by Haley Weir
Madeu tackled Octavius. They hit the ground hard before Madeu landed beside the discarded sword. When Octavius shuffled back to his feet, Seth sprinted over and climbed onto the large man's shoulders. He smashed his fist into the top of Octavius's head over and over. "Hold him!" Madeu shouted. Seth was almost bucked off of Octavius, but he held on tight and yanked his enemy's head back. Madeu spun the sword and slashed with all of his might, severing Octavius's head from his shoulders with a sickening squelch.
A high-pitched squeal escaped the abomination's mouth as its body slid to the floor in front of Seth. He kicked the head, and it rolled like a soccer ball. Madeu dropped the sword and pressed his hand against a wound in his side. "I was never your enemy, Seth, and Octavius was never my pet," he said between labored breaths. "But I won't deny that I was just as blind to the truth as the rest of you." Madeu shuffled over and offered his hand. "Brothers?"
Seth stared at the offered hand as he struggled to catch his breath. Trusting Madeu meant letting go of the anger that had festered inside of him. He accepted the help. "Brothers."
Giddeon, Caleb, and Balor ran inside of the throne room. They were covered in blood. Giddeon glanced between them before he announced, "The Reckoning is retreating. We managed to cut down their numbers."
"So much blood has been spilled over that godforsaken key," Caleb growled. "Let's destroy it and put an end to this madness."
"Atë is—"
Seth followed Balor's gaze when he failed to finish his sentence. Hades and Nemesis stood at the center of the room. Giddeon moved in front of them and approached the ancient beings with caution. Seth saw tears in Hades' eyes and the unbridled rage surrounding Nemesis. Something had brought Death and Retribution to their door. "To what do we owe the pleasure?" Giddeon asked. "As you can see, we have a bit of a pest problem that we're trying to keep from spilling over into the war."
"I care not for your petty rivalries, Shifter King." Hades held his arm out and uncurled his fist. A vial dangled from a silver chain filled with liquid. Seth recognized it as a soul...the celestial soul of a god. "This is all I have left of my daughter."
The world stopped spinning. Seth touched his chest gently. It felt as though someone had torn his heart out. "Diana is…"
"Dead," Hades snarled. "While all of you were busy throwing balls and playing house in your daddy's castle, the enemy was putting down roots right under your feet."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the imposter!" Hades grabbed Seth by the throat and pinned him to the floor, squeezing until his knuckles turned white. Seth fought against the immortal being as hard as he could. "You abandoned your mate and fell for the serpent's lies."
"Who is the serpent?" Giddeon asked, but his voice was muffled behind the barrier cast by Nemesis. Her wings were so large that they touched the floor, tipped in razors and reinforced by the armor covering her body.
"Atë took the form of Megara and seduced her way into your heart." Nemesis's seething glare flashed. Fangs elongated as she smiled and hissed at Seth. "I'll take you all to Tartarus if you don't hand her over."
"Sh-she isn't here."
Hades tore himself away from the shifter, breathing roughly as he placed the chain with Diana's soul around his neck. "Atë has the Sword of Zeus. That means he chose to side with her in the war to come. I need that weapon if I'm going to save her...right now, Diana is trapped in a loop of doppelgangers, reliving her death over and over."
"I don't know where Atë is," Seth said. Nemesis lowered her shields and Balor raced to his side. He was healed with the strength of his younger brother's power. When Seth was back on his feet, he grabbed the mirror from the wall and propped it at an angle. "Anyone know how to summon Adonis from his realm?"
"He's hidden somewhere."
"What?" Seth asked. "He was with Diana after the party."
"I went to her apartment and he wasn't there."
The cop part of Seth's brain kicked into overdrive. He returned to his room and grabbed his phone to call Deputy Harris. His partner met him at Diana's new apartment an hour later. They found fragments of the door lying in a pile of soot. Cerberus barked as Seth knelt down to touch the blood runes on the floor. "She trapped herself in the loop."
"Why?"
"She wanted to buy us time," he replied. "These are the same runes she used to transport herself to Hades' realm when we thought she had died before. Diana tore just enough of her soul into a doppelganger to prolong her death and got to her father, knowing he would capture the rest."
"How long do we have before she crosses over?"
Seth touched the blackened marks beside the runes and flinched. Visions flashed through his mind. "Atë has a Titan by her side...if it doesn't kill us all first, she may have three days at the most."
Chapter Fourteen
The Great Marsh
Underworld
"Wake up, Diana," a voice whispered. She blinked slowly, letting her vision adjust. Her muscles ached like she had run a marathon backward in the snow. The ground beneath her was wet, sodden earth that mushed beneath her palms as she tried to stand. Still waters surrounded a decrepit marsh that smelled of death and decay. Diana looked down at her arms and balked at the strange transparency of her skin.
"I'm dead."
"For most people, it isn't the first time," that eerie voice replied. Diana whirled around with a splash and looked for the source of that voice. "But to kill a goddess of your abilities...it would take a very powerful weapon to pull something like that off."
