Chapter 19
SORROW
Vyrus’s chest lay empty, hollow as the crater his ill-fated meteor had torn from the earth. Evella returned to her people, casting all thoughts of her desolate lover from her mind.
— THE HISTORIES AND PROPHECIES OF THE STAR-CROSSED GODS. CHRONICLES OF VYRUS
I gripped my reins tighter as the God looked back over his shoulder, his brow raised.
I wondered how much damage my fist could cause if I slammed it into a divine being or would my knuckles shatter against his jaw?
His expression was lost to me, but his amused snort had me twisting the reins.
Vyrus had removed his constriction, allowing me to speak again, but my lips remained in a tight line.
A few weeks ago, my greatest threat had been the stepfather who despised me. My husband, my constant, back by my side. Our love expanding every moment we were blessed to spend together. A new family had welcomed me and a great Deviant believed in me. Trained me, never once giving up on me.
And now?
Now, my steed trailed after the God my husband had saved me from.
A God. I wondered what Matthias would do if he could see me now.
Following Vyrus, desperately racking my thoughts for the words that might persuade a vengeful God to help a Deviant with increasingly erratic gifts rescue the man she loves.
Provide me with the balance I sought. Perhaps take on the empress and end this nightmare we’d stumbled into.
And my mind had always been eager to learn more.
Absorb every fact and wonder my world held.
I huffed as Pablo trotted ahead, the trees pressing in.
Imagine what secrets Vyrus held? The stories?
He’d already let it slip that the sacrifices were pointless.
Each decade, we threw ten mortals into the flames of the volcano named after the God scratching his ass ahead of me.
I’d been told my death would appease him.
That my sacrifice ensured life on Eusis would continue safe in the knowledge Vyrus would never again destroy our world.
But that was bullshit.
The Brotherhood was built upon poisonous legends.
Through fear of deathly reprisals, we submitted to their demands.
Some people happily gave their lives in the misguided belief their death protected humanity.
I cursed as my horse whickered, sending out a silver thread to calm her thundering heart.
Did the Brothers know their grip was based on lies?
Did they laugh after they’d sent us to the flames?
I shivered. I hadn’t even sought the name of the poor soul who’d replaced me in the Tower. A soul who no longer breathed.
The sky darkened and my horse stamped, her ears fell back against her head as she tugged on the reins.
‘There’s a storm rolling in.’ I gripped the pommel tighter as Vyrus turned. ‘I wouldn’t encourage that horse to slow down, sweetheart.’
‘She’s spooked,’ I hissed. ‘And I am not your sweetheart.’
He clicked his tongue. ‘You most certainly are not,’ he said. ‘I think you might prefer it to the other names I have for you.’
I rolled my eyes. I should have realised the insufferable creature was Vyrus long ago. My eyes bore into his broad back as branches snagged on his coat. It was no good. There were too many questions buzzing through my head to remain silent. Not when he could leave at any moment.
‘So,’ I said, catching a glimpse of his smile as he looked back. ‘If you don’t demand the souls of ten mortals every decade, why do the Brothers do it?’
The God said nothing for a few moments, and I wondered if he’d heard me, before he spoke. ‘Fear has the potential to be a sharper weapon than any sword.’
I couldn’t help nodding. We followed the Sisters and Brothers without questioning their words or intentions.
‘Is anything written in the Histories true, then? Is the sin-fuelled meteor true? Or did a snowball fight with Evella get out of hand?’
He stopped his horse, took a long sup before twisting in his saddle. A shiver tracked over my skin at the darkness in his eyes.
‘What would you do to win back your husband? Your king?’
The question caught me off guard; an ache slammed into my chest.
‘Anything,’ I breathed. ‘I’d do anything to win him back.’
Like turn the God of Vengeance into my ally just to hold him again.
‘Burn the world down? Tear it apart and hang the consequences simply so you could kiss his lips once more?’
I swallowed, tears pressing hot and harsh against my eyes, and nodded. Pab whined, bumped his nose against my calf.
‘That feeling in your chest? The one that crushes you, the one tearing you apart because you lost the only one you could ever truly love? Imagine that growing, swelling in your heart, year after year. Centuries. Millenia.’ He turned back, edging his horse on.
