Chapter 28 #3
Suddenly, the air changed. The delicious aromatic scent of herbal torches and food stands changed to the acrid blackened scent of an uncontrolled burn.
Lifting her head, she saw the outline of the temple up in a blaze, black smoke billowing out into the night.
Except the temple no longer looked like it once did.
The golden statues were melted and blown to pieces.
The iconic green dome had collapsed, and the once unnervingly white walls were charred and soon to be gone as the flames slowly, steadily consumed the entire structure.
Limbs heavy and shot through with unbearable pain, she still smiled.
Topp and Rollie had pulled it off. She knew Rollie had been hopeful it would be enough to draw out the god of the original temple, but selfishly she prayed they were long gone and laughing as they safely sought the next temple.
Elysia’s head fell back again as her muscles gave out.
She still had one trick left up her sleeve, and it was about time to use it.
He had said it was only for emergencies.
Her bloodied hand lifted, but her body was jerked forcefully, cracking her head against the statue she’d been propped against. Head ringing, she blinked slowly.
The head priest kicked her shattered ankle. “One of you search her. Fucking bitch probably still has explosives on her.”
If she hadn’t been fighting the brink of unconsciousness, she would have sighed.
Groping hands patted her down, snatching away the small number of igniters and sachets that remained on her person.
She barely breathed as she waited for them to take it, but they didn’t, so she lay there, compliant and clinging to alertness.
The head priest’s knee dropped into the ash-covered sand.
His dirty fingers grabbed her face, forcing her eyes to him.
“We would have kept you as a guest before returning you to Garrison. But the warrant doesn’t say you have to come back whole, does it?
” The priest slapped her so hard her teeth clacked, but Elysia said nothing as she pulled in a ragged breath.
He stalked away just as the ground began to quake.
Tremors swept through the sand, the particles moving erratically against her palms. But that was nothing compared to how the temple shook and swayed as it crumbled.
Acolytes who had been futilely pouring water over the burning structure screamed, running haphazardly over the uneven ground, tripping and stumbling as the earth became determined to eat them whole.
Down they went, hitting the earth, fingers and nails scraping against the hot, sandy ground as the growing chasm became slanted and they slid into its maw.
Their cries grew fainter as they fell, swallowed up by the now temple-sized hole.
Doing her best to ignore the chaos, Elysia finally took hold of the old coin on a chain around her neck.
Tarnished silver with a skull and dice on its face, it was warm between her fingers.
Rubbing her thumb over its surface, she prayed the reaping prayer before struggling to her feet.
Arms clutched around the remains of the statue, she leaned heavily against it, unable to put any weight on her right leg.
She pressed at her chest, coughing on the smoke as she squinted through the ash-heavy air.
A remnant of power hung like static, prickling against her unnaturally.
Her head swiveled, searching but finding nothing to account for the sudden carnage.
Rollie and Topp may have set the temple aflame, but whatever had just happened was beyond their limited strength.
A loud crackling drew her gaze back to the cavernous hole.
Dread coated her stomach as green spiky vines slithered out of the temple’s grave.
The thick, ropy vines covered every inch of the hole, overlapping and twining together as they sprawled and stretched out into what had been the sculpture garden.
Snakelike, the vines roamed the grounds, finding collapsed and injured acolytes and dragging them without mercy into the hole.
Their descent seemed to go on forever, their screams echoing in terror and pain.
Elysia pressed her back against the broken statue as if that would help if the vines decided she was next.
Above, a storm erupted. The sable smoke-laden sky darkened further with heavy rain clouds and bolts of lightning that shot out in warning.
Thick raindrops pelted down, plastering her hair against her head and stinging against her torn skin.
Heartbeat tired but fast in her chest, fear took hold as the storm ravaged on, washing away the debris and ash of the fire.
Blackened water streamed past, over the fire-baked sand, flooding the impervious ground.
Her body begged her to run, to do anything to get away from the ever-increasing electricity in the air as she stood now calf-deep in water, but she couldn’t.
Her ankle hung awkwardly, and she knew she couldn’t make it more than a few hopping, hobbled steps.
She gripped the statue tighter. Grim had said he could be here in moments. And yet, there wasn’t a reaper in sight. Once again, the fates’ demand that she come here flashed in her mind. A sick taste filled the back of her throat. She’d walked right into this.
Her fear contorted into a silent buzzing as a hand the width of her body slapped against the cavern’s edge, grasping the vines, and heaved.
Hand over hand, the most enormous man she’d ever seen pulled himself out of the hole.
A bear head hooded his face, and its thick brown pelt hung as a cloak over his naked chest as he stalked through the quieting storm.
He stood in front of where the temple once was, his electric blue-green gaze hunting through the open land around him.
When his eyes landed on her, Elysia paled.
She gingerly tested her ankle as if it wasn’t smashed, never taking her eyes off the beast. Grim’s coin heated against her rain-slicked chest as the bear-man crushed the distance between them.
