Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Van
The instant we heard the sound of a fight and glass breaking, we raced into the kitchen. The three of us stare at Wilder as he holds Izzy, and then at the broken window, not quite comprehending what we’re seeing. But then, Mr. Time pushes past us, and his mouth draws into a thin line.
“I’m assuming Oliver is dead?”
Dead? Fuck.
It doesn’t matter how many people we’d seen die since becoming gods, it still doesn’t feel like a normal thing to just kill people. As much as it feels weird to say, lives have a value. The second we forget that, we’ll be just as dangerous as the gods within us.
“It was an accident,” Wilder says, and there’s something raw and vulnerable in the way he says the words.
“Of course it was!” Reid responds, sounding absolutely shocked.
Mr. Time sighs. “Well, you better go get his body before the waves can drag it out. I can’t imagine him being reborn in the ocean.”
“Reborn?” Izzy asks in confusion.
Mr. Time nods, his expression unreadable.
“There’s actually…a history of sorts of the gods within you killing Gullveig, the goddess within him.
She was burned to death three times and each time came back to life.
So, she’ll come back to life this time soon, but it’d be nice if it happened in a warm bed versus the freezing waters of the ocean. ”
I shudder at the idea of my eyes opening to find nothing but the ocean around me. Would sea animals start feeding off of him? What would happen if a shark took a bite out of him?
Ugh. “Yeah, that sounds…creepy as fuck.”
Mr. Time shoots me a look. Oh yeah, I forgot adults don’t like when I swear around them. I was usually more careful about giving a good impression when it mattered.
“Who wants to go get him?” Aiden asks, lifting a brow and scanning us.
I shake my head. “How about you and me, champ?”
“Champ?”
I grin. “It seems like finding bodies is right up our alley.”
He shakes his head. “So this is what my life has come to…”
Izzy’s soft voice surprises us. “It was my fault. I can--”
“No,” I say. It’s gross to drag a body off the rocks, but I have no doubt it’ll be far more disturbing for Izzy than it is for me. And there is no way I’m going to let her do anything that might make her life even harder. “We’ve got this. Trust me.”
Aiden seems to realize that if Izzy thinks we don’t want to go, she’ll go, so he adds, “I could use the fresh air.”
She doesn’t look like she believes us, but she nods.
Wilder wraps an arm around her shoulder. “Let’s get you away from the chill and by the fire.”
“Okay,” she says.
Mr. Time pulls his phone out his pocket. “I’ll call someone to get this fixed.”
Aiden and I go and get our jackets, zipping them up against the cold, then go to stand by the window. The breeze is more than cold, it’s freezing. I shiver against it and crane my head out to look at the shape of a body far below.
“Ready?”
“Yeah.”
I close my eyes and focus on teleporting, picturing the rocks below. Air rushes around me, and I stumble a little, then almost slip on the damp rocks. Beside me, the sound of the crashing waves is deafening, and the spray of the water instantly dampens my flesh.
A second later, Aiden appears beside me. “Fuck,” he mutters, catching himself on a rock.
“Let’s be careful here,” I say, thinking about us waking up after an injury in the dark waters near us.
“Yes, sir,” he responds sarcastically.
I turn and find Oliver’s body. He’s definitely got a lot of broken bones, and blood blossoms from beneath him. But to my surprise, his eyes are open, and an eerie look is on his face.
“Oliver?” I say, feeling like I’m talking to a zombie.
Can he even understand me?
His mouth moves, but blood simply leaks from one corner.
Hell. I don’t want to touch him, but I carefully make my way to him, then glance at Aiden, who hasn’t moved. “You waiting for an invitation?”
He shakes himself and comes to stand at Oliver’s other side. “So…do we…carry him when we transport him? Just touch him?”
Oliver makes a sound that sends more blood rasping from his lips, and I realize he’s saying something. I kneel down beside him, leaning my head closer to catch whatever he can say that I might hear over the ocean’s waves.
“I kn-knew you assho-holes were going to k--kill me again.”
I lift my head away from him and try to read the expression on his face, but his eyes simply flutter shut. This guy… I can’t figure him out. Technically, it sounds like the gods inside of us had done some terrible things to his god. Technically, one of us had just killed him again.
So why do I feel like he’s the one who is dangerous to us?