Chapter 22 Kaira
KAIRA
Grimm, Nox, and Vesper entered first as Hades opened the doors of Elandra's home, letting them pass as they started sniffing the air, growling softly as the two of us entered after them.
Neither one of us spoke since we left the meadow, both too lost in our own minds, but I couldn't stop looking at Grimm and remembering more details from that night.
The painful mending of my body.
The sound of my bones snapping and getting put together.
The smell of death in the air as he whispered in my mind, telling me everything would be okay. And the eternal darkness I was drowning in, before I regained consciousness, seeing the wreckage clearly for the first time.
I had so many questions for him, but now wasn't the time.
The moment we stepped inside I could hear the raised voices, especially an unfamiliar feminine voice, louder than the rest.
"She almost killed him!" she screamed just as the others joined, whatever they were saying getting lost in the ether because they all spoke over each other.
Elandra mentioned a meeting, but I had no idea what kind of meeting she was dragging me into.
Hades didn't seem too concerned, but then again, I wasn't the best at reading the emotions of the brooding God of the Dead.
Ever since I told him I could feel him and pretty much attacked him, it felt as if a block had erupted between us, making it so much harder to feel what he was feeling.
My energy—or the power, as they called it—hummed just beneath my skin, as if it were waiting to be released. But while it freely flowed earlier at the meadow, it somehow felt subdued, as if it too were waiting for something to happen.
"I am fine, sister." The male voice grew louder as we approached the same living room we were occupying just last night.
"I knew what I was doing." Lysander. It was Lysander that was speaking, and that heaviness I felt in my heart ever since he dropped to the ground had started to dissipate, allowing me to finally breathe freely again.
I didn't kill him.
"You're not fucking fine!" the female shrieked. "None of this is fine, and instead of calling us immediately, you have allowed her to roam around the island as if she wasn't the one thing that could throw us all in perpetual darkness."
We entered the room just as the dark-haired woman stopped her tirade, yelling at Lysander, who sat at one of the chairs around Elandra's table, smiling at her.
"I'm glad to hear I'll be the sole reason why the world would come to an end," I said, pulling at least ten pairs of eyes to me. "Good evening," I added for good measure, too fucking tired to deal with this.
Elandra stood on the opposite side of the room, smirking when she saw Grimm, Nox, and Vesper in front of me, with Hades behind me. My aunt was right next to her, holding her hand and shaking her head, but the two of them weren't who had my attention.
There were eight other people in the room.
No, eight other divine creatures, ranging from Gods to creatures I had no name for.
Lysander stared at me with a wide smile, obviously holding no grudges against me for almost killing him and taking his essence, but the woman standing right next to his chair was throwing daggers at me with her eyes.
Where Lysander's hair shone pale blond, hers was completely black, almost as if it was swallowing all the light trying to come into contact to it.
Two pools of darkness stared back at me with all the fury in this world, and just as she was about to open her mouth, Lysander grabbed her arm and pulled her back, shaking his head.
She wasn't happy with me, that much I could understand, but she would have to deal with it.
Just like I was dealing with this entire situation.
An older couple sat on the couch, a man and a woman, both looking to be in their sixties.
But looks could be deceiving and these two weren't just ordinary humans.
My eyes narrowed as the glamour they threw on themselves slowly dissipated, revealing a man who didn't seem to be older than thirty, with a snake tail wrapped around the woman sitting next to him.
Serpent's eyes stared at me as I looked at her, noticing the scalelike skin going from her throat all the way down, covering her chest and stomach.
"So this is her," someone said, and as I turned in the direction of the voice, I saw three winged women, occupying the far right area of the room, close to the firepit.
Their features were almost the same—sharp cheekbones, dark eyebrows, and even sharper eyes, dragging over my body, examining me as I stepped deeper inside the room.
"I guess you all know who I am," I started, coming closer to the couch. "But I have no fucking idea who any of you are. Except for Lysander." I looked at him. "I am sorry about earlier."
