Chapter 25 – Blaise
BLAISE
We fly until we near the woods, then touch down. We have to walk the rest of the way to his brother’s body, but I’m already breathless. Not because of flying all day, but because I’m truly afraid of what will happen if Andros hasn’t come back to life.
Hecate hasn’t improved.
Orion isn’t speaking, sleeping, or eating.
I’m afraid of what my future will hold, because I’m beginning to think I’m going to lose everything today. And I can’t. I can’t lose everything again. One minute I had my best friend, his brother, a beautiful woman, and a child on the way, and now it’s all slipping through my fingertips.
I’m desperately trying to hold on. I’m trying not to show any doubts.
But the doubts and fears are there, hissing in the back of my mind.
Telling me that because of what I did that day with the children, I’m cursed.
That I’m the reason all of this was falling apart, because I don’t deserve anything good.
Orion moves faster and faster as we approach the shrine, and I have to struggle to keep up, even though he holds Hecate in his arms. We’re near the top of the hill, shoving the branches aside, when we finally come out on the top and look toward the little building that holds his brother’s body.
It’s burned.
Completely.
There’s nothing left of it but blackened smoke and the slab of marble covered in soot. I rush forward and take Hecate from Orion’s arms. He releases her without looking at me and stumbles forward like someone in a nightmare.
He moves all around, no doubt searching for Andros’s bones. Surprisingly, most of our kind could be burned down to nothing and still have our muscles and flesh grow back. It’s a painful process, but it’s possible.
Yet there’s no evidence of bones.
“What happened?” he says, gasping in uneven breaths and collapsing into the ash. His hands rake through it, coming out with unrecognizable bits and pieces, but none of it looks like bones.
“I don’t know,” I manage to say around the lump in my throat.
His movements become more and more frantic as he begins to dig through all the debris, crawling around on his knees, jerking one way and another. His face is a mask of torture. I can barely breathe around the lump in my throat. I just hold Hecate’s body tight and watch Orion unravel.
And here, in this moment, I feel my world crashing down. Orion’s sounds of misery rise up and his movements become desperate. If he were a bomb, he would be seconds from going off.
But then he stops. He just...stops. And it’s like he knows, he knows his brother is gone. Forever. Really gone. There are no hail Mary’s left. And no amount of love or dedication can make this better.
This is the end of the road.
I can almost feel Hecate’s heartbeat slowing in that instant. Like she was holding on for this moment too, and now she is letting go. Andros is gone, which means Orion is too. And I’m losing Hecate, slowly but surely.
I feel tears sting my eyes. I will always go on. I will always keep going. But the loneliness and heartbreak will never leave me, of that I am certain.
How was it that I thought I could be enough to heal Orion’s broken heart, to bring back a man from the dead, and to gain the love of a worthy woman? I’m a fool in every sense of the word.
My knees give out beneath me. The setting sun lights the sky on fire, and I feel the tears that roll down my cheeks. I know now that I’m witnessing the death of hope. Of my dreams. And there has never been a worse feeling.
Because what are we without hope?
“I remember.”
The voice that comes behind me rolls through my body, and leaves every hair standing on end.
Orion turns to look and I follow his gaze.
My heart...my god damn heart is overwhelmed as I stare at Andros.
He isn’t a lost soul any more. Instead, he wears his normal body, and the similarities between Orion and Andros are impossible to ignore.
Orion makes a terrible sound and runs to his brother, covered in soot. His arms come around Andros, and the two hold each other tightly. There’s so much pain and so much love in their embrace that it feels like the world is shifting beneath my feet.
Andros pulls back, and they clasp wrists before releasing each other. They stand close, so close they could touch, but they just kind of stare, as if uncertain if this is real. And it’s strangely beautiful, and strangely sad.
“I remember everything. I remember how I died.” Andros’s face is filled with the most terrible suffering.
“I know… I know I wasn’t there for you--” Orion begins, but Andros cuts him off.