‘I was losing her and everything I did pushed her further away. I thought, if I could just hold her tighter, press her closer, she’d stay.
‘I created Evella. Believed I owned her. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I’d let her go.
Would she miss me? Come back? Maybe she’d grow tired of you all and crush this stupid planet.
But.’ He took a long, long draw from his bottle.
‘I’ll never know the answer to that. I created everything.
Everything but a heart that could only be mine.
’ He snorted. ‘Can’t even hold onto my own… ’
Vyrus pulled his horse up, a shiver raced up my spine as he turned in his saddle, waiting for the moment I moved alongside him.
‘You’d do anything?’
Heat rose up my throat as his brown eyes narrowed. Rolling my shoulders, I sat straighter, nodding. The grin that spread across his face would have another turning tail and running, but I had to win this stupid God over.
His tanned fingers went to the buttons of his brown shirt, his gaze steadfastly on my own.
‘Not that,’ I cried, panic twisting my heart as he worked the first button loose. ‘Anything but… that.’
The God barked out a harsh laugh as another button opened. ‘Believe me, I’ve no intention of making a cuckold out of that idiot husband of yours.’
My fist clenched, ready to slam into his chin, divine being or not, when a third button opened and I blinked. My trembling fingers moved towards the God’s chest.
‘What do you know about a God’s heart? You Shuterans have altered those Chronicles so often even I don’t know what’s in them anymore.’
My pulse hammered as my fingers continued towards Vyrus’s chest, as though I no longer controlled their path.
‘That your hearts are more than just vessels for pumping your life’s blood.
’ I pictured the gilded pages, the hand-painted illustrations from The Chronicles in Bronzehold’s chapel that had bewitched me as a child.
‘All of your might and power is contained within. That each God possesses a unique heart. Which in turn contains a unique gift – protection, peace, knowledge, even misfortune – which you can use to help any mortals you see fit.’
He nodded. His expression lost in the growing gloom. I took a breath, unsure how he’d accept my next recollection.
‘And you, Vyrus, God of Vengeance—’
‘Creation.’
I took a deep breath. ‘—God of Creation, removed your heart. Without Evella’s love, it faded, a shadow of the glorious gem it had once been, but you still saw its beauty and tried one final time to win her back.
’ I paused as Vyrus grunted. ‘But Evella had no need for it. She threw it to Eusis, where it shattered…’
I snapped my fingers back. That was where the story ended.
The chronicles moved on to Evella and her tale.
The chronicles of the past included the lost chapters of the forgotten Gods – the Gods still revered in the Southern lands.
But what had become of Vyrus? A God without his power.
I looked up. His gaze locked on mine as he nodded.
‘Your heart?’
His dark hair whipped around his face as he straightened, flames erupting in his eyes. My skin pebbled as I blinked at the crimson light glinting within the dark crevice in his chest. It flickered, pulsed. I leaned forward and set my eyes on the heart of a God.
My trembling fingers reached forward as I exhaled, entranced as his heart pulsed in time with my own.
‘Your heart… You have your heart?’
He snapped his shirt closed, and I gasped.
‘I’ve been on this vile shit hole for almost a millennia and do you know what I’ve found in all that time?’
I think he raised a brow, but with the darkness and my sight, I couldn’t be certain.
‘One paltry, pathetic section.’ He took a long drag from his bottle. ‘One tiny fragment from the four.’
‘There are more sections still out there?’
He grunted.
‘But,’ I shook my head, ‘you’re an all-powerful God. The most powerful God. Surely you can find the other sections? Just use all that’ – I waved at him – ‘all that power thundering through you.’
He chuckled, and the nape of my neck prickled.
‘A thousand years ago, I thought it’d be that easy too.
’ He shuffled, his eyes boring into my own.
‘But I had nothing, not a fraction of all that made me. And the other Gods, Gods who wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for me, haven’t once come to my aid.
They’re revelling in their newfound freedom.
Without me, they’ve done as they wish. They said I’m too controlling.
‘Anyway, sweetheart. It took me almost six hundred years to locate this fragment. Locked away in a vault by a group loyal to Enja.’ Vyrus took a long draw on his bottle, swiped the dregs away with his sleeve. ‘Fucking bitch always liked her secrets. All this power I’ve gathered? Pathetic.’
