It was a strange sensation, weightless and tingly, and the world had a clarity I couldn’t perceive with my own eyes. It was as if the potential of everything I looked at was visible, like a series of afterimages when I looked directly at an object.
But what I saw alarmed me. Crackling blue grids of electricity surrounded Jewel on four sides. The other two hounds were with her, all three of them trapped within a cage made of blue-white lightning.
I spun in the cage, looking for a structural weakness, but seeing none. Beyond the bars of the cage, however, was a sight that would be burned into my mind forever. This cage was within the abyss of torment I’d discovered earlier, and if the hound’s perspective was any indication, it was somewhere in the center, beneath the platform where Ouranos raped his victims.
I’d only seen the very top of the platform earlier, but that was enough for me to tell it was the pinnacle of a cylindrical inner tower descending at least as deep as the immense shaft. Given where this cage was situated, there must be an entire column of additional tiers with even more cages.
Above the cage was a low stone ceiling supported by a framework of close-set steel bars. A cage within a cage.
I spun again, stunned that I had been so close to my hounds and not sensed them. When I turned to face the opposite side, I heard a voice I recognized.
“So he really does have you trapped here too. I’m not sure whether to be relieved or give up all hope.”
The bitter laugh that followed made me edge closer to the crackling bars. When I peered through, I saw another, larger cage of lightning, and within it sat none other than Fate.
“You can see me?” I tried to say, but the words came out as a melodic warble.
Fate seemed to understand me anyway. “I know you’re in there, Deva Rainsong, which means you must be somewhere in Ouranos’ castle. It also means he wasn’t lying when he came to me earlier, gloating that he had convinced you to become his new bride.”
“Fuck that,” I spat. The hound warbled in disgust.
Fate chuckled. “I highly doubted it. He believes what he wants.”
It stood and stepped closer, emerging from the shadows. What I saw was nothing like the Fate I remembered from our last two meetings.
“You look different,” I said, the hound’s vocalizations starting to sound coherent now.
“I have many aspects. The neutral, androgynous Fate I present to most is what I showed to you. This is the aspect I shared with the Mother Dragon.”
This version of Fate that stood within the cage was a lithe figure and unmistakably male. He was naked and quite well-endowed, his skin a pale lavender shimmering with inner light. His hair was slightly darker and combed close to his head, shorn on the sides and back.
“Are you stuck in that shape?” I asked.
“No. But after my first encounter with Ouranos, I’ve learned to present the most distasteful image possible. He enjoyed me too much as a meek and fearful female. He won’t lay a finger on me while I look like this.”
“Is this the same aspect that mated with Gaia?” I asked, curiosity overtaking me. I had read every book I could get my hands on about Fate, but none of them provided much detail about its distinct aspects that had helped create the higher races.
“No. Gaia’s preferences lean toward larger, hairier men. Like this . . .”
Fate transformed, his muscles swelling, shoulders broadening. A dusting of dark purple curls covered him from chest to groin. This was a shape any ursa female would easily be attracted to, with longer hair and a full beard to finish off the image.
“Don’t ask me to show you the aspect I shared with Dionysus. She is quite special to me, and I would rather not have her tainted by the confines of Ouranos’ cage. The only reason I gave Dionysus leave to woo my dragon daughter was because I owed him dearly for my betrayal. I have loved all my mates, but I cannot remain bound to any of them. Dionysus was the only one who never understood that, who was hurt by it. The nymphaea are a similarly thin-skinned race, so please take care with the feelings of your satyr mate.”
My eyes pricked with hot tears at the memory of how cruel I had been to Llyr, believing he’d betrayed me when it had been my own failing.
“I will,” I said. “If I ever get out of here.”
“You are far too precious to Ouranos for him to let you escape.”
“Well, he can’t mate me. He says he wants to make me a goddess, but my soul is still incomplete, and there’s no way it will ever be, thanks to whatever you did. Ozzie’s forgotten how he felt about me.”
Fate bristled, straightening and clenching his fists. “Forgotten? That is not possible. When I returned his soul fragment, I intended for him to remember you, but exist without you. I wanted to teach him how it felt to be abandoned by Fate and live in a world where his love no longer existed, either. His memories were the key to his torture.”
“Well, whatever you did, that’s not how it turned out,” I snapped. “We got him back, and he was definitely in a place where you didn’t exist, but he had no memories of me. He claimed Ouranos was the one who had cursed the turul to never feel love.”
Fate paced to the back of his cage, shaking his head. “This was not my intention. Parting you two was meant to provoke you into a stronger bond. You would have come to Ouranos already complete and able to defeat him the moment the gods granted you divinity. The fact that he holds you captive is a risk. If your mates try to rescue you, they will be in danger, but he is counting on that to happen. He’s encouraging it.”
My head spun at these revelations. “This was your plan all along? Why the hell didn’t you just tell me to begin with? I suffered for weeks without him!”
Fate gave me a weary look. “If it were that easy to orchestrate the fall of a god, I would have. The second I shared any of my plan with you, it would have fallen apart. Ouranos would have known about it the very moment he learned the curse was broken. As it was, he suspected some kind of plot against him, though he didn’t know the details. He still doesn’t know the details—that you are the weapon meant to take him down. The problem is you still lack the power to do it without your turul soul.”