“Gary did a ritual. He said it was to allow the female gargoyles to get pregnant easier, and that he needed a man for it. They strapped me down, and then a phoenix brought three small children.” His voice catches.
“As the eclipse passed overhead, they broke the children’s necks and tossed away their souls with a dark kind of magic I’d never imagined.
” He closes his eyes, and seems to fight to keep speaking.
“It was the phoenix who attacked you in his dead form. And the human, Peter, who said the words to the spell. I struggled. I fought. And then my soul appeared in the Underworld. I don’t know what happened after that, but it seems he dumped my body for you to find, and that the children were thrown in the ocean, their own souls taken to paradise in the Underworld. ”
The children...the phoenix kids. “I didn’t kill them,” I say, all the puzzle pieces, all the strangeness around their deaths, finally coming together.
Orion looks at me and the corner of his mouth lifts into a half smile. “No, I guess you didn’t.”
“But Gary has to be dealt with,” Andros continues, and there’s fury in his voice.
“He cannot get away with this.” His gaze goes to Hecate.
“But first, we have to figure out how to heal her. I’d hoped burning the pillar would draw the attention of Gary and that I could kill him before you made it here, but the coward never showed. ”
Something strange must have been going on. This shrine is tucked in a corner of the sanctuary that no one visits. But still, a fire in the sanctuary should’ve brought a group of gargoyles to investigate. The fact that it didn’t…it worries me.
Andros moves closer to me and crouches down, and I reluctantly hand him the woman in my arms.
He presses a light kiss to her lips. “Dearest, thank you for saving my brother, but I never wanted it to be at this price.”
“What can we do?” I say, my chest aching as I stare down at her still form.
He looks up, and it’s strange to me. I barely know Andros, and yet through Orion and Hecate, I feel like I know him better than I know myself. “I have no idea, but we can start with talking to the healer.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
We turn and I see Elite Gary standing near the bottom of the hill. Hades is beside him. Both men look smug as hell, and I swear my wings grow hotter and brighter with my fury then they ever have before. I move, and Orion and I stand in front of our mate and his brother.
“You--” Orion begins, a threat in his voice.
Hades cuts him off. “You’re going to die now, and everything you did will be for nothing. Do you understand that? Let it sink in, real deep. You sacrificed everything for nothing.” He sounds so damned smug, and god or not, I promise myself that I’m going to rip that smile from his lips.
I pull out my sword.
Hades lifts a hand. I gasp as something closes around my neck, and I drop my sword, clawing at the invisible pressure.
“Stop!” Andros commands him.
Hades glares. “You serve me, not the other way around.”
Spots dance in front of my vision. I collapse to my knees and darkness starts to swallow me, but I continue to claw at the invisible magic that’s slowly suffocating me.
And then it suddenly stops.
I’m panting, confused as my vision returns, and then I stiffen. In front of us is a beautiful woman. She wears a pale white gown, and her hair, the color of spun gold, is braided down her back. She wears a crown of black diamonds, and the glow of a goddess surrounds her.
“Persephone.” Hades says her name in a strange tone. “What brings you to the surface?”
“Am I not your wife?” she asks, her tone cold.
“Of course,” he says, his brows drawing together.
“Are you not a god?”
He looks even more confused. “I’m the most powerful of gods.”
“Then your word means everything,” she says, and there’s satisfaction in her voice. “Your word was given to me on our wedding day. Do you remember what I asked of you?”
His eyes are wide, and he nods.
“I said that I wanted one way that true loves could bring back their dead lovers. I asked you to promise me that anyone who led a soul from the Underworld, without looking back, anyone who had enough faith, would be able to restore that soul to the land of the living, and that the people who saved that soul would be safe from any backlash from you. And you gave me your word that it would be done.”
Hades opens his mouth, but no words come out.
She continues. “I know that to you I am no more than a pretty thing on your arm.” She glances back to Hecate.
“As she was just a pretty thing in a cage.” Then she faces Hades once more.
“I don’t ask you to see me as your queen, or even as your equal, but the word of a god holds finality. Or are you the exception to this rule?”
