Chapter 38 Caelus
Caelus
The second a large globule of crimson hit my shoulder, I lost my shit. Lightning smote the hideous lizard-hybrid Ceraunos had just torn through, and I whirled on my wolf, inspecting every inch of his hide for damage in the span of a breath.
He was splattered in scarlet droplets and I cursed.
Where are you injured? Let me see? I demanded of the snarling beast.
This doesn’t belong to me.
An ear-splitting screech rent the air, a sound so cut-throat and tortured the battle around us seemed to pause to look skyward.
Velira cut across the sky above us like she was a clay puppet and someone above was haphazardly pulling her strings, jarring her this way and that, every beat of her wings rough and out of time.
Blood streamed from the underside of her belly, striking the ground in waves that fell in sheets between each beat of her lilac wings. She dipped too low, and climbed too slowly, battling gravity as much as air. The next time she plunged, my heart sank.
The only reason Vel would be bleeding and carting an empty saddle was if things had gone very, very wrong.
Nightshade?
No answer. Her emotions were but a fleeting, wisp inside me.
“Did anyone see where the dragon came from?!” I bellowed.
Evie shook her head, Aros’ whipped around so fast he ought to have whiplash. He took one look at my features and blanched.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.” Even I could feel the devastation etch its way across my face.
Nightshade? I tried again, desperate to hear her voice echoing around my skull.
After a brief, agonising pause where it was hard to breathe, I finally got one word of a faint response: Busy.
“Something happened and I need to get to her now,” I growled at her Blade, who was equally as responsible for her wellbeing as I was.
Aros nodded, then hefted his axe into the eyesocket of a lunging beast. “Which way?”
It killed me to say this twice in as many minutes, but a second, “I don’t know,” spilled from my lips.
Aros roared his frustration at the sky, then shouted, “Where did that fucking dragon come from?! Somebody find out and tell me immediately!”
The warriors in our immediate vicinity all yelled, “Yes, sir!” and scattered like mice in different directions.
Suddenly, the air whooshed out of my lungs and I doubled over, gasping for breath.
“Caelus?” Aros asked, clutching my shoulder with bloodstained fingers. “Caelus? What’s wrong?”
What is wrong? I asked myself.
And then I realised what I should have in the first instance: this was not my pain but hers.
Nightshade, where are you?!
No sooner than I realised that, did something hit me upside the head, knocking me so far off balance I might as well have been doing a backflip.
Nightshade!
Something was beating her senseless — and I was going to tear them to shreds.
The fastest storm I’d ever conjured appeared above our heads. Thunder cracked louder than an explosion, lightning struck in an arc around us, and rain pelted down, washing our gore-coated skins.
I don’t know exactly. Apollo does, her hushed answer finally came.
“Where’s Apollo?”
Evie answered first. “On the dunes, aiding refugees and the wounded.”
I met Aros’ intense amber gaze. “Apollo knows where she is.”
He didn’t question how I knew, or what I needed next.
He just began slashing through monster and mortal alike to get to the sun god a league east of where we currently were.
His enemies — our enemies — dropped like blades of grass before him, split in two by Flameless or set alight by his or Evie’s fire.
Where Ceraunos could not pierce the beasts’ scaled flesh, Lykos tore through them with his teeth, or lightning struck them where they stood.
The streets trembled as we approached.
The skies roared with urgency, lit up by a thousand consecutive lightning strikes.
Golden? I could use your help now.
We’re on our way. Don’t give up, I pleaded with her, and begged of the Fates.
Don’t let her give up. Don’t let her give in. Keep her safe until I can.
“Where is Apollo?” Aros roared as we finally reached the congregation site on the edge of the dunes outside Hellespont. Someone bolted to fetch him.
I gasped as something ice-cold and wicked-sharp skewered my heart. So visceral was the feeling that I looked down, expecting to see an arrow sticking out of my chest.
There was nothing.
My own dread bolstered the feeling and the icy dagger splintered; the shards forcing their way through each of my veins, slowly scraping down all of my limbs, until I could do nothing but freeze, paralysed by the sheer terror of it.
Terror.
Not mine.
Hers.
And then came the message that broke me.
Golden? I’m so sorry.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to rage. I wanted to swoop in and save her from whatever was scaring her so badly she felt the need to apologise for it.
