Chapter 3
SELENE
“He makes a valid argument, Lyra!”
“Valid or not, it’s still dangerous, Nina!”
“Do I want to know where you two are going?” My sisters round the corner of the God King’s palace and nearly run headfirst into me. Startled, the color drains from their faces, a stark contrast to the vivid blue and red of their dresses.
“Selene!” Nina clutches her chest, sparks flying from her fingertips as she tries to steady her racing heart and regain control of her power. “You shouldn’t lurk in hallways!”
“I wasn’t lurking, I was walking. And it’s you who should be paying attention when you walk Nobus’ halls. Can you imagine if he had stumbled upon you instead of me?”
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Lyra says, her signature smirk pulling up the corner of her lip as she passes me the incriminating paper she holds. “I was simply protecting my sister from making what’s sure to be a terrible mistake.”
“Somehow I don’t quite think Nobus would distinguish between the two.”
Those words ring true as I examine the paper. The whisper of a brewing rebellion circulates through the Golden Pantheon, and a time scrawled in the Wolf God’s handwriting is proof enough to have both of my sisters exiled.
A fiery spark of a woman, the Goddess of Flame always seems to find herself dangerously close to igniting the darkest desires of those in her company. Mikais is the latest in a long list of the God King’s advisors she’s become entangled with.
A handler-less operative, she once called herself.
Something she picked up from a book she found in one of the countless mortal realms. Nina has spent years whispering in the ears of powerful gods, collecting their secrets and swaying their opinions until she found herself in cahoots with the most ambitious one of all: the Wolf God.
Mikais may be the face of this soon-to-be rebellion, but Nina is his strategist. And if she gets her way, Lyra will be the one singing the battle cry when the war begins.
“Nina—”
My sister holds up her hand, cutting me off.“Don’t start with me, Selene.”
“Unless you want to finally admit your terrible taste in males, too, of course,” Lyra adds. Her eyes sparkle as she speaks, the cadence of her voice slipping into the sing-songy tone she uses to lure mortals to do her bidding—a tone that has no effect on me.
“I have never been romantically involved with anyone trying to lead a…a…” I look around to make sure no one lingers in the hallways before leaning in and whispering the words that would find me beside the goddesses at their exile. “A rebellion.”
“I am not romantically involved with him, and it is not a rebellion. It’s a change in leadership,” Nina corrects.
“It’s treason! Whatever part you’re considering playing in Mikais’ ludicrous plan, I suggest you change your mind, quickly.”
My sister’s eyes burn, embers of rage and hatred evident in the smouldering irises of the Goddess of Flame. It takes only a fraction of a second for me to realize that my words fall on deaf ears.
We have all suffered under Nobus’ cruel rule, but the defamation of our father was the final straw for Nina.
Each of us dealt with the grief of losing him differently.
I threw a funeral, but Nina helped start a rebellion.
She wants to see the God King burn and doesn’t care who carries the torch.
Mikais and his little power grab are simply convenient timing.
I can’t help but wonder if Lyra is more involved in Nina’s plans than she claims. Has the Goddess of Song used her powers to coerce the Wolf God? Or does his hatred and disloyalty to his brother stem from something else entirely?
“This is happening whether you like it or not, Selene. I suggest you see the error in your refusal before you find yourself on the wrong side of history.”
Nina storms off in a blaze of fury, Lyra following closely at her heels. The paper in my hand turns to ash as my sisters depart.
“It’s always the youngest siblings that are the spitfires.”
The sensual, disembodied voice stirs something in me as I scan my surroundings for the corporeal form of its owner.
A swirling mass of shadows appears in the white-washed hallway, the toes of his polished shoes coming into view atop the gold-veined marble floors.
I follow them upwards as the god I last saw over a year ago slowly appears in front of me.
“You shouldn’t eavesdrop,” I chastise as the wisps part to reveal Drayven’s chiseled face.
“You shouldn’t discuss rebellion in the palace of the king you plan to overthrow.”
With a snap of my fingers, I extinguish the lights that line the hallway, casting us into total darkness. A quick deterrent to anyone who may be wandering nearby. There’s nothing to see—and more importantly, nothing to hear—in this hallway.
“Do you want me dead?” I whisper through clenched teeth. “Nobus will send me to the Under Realm faster than you can say the word ‘go.’”
A cool chuckle echoes in the dark. “You would hate it there.”
He’s wrong. I can’t say for certain how I know, but I feel it in my bones. The dark depths of the Under Realm crave the light, and I wonder if he can feel it too.
“Do you hate it there?”
The lack of light emboldens me to ask the question that has plagued me ever since I saw him that night more than a century ago. The Dark God on his knees in the slate that covers the beach, hands tangled in his ghostly hair, green eyes shining in the light from the crescent moons.