Hades finally stumbles out words. “My love, Hecate was my prisoner. Andros was my guard, and these thieves--”
“They followed the rules.”
There’s a moment where I think he might challenge her, and then the sky above us darkens, and lightning flashes. The wind picks up, and I stare up in shock. In all my life, I’ve seen gods, witches, and immortal creatures of every kind. But I’ve never seen a warning from a god.
Anger flashes across Hades’s face. “Apparently, my brother, the ‘great’ man himself, agrees with you.” His gaze goes to us. “You four no longer exist to me. And when you die--”
“You will go where you’re meant to go,” Persephone finishes for him. “Or I will take it to the council of the gods myself.”
Hades looks at his wife like she’s grown a second head, and then he vanishes.
Persephone turns to us, a smile on her lips.
“Wh--hat?” Gary stutters out. “No, this will not be tolerated--”
Persephone is behind him in an instant, a sword with black diamonds in her hand. Her face is twisted with rage as she slices his head clean off. His blood splatters her face and gown, and his body and head drop at her feet. She snaps her fingers, and the sword is gone.
We all just stare in shock.
“Now that the trash has been taken out, let’s get Hecate fixed up.”
The Queen of the Underworld moves toward us, and as she does, her white gown changes to black, and the braids in her hair come loose. When she finally comes to stand before us, she looks nothing like Demeter’s daughter, and everything like the queen of the darkest realm.
She kneels down and places a hand on Hecate’s chest.
We all hold ourselves rigidly.
Hecate gasps and her eyes flash open. For a minute, I swear I can hear her heartbeat, so fast that it might explode, and then it slows to normal.
“Wh--what--?”
“You’re safe now, Hecate.” Persephone’s voice is filled with power but also kindness. “You have no idea how badly I wanted to get you free all those years, but I wanted to be sure that Hades couldn’t drag you back. This was the only way. Now, you and your gargoyles will be safe. Forever.”
Persephone turns to go, and Hecate grasps her arm. “But what about you? Trapped in the Underworld? Playing the part of a wife when that’s not what your heart wants?”
She smiles. “With gods, everything has to be laid out so carefully...planned out so flawlessly. I’ve been playing the part of doting wife and silent fool for too long to allow for my secret freedoms, but all the puzzle pieces have finally come together.
Hades will find that his life is about to get.
..a little more complicated.” Her last words sound strangely like a threat.
I watch her as she turns to go and a chill rolls down my spine. Whatever is going to happen next, I have a feeling Hades will get exactly what’s coming to him. The queen, her black dress flowing around her, the red blood splattered across it...well, she looks more capable of ruling than Hades.
And then she vanishes.
My gaze moves back to Hecate, and my heart speeds up. She looks confused, but she’s alive and conscious as she looks between all of us as we surround her.
“We made it out?” she asks, uncertainty in her voice.
“Yes, my love,” Andros whispers.
“And your soul was with us all along?”
He smiles tenderly. “I watched all of you fall in love, and my heart soared. I watched all of you fight to free us, and I was never more proud. This is what we always wanted, and we finally have it.”
“We’re on the surface,” she says, tears forming her eyes.
Orion nods.
“And Andros is with us.” She looks to me.
I smile and nod.
And then she bawls.
I swear it’s like lightning moves between us. We’re all trying to comfort the pregnant woman at once, and we’re no longer warriors, or phoenixes, or gargoyles; we’re just desperate men who would give up anything to make our woman smile.
She eventually calms down and scolds us for acting like frightened kittens, which for some reason doesn’t offend any of us.
Then she starts to talk about everything we need to do, including creating a home for our baby, informing the phoenixes and the gargoyles about what happened, and most importantly, finding her daughter.
We all take turns kissing her until she grows quiet, and then we’re all laughing.
So this...this is what we’ve been fighting for all along?
It’s worth it. Worth every dark moment. Worth every injury. Every tear. This moment, this woman, this family, it’s complete.