Chapter 26
There was a lightness in Aidan’s step that she hadn’t seen before. Focused and difficult to pull away from his work, Aidan was not what she would describe as easy-going, but watching the rocks transform into precious jewels had relaxed something in him.
She smiled as they walked through the spindly trees with their bony fingers scratching skyward.
It was nice to see him like this. Soon they were back on the cobbled streets of the local village.
Past all the brick houses and buildings, hills rolled and somewhere in the valley was the estate.
Her feelings about Aidan remained conflicted, but it satisfied the gnawing anxiety eating at her to do something helpful for the Deathlands.
Caught up in the moment, she hadn’t asked for a better explanation, but now she puzzled over the mechanics of her magic.
The road curved, taking them into the business district filled with everything from candy shops with brightly lit glass windows to large red-brown brick warehouses with iron-paned windows.
Elysia spotted a familiar man walking up to one of the warehouses across the way.
Distracted from her questions, she nudged Aidan and tipped her head. “Isn’t that Grim?”
Aidan’s mouth opened, then shut. She looked at him with a raised brow. “Is it a pleasure house or something? Even Kava has one, you know.”
His eyes flitted back and forth, the debate inside his mind evident. “No, not a pleasure house.”
Elysia pushed her hands deeper into her coat pockets. “You’re being weird.” Music started somewhere inside her then, giving her pause as she considered him carefully. Oh, he has a secret.
Aidan made a face at her, unaware of the magical scrutiny he was under, and pushed his hair back. “It’s just work stuff that you don’t need to worry about. You’ve done enough today.” The music grew louder now, pulling her attention to the beautiful warehouse.
She drew back, slowing her steps. “Shouldn’t I know about work stuff? As your deeply platonic future co-ruler?” Her words were a dare, giving him the chance to correct his mistake.
Aidan pointed at the street that would take them out of the city and onto the well-worn path back to the estate. “Funny, but as much as I enjoy your sudden interest in the workings of the realm, it’s really not that exciting. Let’s go home.”
Elysia stopped and looked at Aidan bluntly. “I’ll give you one and you just used it.”
Glancing over his shoulder, confusion furrowed his face. “One?”
“One lie. Hope it was worth it.”
And then she spun on her heel, darting across the street, quickening her pace as the warehouse loomed closer.
A vibrant, tumultuous song filled with roaring excitement and pounding fists pulled at her feet.
It was a song of both vengeance and dangerous, unlikely hope.
The front door flew open, her feet barely touching down on the expansive wood plank stairs, her hand grazing over the iron handrail.
Swaths of muted light shone in through the enormous iron-paned window onto the hardwood floors, and a ruckus of shouting and noise filled the warehouse.
Huffing for air, she stopped at the top of the stairs with Aidan barely avoiding colliding into her back.
The back of the warehouse had a grid marked off on its white wall.
Within each grid was a glimpse into the mortal realm—of some very familiar faces.
Topp and Rollie stalking through the halls of the gaudiest temple Elysia had ever seen.
Her sister yelling and waving a potion bottle in the face of a cowering man.
Garrison stomping through the Relaclave castle.
People she had never seen before filled even more grid spaces.
Grim spotted her, his posture straightening as he made a beeline through the mass of people all shouting and gesticulating at the grid. He looked between Elysia and Aidan warily. “We good here?”
Elysia looked at Aidan with death in her eyes. “This is how you know so much about me?”
Aidan appeared pained. Like he wished he could evaporate rather than deal with the small tightly wound package of fury in front of him. “This is not how I wanted to introduce you to this…”
Grim took one look at the two of them, and turned right back around, aiming for the group of reapers he had been minding. “I’ll be over here if you need me.”
“Traitor,” Aidan muttered before glancing down at Elysia again, his face turning wary. “Please, will you allow me to explain?”
Plopping down onto the light-toned hardwood floor with her feet on the stairs and back to the grid, she gestured for him to get on with it.
