Chapter Thirty-Two
Ty and I traced to Pride Palace. When we stepped out of the tracing chamber, I expected to find my husbands and the God Squad discussing ways to get me back.
That’s exactly what I found, but there were others in attendance as well.
Including people I didn't know well enough to trust in my territory.
And they were arguing loud enough for us to hear them from the tracing room.
“Damn it,” I muttered. “The guys had better have led the trace, or I'm going to have to change the tracing chant again.”
“I think that's the least of our worries,” Ty said as we entered the dining hall.
The room was rectangular and massive—large enough to fit the entire pride and several guests at the absurdly long table that stretched down the length of the room.
Tall windows in the outer wall overlooked the training yard.
The opposite wall held a fireplace halfway down with a sitting area in front of it.
A few paintings hung on the walls, and enormous chandeliers hung from the ceiling over the length of the table.
Normally, when we ate there, most of the room was empty. Not this time.
It was standing room only, with gods, goddesses, and demigods taking every seat at the dining table with more people crowded behind them. All the gods with stolen relics had seats at the table. Even Amaterasu was there despite her mirror being destroyed.
I pushed through the Froekn gathered around Fenrir.
As soon as they saw Ty, a cheer rose, and the Froekn surrounded him.
The argument stopped, and my husbands barreled through the crowd to wrap me in love and relief.
I hugged each of them. Trevor hugged me first and then went to hug his brother.
The Froekn started howling; they were so damn happy to have their prince back, and the Intare applauded.
I peered through the crowd to see Ty smiling, looking a lot like his old self, and I let out a sigh. I'd been so worried that he was going to hate me for what I did, or that I'd made the wrong choice. But it looked as if it had been a rare instance when it was better to take love away than give it.
Trevor picked Ty up and spun him in a circle, making me grin.
Even UnnúlfR grinned and hugged Ty after Trevor put him down.
UnnúlfR and his wife, Vejasmate, were there with their werewolves, the Vilkacis.
Veja was Ty's mother, so her presence was expected.
She hugged and kissed her son, glancing at Fenrir as she stepped back.
Veja left Fenrir after she had Ty because of something UnnúlfR said to her.
UnnúlfR had been in love with her. When they met again, years later, and Ty reunited with his mother, UnnúlfR declared his love for Veja.
She didn't accept him immediately, but UnnúlfR was persistent and won her in the end.
They were married now, but there was still an awkwardness when they were around Fenrir, especially for Vejasmate.
I understood. She'd gone from father to son while I'd done the opposite.
In the God World, it wasn't all that shocking, but it had taken me a while to get over my awkwardness around Thor.
“Welcome back, Sister.” Jesus enveloped me in a hug.
“Thanks. What are you doing here?”
Jesus fell silent and looked at the gods around the table. The silence spread until even the wolves fell quiet.
“What is it?” I asked. “What's happened?”
“First, tell us what happened with Agwusi,” Odin urged.
I looked from him to Fenrir. “She chained me with Gleipnir.”
“Damn those chains!” Fenrir roared. “I would melt them into puddles if I could. To come after me with them is bad enough, but to use them on you is reprehensible.”
“Well, they didn't suppress my magic,” I went on. “So, when she left to steal Freya's cloak—”
“I knew it!” a woman shouted.
I looked down the table to see Freya standing with several Valkyries. It had been ages since I'd seen any of those women, so I couldn't help calling down to them, “Hey, ladies! Long time no see. And I'm so sorry about your cloak, Freya. I had to add it to the machine to keep it stable.”
“What?!” Freya shrieked.
“It was that or bind myself to the machine. I'm sorry, but I'm a person. I'm more important than your cloak.”
The room went eerily quiet.
Viper broke the silence. “Why would you bind yourself to it, starlight?”
“I'll get to that.” I looked at Ty. “While Agwusi was gone, I broke Ty's love for her. It freed him from her influence.”
Ty nodded at his father's raised eyebrow. “It was a toxic love. I see that now.”
“We bound Agwusi in Gleipnir and tried to force her to tell us how to destroy the machine.” I looked at my husbands. “I would have texted, but we were in Ala Mmuo, and there was no Internet. Anyway, Ty and I tried to remove Ereshkigal's keys.”
“Did you get my keys?” Ereshkigal leaned onto the table. In the seat beside her was Ninkasi.
“No, wires attached them to the machine. When I tried to burn a wire, strange things happened. I think time folded in on itself. Ty shifted to wolf, Agwusi became a skeleton, and I, well, I was different. The machine has merged with the items and woven itself into reality.”
They exchanged grim looks.
I continued, “I tried to leave, and the territory trembled. Not just the ground, but everything in it. Buildings flashed to ruins and back, souls split and merged, and everything vibrated. I felt a pull to return to the machine. At first, it controlled me, but Ty helped me focus. I went to the machine anyway, just to see what was going on. When I touched it, it revealed its purpose. It showed me visions of souls stuck in pockets of existence between the realms. I saw them misjudged and placed in the wrong afterlives. Some were trapped with no chance of reincarnating so they could feed the gods of the underworlds.”
“I would never!” Hades growled.
“I didn't see you, Hades. But there were other issues with the Greek Underworld.” I motioned for him to wait when he protested.
“Mistakes happen. You may not be human, but you aren't infallible.
Those mistakes prompted Agwusi's God to design the machine. But machines aren't infallible either, not even those infused with divine magic. They’re not alive, and so they can’t understand life.
Machines function by rules. They must follow their programming.
A living person must bond with the machine to ensure that it makes no mistakes.
“You?” Trevor's expression went horrified as he stepped up beside me. “No, minn elska. You don't know what it would do to you.”
“Yes, I'm who God chose, and I know what it would do to me. The machine showed me.” I looked from him to my other husbands. “It would consume my time. I would remain within its territory, unable to leave or share my life with any of you.
“Not gonna happen,” Viper vowed.
“No, it's not,” I said.
My other husbands shared relieved looks.
“Then we destroy it,” Thor said.
“We need to figure out how to do that,” Ty said. “We can't just smash the machine or remove the relics. It could have catastrophic results on the realms.”
“It's already having catastrophic results,” Re said.
“What's happened?” I demanded. “I told you mine, now tell me yours.”
Re glanced at his fellow Egyptian deities—Ma'at, Thoth, Anubis, and Horus. “The edges of Duat are vanishing.”
“Vanishing?” I frowned. “As in, turning into blank space?”
“As in turning into nothing,” Anubis said.
“Nothing. Like The Neverending Story? You're telling me the Nothing is coming?”
“For fuck's sake.” Horus huffed. “Why must everything be a movie reference for you, Vervain? No, it's not the Nothing. We don't need a kid to believe in us and wish for shit.”
“So, you've seen the movie?” Pan blinked innocently.
“Everyone has seen that movie.”
“But that's it, isn't it?” I asked. “The realms are being consumed.”
“No, it's not a consuming nothing,” Odin said.
“Then what is it?”
“The machine is erasing us.”