"Don't worry about it," he said, keeping that smile on his face. "It happens." The woman next to him didn't seem to think so. "This is my sister," he looked at her. "Artemis." So, a Goddess.
"Well, that explains the need to kill me and call me names even before you'd met me," I said, hearing the cackles coming from the right side of the room where the three women stood.
"I'd say it is nice to meet you, but judging by all that glaring and that wild energy spreading around you, I have a feeling you would rather see me dead. "
Her dark eyes widened and her eyebrow arched, but I wasn't backing down.
Unlike Lysander's, her energy felt heavier, stronger somehow, almost violent, and she had another think coming if she thought I would cower in front of a Goddess who didn't even bother to wait and meet me before coming to conclusions about me.
"I may not be a Goddess, Artemis," I lowered my voice, "but you saw what I did to your brother, so I would tread carefully if you think you can come into this house and attack me."
"You're a danger to all of us!" she yelled, her hair flying wildly around her. "A danger that has no idea what she can do, and you're being enabled by people who have no idea what they're doing either."
"True." I nodded. "All of that is true, but I would also like you to remember that until a couple of days ago I didn't think any of you truly existed. Powers, magic, whatever the fuck you want to call this, did not exist."
One of the winged women stepped away from the firepit and walked toward me.
"I'm Megaira," she introduced herself, placing her hand over her heart.
"These are my sisters." She turned toward the other two.
"Arai," she pointed at the golden-haired woman with gray wings, that stood in the middle, "and Mannia," she pointed at the third one, with the crimson hair and bright blue eyes.
"You may have heard of us," Megaira said, pulling my attention back to her.
She stepped closer, letting me feel her energy fully.
The wrath.
The need for justice.
The ability to bring people down to their knees.
"We're the Erinyes," she said. "Or Furies, as some used to call us," Arai added.
Something touched my hand, and I looked down only to see Grimm staring up at me, his blood red eyes swirling with darkness. They're friends, he said in my mind. Good friends.
A smile touched my lips as I nodded at him, placing my hand on top of his head.
"It is nice to meet you all." I turned to Lysander. "Your name isn't Lysander, is it?" He chuckled, getting up from his seat. When I first met him I couldn't feel his energy like I could now. I couldn't feel much until I erupted and attacked him, finally letting my own power come to life.
But now, standing in the room with all of these powerful beings, I could feel them all.
Tendrils of red, golden, black, orange, blue, and yellow swirled around me, accompanied by the gray string wrapped around Medusa.
I turned around, seeing Hades standing at the same spot he'd been occupying since we came in.
His emerald green energy glowed brightly now, nowhere near that decaying, rotting one I felt earlier. But it was still there.
Subdued, but nowhere near erased. The mere thought of him dying, of him disappearing, did not sit well with me.
"I am Apollo," Lysander said. "I'm sorry for not introducing myself properly earlier."
"I mean." I shrugged. "I did almost kill you, apparently, so all's forgiven." Megaira laughed while Artemis rolled her eyes harder, but she didn't say a word. My eyes found the couple still sitting on the couch. "I don't know much about anything, but you are not Gods."
"Thank goodness, we're not," the woman replied. "I am Echidna," she said.
The man added, "And I'm Typhon." His snakelike tail wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. "I'd say it is nice to meet you, but I wish this were happening under better circumstances."
"Don't we all," my aunt grumbled, glaring at Elandra. But the woman ignored her and stepped in front of my aunt.
"Well," she clasped her hands together, grinning from ear to ear. "Now that you know everyone's names and you know we're all, in one way or another, immortal, it's time to get down to business."
"Which is?" I murmured.
"Which is finally finding out the truth, Kaira. The real truth. The one that brought you to us, and well, the one that might destroy us all if we don't tread carefully."
"Unless she kills us all when she finds out everything," Artemis grumbled, sitting down on the chair Apollo was occupying earlier.
Everyone huddled right next to each other on the available seats, with Grimm lying over my feet, just under the table, and Nox and Vesper sitting at the entrance to the room, as if they were guarding us.
Maybe they were.