She’d already known the reapers were trailing her occasionally, but to have their lives thrown up on a wall for people to watch without permission was incredibly invasive.
Anger writhed beneath her skin, convincing her there wasn’t a single reason he could state that would make this acceptable, but she waited with her mouth clamped shut and fists tight.
Aidan sank down beside her, unbuttoning his winter coat and kicking one long leg out.
“The more Grim trailed you the last few years, the more concerned we became about Garrison, but my siblings, if you can even call them that, can be difficult. We needed to find a way to show them the chaos that’s on our doorstep if Garrison proceeds with his plans to exterminate magic.
Because the gods will devolve into their basest forms. The fates assigned us roles because every time they didn’t, the gods inevitably started fighting, destroying realms and mortals and whatever else got in their way.
Instead of being stewards, they become tyrants. ”
He wove his fingers together, his scars turning silvery as they popped against his tightened skin.
“They didn’t listen when I explained that the death realm was on the verge of collapsing.
They consider me the most responsible of the bunch and trusted I could handle it.
They also assumed I was blowing it out of proportion—that my anxiety was getting the best of me. ” His mouth tightened.
“They didn’t believe you or want to hear it,” she summarized succinctly.
Fires blazed in his eyes as he met her gaze. “Exactly. It doesn’t help that they’re terrified of the fates. No one wants to lift a single finger that could be misconstrued as going against the fates’ design.”
She nodded as a slice of fear cut through her. Even the gods were afraid of the fates. “You told me the death realm was stable.”
“It mainly is now—I didn’t want to burden you when I was managing it.”
Swiveling to face him better, she hardened her voice. “Honesty goes two ways, Aidan. You can’t expect these things from me and not return them.”
His jaw ground. “I am well-aware and working on it.”
She questioned him again, realizing his independent streak might run as deep as hers. “The Deathlands are genuinely stable?”
He nodded. “I pushed myself too hard, but I knew what would happen if I didn’t. The dead don’t belong roaming the mortal plane, and none of my siblings seem to grasp the destruction they would wreak.”
“And you think a wall of mortals bumbling around is going to convince them?”
Confidence deepened the blue of his eyes as his chest expanded. “Not just any mortals. Exciting mortals. Interesting mortals. Ones who could change the fate of the world and are worth betting on.”
Elysia spun around on the wooden stair plank. People were still shouting and pointing at the grid. “It’s a game? They’re betting on us?”
“We’re testing it. Everyone here right now is a Deathlands resident.” Voice rough instead of his usual smooth, melodic sound, she could tell he was shoving his nerves down, trying to hide how anxious he was to hear what she thought.
That was how the bartender knew her.
Her gaze narrowed in suspicion. “What did you say you did when you were a mortal?”
His grin became wolflike, his usual self-assurance returning. “I ran the books for an organization much like Gage’s family. I also handled all the gambling fronts,” he admitted.
She ran a hand through her tangled hair. “Oh my gods, I was right. Why is this harder to take in than knowing you’re a god?”
Aidan grunted a laugh, leaning back against the stairs and draping an arm in her direction. “Because one of which is far more real to you, and now you’re wondering what kind of person I am.”
“No, I’m not,” she responded without hesitation.
At his clear surprise, she continued with a shrug.
“You have your stalking ways—you’ve seen me with Gage.
Besides Beatriz, he’s all I’ve got. He was a better brother-parent than I could have ever asked for.
It’s complicated, but so is everything in my life.
It’s harder to take in because it makes you human—the kind of human I happen to understand well. ”
Gaze heavy, he made a noise of consideration deep in his throat.
Reaching over, he pushed aside her coat and gently tugged on her shirt until the Reyez branding was visible.
His gaze tunneled onto the reddish-pink skin.
“I have a mark just like this. Inside of my elbow.” He looked up with a small smirk.
“Hurt like a bitch at the time, but I loved my job, and I loved my life. I had nothing to lose back then.”
He didn’t say the rest of the words burning in his eyes.
Elysia diverted back to the grid. “When do you introduce it to your siblings?”