My heart sank. “And he’s counting on Ozzie reaching me to complete my soul so I can serve as the broodmare he wants me to be. Has he helped Ozzie reclaim his memories?”
“That I do not know, but your turul loved you before you became soul mates. If he managed to track you as far as the realm of the gods, chances are he will remember soon.”
“And he’ll come for me when he does, but I’m at a disadvantage as long as I’m Ouranos’ prisoner. What the hell am I supposed to do?”
“You still have the advantage of proximity, but you need your soul to be complete before you can act.”
“And I need Ozzie to find me for that to happen,” I mused. “Is there a way for me to communicate with him from inside this castle? If I can warn them to be on their guard . . .”
Fate shook his head. “Ouranos’ castle is surrounded by strong winds. Very little magic can breach the barrier. He is paranoid the other gods are out to get him,” he added with a snort.
I frowned. “I saw Blaze, though. If one of my hounds can reach me to give me a sign, maybe I can reach it?”
“Blaze,” Fate said with a bemused smile. “You have named them. You are perhaps more adept at this role than I hoped you would be.
“I gather Blaze is the one who escaped,” he continued. “The poor creatures fought together to weaken the barrier of their cage enough that one of them could sneak through. Perhaps if it has managed to escape the castle, it has found other weaknesses . . .”
With a pensive furrowing of his brow, Fate seemed to consider this possibility for the next several moments until finally, he shrugged. “It’s worth a try, but I wouldn’t do it from in here. Ouranos likes to interrogate me in the evenings, ask me to share my secrets with him.”
“And do you?” I asked, already aware that Fate must have been the one to i
nform Ouranos that he need not try to seduce me in order to impregnate me.
“I tell him whatever will help further my agenda. Surely you’ve learned that about me by now.”
I quirked a brow. “Was getting shoved into a cage in his castle part of your agenda?”
“No,” Fate said bitterly. “He caught me off-guard. I mistakenly believed he was less of a fool. When my protective spell on the turul was broken, he should have come for you. Instead he came for me, believing the spell’s termination was a sign I hoped to rekindle our relationship. He locked me in here when I refused to submit to him a second time. It took him weeks to discover the truth.”
I started to thank Fate for enduring Ouranos’ torture when I realized what he’d said.
“You knew he would come for me? Did you know he would curse the turul to get my attention? You didn’t think to maybe give me a heads-up first?”
Jewel’s warbling vocalizations rose in pitch. On either side of me, Boots and Jimi had roused, their ears perking up as they stared at Fate.
“Because If I recall,” I continued at a hiss, “I had already promised you I would do this for you. That I would get Chaos to help. You didn’t have to torture Ozzie to make it happen!”
Fate crossed his arms and with a scowl. “Chaos does whatever strikes his fancy. He’s an unreliable ally, but was enough of a threat for me to be more circumspect about getting you to help. I couldn’t approach you directly—you would have turned me down. The only way to get back at Ouranos is to let him have you.”
Sighing, he dropped his arms. “Though I had hoped you would be at full power when he took you. You are my Trojan horse, Deva, except you only hold eighty percent of your army when you need all of it to beat him.”
“Well, you have yourself to blame for that,” I bit.
“Quite true,” he conceded, “but the trials I put you through were by design. It seems the last one is just a little overdue. You need to complete it with your final soul fragment to prove your power to the gods. Once you do, they will see your worth. They will bless you and make you one of them. Once you have that power, you can strike.”
“What is this trial?” I asked, tired of fighting against the creature in the other cage. Though he may be confined, he obviously hadn’t stopped meddling in my life, and he probably never would.
“Your mates will come. It’s inevitable, if the memories I saw in your mind are any indication. When I restored your memories to you, I saw the spell that made you forget. Ozzie was under a similar spell that no doubt didn’t trigger until I sent him away. Unfortunate chain of events, that, but we’re past it now. But such spells only exist in the realm of the gods.”
Comprehension flooded me with painful sharpness. “He promised he would remember for us both,” I whispered. “Are you saying he made a request to forget me?”
“It’s the only explanation. I thought nothing of it when I sent him away, and I will take the blame for my carelessness. Losing you must have triggered it.”
It all made sense now. And if Ozzie and my other mates had continued the quest for his memories, they would have asked Dionysus to bring them back here. I was suddenly both elated and terrified by the certainty they were coming for me.
“Tell me what to do,” I said with more determination this time.
Fate smiled. “Good girl.”
25
Deva
I released control of Jewel after absorbing as much information as I could from Fate. The key to the plan would be my ability to use my power to its fullest effect. I intended to spend every second I had honing that magic until I had to use it, and while I did that, I needed to settle something with Ouranos.
My consciousness flowed back into my own body and I opened my eyes. I put myself together quickly, using as little magic as possible to tidy my hair and clothe myself in a familiar outfit that to me felt more like armor. It was what I wore on stage, and was what I felt most myself in, not to mention most powerful.
