Chapter 22 #2
She tugs on the book, and this time, I’m not even remotely surprised at the answering sound of gears.
“Because you need to see something,” she answers cryptically, and there’s a faint waver in her voice.
The bookshelf sinks into the wall, only to slide behind the shelf next to it, revealing a small set of stairs.
My throat tightens. I’m not sure who is engineering these, but I would really appreciate it if they could move to more ‘open concept’ designs.
Unconsciously, I take a step back.
Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve recovered from my last claustrophobic adrenaline-inducing activity.
“You need to come with me.” Nymara nods at the steps.
A small, panicked laugh escapes me. “Yeah, I don’t think so. You can just tell me what’s down there.”
She starts massaging her temples, as if I’m giving her a headache.
I can’t imagine why.
“Look,” she starts, anxiously gripping her hands together. “I’m truly sorry about this, but Vivian, go down the stairs. Now.”
The mental leash tugs. Betrayal flashes across my features.
Friends don’t control each other’s will.
Then again, Nymara was abundantly clear that she isn’t my friend.
I just really hope she isn’t my enemy.
Against my free will and my better judgment, I start down the stairs.
We descend for at least half a dozen floors before finally reaching the large, brightly lit space.
The light has that same fluorescent tone that hurts your eyes when you’re in a hospital waiting room.
The usual opulence of the castle is gone.
These walls are solid gray brick, and the floor is smooth concrete.
The room is silent, save for the occasional beep from the scientific equipment crammed into the space.
Laboratory benches line two of the walls, and they’re also scattered almost haphazardly throughout the center of the room.
Each bench holds shelves filled with beakers.
The room feels sterile, like a stereotypical laboratory you see in movies.
I’m so taken aback by the Mortal Realm equipment that I almost miss the row of barred doors on the far-right side.
More prison cells.
My pulse picks up. They’re all empty, save for the one in the back corner, where a very large man is sleeping on a hospital bed. He’s hooked up to a bunch of machines, but the only one I recognize is the heartrate monitor.
I back away from Nymara. “What is this place, and who is that?”
I’m not down to be a guinea pig for a mad scientist.
Her shoulders slump, and her expression turns desperate. “It’s all the proof I have.”
“Proof of what?” I ask, more than finished with all the cloak and dagger.
She takes a breath, like she’s steeling herself. “Of what my mother is, and why you are going to do whatever it takes to escape, no matter the cost.”
My teeth grind together, annoyed to be back at this. “I’ve already told you, I can’t. Need is going to–” I start, but Nymara turns on her heel and walks away, not even pretending to listen.
She strides over to a lab bench set against the wall, picking up a folder and throwing it at my feet. Papers and photos spill out over the floor. Most of the documents contain charts, all filled with weird black-and-white blotches.
The photos are the disturbing part. They’re all children.
My unease grows as I take in their haunted eyes. They remind me of the children Cassandra used to rescue. They’re eyes that have seen too much, far too soon.
“Nymara, I’m going to need you to start explaining. Now.” I put force behind my words.
She nods, looking no less anxious. “You’re a history major, which makes this a bit easier. The gods are real. The ones you’ve read about, they are all real–”
“Yeah, I’ve already had a chat with a god, so please, cut to the next part,” I snap, cutting her off.
Her brow raises, and hope flashes across her eyes. “That saves me a lot of trouble. If you’ve met a god, then you won’t be surprised to hear titans are real, too.”
She’s wrong. I am, in fact, surprised.
My mind spins back to my Greek history class. The titans were deities that predated the gods. They were imprisoned by Zeus, deep in the Underworld, in a place called Tartarus.
“What does that have to do– ” I start.
“My mother is a titan,” she exclaims, the words spilling out like she’s been holding them in for far too long.
“Even though they’ve been imprisoned in Tartarus for millennia, they didn’t die.
They carved out a dark and violent existence in that place.
My mother was born there. She’s only a minor titan, but she’s clever.
She found a crack in the wards, one so small that she was able to slip through, without being discovered. ”
I glance down at the photos, trying to figure out where she’s going with this story. Understanding Need’s origin doesn’t seem like a priority. I already knew she was powerful and clever. That’s half the reason I’m stuck here.
Nymara continues, faster now, likely seeing my impatience. “When she got out, she worked for years to enact her master plan. She single-handedly orchestrated the obliteration of the gods. She sealed the doors to the God Realm, and then had her acolytes cover up their existence.”
“She wanted revenge?” I ask, in a stilted voice, not quite processing what she’s just revealed.
She snorts, leaning back against a lab bench.
“Not even close. Mother has no allegiance to her own people. As a minor titan, she wasn’t treated well in Tartarus.
She was after so much more than revenge.
Sealing the doors to the God Realm took nearly every drop of her power.
But those weren’t the ones she was after.
She just needed them out of the way. The gods that weren’t in the God Realm were her real targets.
Mother had her followers trap them, and she spent millennia leaching them of their power. ”
My mind reels as I start to fit the puzzle pieces together. Hades is under the impression that the Council trapped him in order to control the Fates. But if what Nymara says is true, then the Fates were never the target. Need was after him all along.
It takes a second before I’m hit by another, more disturbing thought. The woman I need to take down literally obliterated the freaking gods.
Screwed.
I am beyond screwed.
Slowly, I shake my head, not wanting to believe how badly the cards are stacked against me.
My disbelief must be showing, since Nymara steps forward, holding out her hands in an imploring gesture. “Haven’t you wondered where all this power came from? The power to make Destroyers and Creators? It was never hers. She stole it.”
The tangled webs in my mind finally feel like they’re starting to fit in the right places, until I catch sight of the man in the hospital bed again. I nod my chin in his direction. “Okay… so is he a god? Is that why he’s locked in here?”
“I fucking wish,” she answers with a harsh laugh.
I frown, not appreciating the fact that she’s still being evasive.
Nymara’s gaze drops to the floor, her hands wringing together.
She takes a deep breath, as if stealing herself.
“Not even a god’s power is infinite. One by one, the power of the gods went dry.
First, it was the weaker ones, until even the strongest gods only had a trickle remaining.
So, mother came up with a new plan. First, she needed to lure titans out of Tartarus, but not to leach their power. ”
I nod, coaxing her to continue.
She shifts from one foot to the other, like she’s dreading this part. “When my mother realized that stealing power was only a short-term solution, she decided to make more of it.”
She pauses again, and I swallow, knowing I’m going to hate her answer.
I ask anyway. “How did she make more power?”
Nymara finally looks up and fixes her intense stare on me. “She decided to breed them.”