by Mary Duke
“What is it?” he asked, his voice deep. “Something major has to be going on if my mother is willing to let me be freed.”
“Well, there’s a woman who wields the strongest dark magic our realms have ever seen; she now has your abilities as a reaper and is able to collect souls. However, she doesn’t have the strength of a God, so instead of passing the souls on into the underworld, she feeds off of them.”
“I don’t see how this is my problem,” Thanatos replied.
“She’s unsteady. The more souls she reaps, the frailer her soul becomes. She’s taken on too much power, and when her soul explodes, it’s taking the realms with it, all of them.” I replied.
“Oh, is that all?” he questioned, a smirk growing on his face. “My family needs the king of chaos to reign in a little witch?”
“Actually no,” I said, returning his smile sarcastically. “Your family needs to keep the little witch from falling into the hand of the Queen of Death.”
Thanatos paused, the smirk leaving his face. “Hel?”
“Yes,” I replied. “Your sister has found her way back.”
SOUL
Book Three
Chapter One
ILLIAH
I paced just along the circle etched into the stone.
“Do you hear them?” Thanatos asked. “They’re talking to you right now, aren’t they?”
I ignored him, trying my best to sift through all the voices that now filled my head.
“Are they talking about me? What are they saying?” he questioned before tilting his head up and shouting into the empty space above him. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you that it’s not nice to gossip?”
“ENOUGH!” I shouted covering my ears, though I knew it wouldn’t help.
“What, is your plan not working out as you planned?”
My nose wrinkled and I huffed. No. My plan was not working out as I had planned it. I didn’t know…well, I knew, but I didn’t realize…that I would now be Head Keeper of the Mountain. Nor did I know that the current Keeper could hear and talk with all the past Keepers.
Thanatos continued, “Life does tend to get complicated when you’re not the only one inside of your head, doesn’t it?”
I rolled my eyes. I didn’t know any Keepers other than my grandmother, and right now her voice was the only one I cared to hear.
Grams? I questioned calling out to her in my head. A little help?
Just focus on me, dear. Picture what I look like, hear my voice, mine and mine alone.
I took a deep breath and focused. Sure enough, it worked.
“See,” she replied, now standing before me.
“How did you do that?” I questioned reaching for her, my hand falling through her cheek.
“This mountain has magic you wouldn’t believe passing through it. You’ll learn all about it one day.”
“If she lives long enough,” Thanatos snarled.
Hayes snorted causing a cloud of smoke and dust to cover him.
“I didn’t say that I was going to kill her.”
“Don’t pay him no mind, child, you know what it is that I told you.”
“Oh yeah,” Thanatos said walking to the edge where we stood. “And what is it that you told her?”
My grams smiled.
“That’s not fair.”
“How isn’t it?”
“Because what we talked about... The things I told you…I didn’t…This isn’t…”
“You didn’t think you’d ever see another being?”
Thanatos’ shoulders fell.
A smile spread across my face. “Don’t worry, your secrets are safe with me.”
He muttered under his breath, “Fantastic.”
“Now,” I said, tilting my head to each side to crack my neck. “There are a few things I need to gather up. When I get back, I’ll want answers.”
“Answers?” he repeated confused. “To what?”
“For starters, I want to know more about your sister. Why does your mother fear her? Why do you fear her?”
“I don’t…” he started to protest.
I held up my hand. “Secondly, I need to know whether I’m taking you straight to your mother's doorstep when we get out of here, or if you’re going to help me.”
“I have no intention of either.”
“Like I said, when I get back, I want an answer. We’ll decide what to do from there,” I replied keeping my head held high.
My grams whispered in my ear as we walked through the invisible door in the cavern wall that only she and I could see.
“Did I?” I questioned, hoping I had kept my shit together better on the outside than I had on the inside, because on the inside I was terrified.”
“Oh, he ate you up!” She chuckled.
I faked a smile. Him eating me up was exactly what I was afraid of, with all the stories I was told as a child about the ruthless, bloodthirsty Thanatos. A man that would wipe out an entire kingdom out of spite: every man, woman, and child.
“I was watching him child, and if I’m being completely honest, it was he who I sensed fear from.”
“Oh come on, Grams.”
“I’m being serious. I get the idea that no one has ever spoken to him the way you did back there.”
“And there’s a reason for that,” I reminded her.
“Ahhh, yes. But as I told you, as many of us just told you, people change.”
“He’s not people, Grams.”
“No, he is a God, but he still has a soul, and therefore is capable of change.”
“I hope you are right. Otherwise, he’s going to roast me the second I break that circle.”
“You know as well as I do that I would never put you in danger, my dear Illiah. Though just in case my instinct is off, we’re going to gather those things for that linking spell.”
“I trust you, Grams…and I’ve never known your instinct to be wrong.”
“Then there is nothing for you to fear. Keep your head and your shoulders up, and keep your mind together. Right now it is you who holds all the cards. You, Illiah, are the decider of his fate. Don’t forget to remind him of that.”