In my head, I heard Ozzie’s song, and I began to sing it softly to myself as I exited the room.
I was still missing the last fragment of my soul, but I’d found the rhythm of the pieces I had twice before, most recently in the clutches of the very god I hoped to beat. It was highly likely I’d have to summon my magic in a similarly dire situation, but I hoped to have more control.
In the hallway outside, I exhaled a long breath, infusing it with all the elemental magic I possessed. The magic formed a golden cloud in front of me that rained down upon the stones at my feet. The water sank in deep, became one with the castle itself, yet it remained bound to my consciousness, allowing me to use it as an extension of my senses.
My jaw clenched at my awareness of all the tortured souls within the castle, but if all went as planned, they would be free soon. Once I gained my final soul fragment, I could dismantle Ouranos’ entire castle with a thought, but I would have to make sure to get all his captives to safety first.
Descending deeper, I finally found the core of Ouranos’ power. The very bottom tier of the castle was oddly the most fragile. Cloaked in a cloud of magic more concentrated than even the ursa Sanctuary’s magic barrier, the bottom floor of the tower was the largest. It extended beyond the stone walls and was almost entirely surrounded by glass, affording a view of the realm of the gods that left me breathless in the face of its beauty.
I knew better than to ascribe this part of the structure to any sentimental urge on Ouranos’ part. While the realm of the gods was spectacular and vast, no doubt he saw himself as holding dominion over it.
The god’s personal dwelling had all the comforts of any of the most luxuriously appointed resorts the band had stayed in. It was ten times the size of Ozzie’s Malibu house, with an oval pool at least a hundred feet, deep. As I observed, Ouranos plunged into the water, slicing through all the way to the bottom.
He breached the surface and proceeded to swim several swift laps down the pool’s length before hauling himself out and striding, naked and wet, up a set of stone steps.
I sent my magic on, following his wet footsteps as he stopped upon a dais and settled down on a silken upholstered lounge. A pair of women attended him, kneeling on either side with fluffy white towels to pat him dry from head to toe. He gazed out at the view, seemingly oblivious to their presence.
They served Ouranos without him voicing any requests, so I presumed this must be his daily routine. One woman handed him a tall, cool beverage while the other settled at his feet and began to massage them.
It was all so indulgent and surprisingly banal for someone with such brutal disregard for the welfare of any other creature.
But his expression was anything but serene. He glared out at the vista, sipping his drink without seeming to enjoy it, or the attentions of the two women. The second had moved behind him to massage his broad shoulders, the repetition of their actions seeming to calm both her and her counterpart, but the more relaxed they became, the angrier Ouranos looked.
The woman at his shoulders let her hands stray low over his chest, practically caressing as she might a lover.
Ouranos’ knuckles whitened around his glass, and when it gave under the strength of his grip, he drowned the sound of its shattering with a roar. The women stumbled back, cowering as he shot up from his seat. He flung the remnants of the glass and snapped his arm out to grab the woman behind him by the hair, hauling her over the back of his lounge.
“Never forget who I am, whore,” he spat in her face. “You will fear me, or I will remind you to fear me.”
He snatched at the front of the simple gown she wore, tearing it open, then spun her around and pressed her face hard against the cushions. He leered at the other woman as she huddled against a potted tree.
“Never forget who you serve.”
He ripped the remaining scraps of gown off the woman beneath him, grinning wickedly as she began to plead for mercy. Wrapping his big hand around the side of her hip, he squeezed hard and yanked he
r backside toward him.
I couldn’t watch him do this again. It was painfully apparent now that his domination and brutalization of the women he held captive had nothing to do with sexual desire. His cock was his weapon—a tool of torture and no more.
If it was pleasure he sought through these acts, I might have found it easier to leverage my own talents against him, but he spoke an entirely different language—one that didn’t even view me as an equal.
But Ouranos underestimating my power could work to my advantage, which was why I knew it was a bad idea to reveal myself now, but if I didn’t, he would follow through with raping this woman. I couldn’t let that happen.
I materialized in the spot where the woman had stood moments earlier. He didn’t see me at first, too busy working his cock to stiffen it enough to penetrate his victim.
“Having a little issue?” I asked.
His head shot up and he stared at me as if he’d seen a ghost.
“Emphasis on little,” I added, shooting an exaggerated look at his half-hard dick. He was by no means small, but I wasn’t about to offer him any compliments.
Without a second glance, he shoved the terrified woman away. She stumbled on the broken glass, and I winced at the bloody footprints she left in her wake as she grabbed the other woman’s hand, fleeing with her toward some other corner of his vast domicile.
Ouranos grabbed a robe hanging over the steel railing separating this viewing spot from the rest of the space. “I should have put a lock on your door.”
“You told me this was my home, so why shouldn’t I be able to explore? You already showed me your play room.” I suppressed a tone of disgust, working to make my words sound suggestive instead. He didn’t seem to pick up on the nuance at all.
“How did you get in here?” he demanded, narrowing his eyes. “The path isn’t straightforward from the upper floors.”
Fate's Fools Box Set Page 118
