Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Van
“Save that for later!” I shout.
The strange woman might have been staring in shock, but her shock wouldn’t last long. And then there were the damn godslayers to deal with. They might have let her do all the dirty work before, but the second we escape, everything seems to change.
They don’t look nearly as cocky.
“Come on, Man Bun,” I say to Trevor, mocking his little golden ball of fur at the back of his head.
The godslayer’s eyes narrow, and he draws his own weapon as I call my sword back to my hand. “This ends today, god.”
“Yes, it does.”
The woman beside him says, “No,” so quietly I almost don’t hear her.
We’re all facing them now, ready for battle.
“No, what?” I say.
“We can’t take them all on now,” she tells Trevor more than me.
“We have to,” Trevor says. “I want to get back to my old life! To my friends! To my girlfriend!”
Her strangely familiar face is blank as she says, “Your life has never mattered.”
And then she shimmers, and she’s gone.
“It looks like your ace in the hole abandoned you,” I say, far too smugly.
“We should’ve known better than to trust a god,” he says.
A god? Was she really another god? But I don’t have time to process his words, because the damn godslayer launches toward me.
His sword meets mine with a familiar sound, one that rings through my soul and the soul of the god inside of me. For a second I think of that dark place. I think of the god inside of me bellowing about how we’d failed, and then my thoughts snap back to the fight as Trevor dances back from me.
We circle each other, and I hear the sounds of my friends fighting the other godslayers. Any time a blast of golden light comes, we all seem to instinctively leap away. We know damn well that we can take them, as long as they can’t use that unique power against us.
The problem? They know it too.
And then, time stands still. The gods that live within us shimmer into existence behind the godslayers like sinister shadows. My mouth curls into a warning to the others, but we all see them.
“What is this?” I ask.
Tyr answers me. “You saw the dark prison that awaits us all. Let us out. Let us take control, and we can end this. We can be sure that none of us has to return there again.”
Thor stands beside Tyr, his golden hair streaming around him. “Let us end this. Their powers aren’t like the box. The box was temporary. If they defeat you with their powers, there is no escape.”
Izzy’s deep eyes lock onto mine, then her gaze slides to Wilder, Aiden, and Reid. Her voice comes out strong and certain, speaking for us all. “No.”
“No?” It’s Loki who speaks now, his dark eyes locked onto her. “I will not let you risk our life!”
“It’s not your life, it’s mine!” Fire erupts over her body, and Loki vanishes.
I look at Tyr. Before he can process what I’m about to do, I throw my sword.
It slices into him, or more so through him, and his image fades.
Aiden leaps, slamming his hammer down into Thor, and the giant blond disappears.
Hel moves to Reid, and he gives her a sad look before she simply fades away.
At last, Odin comes to stand face-to-face with Wilder.
Fear makes my chest ache. Once upon a time Wilder let this wise, old god take control. He thought the god deserved it, and that he wasn’t good enough to be a god. Would he make the same choice now?
I want to speak. I want to tell him what to do, but I bite back my words, knowing this is one demon Wilder needs to face alone.
Izzy reaches for him, but stops herself.
We all hold our breath.
And Wilder sends his spear through the chest of the old man, his words no louder than a whisper. “Never again.”
Time speeds back up, and the godslayers look confused for a brief moment before we’re back to fighting. Golden light explodes from hands. Weapons meet weapons. A spear pierces the chest of a godslayer, and the man hits the ground with a sound like an explosion.
The life is gone from his eyes before Wilder calls his weapon back.
Trevor’s blade flies from his hand, and I’ve got my sword to his throat before he can regain it. I stare down at him, willing myself not to see him as a person. Willing myself to accept that these men will never stop until we’re dead. And then, I close my eyes and swing.
I don’t need to see his severed head hit the ground to know he’s dead.
Behind me, not a single godslayer remains. Just bodies, and my friends, splattered in blood.
“Is it over?” Izzy asks, and there’s a frightened note to her voice that makes my heart clutch.
