Chapter 30 Caelus
Caelus
I don’t like this, I grumbled to the giant wolf breathing down my neck.
I am aware.
It chafes at me. It’s wrong. Something might happen to her.
It might, he sent back, alleviating exactly none of my current concerns. But she is strong, and so are you, even though you’re whining like a week-old pup at the present moment.
I frowned.
And she is Queen. You’re both going to have to make decisions that ‘chafe’ from time to time. This is merely the first.
You’re awful at pep talks, you know.
I wasn’t aware this was a pep talk.
It isn’t any longer, I grumbled.
Vibrations emanated from the back of his throat in what could only be described as lupine laughter. She will be fine. She’s not going to the frontlines, and Kronos wouldn’t dare go to the Underworld for fear of being sent back to Tartarus.
After a moment, I nodded. That was peppier, thank you.
Rolling laughter came again, and this time, I let his amusement give rise to my own.
“Ready?” Aros asked, brows raised in Lykos’ direction.
“As I’ll ever be,” I replied, unsheathing Ceraunos from his sheath on my back. Aros responded likewise, drawing Flameless as we approached the shadowgate to Strathos.
“Be prepared for anything. We’ve given that urchin of a king a few minutes now to hatch a plot against us with whoever was on the other side,” he said, using his axe to point at the gate.
“Keep your eyes peeled for any sign of Ares, Kronos, or Hera. While we suspect they’re centralising their efforts in Othryx, we cannot say for certain, and Strathos would be the next logical place.
They control the realm’s warriors and are the only openly undeclared kingdom in this war. ”
Every head in our party nodded, and the sounds of steel scraping leather followed as more weapons were drawn.
It’s funny — I thought it would be hard to follow someone else’s lead when I’ve been raised my entire life to rule.
Lykos’ large golden eyes blinked as he waited for me to finish the thought.
But I’d follow Nyssa into Tartarus itself without batting an eye, and Aros was born to lead armies. He was the best decision she’s yet made as Queen.
Don’t let him hear you say that. His head will grow as large as other appendages have been known to do.
I snorted, causing said flamewielder to frown in our direction.
“Let’s go,” he said, leading us into the doorway to nothingness.
Arius waited with arms crossed and one sandaled foot tapping on the stone floor, though he seemed a little paler than when he’d left the Isle.
Methinks the mortal’s stomach doth rebel.
Lykos sniffed the air between us and the mortal king, then growled slightly as if doing so had offended him.
Methinks the mortal king doth require a change of outfit, he quipped back.
And no sooner had he sent the thought, did the unmistakable scent of human shit waft up my unprepared nostrils.
Your nose is really something, I told him as I coughed around both the foul smell and the hilarity of the wolf’s comment.
In this case, unfortunately.
“What—” Aros gagged around his own question, narrowing his eyes at the lone figure standing before us. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Really, man? You shit yourself?”
Arius’ eyes widened briefly before he threw up his mental defenses and initiated his trademark scowl — albeit with flushed cheeks. “I would never!”
“Save it,” Aros scoffed, tapping the side of his nose. “Gods, remember? Enhanced senses.”
The king’s eyes went even wider than before, his face immediately losing all colour as he stuttered incoherently.
“Go… tend to yourself. Then show us what you wanted us to see.”
Arius disappeared quicker than a centaur in a running race, leaving Aros, Haras, Erato, Diana and I fighting childish giggles and avoiding eye contact for the next several minutes.
Arius reappeared with a damp periskelis, smelling infinitely better — more like fresh, floral lake water and less like shit.
“Right this way.” The king gestured to the temple’s open exterior doors, painted red and gold with that same sword-and-spear symbol his ship’s banners bore.
We moved to follow him, but not before Aros could grip Diana by the upper arm, swing her round to face him, and snarl a warning in her slightly terrified face.
“I don’t trust you,” he growled.
Nor do I, Lykos growled his agreement.
“And the only reason you’re here is because I cannot trust you around my Queen any more than I’d trust a viper in a rabbit warren.”
Diana grit her teeth but held her furious tongue.
“One fuck-up and you’re done.” She inhaled to speak but he didn’t allow it, speaking right over her. “One whisper of treachery and I’ll ensure you’re exiled so far from Olympus they won’t even speak the same language, let alone know who you are.”
“You cannot do that,” she seethed.
