said, wonderment in his voice.

  “Yes,” she said, turning her attention to him. “You did well, Ozereus.”

  “I did,” he replied, “and it cost me.”

  Her smile faded. “There is always a cost. We both understand that as well as any.”

  “Khara,” Aery
said, tugging my arm roughly, “you need to go. Now. They’ll be here any second—”

  “Who?” my mother demanded.

  “The Dark Ones. Phobos. Take your pick.”

  “Then we must go, my love. You will be safe at my side.”

  Again, my eyes fell to the Dark One next to me, and my body tensed. Then I looked beyond him to my father, whose powers grew by the minute, and my dead brothers standing at the ready with the ones still full of life—an army of PC as I could only imagine they had once been. They were my family, the ones who had been at my side when I had needed them most. Not the ethereal being beckoning me to follow her into the unknown.

  Seeing my hesitation, she reached her hand out toward me.

  I took a step in retreat.

  “I belong here,” I said, “in the Underworld. With my family.”

  Her hand faltered. “Phobos can reach you here, Khara. The Hallowed Gates is the only place both he and the Dark Ones cannot go. Deimos either. You will be safe there until the threats can be mitigated.”

  Dark Ones cannot go…

  “She’s right, Khara,” Oz said, drawing my attention to those deep brown eyes as he leaned in close. “You need to leave—”

  “I will not abandon my family to save myself,” I replied. “I will not abandon you, either…”

  The smile he’d worn the night I met him tugged at his lips. “I appreciate that, but I’m good. And they’ll be good too if you’re not here because Phobos and Kaine…they’re not after us. They’re after you. If you stay here, then you’ll endanger them all. They’re safer with you gone, new girl. Like it or not, that’s the truth.”

  “You need to go, Khara!” Aery shouted, fidgeting like an addict as she watched the far shore of the Acheron for their arrival.

  “She’s right,” Oz said, taking my face in his. “You need to go.”

  “You would be rid of me?” I asked, voice softer than normal. “Am I no longer entertaining?”

  He choked on a laugh. “Not if you’re dead, no.” His thumb stroked my cheek, and it felt as if every ounce of blood in my body rushed to that spot. Then he looked over at my mother. “Celia, you entrusted her to me once, and I did not fail you,” he shouted across the river. “Be sure you do the same for me.”