24. Who Made You Like This? #2
Finally, a scarlet line rippled into the air, parting to allow each of the nine rulers of Gehenna to enter my hospital room.
Each were in their Human form and dressed plainly compared to the regal statures they usually personified.
Evris entered behind Phillip and Elias, looking like a kicked puppy, but nothing compared to the look on Decimus’s face.
He looked like he had committed the most heinous crime to ever exist and was about to face a judge for sentencing.
He couldn’t look me in the eye, wouldn’t even try, and kept sizeable distance between us.
This made me incredibly suspicious.
I gently pulled myself upright, so I was sitting up rather than lying down, and though my chest ached in defiance of the action, I forced it to comply. Akira moved to sit in my lap, but kept wary eyes on each demon to enter the room.
Once everyone had entered, the portal closed.
They each took a seat in the numerous chairs left behind by the Gods, but the rest of the demons looked far from guilty over their actions.
Peregrine especially was emotionless, not abnormal from him, but this time, he was completely void of all feelings.
He looked like a mannequin. His porcelain skin was drained of all color, and his pupils were not crimson, but a dull, muted pink, like when water and blood mixed on a tile floor.
I couldn’t understand why he was so despondent, but figured I’d learn the reason in a moment.
Arabella folded her hands gently and gave me a forced smile, though her movements were jerky. She usually looked like a broken doll, but today, she was extra animated and wobbly. “You look like you’re healing well. Any progress on your wounds?”
“I’m still kicking; don’t count me out yet,” I tried to lightly joke.
“We were incredibly worried about you. What Atlas did was despicable,” Elias shot.
I could sense the tension in the air and decided to respond to it instead of hide from it. “Yes, well, Atlas is why I called this meeting. I would like to know what you’ve all done with him.” I said this in a sharp, flat tone, one that relayed a warning: don’t play games with me right now.
Beatrix took the hint and waved a hand at Peregrine. “It was his idea, so rip into him.”
“What was your idea?” I slithered menacingly.
Peregrine flicked his hazy eyes at me. “Atlas committed crimes against the three sacred Realms; Earth, Caelum, and Gehenna. We have rules the same as every other Realm, and he disobeyed them by ending the lives of so many.”
“What was the grand total?” I breathed nervously.
“Four million Humans, a million demons, and five thousand Life Elementals,” Aloysius answered immediately.
I swallowed back my horror. “My Gods, that many? In just a few hours?”
“We expected many more causalities. Odysseus found Ambermourn just in time.”
“Where is Ambermourn?”
Each demon gave one another a shameful look. “You should speak with your husband about that,” Arabella finally said.
I brought a casted hand to my head and shook it. “Ok, so, Atlas did some insane damage, that we can all agree on. But did he really mean to do it-…?”
“He made his contract with the Horsemen on his own. No one forced him into it, and we would have dealt with them in other ways had he not. Atlas Crawford was fully aware of the damage he caused whether you want to believe it or not,” Peregrine firmly snapped over me.
I sunk under his grim tone. “I am not treating this as him being my father…?”
He talked right over me. “Yes, you are. You need to consider the bigger picture. Atlas and his familiars slaughtered over five million beings in less than four hours. Imagine if we had let this happen over the course of a day, a week, a month! The entire world would have perished. He is a monster the same as his familiars, and we left him unchecked for far too long.”
“He didn’t do it on purpose! Ambermourn spoke the spell against his will!” I fired back.
Peregrine was not interested in my argument. “He would have triggered whether we liked it or not; it was only a matter of time. Letting him become a God was a horrible mistake. He is nothing but a stain on the record.”
His hatred for Dad was so deep, so cruel, that even I knew I was not going to convince him otherwise.
Instead, I pointed to Isadora, who had her head in her lap the entire time.
“Let’s not forget who started this whole shit show to begin with.
She is the reason Ambermourn got his hands on that book. She is to blame as much as him!”
“I agree,” Elias backed me up.
“As do I.” Isadora trembled under Peregrine’s low, unamused tone. “I was going to set her punishment myself, but I feel you have the right to do so, as the God who was hurt so severely.”
“Me?” I hiccupped.
“Are you or are you not the Successor of Endymion? Gehenna is your Realm the same as it was his, if not more. You were severely harmed because of an incompetent fool and his trusty sidekick, gullible for brains.” Peregrine gestured to Isadora when he said this.
“You should have the final say in her sentencing. If you want my advice-…”
“I don’t, but you’re going to give it to me anyway,” I muttered.
He paused to let his mouth curl into a fraction of a smirk, but that fell the moment he spoke again. “I think she should be stripped of her position.”
“My position?” Isadora peeped.
“SILENCE!” Peregrine roared, making her sink into a ball. “You have no say in anything to do with this matter. You are lucky we did not dispose of you ourselves.”
“I thought you loved me?” she whispered, tears welling in her eyes.
Those tears would break me in a heartbeat, but they did nothing to Peregrine.
“Maybe so, but I am faithful to my God over anyone else. I am the first being of Gehenna, and as such, I knew my position and my task from the day this universe was created until this very moment. As rulers of Gehenna, you should all know your place. You jeopardized my God’s safety, and therefore, have diminished my trust in you. ”
“How could you say that, after all we’ve been through…?” she sniveled.
He brought his gaze away from her. “I am a demon, Isadora, as are you. We are not loving creatures.”
Isadora broke down and continued to sob into her legs, not of fear of her punishment, but of devastation over Peregrine’s cold words.
I myself had no clue that the rulers of Gehenna thought so fondly of me, enough to turn on one another, but this news was not exciting.
I hated that they would damage relationships over my wellbeing, especially ones that had been built for centuries.
I was just a twenty-something nobody; how could I hold a torch to a girl he helped raised for ten thousand years?
“Your sentencing?” Elias pressed.
I stuttered wildly as I searched for an answer to give them. “I, um, really d-don’t know?”
“Then I will choose for you.” Peregrine raised a hand and latched onto Isadora’s hair, making her cry out and pull on his grasp.
“You will spend the same amount of time as Atlas in my Layer for your betrayal. You will be haunted by the souls of those lost to this catastrophic battle and forced to listen to them scream for the next century.”
“Harsh,” Phillip commented.