He opened his hand as a tiny constellation appeared within his palm. I couldn’t help gasping as the planets swirled before his palm snapped shut. The fledgling cosmos was dead before it had begun.
‘You wonder why I help you? I imagine the rest of my damn heart is adorning some self-important prick’s crown or rests on a cushion in a vault somewhere. But I’m fucked if I know.’
He leaned forward, and I fought the urge to recoil as his hot breath warmed my face.
‘But, my sweet little Villente, I think you might.’
For a few heartbeats, I stared into his brown eyes.
‘A deal,’ I whispered. ‘A deal with a God.’
My pulse skittered as a glint lit up his eyes, a damn grin playing on his face.
‘A deal with Vyrus.’ He held his hand out, closed the distance between us. ‘You locate my heart, find my power and you’ve got yourself an ally, sweetheart.’
Pab whined and I jolted. I’d almost forgotten him as I peered at the answer to all my prayers. My fingers reached forward, ready to accept, when the wolf snarled and my fingers closed. A smile crept across my face as the God narrowed his gaze.
‘Why me?’
Vyrus rolled his eyes. ‘Are you so heartsore you failed to notice how you’re drawn to my heart? Drawn to me even though you can’t abide me? I’ve watched you closely, Villente. And I think I’ve finally found a mortal with some fucking use on this shit hole. My heart and all your wishes come true.’
He thrust his hand towards me again as another growl rumbled through the wolf. I glanced down, met his amber gaze through the dark. He was right. I held the winning hand here.
‘You’ll remove the Vyrium from my husband. You’ll help us defeat the empress and you’ll help me balance.’
For a moment, flames erupted in his eyes before Vyrus shook his shaggy head.
‘When you’ve found my heart—’
‘I can hardly focus on your heart when I could very well die at any moment. Your help, then I’ll raze the world to get your heart back.’
His eyes widened. ‘You dare to barter with the great Vyrus?’
I grinned, holding out my own hand and he barked out a laugh.
‘My heart, my whole heart, for your husband.’ He raised a brow as I tried to argue.
If he’d been searching for a thousand years, how did he expect me to locate it in time to save Matthias?
‘Or when I get you to the Void, I’ll go.
I don’t need—’ The God’s horse lowered his head, bucked as Vyrus swore.
Mine stamped once more and through the gloom Pablo snarled, snapped his jaws.
The reins slipped through my fingers as my ride whinnied, her head twisting, nostrils snorting.
Ahead, the God battled with his own steed.
I reached within to send out a thread of silver, to discover what spooked the creatures.
My breath caught as I found nothing but a mass of swirling smoke.
What was happening? Was this the consequence of my failure to balance?
The horse’s flanks heaved as she slammed into the grasping branches.
She reared, my fragile grip faltered and I slipped, crying as I landed within a tangle of brambles.
Cursing, I reached in again, almost sobbing as a thread answered my call.
I didn’t have time to worry about how slight the thread was, as though it were ready to dissipate and vanish.
It slithered slowly towards the horse, her answer sending a harsh spike of fear into my chest.
Fog.
As one of Evella’s blessed, I was impervious to its deadly effects.
We’d learnt Pablo too escaped death within the bronze-flecked clouds.
I imagined the God who’d created the meteor that first contained the toxic fragments was immune as well.
But our horses? There was a reason they were so keen to flee.
Scrambling to my feet, I sent out another ribbon, a request for her to calm long enough for me to mount and guide her away from the poisonous mist. Pablo slipped beneath my hand, leading me towards the still-skittish beast. She leapt, slightly, snorting as I settled in the saddle.
‘Keep up, sweetheart. The Void is just—’
A roar, broken and riddled with pain, shattered the forest and I turned, eyes wide and head spinning.
‘Diafol,’ I cried. ‘Please tell me you can kill a diafol?’
The God sighed. ‘I’m a fucking God.’ He went quiet for a moment. ‘It’s gone.’
‘Gone?’
Clicking his tongue, his horse set off, mine following a heartbeat later.
‘Commanded it to go the other way. I’ve blown that fog off course too.’
Another reason why I had to get this God onside, fighting for me. For Matthias.
‘Come on, The Void is just down this path.’