“Perhaps not, but he can.” His blazing amber eyes flicked to me. “Or more accurately, his soul-bonded can — and will, as much as it might pain her to do so. She granted you a chance here, Diana. Do not waste it.”
Relinquishing her arm with a sharp shove, he stormed out the doors to join the irritated king.
“Noted,” Diana grumbled, rubbing where Aros held her hostage.
“He made his point violently, but he’s not wrong,” I murmured, brows lowered as I considered Diana and her many opposing motives.
“If you’re only here to save your own hide, then fair enough — but do not go after Nyssa on your path to freedom.
She faces enough without that threat lurking behind her every move, too. ”
I stalked after Aros, hoping the snake in our midst would see reason… her serpent, too.
“I meant what I said, too!” Diana called after me, halting my footsteps. “I never liked that bitch Hera anyway, and I know she’s your mother but frankly, I do not care.”
I snorted a half-there laugh, refusing to face her and let her see that she’d gotten to me in some small way.
“My mother thought she was doing the right thing — thought she was asking me to do the right thing. I have no desire to betray our queen, and I will do whatever it takes to prove to her, you, him, and everybody else that the blood of Artemis runs true. We are not some flitful beings, jumping between one side and the other, depending on who we think will win. We have made our decision, and are with you — to whatever end may befall our generation.”
I turned my head, addressing her without fully looking back. “I hope that’s true.”
Erato waited just outside the doors, matching my pace as we joined Aros and Arius on the grass.
“Do you want my opinion?”
I twisted, shooting her a raised brow. “Do I have a choice?”
“Not really.” She grinned. “I think she means it.”
“And what hidden power do you possess to tell when someone’s being truthful?”
She shrugged, tossing her auburn hair over one shoulder. “None, but when you do what I do for a living, you learn very quickly to read a person’s body language.”
“And what is it that you do?”
Erato winked, sashaying forwards. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”
I blinked, momentarily perplexed.
Foot down, godling.
I followed Lykos’ instruction without thinking, only then realising that I’d frozen mid-step, one foot several inches above the earth. I cleared my throat to distract watching eyes from my feet, but Aros still caught it, raising both brows in a sorely unimpressed stare.
“Where to now?” I directed the question at the waiting king.
“Nowhere just yet,” he answered cryptically — which enraged me.
Lightning sparked across my skin and my vision narrowed to his arrogant face.
He was one misstep away from being electrified and he didn’t even know it.
It arced and struck a tree in the clearing behind him — which, perhaps, clued him in a little to his waning safety — though I hadn’t consciously decided to do so.
“This is hallowed ground,” he said, instinctively leaning away from me. His body knew the danger even if his mind hadn’t fully comprehended it. “Many of our warriors fell here during the Titan War and we honour their spirits by coming here to pray before battle.
“We pray to Ares and ask for his guidance. We pray to our comrades, fallen before us, that they may guide our hands and give us a little extra time before we join them beyond the veil.”
“Veil?”
“The veil between life and death. We believe it is but a short journey to the other side — travelable by one minor incident: misreading an attack, forgetting to block, one slip of the wrist, or misplaced foot.”
“True enough,” Aros conceded.
“So you pray?” I asked.
“We pray. And if we are lucky, Ares answers.”
Aros scoffed. “You’re more likely to have been answered by Nike or me. Even Phobos and Deimos would bless you before Ares would deign to grant your wishes.”
“That may be so,” Arius allowed. “But it is the mindset we need more than the actual blessing. A warrior who believes he has been tapped on the shoulder by the Primal god of war, is untouchable, insurmountable, indefeatable because it is what he believes.”
Aros nodded, clearly interested. “I have seen as much.”
“Then, after the battle is won, lost, or both sides have withdrawn, we come home to our families. Our wives. Our children, if Hera deems we should have them.
“But some do not return home, and it is their families I wish you to meet.”
“Alright, then. Lead the way,” Aros instructed the surprisingly layered king.
Arius spun on his heel and entered the nearby treeline. For a little over an hour, we walked in silence, on an easily identifiable path winding through the pines leading mostly east.
Each with different reasons for our lack of scintillating conversation, I was left to my thoughts — and those of my interrupting wolf.
A lot has happened in the last few days.
It has.
I wasn’t speaking to you, Lykos.
You’re certainly thinking very loudly, then.
I scowled in his general direction as he slunk through the trees somewhere to our right.
She let me in.