Aidan glanced casually over his shoulder. “We’ll roll it out soon. Your friends are running around to temples right now, trying to stir the gods. The response has made me confident that this will do the trick. They might fear the fates, but they love competition and drama even more.”
Grim tensed as Elysia stalked over, his reapers parting to allow her through and looking at her curiously. Nodding at them, she glanced at the grid and then back to Grim. “I have questions.”
Folding his arms, he considered her. “You’re taking this well.”
Suspicion belied his statement, and Elysia couldn’t blame him.
She wasn’t actually taking it well. Her brain was whirring through every possible private moment they could have seen over the past few years.
Being forced to find cursed people who were then executed.
Bending to her father’s demands. Fawning and fluttering through the courts in delusional hope of wielding a crown.
Moments she had thought were only between her and Topp.
Her gaze was cold by the time she answered the head of the reapers. “I want to know what I’m dealing with here. What has everyone seen?” She couldn’t bring herself to ask Aidan, so now it was Grim’s problem to tell her.
He looked disgruntled. “My reapers never stay present for intimate moments if that’s what you’re implying, and we do have a job to do reaping souls. We can’t be following you everywhere all the time.”
That should have soothed her, but it didn’t. Intimacy wasn’t just sex. A crowd of people seeing the best and worst of her without ever actually knowing her made her stomach turn. The worst moments of her life had been made out to be entertaining fodder.
Grim’s stout, muscled body loosened as he examined her face. “We were desperate. We still are desperate. I’m sorry it came at the cost of your privacy, but if it means the rest of the gods come out to play, then I’d wager it’s worth it.”
Unsure of what she’d expected to hear from Aidan’s right hand, she stormed from the warehouse before she could say or do something she would regret. She knew they’d been right to try anything they could to fix this mess, but for someone as guarded as herself, this was excruciating.
Halfway to her greenhouse, a jet-black bunny hopped onto the path with a wax-sealed envelope between its large front teeth. Dropping to her knees, she accepted the letter, and the bunny fled into the grassy hills. She ripped open the letter, hastily reading its contents.
Elysia Parker, former daughter of the Crown, mortal candidate for co-ruler of the Deathlands,
We greet you with the utmost interest and speak to you today in hopes of clearing confusion.
While we did require you to take back your heart, we merely hoped to be of service as your first life splinters and turns to dust. Please remember the death voyage is the distance between you and claiming your crown.
The threads of our fated tapestry are untied as we remain unconvinced.
You would be wise to heed our advice as it comes.
As such, we must give only the highest recommendation of visiting the temple of the god of the undead gods in the White Sands of Sagondia.
Even gods can’t help but marvel at false religion falling.
Fates’ Blessings
Cold damp spread over Elysia’s knees as she stared off over the hills. She’d been watching Topp and Rollie while in the warehouse, catching glimpses of them in what looked like a hot, bustling street market. Rollie had stolen from a merchant. Topp had gotten shot in the ass.
It concerned her that the fates wanted her to stir up the gods, considering that was what Aidan and Grim sought as well.
Call it intuition, or maybe just a lifetime of being hunted, but she had a terrible feeling about being sent to the White Sands.
The note was a reminder to stay in line—if they wanted her to jump, she would jump. She couldn’t say she cared for that.
Elysia stood, turning her face up into the brisk air, her anger fading into a sharp loneliness. The soot-stained purple evening sky was a balm, though. The dark fog drifted aimlessly, quieting the turmoil in her chest.
She’d once told Topp that she didn’t believe redemption existed for people like them.
She hadn’t entirely changed her mind, but even if redemption remained out of reach, she was starting to believe they could do some good, and maybe that was better than none.
She would go to the White Sands. Not for whatever end the fates desired, but to further her own aims—the aims of Aidan and Grim, and all her friends who fought to keep the mortal realm safe from Garrison and the fates’ machinations.
She touched the ruby in her pocket.
If they wanted a show to wake the gods, then that was what she’d give them.