I shuddered. What she said was true, every single word of it, and that terrified me.
“What is all that?” Thanatos questioned as my grams and I walked back into the cavern that held him.
“Just a few things.”
“A linking spell?” he questioned as I sat the items on the ground just out of the circle.
“Something like that.”
“So what have they talked you into doing? How is this going to bite me in the ass?”
“Actually,” I corrected him. “This is going to keep you from biting ME in the ass.”
His laughter filled the room.
“And why do you find that so funny?”
“Ummmm,” he replied sarcastically looking around at the cavern, before kicking at the circle revealing the magic that bound him inside. “Because they say history is bound to repeat itself, and here I am foolishly making a deal with the man’s daughter who locked me in this damn mountain.”
“History only repeats itself if it was not learned from the first time,” I replied as I finished setting everything up. “Now sit.”
Thanatos hesitated before following my command, sitting on the other side of the line.
I looked at him for a moment, and my breath caught in my chest. He was hot. I didn’t know why I didn’t notice it before. His blond hair, his bright blue eyes, his rigid jawline: he was flawless.
“So what is this?” he questioned, pulling me from my thoughts.
I shook my head. I had to stay focused. Grams said if I wanted to keep him on a leash, I had to keep my head on my shoulders. “This is a kind of binding spell.”
“I know that. I’m not an idiot. What’s its purpose?”
“Well, because you are a god, and I’m just an immortal halfling, the odds are a tad bit uneven.”
He smiled.
; “However, this is the stone of life, and though I’m immortal it will still boost my soul or whatever. Which means if you decide to go back on our deal…”
“But that still won’t kill me.”
“I didn’t say it would kill you. But if you do kill me, it will weaken you enough that your sister can.”
He rubbed his chin and nodded.
“And,” I added, having thought ahead. “If you ditch me, I’m more than ready to off myself, leaving your ass in the same boat,” I said revealing a blade that would end even an immortal.
Thanatos rubbed the back of his head. “So let me get this straight, you just tossed my ring in here and gave it to me, rendering its powers useless to you outside of this mountain, and useless to me while trapped in this circle. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that you threw away your only bargaining chip.”
“First of all,” I said correcting him. “You are wrong. Your powers, your abilities, those are yours, it’s not a bargaining chip.”
“So, you gave them back to foolishly try to win my trust. Well, let me tell you,” he said as he began to stand. “I learned my lesson when it comes to trust.”
“Sit back down, I wasn’t finished. I gave you the rings back because I have no desire to be you. I have no interest in being the Queen of Hell, or Purgatory, or the Underworld, whatever it is you feel like calling it.”
“Right, because who wouldn’t want to have all that power.”
“With that power comes a great deal of responsibility, whether you see it that way or not…and with that responsibility comes strings, and I’m not one for being tied down.”
Thanatos chuckled.
“Now as I see it, I shouldn’t need a bargaining chip. I don’t know a great deal about your sister, but I do know that you’d rather die than let her reign over your kingdom.”
He bit his lower lip. That was a fact he couldn’t argue with.
“Now, my plan is to bind us together, get out of here, find the Queen, find out how to kill the Queen, all while keeping her out of your sister’s hands. Once we figure out how to do that, how to keep all the realms from imploding, I’ll break the spell that binds us, and we can go on about our lives in our own directions.”
A grin grew across his face. “That’s a bit unfair, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean, unfair?”
“Usually when people make a deal both sides get something.”
“I gave you your powers, and I’m setting you free,” I reminded him.
“Well, there’s something else I want.”
I raised an eyebrow. What the hell would he want that he couldn’t do himself once he was free?
“And you’re going to help me, if you want me to help you.”
“Well?” I said, fighting back the nerves.
“You’re going to help me kill Nyx.”
“Your mother?”
“Yes.”
“Is that even possible.”
“If you know what you’re doing.”
“Well, I have no idea what that would take, so I don’t think I’m your best bet for killing the most powerful god or goddess in the realms.”
He waved his hand in front of his face. “At one time, she and my father were the most powerful beings in the realms. They’ve spread themselves thin. They no longer have the power they once did. Don’t worry, you’ll be perfectly safe, I promise.”
“Right,” I replied sarcastically.
“Well,” he said reaching his hand out towards the line. “Do we have a deal?”
I finished mixing together the ingredients before sliding the bowl across the line. “Add your blood, and we’ve got a deal.”
Biting his wrist, he let the blood drip from his veins before his wound healed itself.
I reached through the barrier and grabbed the bowl back, adding my own blood and reciting the spell that one of the past keepers whispered in my head.
A breeze swept through the cavern and flames from the torches shot up the cavern walls, as the ground beneath our feet shook, sending cracks through the circle that bound him inside.
Chapter Two
SNO
When Hayes emerged from the mountain, with Illiah and who I assumed was Thanatos on his back, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Seriously?”