I move to her, sheathing my sword, and wrap her in my arms. The others are around us, holding Izzy together, but also holding each other. None of us were meant to be gods. None of us were meant to be killers. But somehow that’s what we’d become.
“We didn’t let the gods in,” Izzy says softly, her voice filled with unshed tears.
No, we didn’t. Inside of myself, I feel for Tyr.
I’m surprised to find him there, and yet, he’s not nearly as strong. Not nearly as overwhelming.
“Do your gods feel different?” I ask.
Everyone is silent for a minute, and then they all nod.
What does this mean?
Suddenly, we hear a slow clapping behind us. I jerk back from the others and turn to see Mr. Time standing not far from us.
My sword is in my hand in an instant. “You--”
“No,” Izzy cuts me off. “He’s on our side.”
Somehow, I find that hard to believe.
A sad smile touches his lips. “I didn’t know who would survive, but I prayed that in the end you wouldn’t give into the gods, no matter how bad things got.”
“We didn’t,” Izzy tells him, tilting her chin up.
He nods. “I know.” Then, he turns and starts to walk away.
“Wait!” Izzy shouts. “What the hell does this all mean?”
He freezes but doesn’t look back at us. “It means…it means that one enemy has been destroyed but a more powerful one has emerged.”
“The woman?” Aiden asks.
“Who is she? And why did she try to kill us?” Reid sounds as confused as I feel.
He pauses rather than answering.
She looked so much like Izzy. I turn toward her, trying to make sense of what happened today.
Izzy is pale, and her hand trembles as she pushes a strand of hair back behind her ear. I want to wrap my arms around her and protect her, but I can’t protect her from the truth.
“She looked so much like me,” Izzy whispers, as if she can’t speak the words aloud. “Like my...twin…”
Mr. Time meets her gaze sadly. “I’m so sorry, Izzy.”
Izzy’s eyes widen, and the truth hits her in the same moment it hits us. A second later, she drops to her knees in the grass. “But she’s…an enemy?”
She had the same face, and the same eyes. How did we miss that? I’d known there was something familiar about her. But in the chaos, I hadn’t given it much thought.
My heart aches for Izzy as I stare down at the misery in her face, and it takes everything inside of me not to pull her into my arms. But in this moment, I don’t think she’s ready for that. So, I curl my hands into fists and stare at her, feeling helpless.
Even though my parents weren’t exactly lovable, at least I had them, and all the wonderful members of my household. All Izzy ever had was foster parents who couldn’t care less about her. And now…now that she finally found some real family, it was a fucking mess.
Her sister wasn’t just another god. But one that had tried to kill her.
“She looked at me like she hated me.” Izzy wipes her eyes with the heel of her hand, letting out a shuddering breath before her eyes lock angrily on Mr. Time’s. “You said I had to help her!”
Help her? My stomach clenches. The only way we could help her was by making sure she could never attack us again.
I look at Mr. Time, waiting for him to speak. To explain whatever the hell had just happened.
“That was Izzy’s sister. And, I’m afraid, she’s one of a collection of gods that are everything we feared.
People who want to rule. Who want to destroy this world.
” And then, he finally looks back at us.
“The godslayers were born to kill you. But these gods? They were born to kill everything. And, unfortunately, only you can stop them.”
“My sister.” Izzy sounds shocked. “She’s…she’s evil.”
I look from him to her. Any normal person would be more concerned with the gods who plan to destroy the world, but all I care about is Izzy.
I kneel beside her, feeling helpless as she cries. I don’t know what to say, so I ask, “Are you okay?”
The wind whistles around us, carrying with it the scents of blood, rain, and burned earth. But, I swear, there’s something else too. A foreboding sense that this is the beginning of something bad, of something that will change us forever.
I slip my hand in Izzy’s, but she’s looking at the golden shards of the box on the ground.
“Izzy?” I repeat.
A tear rolls down her cheek. “No. No, I’m not okay.”