"Sword of Zeus."
"I meant a betrayal of untold magnitude," the voice chuckled. A gust of wind rustled her hair and a towering man with yellow eyes and black wings landed on the marsh. He wore velvet robes of sapphire and gazed at her with a cunning grin like the Cheshire Cat.
"Who are you?"
"Styx." He gave a grandiose bow. "And before you ask—the river was named after me, not the other way around."
"Are you a demon?"
"I'm offended," Styx said in jest. "No, I'm a lower-level deity. They weren't lying when they said you were beautiful."
"They?"
"The other gods. Much like you, I am a thorn in their side." Styx fluttered his wings and stretched like a lazy feline. "I know why I'm so hated. They're jealous of my limited-edition trading cards and my sick dance moves. You, on the other hand...that's more of a mystery. Tell me, Diana Hope Kelly, why do the gods want you dead?"
"My father?"
"Just because Hades has a bad rep with Zeus doesn't mean the others share his opinion," Styx supposed. "I'm rather fond of him myself, but I've always been fascinated by unusual things."
"I haven't done anything to deserve their hate. I've never even met my own mother."
"They want you dead for a reason. Think." Styx picked up a stone from the marsh and tossed it into the water. Hands reached up to claw at the air. "You're standing here now, but you won't be for long. You'll be caught in the loop again, and I don't know if I'll be able to pull you out twice."
"I had to do it…"
"You had to subject yourself to unending agony?"
Diana wrapped her arms around herself and nodded. "To save the others. If Atë and her minion get close enough to Giddeon and the others—”
"Wait!" Styx flew over to Diana in a flash. "What minion?"
"It was...like a shadow that smelled of brimstone and fire. But is powerful enough to force Adonis into a portal."
"I doubt the being you saw was Atë's minion. That was a Titan pulled from the cage in Tartarus. Only Zeus has the power to unleash the Titans," Styx claimed. "Atë is the minion."
"Why would Zeus want to punish Samael's sons enough to ally himself with Atë?"
"To prevent his own demise."
"But what could kill a god as powerful as Zeus other than a Titan?" she asked.
"You."
Diana shoved Styx away. "I'm not going to kill anyone."
"Come on, Diana. You
're the daughter of Death and Retribution. There are two sides to every coin. It is your love for the people you care about that keeps you from going to the darkness."
"I don't believe you."
"Seth would believe me if I told him," Styx said. "In fact, I'm willing to bet my own soul that he already had the vision."
"What vision?"
"Everyone with divine blood can see an echo of a prophecy from time to time. Some of us saw you rising as the Goddess of—”
"Dawn."
"Precisely," the winged deity replied. "Or you would plummet the world into darkness and cleanse the Earth with the fires of Tartarus. The Goddess of Damnation would sit upon a throne of corpses and rule over a kingdom stained in blood."
"No." She backed away only to trip over a lump of moss. Diana felt her knees buckle and pain returned with the memory of her death. "I'm not going to kill anyone."
"Even if it saves everyone?"
Diana sloshed through the murky water and clawed at the ground as hands pulled her down. A scream filled her lungs before it was replaced with marsh sludge. Diana held Seth's image in her mind as she returned to her apartment and relived the moment of her death over and over.
"Save them...save them all."
Wings wrapped around Diana and held her as she thrashed helplessly. Styx forced her to stare into his eyes and transported her back to the marsh. "You need to breathe, Diana. If you don't breathe, you'll die."
She stopped flailing and stared at him in confusion. "I'm already dead…"
"Then why are you afraid?"
"Is this some sort of joke to you?" she sobbed.
"Sort of, but that's not the point. The reason you're feeling pain at all is that you're still thinking like a human." Styx sat her on the marsh and pointed to her chest. "Who are you?"
"Diana Kelly."
"Keep going."
Diana closed her eyes and imagined she was floating on the clouds. "I am the daughter of Hades, God of Death, and Nemesis, Goddess of Retribution. I am the mate of Sethilos Black. I am the Goddess of The Dawn, a beacon of hope and light amongst the darkness."
Her eyes flew open when a searing pain scorched her wrist. The symbol that marked her as Seth's mate finally appeared.
~*~
Destiny Falls
Alaska
Deputy Harris tossed a wad of paper at Seth and muttered something under her breath. They had been tracking down Diana's killers using any network they could find. Seth ate, slept, and bathed at Diana's apartment each day as he called up every favor he could think of. Caleb even offered to use Atë's key until it had been taken from him by Nemesis before she hovered over Giddeon's shoulder at all times.
Seth worked tirelessly under Hades' supervision. Diana's father showed a spectrum of emotions he hadn't expected from the ancient deity. "We're missing something," Hades said for the hundredth time that hour.
Seth grabbed his side as pain spread along his skin. He lifted his shirt and watched as a symbol was burned into his flesh. Hades brushed his hands aside and placed his hand over the mark. A smile spread over Hades' face. "Diana...she's holding on."
"Can we save her?"
