Chapter 25 Grayson
The oleander in my bloodstream made everything hazy.
The burning was white-hot, and I was disintegrating from the inside.
There would be nothing left of me because it would be consumed in the inferno.
It was becoming difficult not to give in to it.
The pain and the darkness were overwhelming me and my strength was waning.
Quentin’s voice came to me intermittently.
She said things I couldn’t quite comprehend, but I needed her to take the ring.
My soulbound. My golden girl. I made her a promise, and I wanted to carry through on it.
I needed to know she’d forgiven me for all I said and that she would still accept me.
For so long, the world had been dark. I stalked through it as an invincible figure who couldn’t care less about the things around me.
It was all trivial and pointless. How wrong I’d been.
Quentin came into my life and lit it up in a way that I never imagined was possible.
She made a life worth living for. No matter how short that life ended up being.
What a blessing it was to have met her, to have had a taste of love that was fashioned only for my soul.
My eyes grew heavy until I struggled to keep them open.
The ache in my side was still prominent.
The burning was aggregating in my chest in such a way that I thought it would cave in from the pressure.
I’d never asked Elva what accompanied death.
Never grew curious about the path that it led us to.
Whether it all grew black or it was simply another phase of the journey.
Elva. She would look after Quentin. Elva. Erik. Ignacio. Archer. Larkin. Sloan.
Names and faces. Faces and names. They came to me, close enough to touch before swimming away.
It was only Quentin who remained. My golden girl was the beginning and the end for me.
She was all my world comprised. She drew closer, and I wondered if she knew how much I loved her.
If I’d shown it enough that it would last an eternity with her.
Or if I’d fallen short of letting her know what she meant to me.
Lips met mine, soft and warm and filled with longing and regret. My hands reached out, clasping her waist as I returned the kiss. Who knew death could be so sweet?
The hollow feeling in my chest morphed into a swelling sensation of warmth. Not the white sweltering heat that the oleander brought forth but the liquid gold that only accompanied Quentin and her touch.
We broke the surface of the water, and Quentin pulled back, gulping in deep breaths of air. I pulled her flush against me, unwilling to let go.
“Gray?” Quentin breathed. “You’re alive. It worked.”
“Gray!” Erik sounded ecstatic. The most grateful he’d ever sounded to be in my presence.
When I turned my head to look at him, he glowed with his aura. The world was a shade of red with Erik at the centre.
Fingers pressed delicately against my chin, gently guiding me back to my soulbound.
“You can’t go back on that promise now,” I told her. “I fulfilled my end of the deal. You have to marry me.”
She threw her arms around my neck, hugging me with all her might. When she pulled back, I chased her lips with mine. The rush and the force of it left me light-headed.
“Gray,” she said, when we broke apart.
“What?” I asked, drinking her in. Her lips were plump and cheeks flushed with colour. Dark strands of hair stuck to her face.
“Your eyes…”
“What’s wrong with them?”
“Nothing. Nothing is wrong with them.”
The sound of splashing caught my attention and Erik was wading towards us, having backed off to give us space earlier.
“Your eyes,” he repeated.
“What?” I asked. “What is it?”
“One of them is brown.”
“Brown?”
Ig let out a laugh from the shores. “It worked. I can’t believe it actually worked.”
“What happened? How?” Quentin asked. “You said you didn’t know if it would. The pool saved him.”
Erik shook his head. “The pool didn’t save him.”
My brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
Erik’s aura pulsed brighter than before. “Quentin, you saved him. Your bond saved him.”
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“Gray has some of your soul, Quentin. He was losing it because of the oleander. Everything that makes you who you are, divinity included, is part of your soul. The moment you kissed him under there, it found its way back to him. It let him live.”
“So, I don’t have a soul anymore?” Quentin looked panicked. “We aren’t bound?”
But even as she said it, I knew it wasn’t the truth because I could feel how much the thought upset her.
“I don’t think that’s the case. I’ve read about this in some accounts, but there weren’t any verified sources. I had no idea it could really happen,” Erik mused. “It looks as though when you kissed Gray, your soul made enough of a move to him that he took on a trait of yours.”
“It felt like something left me,” she told us.
“There’s your answer. Your soul didn’t want to be parted, and so it embedded itself in Gray.”
“The brown is—” Quentin started.
“Your soul. A physical marking of what belongs to you.”
I looked back to Quentin, who was shaking in my arms. The stress of the last few days must have been setting in. Pulling her closer, I kissed her forehead.
“You saved my life,” I muttered against the wet skin.
“We need to get back to everyone else,” Erik said. “Call some order. Without Hunter, everything falls to you, Gray.”
The words brought me no joy. With Hunter and Larkin divorced, the responsibilities of Elysia fell to me, but I’d seen the state Elysia was in. A lot of residents wouldn’t be happy to see me take his spot.
