10. A God Who Knows
Chapter 10
A God Who Knows
T he second I saw him start to take a step forward, I acted on impulse, shouting,
“NO!” Then I lunged at him, tackling him to the side of the fountain and coming to a stop with the water just an inch away from my face. It was so close that I could feel the damp air around the gravity defying waterfall caress my skin. I released a relieved breath knowing how close we had both come to touching the forbidden.
“What… the… fuck… are you… doing?!” Marcus wheezed after I had knocked the air from him and, no doubt, winded the fucker.
“What do you think I am doing? Saving your arse, that’s what!” I barked back, getting to my feet and offering him a hand. As for his own, it moved from cradling his side where I had knocked him down, and he cautiously accepted my help.
“Saving my arse from what?” he asked as I heaved him up so as we were both now facing each other.
“From yourself, you dickhead, what else?” I answered in frustration, making his eyes widen before he looked to the fountain and then back at me.
“What exactly do you think I was doing?” he asked, making me sigh.
“I know, Marcus, I know exactly what you were about to do,” I replied, refusing to say the words. To which he looked around me to my brother and asked,
“And you, you also think the same?”
“I sure as fuck know what it looked like, pencil dick,” my brother replied.
I looked back at him and lifted a brow, making him shrug his shoulders and comment,
“I don’t have to be nice to his face.”
This was something Marcus ignored in favor of asking,
“So, let me get this straight, you both really thought that I about to take a swan dive to my death because you wouldn’t listen to fucking reason, that about right?”
I gritted my teeth at this and said, “You know what? Go ahead, sorry to have bothered you.” Then I turned around and started walking away, too pissed off with this shit, knowing he wouldn’t let me get far … and I was right.
“Yeah well, I thought you would have wanted me dead!” he shouted, making me take pause to look back at him and say,
“Well, now you know.” Then I continued making my way back toward the door that led into Afterlife, knowing that my brother was following. Only when I didn’t hear a third pair of feet doing so, I said,
“Well, idiot, you comin’, or what?” I didn’t wait for an answer, as it was like I said… I knew my best friend.
Because despite my anger, now that I’d had time to calm and listen to my brother, I knew that I had acted irrationally. Because Orthrus had been right, Marcus hadn’t asked for his Fate any more than any of us had. Nor had he asked for the threat of being punished from saying too much or preventing outcomes preordained by the Gods.
No, he had already suffered that consequence the once and, clearly, that shit made an everlasting impact.
“Okay, not that I am looking a gift horse in the mouth here…”
“Fucking weird saying, that,” Orth commented, making Marcus explain,
“You can tell a horse’s age by looking at its teeth.”
“Yeah, and?” my brother asked.
“And that is where the saying comes from, shit for brains. What? No protein shake today?” he goaded.
“Wow, just gotta say, I am so glad you don’t feel suicidal anymore, but hey just in case, should we go back and stare at the fucking fountain some more? I swear not to push your arse in.”
I couldn’t help but grin at my brother’s retort, making Marcus groan before complaining,
“I wasn’t trying to kill myself, dumbbells, how many times do I need to say it?” he argued, making me grit my teeth just at the thought of him doing something so fucking stupid.
“Then what were you doing, Marcus?” I asked, making him sigh and when he didn’t answer, I stopped walking and raised a brow at him. “Well?”
“If you must know, I was there asking for a free pass, alright?” he said as if embarrassed and making me feel even more like a dick. Because even after everything I had said, everything I had done, here he was still trying to give me what I wanted.
“You were praying?” I asked, needing to hear him say it, and knowing that if it was true, just how rare that was… just how desperate he had been.
I watched his whole body tense, all jokes far from this joker’s mind.
“You want to hear me say it?” he asked in defeated way.
“Yeah, I wanna hear you say it, Marcus,” I told him, now folding my arms, waiting for what I needed.
A show of loyalty.
At this he shrugged his shoulder and admitted,
“Of course, I fucking prayed, alright? It’s Cookie.” The last part was said in a pained way that had me closing my eyes as that same pain ripped through me once again.
“Yeah, it is,” I heard myself say, opening my eyes when I felt my brother’s hand at my shoulder.
“We will get her back, J.”
I could only nod at this, unable to form words without my fear lacing them.
“I don’t suppose the God of Time answered you, did he?” Orthrus asked Marcus, who for the first time graced the temple with a cunning grin. One far more suited to the calculating friend I knew.
“No, but he gave me a name, and wouldn’t you know it, it just so happens to be the next stop on my list.”
“Well, you’re not fucking going alone,” I told him, and like always, my brother became the voice of reason.
“I second that, but first we need to think about this and make a plan before we rush in without anyone even knowing we have gone.”
“He’s right,” I agreed, making Orthrus look smugly at Marcus.
“Not so much of a dumbass now, am I?”
“No, but I wouldn’t get too cocky… after all, a broken clock can be right twice a day,” Marcus said, slapping his gloved hand to his chest twice in a condescending way before continuing on to where we had been headed.
