Chapter 57
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Thea
Iblinked awake, groaning through the pain. Everything hurt. My body ached from being thrown when Hyrax’s power exploded, and my heart stung from the memory my dreams had resurfaced.
I knew what I would see, even without looking at him. I knew that when I lifted my eyes and sought out Caldrius, I would be looking at the next God of Death.
Like Pasnia, Hyrax had no Descendants—since I was a Goddess in my own right. So, his powers would seek out the person they were most familiar with, and after a millennium standing next to Hyrax's side, Caldrius had ensured that person would be him.
It had been his plan all along.
He had been the one to first tell me that a God's power transfers to a new host upon their death.
He had insisted that those without power needed to just claim it.
From the moment he had sketched Isidore’s face on that parchment and given it to Pasnia, Caldrius had never shied away from what he’d been hoping to accomplish.
It had been obvious—even in that damn prophecy from so long ago.
The daughter of Hyrax will shake the Veil, and the King of Damnation will rise once more to rule over the children of the Gods. She will create a new death in the Mortal Realm.
And I had.
Hyrax had sacrificed himself for me, and in doing so, a new God of Death had emerged.
I hissed as I worked to pull myself up, grasping onto charred beams of wood as I tried to force my trembling legs to steady enough to support my weight. Blood leaked down cuts that covered nearly every inch of my body, but I paid no mind to any of them.
I focused my attention on him.
Caldrius stood at his full height, grinning as a tendril of shadow danced between his fingertips.
As a God, he seemed larger than before. Taller. Broader. Impossibly more self-assured.
And entirely unaffected by the fact that my father, the God who had loved and supported him for a millennium, lay dead at his feet. By his own hand.
A stray wind tousled his hair, blowing it back from his tanned brow as he lifted his chin and met my gaze.
“Now, we are ready to reshape the Realm, Theadora.”
When I had first started learning mythology, I hadn’t understood why the Gods sequestered themselves in the Upperworld. I didn’t understand why they chose to remain separate from the Mortal Realm even before the Veil completely locked them away.
But in that moment, I finally understood.
Because I knew the rage I was feeling was enough to level this Realm and I didn’t even care.
A scream filled with divine power erupted out of me as I threw out my hands, power lighting through them in beams of sparkling golden light.
My magic slammed into Caldrius’ chest, his eyes widening in the brief moment before he went flying back in the air. His body careened in wild twists.
And then I was rising, my feet extending under me as I lifted into the air, soaring after him.
“Theadora!”
I threw that power out again.
He lifted his own palms, dark shadows spilling out to meet my golden threads and sparking into an explosion that shook the very ground. I fell, slamming down hard just as he rose onto one knee, panting.
“This is entirely unnecessary, darling.”
My blood was sparking, a force that did not belong in this Realm full of Mortals and Descendants that died so easily.
I tossed another rope of power at him, and he caught it within a shadowed grip, throwing it aside easily.
It slammed down onto the bridge, that stone structure cracking instantly with a loud thunk.
I flinched as the crack spread, climbing into tendrils of destruction until the bridge itself faltered, breaking apart into the river that flowed underneath.
“You cannot kill me, Theadora!” he bellowed. “Not when we are this evenly matched.”
He was right. I may have completed my Forging, but he had just inherited the powers of a High God. An awareness prickled at the back of my mind, a nagging urge to step backwards. A pull.
Caldrius approached me with heavy, purposeful steps, his lips pulled back into a domineering sneer as darkness seemed to rally around him on the ground. “And I’m not letting you leave this time.”
The shadows lurched towards me, and I followed that pull, falling back, letting my eyes widen—letting him see fear.
And just as a smile of victory twitched at the corner of his lips, I released my own small grin.
“I can’t kill you yet.”
I dropped to a knee, reaching for my blade and calling for my power. It flew across the wreckage into my waiting palm just as I opened a portal below me and disappeared entirely.
Icatapulted through the air, body twisting and curling as I fell from the portal I’d opened in the middle of the sky. The wind brushed past me, slowing its attack as I forced my magic to wrap around me and suspend me high above the ground.
Here, floating, I could see the legion that Caldrius had sent after us.
And it was jaw-dropping.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers marched towards us, so many that our army looked minuscule in comparison. And if the sheer size of the army wasn’t enough to make my blood run cold, hordes of beasts marched with them, freshly escaped from the Underworld.
I didn’t stop to assess our standing. I didn’t glance down to see which, if any, of my friends were alive.
The thunder of battle was far too alive for me to allow myself a moment of distraction.
The best thing I could do for them, for any of the Athenian forces that fought for their lives beneath my floating form, was to end this.
It was those creatures that I targeted first.
Dragons roared in the sky, their wing beats echoing booms and their roars loud enough to leave my ears ringing as they clashed against each other.
Dragonfire ripped across my back, but my magic kept it from touching me.
I paid it no mind as I held my hands out and focused on the feeling of that white, hazy plane of existence that had been the Veil.
Tears sprang to life in my eyes as my head filled with an unbearable pressure but I refused to lose my concentration as I mentally clawed at that divide between the realms with my nails and teeth.
It was a solid force against my will, but as I reached into that well of unending power in the deepest parts of me, pouring everything I had into it, the Veil buckled.
It shook.
And portal after portal opened under each of those horrid creatures, sending them right back into the Underworld.
They screamed as they fell, awful screeches that were as inhuman as they were haunting. It was enough to cause the surrounding soldiers to stumble, some men even falling into those very portals before I could seal them back up.
Power poured out of me, almost as much as I’d used to bring them all here in the first place, and I felt my control slipping.
Fatigue pressed into the edges of my consciousness, but I blinked through it, squeezing my fists solidly at my sides.
Closing my eyes, I scrambled to grasp onto the last of my fading power, sending it out in a pulsating blast that sent the enemy army flying away from our lines.
“Return to where you came from!” I commanded, magic laced in my voice and carrying it across their legions. “Tell your new king he has one month to surrender himself. If he does, I will allow him to rule over the Underworld as his predecessor did before him.”
My breaths came in heavy pants, the magic growing weaker and weaker.
“If he does not, then you will all consider this the day that the Final War of the Gods began.”
The army stared up at me, time stilling as some fell to their knees while others began scrambling away. With the sun completely gone for the day, moonlight covered the fields, sending sparkling light over their bloodied armor.
And as more and more of their forces dispersed, I released my hold on my powers and allowed myself to glide to the ground into the powerful arms that waited to catch me.