Chapter Eleven #2
“Krissstina.” The black being called to her, its tone serpent-like as it emphasized her name.
Staring at his ominous form, she didn’t know what to say.
“Hi.” She could scarcely even get the greeting out as she recoiled against her master.
The shadow creature shifted, its body more opaque than it had previously been, and in the haze, she saw what she thought were two dark wings emerging from behind it. Huge and substantial, they stretched out behind him before settling into place behind his back.
“I told you she was beautiful.” Kronos lowered to place a kiss on the top of her head, pride bubbling in his voice.
“Yesss.” Erebos’ wings stretched wider. “And does she now believe in more than only her own mortal world?” His voice roared in her direction, apparently expecting a reply.
“Well?” Kronos prompted, his fingers massaging her shoulder. “Erebos is the darkness personified, little one. The primordial void itself, and he demands your answer. Do you now believe your master is more than any man?”
“Yes, Master,” she responded at once, her hand reaching for his fingers as Erebos drew closer.
Gawping at the giant, winged cloud, she found it impossible to look away. He was irrefutably terrifying, but there was something more about him, as well, something that inspired fascination as well as fear.
“It seems I have convinced her.” Erebos’ tone sounded pleased, and as she ogled, a new being stepped out of the foreboding cloud of black, his form as strapping and human-like as Kronos’ appeared to be.
From the place his voice had roared, a mouth appeared, followed by two purple, almond-shaped eyes. “My realm has achieved your purpose.”
“I think you have achieved that end, Erebos.”
Kris could hear the smile on Kronos’ face, and she imagined his self-satisfied grin as he went on.
“I thank you for your assistance.”
“Tsk.” Erebos glowered at them, seemingly unimpressed. “You came here uninvited, Titan. I should take her from you as recompense.”
Pressing herself flat against her master’s body, Kris definitely couldn’t take another breath.
She was reasonably sure Kronos wouldn’t want to leave her there in the darkness with Erebos.
He wanted her from himself, after all, and he’d made no bones about the fact, but nevertheless, her paranoia lingered.
He could have left her if he chose to. He had that power.
At the same time as that abrupt acknowledgement was her newfound awareness.
There was a world beyond the one she’d thought had existed.
A world with beings as strangely compelling and horrifying as Erebos, and that knowledge changed everything.
All that she’d assumed, the paradigm of physics and its conclusions, shook around her, threatening to tumble down along with her certainty and beliefs.
She still didn’t know how it was possible that any of what she’d seen or heard was real, but increasingly, reality was becoming a moot point. She no longer denied the evidence of her senses.
Erebos had emerged from the darkness. She’d seen him do so herself, and he was every bit as present in the circulating mists as she and Kronos were.
Turning her face toward Kronos’ fingers, she realized that her master’s so-called ‘vulgar demonstration’ was transporting her to Erebos’ unnerving abode.
She could only conclude, therefore, that meant everything he’d achieved had also been genuine.
The levitation, the manifestation, and the spells he’d cast had all been authentic.
There had been no pharmaceuticals. He’d never drugged her at all.
Kronos had appeared from the ether that first night to rescue her from those thugs, and that was the same ethereal realm he’d taken her to afterward.
Everything she’d considered might have been a product of either forced medication or her imagination had been nothing of the sort.
It’s all real.
That thought reverberated through her as if the tectonic plates of the universe had just shifted and she was the only one who could sense the seismic change.
“Come now.” Kronos chuckled, the sound as disconcerting as Erebos’ discomforting laughter had been. “Let us not do battle over a mortal. You, Erebos, are capable of catching a beauty of your own.”
Her brow rose at the way Kronos had described her as merely ‘a mortal’, as though she was easily replaceable.
That idea riled, even though neither of them had expressed any deeply felt emotions for the other.
She sensed them there, though, tugging in the air between them, and she suspected she meant more than Kronos’ words insinuated.
Leaning against his muscular body, she scolded herself for her over-analysis.
Kronos was simply trying to appease the dark giant looming over her, and making Kris sound less appealing was all part of the ploy.
She needed it to work, too. A life in the darkness with Erebos was not a fate she could conceive of.
As it was, Erebos’ chin rose at Kronos’ praise, the adulation seemingly working its magic. “I have never left the Underworld.”
A chill raced through her blood. The Underworld? Was that what he’d said? God, no wonder the place was so dreadful.
“There is no beauty here, Kronos, and you know it.” Erebos’ tone was grave.
“I disagree.” Kronos moved to stand by Kris’ side, taking her hand in his.
“Your darkness is that splendor, Erebos; magnificent and encompassing. If you were to leave, you would take that allure with you and would be sure to attract a mortal of your own.” Kronos’ lips stretched wider. “Maybe, more than one.”
Erebos’ violet gaze speared him, and for the first time, Kris grasped a little of the splendor Kronos referred to. Dark and brooding, Erebos most certainly was, but in his own way, he was also incredibly captivating, like a black angel watching over the bleak landscape.
“You think your flattery will buy her freedom.” Erebos signaled to Kris. “But you know I could take her if I wanted.”
“I do not doubt your power, Erebos.” Kronos’ tone was perturbingly calm. “Instead of battle, though, I offer you a favor; an outcome I am sure will please you more.”
“A favor?” Erebos flicked his long, dark hair out behind him. It was strange, but until that moment, Kris hadn’t even noticed the mane. “I am the darkness, Titan. What could I possibly need from you?”
“I’m sure there is nothing.” Kronos smirked. “The time might come when you discover that changes, though, and if it does, when it does, you need only call for me, Erebos. I shall be there to assist.”
The swirling circle of cloud was already in motion as Erebos’ mirth echoed around them.
“Make sure that you do, Titan,” Erebos called as the vortex Kronos had directed rose to claim his uninvited guests. “I shall not forget!”
The last things Kris registered as the fog closed in around her were Kronos’s strong arms sliding around her, and then, just as the mists rose to consume her, the deep purple slits of Erebos’ commanding eyes.