As much as I wanted to go high-tailing it off to the Underworld, I also knew I could be walking straight into Garmr’s trap. Something that wouldn’t help Ella. No, I needed to play this smart and not let my emotions rule over my head.
Information was what I needed. Knowledge had always been power for a King and now more than ever.
So, by the time I walked back into the Janus door leading to Afterlife, the cogs in my mind were spinning double speed.
“Thank fuck for that,” I heard Orth comment, making me look back to find his phone in hand holding it up high. “Shit signal in the temple,” he told me.
Marcus rolled his eyes and muttered,
“Yeah, not sure Janus cared much for your cell service when creating the Temple… underground.” He added this last part in a dry tone to make his point, although my brother was ready with one of his own.
“Devil’s gets service… besides, that’s just stupid if you ask me… I mean, he’s the God of past, present and future, you would have thought the guy would have thought ahead,” Orth said as he waited for an answer on the other end of the call, now ignoring Marcus who slapped a hand to his forehead and called my brother a half-wit.
“Satish, gather the men, have them come to the library… I don’t know, ask for fucking directions… Jeez, you’re a fucking genius, man, I am sure you can navigate your way to where books are kept,” Orth said before hanging up and tossing me the phone. “You better call the King and let him know we have a plan.”
I caught it and dialed his number, one I had long ago since memorized when Ella lost her memory and went missing. I had broken enough phones in that time to come to learn what a pain in the arse it was having to keep transferring numbers. So, in the end, his number had been the one I had memorized. This was also before Satish thought it best to stock up with them already pre-programed ready to go.
“Dom, yeah, it’s me. Look, we think we might have a plan. We are in the library and if that’s Smidge I can hear in the background, tell her no, he’s not dead and yes, I kept my promise…” I looked at Marcus when I said this and didn’t miss the emotion I saw there, knowing her concern for him wouldn’t go unnoticed.
“…Yeah, see you in a few minutes.” I then ended the call and tossed it back to Orth.
“So, does this mean you actually have a plan that doesn’t include running solo straight into Hades’ Underworld, trying to tear it apart looking for her?” my brother asked, reminding me of my furious rant shortly after banishing my best friend from my council.
Well, one glance to my left to find Marcus casually leaning against one of the bookshelves was enough to tell me how long that had lasted.
But then again, I had just found him trying to fix his shit, so how angry could I be knowing that he hadn’t just abandoned me in my time of need? So, after looking from Marcus to then my brother, I told them both,
“Yeah, I have a plan.” Something that came out sounding far more confident than I actually felt. Because when it came to Red, then I knew there was no way I could fuck this up. Not when her life could be on the line.
In fact, the only comfort I could find in this shit show of Fate, was that the fucker, Garmr, obviously needed her alive. I knew this much, at least, because the HellHounds had only ever been sent with the intention to take her back to Hell. And it was clear Garmr could not pass over to this mortal plane and if he could, then he was obviously vulnerable enough to think twice about it.
“Care to share with the rest of the class?” my brother pushed, making me answer him,
“I will when they get here.”
Speaking of which, Satish was the first to walk through the door, and the first thing he said was in reference to their earlier phone call.
“Computer genius, Orth, books are kinda fucking pointless when it comes to tracking shit.”
I had to smirk at that because, well… he wasn’t wrong. But there was little time for the banter to continue as he was followed by the rest of my men. Otto and his husband, Chase, were the next to enter, followed by Czar’s large frame and then Icarius, who we usually referred to as Greek as a nickname.
Lastly, there was Smidge, whose red eyes told enough of a story of how she had been spending her time since I saw her in the VIP. Something that didn’t go unnoticed as Marcus finally lost his relaxed posture, his gaze finding hers before she cut the connection by turning away.
I inwardly sighed. I had long ago given up hope for these two ever getting together and well, now at the very least I knew why. Seekers were chosen but Oracles were created and then owned, their loyalty given to only one master. Which made sense to me now as to why Marcus hadn’t ever gone down that road with Smidge.
Usually, it was forbidden for those born of Hell to claim those of Heaven, hence why such unions were practically unheard of. And Smidge was essentially an Angel. However, Seekers were neither, so the same rules didn’t always apply to them. Not unless they had been Chosen by the Fates after they had been reborn into one form or the other.
Basically, it was complicated shit, that I thanked fuck I hadn’t had to deal with personally. But as for Marcus and Smidge, it seemed to be the story of their lives together. It was no doubt why he looked like he was about to walk over to her, but purposely stopped himself as an expression I had seen so many times before fell over his face like a shroud…
It was acceptance of one’s fate.
Not a look you would see on my face today, for there was no chance I was accepting any other outcome than having Red back by my side.
Now, how the fuck I was to achieve that, I didn’t yet know, as well, I had to be honest, I was half winging this plan of mine. A plan that I knew that by the time this meeting had finished, would have no doubt changed a few times over.
And if we didn’t all agree…
Then fuck it…
I would go it alone.