“I’m telling you,” Zavery said, not being quiet. “She can’t be trusted.”
Emerald, Zavery’s dragon, reached out to him. “Illiah’s actions may make it seem as though she has her own agenda, but she is in fact on your side.”
“How would you know?”
“Dragons have a way of knowing all.”
“Right,” Zavery snapped back.
“It is the truth,” Emerald replied. “And at this moment, it is you who I could not place my trust in.”
“What kind of companion are you?”
“One that has your best interest at heart.”
“Surely sounds that way.”
“Believe what you will,” Emerald said. “However, you need to get your head on straight. Figure out what it is you’re doing and what it is you’re bringing to this team. Otherwise, you’re just going to end up getting someone killed.”
Those words stung, cutting deeper than Emerald had meant them to.
“Hey!” Illiah screamed as she got closer. “Follow me, I know somewhere we can go.”
I rolled my eyes; of course, she did.
Zavery looked over to me. “I’m telling you. Remember what I said,” he told me before our dragons began to follow Hayes.
I wanted to grill her, to roast her on leaving us, but I got the feeling now wasn’t the time. “So?” I questioned, between gritted teeth.
“So, there is a lot we need to talk about.”
Zavery sarcastically chuckled. “You could say that.”
Illiah’s eyes narrowed.
“Before this powwow starts,” Thanatos said. “I need a minute.”
Illiah turned towards him.
“I remember our deal,” he said raising his hands into the air. “Plus, Hayes is going with me. He’ll be sure to bring me back, right, buddy?”
Hayes reached out to Illiah. “You have my word he will come back. Either atop my back or in my mouth.”
Illiah nodded. This wasn’t what she had in mind; she didn’t want to let him out of her sight, however, this would give her a chance to explain to the others what was going on without making it look like she wasn’t the one in charge.
I laughed nervously under my breath as Thanatos climbed onto the back of Hayes and they took off out of the valley. “Did you seriously let him leave?”
“He will be back.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“We’re linked now. It’s a blood spell. Plus, I trust Hayes when he said that he’d bring him back.”
Zavery walked up to Illiah, studying the expression on her face. “So what happened in there that changed your outlook?”
“My outlook?” Illiah repeated.
“Yes.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Zavery, nor do I much care for your tone.”
Zavery grabbed ahold of her wrist, and a smirk curled the corner of Illiah’s lips before Zavery jerked his hand away.
I looked at them both, then back to Eris. “What the hell is going on?” I asked aloud.
“Well,” Illiah said, stepping around Zavery as she made her way towards me. “It would seem as though the three of us are now on a level playing field.”
“Playing field?” I repeated. “The three of us?”
Illiah nodded.
“What are you talking about? This, all of this, is so much bigger than the three of us. Did you lose sight of that when you were in there?”
“You know what? You are right, Sno. This mess is bigger than the three of us, and I was reminded how much so while I was in there.”
My stomach sank. “Did he get inside your head? What did he say to you?”
Illiah snapped back, �
��It’s not what he said to me. How I feel, what I’m now capable of, it has nothing to do with Thanatos.”
“Oh come on, you gotta give me some of the credit,” Thanatos’ voice echoed in Illiah’s head.
“What the hell?”
“You bound us together, remember?”
Illiah swallowed hard, and her mind raced. What had he heard? What did he know? How deep was this connection?
“Relax,” he answered before she could ask. “I can only hear what you want me to hear.”
I reached for Illiah’s hands. “Is everything okay?”
“Fine,” she whispered back. “Everything is fine.”
“What do you know?” Zavery said, the sarcasm heavy, as he watched Hayes return to where she left. “He did come back.”
“I am many things,” Thanatos said sliding off the dragon. “A liar, however, is not one of them.”
“And that is why my grans trusted you…That is why I can trust you.”
“You believe him?” I questioned.
“I do.”
“In time,” Thanatos said. “You will too.”
I faked a smile. Part of me wanted to believe him; it was the same part of me that wanted to believe Illiah. However, the other half of me was reminded of that part that I was in the dark. I had no idea what these two had planned, I had no idea what was going to happen, and neither of these two were Faye, and that alone meant I couldn’t trust them to protect my people.
“Sorry about that,” Thanatos said as he made his way over to us. “I just needed some fresh air, to stretch my legs, ya know?”
I nodded, biting my tongue.
“Yeah sure,” Zavery replied sliding down the side of his dragon. “Now why don’t you tell us why it is after everything Illiah’s father has done to you, you’re so eager to help us?”
“Did the concept of respect vanish while I was gone?” Thanatos questioned.
“A lot has changed since you’ve been gone,” I said, the words spilling from my lips before I could stop them. “However, Zavery’s ignorance…well, I’m afraid you’re just going to have to accept that it is a part of who he is. I don’t think he got the whole respect is earned lecture from his parents like the rest of us.”