“The square?” Erik suggested.
“Council chambers,” I replied, trying to organise the chaos in my mind.
Ignacio pushed himself up from the ground. “I’ll start rounding up whoever I can. Let them know the news. For what it’s worth, I’m glad you didn’t kick the bucket, Gray.” And then he disappeared from sight.
We knew how this worked. There was no time to waste in trying to settle things again. Elysia, without a leader, would be even more unstable.
“Quentin,” I said, and she looked at me. “You stay close to me the entire time. Understand?”
She nodded her head. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
I took one glance at Erik before I wrapped my aura around us all and took us to the council chambers. The cavernous space was a wreckage. It should have been no surprise that it would have been targeted, considering it was the centre of distrust.
Amidst the debris, there were plenty of angry Gods and Goddesses, and at the heart of it all was Archer, on his knees and bound by a plethora of auras. Oh, this would be interesting.
“Enough!” I bellowed, cutting through the humdrum of noise. Quentin jumped, and I hugged her close to my side, rubbing a hand along her back soothingly.
The shouts turned to whispers that soon died out as eyes turned to me. I gently pushed Quentin behind my back, undecided on whether it was safe for her to be around everyone yet.
Aria stepped forward, and my stomach sank. Nothing good was coming if she was involved.
“You conspired with Archer to get rid of your own brother,” she said with such conviction that you’d have thought she’d stumbled upon a vault of plans.
“Aria.” I fixed her with a stare. “Of all the bullshit that has fallen from your mouth over the centuries, that has to win the prize. I’ll remind you all that Hunter conspired with Archer to rid you of my presence. He was beaten at his own game.”
Tobias fixed me with a stare. “And we’re meant to take you as our king?”
The room filled with cries of uproar as I knew it would. This wasn’t how I planned to take the seat. It would be a continuous uphill battle from now until they finally accepted the truth that had been hidden from them for so long.
“What exactly do you all want?” Quentin asked, stepping out from behind me. The golden glow was still prominent.
Aria was quick to reply. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“This has everything to do with me. I’m as much of a God as you are.”
“You’re half the God that I am.”
There was a clash of gold and white, but I wasn’t about to let them have it out. It took a few moments, but eventually a thick tendril of my aura struck out and knocked Aria off her feet. My divinity was still recovering from being poisoned, as it didn’t pack as much of a punch as I’d hoped.
“Make another move like that, Aria,” I warned her. “And I assure you, it’ll be the last thing you do.”
When I turned back to Quentin, I was surprised at what I saw. A multitude of auras splayed out in front of her in a sickeningly rainbow bright shield.
Quentin had spent time in lower Elysia. She had built bonds and made connections.
I’d misunderstood how deep it all ran. How the minor Gods must have looked at her, the first demigod in decades, and felt the caress of nostalgia.
They took her as an embodiment of their lost ones.
As their chance of redemption for not being able to save those they lost in the last war.
“All of this,” Quentin said, eyes searching the faces in the crowd, “can’t be for nothing. What is it you all want for Elysia?”
Archer tipped his head up. “Things need to change.”
“You can’t listen to him. He committed treason!” Aria was up on her feet, face red from fury and embarrassment.
“Oh, as if I’m the only one who wanted him dead,” Archer commented.
I resisted to the urge to roll my eyes. He wasn’t wrong, but he wasn’t helping his case either. Had he killed Hunter? I didn’t know what unfolded after Hunter had stabbed me. The strange bond they shared was built upon lies, and I couldn’t imagine Archer taking kindly to being used.
“How do you expect change to happen?” Quentin asked. When she tried to walk towards him, I caught her hand and kept her by my side. She was still being shielded from any potential attack.
Archer, despite his position, smiled. “We want a fair trial for all that happened and then we can discuss terms.”
I clenched my teeth, trying to understand how he still had the upper hand when he had caused all these problems.
“Is that possible?” Quentin asked me softly.
“Yes. It means opening old wounds for Elysia, but yes.”
“Will you do it?”
There was a part of me that demanded to be stubborn and obstinate. I had promised to never talk of that time again, and I wanted to stick to my word. But I was no longer Hunter’s little brother. I no longer lived eternity solely for myself.
“To bring balance back to Elysia, we don’t have much choice,” I told her before turning back to the crowd.
“You’ll have your trial. It will begin here tomorrow at dawn.
Tell the others, if they wish to witness it, to be here.
Until then, we should try to repair the damage that has been done and answer prayers. Do not forget your responsibilities.”
The gentle hum of conversation echoed through the chambers again as Gods began to move.
This would be a chance to clear my name and show them that Hunter pulled the strings, but that didn’t mean they’d accept it. Truth or not. Tomorrow would be a long day.