"We need to find her doppelganger," Hades replied. "If Diana remains strong in the marshes, Styx can help me resurrect her soul into the doppelganger."
"When the demon was hunting them, we found them all over town. They were never in the same place."
"I'll use my hellhounds." Hades released Seth and opened a portal. Four large beasts stepped into the mortal world, ready to obey their master's orders. "I'll contact you if I find it."
"What should I do?"
Hades hesitated before the portal. "Try to remember Diana as she was. There's a chance she may not come back the same."
"You can stop her from changing, right?"
"You had the vision," Hades snapped. "She's your mate, Seth. If anyone can stop it from coming to pass, it will be you. I just hope you have the common sense to apologize for your own stupidity."
The portal closed with a sizzle, and Seth blasted a hole in the wall. Dust puffed up from the broken plaster and crumbled to the floor, making a huge mess he would have to clean up later. "He never fails to remind me of my mistakes. As if I'm supposed to take the blame for everything."
"You were bewitched by a powerful goddess, Seth. I doubt Hades blames you for what happened," Harris huffed. "He's worried he won't be able to bring her back. No one has ever seen him like this. I've always thought the gods were just cruel and emotionless."
"Clearly not."
"What about Nemesis? How long will she be here?"
Seth had wondered the same thing many times. "She’ll want to speak with Diana, I’m sure. After that, I don’t know what to expect. All of this has been one fucked-up slap in the face with reality after another. Hell, a week ago, I wouldn’t have thought Madeu would save my life. He killed the man who practically raised him to keep me from dying, and now I can’t pretend that I don’t see the good inside of him.”
“I guess the whole point of this mess is to teach us that no one is perfect. We’re all made in the eyes of one god or another. This has shown me that even immortal beings are flawed creatures capable of making mistakes.” Harris leaned against the dining table and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ve been meaning to tell you…”
“Please tell me it isn’t more bad news.”
“That depends on how much your opinion of Madeu has changed.”
Seth scowled and took in his partner’s guarded posture. “I have my reservations, but I don’t despise him as much as I used to. I’m sure one family dinner could change that, though.”
“Good. Because Damien asked me to birth Madeu’s heir.”
“I wasn’t aware you knew Damien.”
“I didn’t,” she chuckled. “He tracked me down after you went berserk on Madeu and asked me to keep an eye on you. When he told me he was the alpha of a wolf pack, I let him know about my situation. Werewolves are different than wolf shifters, but he thinks joining his pack will give me some protection from human hunters who might try to find me.”
“And in return, you have his mate’s child?”
“I suppose.”
“How does your boyfriend feel about that?” Seth asked with genuine concern for his friend.
“I broke up with him.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Harris picked up the teacup that Diana had used the morning she was killed. Seth hadn’t been able to even look at the thing, let alone put it in the dishwasher. “Diana taught me to put the happiness of others before my own. She was willing to put on a brave face and stand tall if it meant you could find peace...even if it wasn’t with her. It was that selflessness that made the decision for me. I can barely control my change. Being with a human was too dangerous. I loved him, but I couldn’t put him through all of that.”
“Have you given your answer to Damien?”
“Yes,” she replied. “He’s talking to Madeu about it. The two of them argue worse than Rina and Caleb. The years to come will definitely be interesting, to say the least.” Harris set the cup down and moved closer to Seth. She bumped him with her shoulder and smiled. “Don’t worry, Sheriff. Diana loves you.”
“She’s my best friend. I think I was afraid of loving her because it meant I had another weakness that my enemies could use against me.”
“Octavius is dead.”
“He was a pawn,” Seth argued. “It’s the gods who have to answer for what has happened to all of us. I won’t let them take Diana away from me. Not again.”
“So, you’re going to claim her?”
“I will.”
“Then anyone who pisses you off should be very afraid.” Harris chuckled and pointed to Cerberus. “The freaking God of Death is going to be your father-in-law.”
Chapter Fifteen
The Great Marsh
Underworld
Diana felt a nagging sensation at the back of her mind. Sty
x lunged for her and swathed her in a cloak of shadow and ice as a wave of water crashed over the marsh. They were swept down the river Acheron at frightening speeds. She clung to her winged protector like a life raft. He cried out as they crashed against the riverbank. Diana’s magic surged, cocooning them in an aura of golden light as they burst through an unseen barrier. She sputtered and spit water onto hardwood floors. Large hands grasped her arms and slammed her into something harder than diamond.
Familiar eyes watched her from a haze of ruby smoke. Diana reached out and clawed her way towards her father. Hades lifted her into his arms, clutching her to his chest as he rocked her gently. Lips pressed to her temple and warmth chased away the cold. Styx scrambled away from Hades on his hands and leaned against a white wall smeared in ash. “N-no. Don’t kill me! I didn’t hurt her, I swear it,” he pleaded. Hades set Diana on her own two feet and helped Styx off of the floor. She saw the shock in the other man’s eyes as he stared down at the place where her father held him up as if he weighed nothing at all.