I watched him from behind the boulders that line the shore, listened as sobs wracked his body. As the first sun rose to chase the moons from the sky, Death removed his shirt, soaked with the salty evidence of his blood-mixed tears, and disappeared in a swirling mass of onyx night.
Silence envelops us as it becomes clear he isn’t going to answer. I take a step forward in the darkness, certain I will discover that I’m now alone.
Strong hands grip my shoulders, stopping me as my nose grazes his stone chest. Cold emanates from him, my skin turning to ice everywhere he touches. A shiver snakes up my spine and he drops his hold.
“I will ask you the same.” His tone is as cold as his touch. “If you join Mikais, you’ll never be allowed here again. There is no telling which realm he will exile you to, but Nobus will pick one that will destroy you slowly. So ask yourself, Selene. Do you hate it here?”
“You do.” It’s not a question, but a declaration.
Drayven didn’t step foot in the God Realm for a hundred years after that night. Rumors have flown wildly amongst the gods, but I alone know the truth: something or someone here hurt him terribly.
“What are you even doing here?”
“I was summoned.” The agitation is clear in his clipped voice.
“Kings can be summoned? I thought royalty simply did as they pleased.”
“I only do things that please me.” Drayven’s breath tickles my cheek as he speaks. “Nobus thinks he’s flexing his power, but I know something he doesn’t. His little princeling is arriving tomorrow, and what better threat than for Death to attend the birth.”
“You wouldn’t steal his heir. You aren’t cruel.”
“I am cruel, Light, and you would do well to remember that.” His voice booms over my head again, the god no longer crowding my space. “I won’t steal his heir, but the prince will come willingly to my realm one day. He will be drawn to its darkness.”
“You speak of your home as if it is nothing but brokenness and despair. That can’t possibly be all there is.”
“It is,” he counters curtly.
“It is not, and I can prove it.” Silence settles between us again. He doesn’t move, doesn’t speak, doesn’t even breathe. This time I am positive that the god has disappeared, but I whisper my plea anyway. “Give me one day there.”
“No.” The single word spoken in the abyss rattles my bones.
Seems he has not left after all, and it’s that thought, that curiosity, that pushes me further. “Are you afraid of being wrong, Dark One?”
“Hardly,” he says with a chuckle, the sound sending an errant shiver down my spine again. “It’s you who should be afraid. The Under Realm is no place for your light.”
It’s my turn to chuckle. “You have made a very big mistake, Your Majesty. You see, I am a stubborn god and you have just challenged me. Now I must go to the Under Realm and I will not rest until you agree. You would save yourself a world of trouble by just saying ‘yes.’”
He is close enough that I feel his chest rumble as he growls.
“I will wear you down eventually,” I declare, reaching out to lay my palm against the hard plane of his chest. “That’s the thing about being immortal. We have nothing but time, Drayven.”
“Do not call me that.” His hand wraps around my wrist, yanking it from where it rests. “I am Death and you will address me as such.” His eyes, now narrowed to snake-like slits, glow in the darkness.
My voice slips into the familiar timbre of authority. The imbalance of power in this dynamic does not swing in his favor, and he will know that without question. “I am the Goddess of Light. What thrives in the dark cowers from me.”
In a blinding flash, the lights return to their full intensity.
Drayven drops my hand to shield his eyes from the light—my light.
His shadows wrap around him instinctively and I can’t resist reaching a hand through their mist. They tingle, making the hairs on my arm stand to attention, but they do not harm me.
“Hmm,” I muse as the shadows shirk from the golden light that pours from my body. “I will illuminate your realm and you will see what has been right in front of you all along.”
A world full of endless night must contain moonlight and starlight.
One step into his realm and I could show him the beauty in the darkness.
Constellations and auroras, shooting stars in the fabric of his sky—all of which would steal his breath.
I know they exist. I feel them calling to me even here.
He steps closer, forcing me to look up at him. “You intrigue me. There is something about you…” Drayven lifts my chin, tilting it to one side and then the other slowly. “Hmm,” he ponders.
“What?” I ask in a whisper.
“You see something where there is nothing.” His fingers trail down the center of my throat. I hold my breath through their agonizingly slow descent until they rest atop the hollow of my neck. “It will be your demise.”
“I am not afraid of you.” I declare the truth boldly. It’s not the god who scares me, but the hunger I’ve felt in his presence for hundreds of years. And it nearly brings me to my knees.
“Oh, but you should be, Light.” Drayven bends down, his breath brushing the shell of my ear as he speaks. “You should be very afraid.”
The Dark God of Death steps back letting his shadows conceal him once again. Before the last wisps of his magic vanish from sight, one final whisper fills the hall. “Try to stay out of trouble, goddess.”