Standing no more than a foot from her, he reeked of the wild.
The crack of fresh air, the hazy ozone of a storm, and the rich, warm scent of good soil all rolled off him.
Up close, he had to have been seven feet tall.
Barrel-chested, his muscles were thick and defined, his naturally light skin a deep leathery tan that made it clear he spent too much time in the sun.
Channeling the defiance that had long kept her alive, she lifted her chin and met his strange blue-green gaze.
The rain relented to a gentle mist as he stared at her curiously, and when he spoke it boomed like thunder, making her flinch. “You stink of death.”
Elysia blinked once, her knuckles whitening as she clung to the statue. “I am…connected to your brother.” What was she? Did she have a title? Death voyager extraordinaire. Now would have been a really good fucking time to have a title.
His eyes swept over her, frowning at her broken bones. “I thought I heard rumblings of a death voyage. He should take better care of you, so fragile while still in this state. Very unlike him.” He glanced back to where the temple had once stood. “Did you do this?”
She paused, unsure of how to answer that. “I assisted,” she replied shortly.
“It was our doing,” a familiar voice called out, and her shoulders sank in relief.
Topp somehow managed to make his burnt, smoky attire look purposeful and rugged while Rollie staggered closer with red eyes and angry skin, looking like he was two steps away from passing out as he hacked and coughed.
“Rollie, are you okay?” Elysia examined his drained face in concern. He stumbled to her in a daze.
“Too much magic, but I think I should be asking you that,” he mumbled. “You were supposed to leave. Why didn’t you travel?”
The bear-man interrupted them, bringing them all back to his question. “Son of mine, why did you wreck this empty place?”
“We hoped the destruction would act as a true offering and call to you.”
The god’s expression remained impassive but considering. “Why? I am not a god who seeks offerings. Feel a breeze. Plant a tree. Tend to an animal friend. This is what pleases me.”
Rollie put one palm against Elysia’s statue and cut in. “Because we seek to warn the gods.”
A ground-shaking laugh carved a smile onto the giant’s face. “You would warn us? Of what could you possibly warn the immortal, timeless gods you come from?”
Topp’s voice went gravelly. “Of my father—he aims to eradicate magic from every land he can reach.”
Blue-green eyes went back to Elysia now. “Aidan finally reached his counterpart despite your fates-crossed path, and here you stand on my ground, spent with misused magic that would have killed a lesser mortal. Tell me, lady of the dead, is this true? Does my brother fear this end as well?”
“He fears it so much that he struck a deal with me that if I succeed in my voyage and bring his talisman to him, then I am free to return to mortal lands as much as duty allows. He even stabilized the death realms at great cost to himself to prevent the dead from overtaking the earth.”
“Unfortunate how the fates are handling this… My boy never deserved their wrath.” His frown twisted into an odd smile. “But yes, I imagine the talisman will be key in the days to come if what you say is true.”
Elysia took a great breath. “Grim and Aidan invented a new technology. It will allow the gods to see what is happening across the mortal realm in real-time. All the big players—Topp’s father, my friends from Kava, perhaps even the gods. He’d like to set up a gambling game.”
Both Topp and Rollie swiveled to stare at her, but she didn’t say anything else, her eyes fixed on the reaction of the terrifying god weighing her words.
The silence thickened and Elysia grimaced. Great. They’d managed to get a god to show up and she’d blown it.
He finally gave a slow nod. “I am older than most. I stand as the only original fate-made god, lasting through their many purgings. Again and again, they have made new gods when it pleases them.” The giant gave a weary sigh.
“Nothing gives me greater pleasure than caring for the little mortals of storm and fauna, so while I remain cautious for fear of my godhood, I will hear what my favorite and youngest brother has to say.”
Rollie pushed sweaty hair out of his face. “If the fates oversee the gods, and have the power to eliminate gods, then who could stand against them?”
The rain came down harder as the god looked off into the sky. “I hope Aidan is ready for the chaos he chases.”
Putting a hand on the back of both Rollie and Topp’s necks, he steered them in the direction of the gaping, vine-covered hole.
Except now that Elysia looked again, a broad-leaved forest had sprung up all around them.
Lush and green, the forest looked like it had stood in the White Sands for centuries rather than seconds.
A red deer disappeared behind a tree, and Elysia shook her head. This is too crazy.
The god stopped, his bear pelt swinging as he turned back.
“Tell Grim he’s welcome and let your future husband know I’ll be seeing him.
” With that, he carelessly threw down his hand.
The earth cracked, icy water rushing and overflowing into a river that disappeared deep within the new forest past where she could see.
“Happy traveling.” He winked and turned back to the boys, lifting them by their necks and jumping into the hole.
Elysia hopped on one foot to the water. She stared at the beautiful, fresh river, and tried to decide if a broken ankle or a pissed-off death god was worse. She took a breath and jumped.