Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Reid
There was one shining moment when I thought we’d won, that the vampires were defeated and the danger had passed.
And then everything went wrong.
My mouth opens in a silent scream as the godslayer’s blade drives down toward Jessica.
In my mind, I picture the young woman dying in front of us, and us not being able to do a damn thing to stop it, god powers or not.
But at the last possible second, she twists desperately to one side, and the knife sinks into her shoulder.
“What the hell?” Van shouts, at the same time as one of the godslayers shouts Jessica’s name.
I’m between the godslayer and Jessica in an instant. Breathing hard, she glares at him. “What are you doing?”
From the doorway, the rest of the godslayers slowly enter the room. My gaze slips from Trevor, the blond giant who had stabbed Jessica, to Lucas, the enormous black-haired giant with the foul temper, and the dickhead twins, Brian and Josh.
My stomach sinks, and I chance a glance back at Jessica, Finn, Clancy, and Tuck, still bound in the center of the room. Had we thought this was a trap by the vampires? We’d been fools to forget about our real enemy.
Tevor smiles as the other godslayers pull blades free from sheaths at their backs. “Confused?” he asks, sounding far too smug.
“You were working with the vampires,” I say.
His smug expressions falters. “You picked that up faster than I imagined.”
I don’t tell him that if there’s anything Hel understands, it’s betrayal. “You’re working against your own people.”
“My people,” Tevor emphasizes, “are anyone who wants you bastards dead. My people are willing to do whatever they have to do in order to return the world to normal. In order to make sure we can all go back to our real lives.”
Jessica sounds strained. “He’s just pissed because of what we found out.”
“Shut up!” Tevor shouts.
But even though she’s pale, she smiles. “The people who trained us led us to believe that all of you are evil. They didn’t tell us that we might need you to survive.”
Tevor raises his hand as if to slap her, and I shift to the side to stay between him and the injured woman.
“Is this really what you guys want to do? Fight us?” Izzy asks, suddenly near my shoulder. “You have to know you won’t survive.”
The godslayers at the doorway laugh.
They know something we don’t. The thought makes the hairs on my arms stand on end. Something is wrong. Something is really wrong.
We need time to think, a soft voice whispers in my mind.
Yes, that was exactly what we needed. Unfortunately, I was pretty sure Hel didn’t control time.
Yet the second the thought enters my mind, I lift my hand and move it in a gesture that’s both strange and familiar at the same time.
Around me, time stands still. The loss of sound and movement is a shock to my system.
For the first time, I notice that blood leaks down my shoulder from a vampire bite and that my body aches.
But it isn’t my injuries that has me troubled. It’s this whole fucking situation that makes no sense.
Wiping the sweat from my brow, I stiffen when I notice the old woman in the corner.
“Think fast,” the woman rasps, then a crackling laugh leaves her lips.
In my mind, I know who this is. One of the three fates. It’s her power that’s given me this moment, not mine.
I’m breathing hard as I glance around the room. There’s nothing here that would explain why they suddenly think they can challenge us head-on, especially without the help of all the godslayers. So what do they have?
They have hostages.
The fate grins. “But is that all?”
And then, she’s gone and so is my moment. My wasted moment. Because I still know there are pieces to all of this I don’t understand.
“Want to take this outside?” I challenge.
Trevor glances from the bound godslayers back to me. “After you.”
“Reid…” I ignore Izzy, knowing that the only move we have right now is to get away from the innocents that they could hurt.
Every muscle in my body is tense as I walk past the godslayers, Izzy and the guys following closely behind me.
I lead us to the scorched earth from Wilder’s loss of control with the god.
Outside, the air smells of rain. Aiden’s clouds gather in the sky and the threat of a powerful storm seems to surround us.
We stop when we reach the center of the scorched earth, and we turn in a line, facing our enemy. Somehow, it feels like this is the moment everything has been leading to since we became gods. I don’t know that we’ll win, but I do know that I wouldn’t trade anything for this time we’ve had together.
Our time with Izzy.
“Gods,” Trevor says, his tone mocking. “Get ready to go back where you belong.”
I sense the Underworld beneath my feet. I sense the many souls, the many creatures waiting to obey my every command. And I level my hands with the ground, feeling them all, and then silently calling forth my realm.
The earth responds in an instant, shaking, cracking, and splitting around us.
Everyone gasps. The godslayers ready their weapons against a force they can’t possibly stand against. Hel whispers warnings in my mind that I can’t focus on, and dark creatures leap forth from glowing cracks in the earth’s surface.
I smile. “You made a mistake.”
“You made a mistake,” Trevor says, but his smile is gone.
Suddenly, a woman shimmers into existence beside him.
A woman that feels both like a stranger and like someone I’ve known all my life.
She’s the same age as us, with caramel blond hair that whirls around her shoulders and a wildness to her eyes that I find frightening.
She lifts a hand toward me, and suddenly, I can’t breathe.
I can’t move. My underworld and my powers feel far away.
The godslayers lift their hands toward me, and I’m blinded by a golden light. I hear the shouts of my friends. I hear Izzy scream, but I can’t see any of them.
And then, I’m somewhere else.
The world around me is dark. I’m floating, touching nothing and everything.
“You failed.”
I jerk and turn to look behind me. Hel is there in a way she never has been before. She floats in the same dark space that I do. Her dark beauty is dimmer in this strange, sad place.
“What do you mean?” I ask, and my voice sounds far away.
She gives me the saddest smile. “You’re trapped here with me now, Reid.”
“No.” The word slips past my lips.
She nods. “And soon, all your friends and the other gods will return to this place too.”
My stomach turns. “No. No. How could this happen?”
“Because,” a tear slides down her pale cheek, “they did the one thing none of us saw coming.”
“What?”
She closes her eyes. “They allied with other gods.”