Chapter 38 Caelus #3
“Brace yourselves!” I yelled, my voice distorting oddly in the in-between, as I opened a second door beneath us.
A heartbeat later all seven of us slammed down with various groans of pain, but the loudest, sharpest cry came from Nyssa.
Her body barely hit the ground as I had moved to take the worst of it, but the impact itself sent her screaming.
A shattered, mutilated keening exited her throat and she thrashed to free herself, trapped in some recent nightmare.
“Nightshade? Shhh, it’s alright. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.” I held her until she lost the will to fight. Held her as she sobbed ichor-stained tears. Held her until she found the strength to piece herself back together just enough to function.
Everything else could wait.
A quick scan of our surroundings confirmed we’d landed in relative safety. Refugees of Hellespont milled around, staring at the altogether too vulnerable queen. Warriors quickly averted their eyes when they felt mine piercing them.
Apollo raced over. His skin was ashen, his face drenched in sweat. With shaking hands, he asked for an explanation as to the state of our queen. I had not the desire to relinquish her, nor jostle her further by attempting to sign back, so I left the explaining to the others.
The sounds of battle still clamoured in the distance — shouts, monstrous shrieks, and the piercing din of metal on metal — and the sorry state of our warriors here did little to reassure me that we were winning.
We needed Strathos. And they had said no.
“Why can’t I feel you?” Nyssa whispered. Her breath tickled my neck, reeking of ichor and anguish. I clutched her tighter still, repositioning her slightly, like one would a babe.
Once I got over myself long enough to register her question, I immediately threw that window in my mind back up. Her emotions, thoughts as loud as screams, and everything that was her washed over me — just where it should be.
Caelus, Caelus, Caelus, she chanted, as loud as mental pikes. Her voice clawed through my mind, ravaged it in her fierce desperation, followed by a profound sense of relief when she realised she could feel me there.
A sob escaped her. Thank the Furies he didn’t take this, too, she breathed.
Nightshade… what… what did Hyperion take from you? Did he… I could scarcely bear to ask. Did he violate you?
She flinched, and I took that as confirmation until her head began shaking. Not in that way. He… She shifted.
Someone gasped behind me.
“Caelus…” Evie whispered. “Her eyes…”
I jerked back, twisting the goddess in my lap oh so gently. Caressing the side of her face with one hand, I waited until my Nightshade looked at me.
Two golden tears tracked down her cheeks and then she opened her bloodstained eyelids. In place of her once beautiful, once soul-capturing, shattered, emerald irises were a pair of pure white orbs stained at the corners with glistening, golden ichor. Like a taunt.
I couldn’t hide my reaction from her. No matter if I’d been able to stifle the sharp inhale that inevitably hissed past my teeth, she’d still have been able to feel my growing horror through the soul bond.
It’s bad isn’t it?
She couldn’t even force herself to ask the question aloud.
It’s different.
Caelus, she huffed. That’s the most telling non-answer you could have given. It’s like telling a woman she looks ‘fine’ when she’s asked if she looks fat in something.
Okay, well, it’s nice to know your sass hasn’t gone anywhere, I griped, though secretly, I was incredibly relieved about that fact.
Hyperion hadn’t taken everything, after all.
Tell me, she pushed.
What can you see? I deflected, also battling fear and the urge to seek vengeance on that strobe-eyed bastard. I needed to know the extent of it before I did something incredibly stupid.
Like shadowstep right back just to kick him in his freshly castrated nether-regions.
Or kiss that adorable pouted mouth of hers just to reassure myself that she was here.
Nothing at all, she answered. After a brief pause, she continued: you know that moment you decide to fall asleep… when you close your eyes, and darkness swallows you whole, and you can float in the nothingness of sweet, dark oblivion?
Yes?
It’s the opposite of that. Her breathing hitched. It’s bright, and it’s white, and it’s glaring, and no matter whether my eyes are opened or closed, it doesn’t change! It’s like constant static, constant noise, and I cannot shield myself from it.
Caelus, I fear I have lost myself completely, she admitted in a whisper. I no longer have the solace of shadows in my mind. Everything is spotlighted, highlighted, on clear display, and I can hide from none of it. I can hide none of it.
I am being forced to confront every part of myself, even the parts long since hidden. And I’m being forced to do it with this constant grating whiteness in my mind.
I fear I will never sleep again.
