Chapter 20 – Keto
KETO
I’m shaking as we land on the little island not far from the Isle of the Demons. Max instantly goes to work, setting up a tarp on the ground, laying out blankets and supplies. Arthur cleans Steven’s wounds as he lies unconscious, but it’s obvious he doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing.
I doubt many gargoyles have been this injured before.
If we don't do something soon, I’m actually afraid Steven might die. These are wounds a god would hurt from. A simple semi-immortal? It’s tearing at his soul and pulling him step-by-step closer to mortality.
He’ll die if I don’t get help.
I have to go into the sea, no matter how much it puts me at risk of losing everything. Steven came there for me. I lured him there for my own selfish reasons. He can’t die for me. I won’t allow it!
My gaze goes to him, and my heart clenches. I want to stroke his long, brown hair. I want to touch the strong lines of his face. I even want to see the way his dark eyes sparkle when he looks at me, but I won’t be able to do any of those things if I don’t go soon.
“I think I can help him,” I say.
Max and Arthur look up at me.
“How?” Max asks.
“I’ll find someone who can heal him.”
Arthur looks worried. “Is it safe for you?”
I try to keep my face blank. “If I don’t go, he could die.”
That’s the moment I realize that they had no idea how serious this is. Both men turned pale, their eyes widening. Their concern bleeds through every inch of their flesh.
“I’ll be back,” I promise.
Turning my back to all of them, I walk into the sea.
Instantly, the water washes over me and almost feels strange on my flesh.
I’ve been away from the water more the last few days than any other time in my life.
Shifting, my tail sprouts. Parts of my body sting and burn in the salty water, but I ignore it, dipping below the waves.
Whatever injuries I sustained on the isle is nothing compared to Steven’s. I can endure them.
Reaching out with my mind, I search and search. I sense my creatures stiffening. They feel my mind brushing theirs like an instinct they can’t quite identify, but I don’t stop to speak to any of them. Not until I find the creature I need.
I swim deeper and deeper into the dark depths of the ocean. My eyes adjust, but my nerves feel on edge. As if I’m waiting for my brother to sense me. As if I’m waiting for his minions to come for me.
I continue to swim as time passes, until at last I sense my creature. She’s a beautiful being filled with absolute goodness, and when I call to her she comes, barreling through the sea.
I head back to the island, sensing her following me with every mile that swims past.
And then something crashes into me in the water.
I struggle, trying to escape. Trying to fight even as I tumble through the water.
Arms are suddenly around me, and then a familiar voice comes, as clear as if on the surface. “Keto, I missed you.”
My heart twists. “Aphros.”
I feel his smile against my hair. “And I’d worried you’d forgotten about me.”
He turns me slowly around, and I have to fight every instinct not to flee from him. My brother’s second-in-command is a merman with long golden hair and eyes the color of seaweed. He’s also a big man, and a god. He's not nearly as powerful a god as my brother and I, but he's a god all the same.
And I hate him with every ounce of my being.
“When I heard the sea dragons killed you, I was heartbroken.”
My mind senses my sea monster. She draws closer, but I should have time. I have to escape this bastard before he can see her and hurt her.
“Well, now you know,” I tell him.
He smiles and starts to draw me closer.
I jerk free of him, panting in fear. “Don’t touch me!”
His smile vanishes. “What’s come over you?”
I don’t know what’s come over me. Never before would I defy this man, but now I know so many things that I didn’t understand before, things the gargoyles have taught me.
Aphros was always a bad man. Just like my brother. But I’d always felt that what he did to me didn’t matter. Now I knew differently.
“You are never to touch me again,” I tell him.
Anger flashes in his eyes. “And who are you to command me to do anything?”
“A goddess of the sea,” I emphasize each word.
He laughs. “Has your time away made you forget your place? Then, let me remind you.”
He jerks me closer, and his mouth crushes mine.
I strike out, clawing his face and shoving back.
The smell of his blood lingers in the water.
He touches his face and then narrows his eyes in that evil stare that I've feared for way too long. “That was a mistake, Keto. When I tell your brother that you still live, he will tighten your fucking collar until your head is nearly severed. And then I’ll watch as you suffer, slowly knitting your immortal flesh back together.”
He’s a coward. The thought makes me freeze. This low-god, he has no real power over me, just the power he steals from my brother. How is it that I never realized that before?
“Do what you have to,” I say, my voice strong and sure. “But you will never touch me again.”
His lips curl. “The pain you’ll feel—“
And then my creature barrels out of the water and chomps down on him in one bite.
I’m in shock as I watch the cloud of blood that fills the water, and my creature throws back its head to fully swallow him.
The massive creature comes closer, rubbing its large head against me. I can hear it in my thoughts. She didn’t like the way the merman spoke to me. She could sense my anger and fear, so she helped.
I’m speechless. What is there to say?
He’s a god. Eating him won’t kill him. But he will have a rather awful next few days as he passes through my creature’s system and out the other end.
Rising to the surface of the water, I explode in the moonlight. My creature drifts under me and lifts me higher until I’m riding on her back. Laughing, I stretch out my arms.
That bastard who hurt me? He’s going to be shitted out by one of my creatures!
I can’t stop laughing. My creature makes a pleasant sound beneath me as she heads toward the island, and my gargoyles waiting for me. She’s glad she made me happy. She likes to make me happy.
“He’s going to want to hurt you for that,” I tell her.
She’s not afraid. She has places she likes to go that the stupid merman and my brother won’t find her. She’s never liked either of them.
“I feel the same way,” I say, still laughing, tears of joy running down my face.
They say immortals can’t change. But the thing is… I am changing. There were so many things I thought were outside of my control, but they aren’t. I know where to go to get this collar off. One of the men who hurt me is getting a very fitting kind of revenge, and I have gargoyles I care about.
Life could actually be a little good.
As soon as Steven has healed.
Minutes pass. I close my eyes, feeling the wind against my face and tasting the salt on the air. Even the moon glows brighter, a beautiful blue unlike anything I can remember in my long life.
Or maybe everything’s exactly the same, and I’m just different. The thought makes me smile.
And then there’s something else, a strange knowledge. Tonight, if my gargoyles are up for it, I’m going to let them make love to me. I’m going to make love to them.
Because I’m not afraid anymore of being hurt. I’m afraid of wasting more days being lonely and unhappy.
Why have forever if I never do anything with it?