A dark hand on my sternum, followed by a pulse of warm, golden light broke whatever spell her terror had cast over me. Apollo was here, and his expression mimicked my own: pure, unadulterated fear.
He said nothing at all, just pointed to a strangely untouched section of the city, and I didn’t stop to consider the rest, I just ran as fast as my legs could carry me. Distractedly, I heard the distinct thud of following footsteps but I didn’t care to see who it was.
I cursed the drain on whatever remnant of her shadows she’d given me when I had to force souls home on the Isle.
I cursed that I had nothing left to shadowstep directly to her.
And I cursed whatever had the ability to supersede her own strengths because the next thing I felt from her was the cold, dark absence of terror.
It was the absence of everything. It was surrender and resignation and it was terrifying.
Almost there, don’t you dare give up, I told her; begged her.
And then I cried out and fell to my knees. Pain so profound I surely must have been dealt an immediate death blow, barraged through me like a tidal wave.
“Caelus?!” Aros shouted, grabbing my shoulder. Alarm set his irises alight as he scanned my body for any signs of damage. Finding none, he frowned. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Agony prevented me from speaking, from making any noise other than roaring pain. Dazedly, I registered the sound of thunder crashing in the distant skies, and sharp zaps of electricity racing across my skin.
His eyes widened. “Where is the Queen?!” he bellowed.
Nyssa.
Her name was the only coherent thought I had. And this was not my agony, but hers.
“WHERE IS THE QUEEN?!”
Nike dropped from the sky, her downy wings flaring at the last moment to slow her descent. She pointed with her sword arm — stained black and crimson with blood — somewhere northwest of here. “Velira came from that direction not half an hour ago,” she panted. “Queen Nyssa did not come with her.”
The pain intensified and I dropped to all fours. If this was but an echo of what my soul-bonded was feeling then surely she must be on the precipice of death. True and final death.
I moaned. My one attempt at regaining my feet failed and I ate dirt. Spectacularly. But I didn’t care. My vision flickered and I knew I was closer to passing out than saving the love of my life.
Cut if off, someone growled.
You have to dampen the bond, they tried again. Only then will you be able to save her.
That did it. Loath as I was to be separated from her in any capacity, I knew the voice was right. I was useless to her like this, curled up on the ground in the fetal position.
I visualised the bond between us — pictured it as a vibrant golden string dangling out an open window.
The window was square with white frames, overlooking a sundrenched poppy field.
I smiled to myself as I gripped the bottom rail, noticing a heart carved into the left side of the frame, complete with a C and an N in the centre.
Somewhere out that window was my beloved. Somewhere in that imagined field of flowers, she lay dying.
Then, all hesitation gone, I slammed the window down on its sill, severing the link between us.
For a moment, all I could do was inhale ragged gasps. But a moment was all I could allow myself. Blinking up at the enormous white wolf standing over me, I nodded my thanks then forced myself to my feet. Aros and Nike were waiting for my order, knowing I was best placed to save her.
With a voice that sounded like I’d swallowed a cactus, I told them both of my half-hatched plan.
“Nike, you guide us from above. Let us know when things are coming and when we’re clear to move.
We need the quickest way across the city to the place you saw Vel come from. And where is that bloody dragon?!”
“Wounded and down for the count,” Athena called from behind.
I jerked round, my gaze snagging on the onyx-drenched goddess, covered head to toe in the blood of her Tartarian foes. Her eyes shone brightly through the darkness, an even more disconcerting blue than usual. I nodded at her, jerking my head to indicate she should join us.
“Aros, Evie, and Athena, you’re with me on the ground. We move with stealth and cut down everything in our path — because judging by what I just felt, Nyssa doesn’t have long.”
Nike shot into the air like a ray of white light, leaving a handful of stray ivory feathers in her wake. She swooped past, giving the all clear to move out. Weapons were wiped clean on hems of tunics, then together, we sprinted.
Before it was too late.
Furies, I hope it’s not too late.
Nike made the calls from above, and we followed her every instruction. Aros and Athena took on the bulk of our enemies — everything from nightmarish creatures to mortal men and women thirsting for our blood — leaving Evie and I mostly free to move quicker.
Until a hideous sight blocked our path — and no, it wasn’t Poseidon’s wriggling inch-worm again.
Somehow, Kronos had managed to coax a nightmare to life. Tartarus was infamous for its progeny of terrifying creatures, and the duo before us was no exception.