She closed her eyes, then opened them, repeating the action a few times before crumpling into my chest.
Closed, open, closed, open, nothing changes…
My heart broke for her then. I gestured for Apollo to come closer, though I was wary he was about to pass out from exhaustion and an overuse of powers — putting him at risk of literal burnout — but Nyssa was even more important to me than the sun god and his prophecies.
His golden eyes shone as he inspected Nyssa’s one by one.
May I? he signed.
I waited all of a second for Nyssa to agree before I realised that she had no way of knowing he was speaking to her. Or speaking at all. For how could the deaf and the blind hold any sort of conversation that wasn’t completely one-sided?
Apollo raised his brows, still waiting for my permission.
“Nyssa? Apollo is with us. He would like to know if he can heal you?”
“Yes, oh Furies, yes,” she breathed out in a rush, sitting up eagerly in my arms.
I nodded at the sun god then watched as he placed a gentle palm on each of her temples and closed his eyes. A warm golden glow filtered out from beneath his hands and Nyssa relaxed in my lap.
Almost immediately, Apollo withdrew — a look of disbelief etched across his features.
“What is it?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
He rocked back to sit on his heels, drawing out the tense silence.
“Apollo,” I growled, uncaring that he could not hear the tone of my voice — he could still see the impatience scrawled across my face.
Warily, his fingers spelled out the words he was so reluctant to sign.
My magic is drained though I should still be able to do something… but when I try to heal her, my powers slam up against some invisible wall.
I frowned, glancing down at my beloved. She almost seemed to be sleeping, which was odd considering we were still in the middle of an active battlefield.
Apollo continued. It seems that my power is no match against that of a Titan. He brushed a loose curl off her cheek — she didn’t so much as stir. Then he met my gaze head on. I cannot heal her.
No.
The sentiment was echoed by Aros; a sharp gasp came from the direction of the goddesses. Meanwhile, Nyssa — oblivious and unaware — smiled softly in her sleep.
“What did you do to her?”
I took her pain away and coaxed her into a slumber. It will not help when she wakes tomorrow and realises she still cannot see… but at least she will wake. And you ensured that, not me.
My ears rang as his words registered. Everything else was drowned out but that high-pitched whine of disbelief.
My Nightshade… oh, my Nightshade. Blind.
I’m going to pluck the eyeballs from his skull.
I will take the first and squish it between my fingers, leaving the other to watch and realise what’s coming for it.
I will feed the jelly to the ravens and let him hear the sounds they make as they devour every last morsel.
Then I will peel his fingernails off one by one and make him eat them.
I will carve her name into the flesh above his heart so that all may know whose vengeance I have claimed from his very skin.
I will cast my lightning over the rest of him and burn his toes off one by one—
Godling.
What? I snapped.
You’re rambling.
I’m planning my revenge.
You’re boring.
I— what?
You heard me.
How is any of that boring?
You’re thinking too small.
I twisted my neck to frown at him. What?
Lykos merely blinked once, his half-lidded golden gaze completely over my shit.
Must I really repeat everything? He sighed both externally and within the borders of my mind.
You constantly seem to forget that you’re bonded to a gigantic white wolf, the last of the revered Khionians, who would love nothing more than to devour the innards of the Titan who ran his race into extinction.
The frown slid right off my face. It was Hyperion who—
Murdered my mate right before me and personally slew the rest of my brethren while they slept? Yes.
Lykos… I didn’t know.
He padded forward, somehow silent despite the fact that his paws were the size of chariot wheels, and pressed his cold, wet nose against my brow. I know. But the vengeance you seek is mine to claim. His gaze dropped to the fallen queen in my lap. For both of us.
I found myself nodding.
A jarring screech tore my attention from the wolf to the skies above Hellespont.
Bursts of black flame spewed from the mouth of Kronos’ nightmare-beast as it dove over various parts of the city, interspersed with violent white explosions from somewhere else.
The brothers were working in tandem to ensure every inch of the coastal city burned to ash and dust on the wind.
The silence that followed spoke of only one thing: Kronos cared naught for his army on the ground — he only sought to destroy ours and the hopes of all mortal-kind along with it.
“Retreat,” Nyssa mumbled dozily. “You just sent that as a mental image, Caelus. Call for a retreat,” she said louder, prompting Aros, Athena, and the other soldiers into motion.