Hunt of the Gods

by Amy Braun

  “Weird how?”

  Liam glanced at me. “Well, they kind of stared, like they couldn’t believe I was there. They knelt.”

  I blinked. “Knelt? On one knee?”

  “Yeah. It was a little chaotic after that. I was trying to figure out where you were. I might have shouted a little bit. But then a couple of minutes later, another set of guards came out and said you were already inside. Except Corey never got you.”

  I frowned. I’d told Liam a goddess had moved me from the Santa Rosa cavern to somewhere else. But I hadn’t known that goddess was Persephone.

  “Everybody was healed and given full access to the sanctuary. We were told that the queen would meet with us once you were awake. Kallis is being held in the prison cells below us, so I doubt we’ll be seeing him again soon.” Liam grimaced at his words and knocked on the wooden of a portrait hanging on the wall. “No one told me why we were getting special treatment, and honestly, I don’t think any of us asked.”

  But the questions were piling up, and I wasn’t sure how to dig my way free of them.

  “Misters Areios?”

  I looked over my shoulder. Standing in a hallway behind us was a middle-aged man dressed in a black and silver robe. The pomegranate sigil of Persephone was stitched into the breast of his clothing. He bowed his head humbly.

  “Our Lady Persephone requests your presence.”

  “What about our friends?” I asked.

  “They will meet with Our Lady in due time. For now, she requests your presence alone. I give you my word on my lady’s honor that they are being treated with the utmost care, even the water scion who… is grieving for his children.”

  “Where are they?” I asked carefully.

  “In our morgue. We will keep them there until their father decides how he wants to inter them.” The sorrow scion swept an arm behind him. “If you would follow me, please.”

  I stared at him then said through the blood bond.

 

  We followed the man through the narrow corridor. He didn’t say anything to us, and the walk was mercifully short.

  The corridor opened into the heart of the cathedral, and when our guide led us into the center, I had to stop to appreciate the view.

  It was a gorgeous creation of towering silver walls and a white marble floor lined with gold and onyx veins. The walls curved overhead and gave way to a beautiful stained-glass skylight. The colored glass depicted the tragic goddess smiling sadly upon her disciples and offering them grain and dark red seeds. Hazy daylight spilled through the skylight and cast the shrine in a mix of blues, reds, and golds. There were two rows of pews cushioned with leather and stamped with engravings of pomegranate seeds. Offering bowls had been placed between the arches of the shrine, many of them filled with dried pomegranate seeds, grain, or coins.

  Against the far back wall was a mural with images of deer, falling seeds, broken grain stalks, sunlight, crowns, and the phases of the moon. In front of the mural was a platform with a marble pulpit, an alter topped with a bust of the goddess’s face, and a curved silver throne.

  Seated on it was a woman who made me stop in my tracks. Not just because she was beautiful, though she was most certainly that. Her skin was pale and luminous, her feminine body covered by a burgundy chiton and a gold belt of coins wrapped under her breasts. Her blond-and-black streaked hair was swept up and held in place by a silver-and-gold crown and a shimmering veil that draped down the nape of her graceful neck. Her lips were painted dark crimson, and her eyes were a startling mix of gold and blue. Her demeanor was one of power and overwhelming sadness.

  She was the woman who’d been coming to me in my dreams.

  Persephone.

  Liam knelt, offering a respectful “My lady.” When he saw that I was still standing, he hastily grabbed the sleeve of my tunic and yanked downward.

  But I didn’t budge. I couldn’t.

  “I know you” was all I could say.

  Persephone smiled, a look so beautiful and morose that it twisted my heart.

  “Of course you do,” she said in that melodic voice.

  If only it had softened the blow of her next words.

  “I have waited so long to meet you, my son.”

  MY SON. SHE’D said that to me before I passed out, but I’d been in too much pain to give her words much thought.

  But I should have. Olympians had an ungainly amount of offspring, yet they didn’t casually throw around words like son or daughter. Family was everything to them, and for Persephone to call me her son…

  I was an heir. My power had come from two gods sleeping together. I had always assumed that my foremother was Aphrodite. She was Ares’s most common bed partner, and my bloodline had simply been more aggressive than Aphrodite’s, which is why I was the heir of Ares, not hers.

  But I was lost, because Ares had never conquered Persephone. Either Liam and I had been lied to, or something horrible had happened.

  “You are confused,” she affirmed, still with that sad smile on her lips, as if I were a child whose antics amused her.

  “I…” Reality snapped back, and I slowly lowered to one knee and bowed my head. “Forgive me, Lady Persephone. I didn’t mean to be rude or disrespectful, I just… I don’t understand.”

  “There is nothing to forgive. I harbor no ill will toward my children on this day. Please, rise and step forth. I wish to see you both more closely.”

  Liam and I stood up slowly. My brother was in complete shock. I wasn’t sure his eyes would ever stop widening.

 

  While Persephone was a lesser deity, she was still technically a goddess. She had hundreds of thousands of loyal followers who prayed to her daily, increasing her power. Such a devoted following would be enough to elevate her to a minor goddess and amplify her control of her element, aether.

  We stopped at the end of the platform, and it was all I could do not to bow. Persephone stood up from her throne and strode toward us. Her power, which had been hidden before, likely to get us closer, was unveiled suddenly. It was like a mist that wrapped gently around my shoulders and offered me comfort.

  She beamed down at us. The sunlight that spilled from the skylight threaded into her hair and made her glow, appearing even more ethereal.

  Her slender fingers reached out and touched our chins, tilting our faces up. Her touch was cold and pulsing with magic.

  “My sons,” she breathed, “both grown and strong and handsome.”

  We didn’t move. Eventually, her fingers slipped away from our faces.

  “You wonder how this is possible,” Persephone said, as if sensing our many questions. She stepped back and settled on her throne. “Alas, it is a complex tale. Yet I trust you still wish to hear it?”

  Unable to help himself, Liam nodded enthusiastically.

  “Surely, you have heard that Ares attempted to woo me, and that I rejected him.”

  I nodded.

  “This is true, and it happened before I was taken by Hades.”

  She looked down, lost in thought. I couldn’t imagine what she was thinking. Before her famed imprisonment and binding to the King of the Underworld, Persephone was a prize nearly every god wanted to steal. Hades was the only one who did. The only reason she was able to return to earth was because her mother, Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest, was so distraught that the crops she was meant to tend turned rotten and poisoned hundreds of mortals. Zeus intervened and told Hades to release his bride, but on her final night in the Underworld, Hades tricked Persephone into eating cursed pomegranate seeds. Because of that, was doomed to spend half the year with him in the Underworld as queen, and half the year with the mother who missed her dearly.

  It was a story that had always broken my heart. Persephone never got
a say in her fate. To lust-filled Olympians, she was just a prize, never a woman who wanted real, honest love.

  Persephone returned to her story. “My first years with Hades were… bleak. I rebelled against him any way I could. Cursed him. Battled him with blades and spells. Conspired and degraded him. I even attempted a coup. But he is cunning and strong and would always escape the worst of my wrath. He believed that if he showered me with queenship and wealth and gifts, that I would forgive him and love him in return.” Her lips twisted. “He never believed me when I said I dreamed only of living a life with the sun on my skin and wheat under my fingertips. There is nothing but darkness in the Underworld, and nothing that grows there is worth having. Even Hades’s own seed is barren.”

  Liam and I grimaced. That was the reason Hades had never been able to sire a child on Persephone. The Underworld was a place of death, never life.

  “I wanted to defy him. He watched me when I returned to earth, but he could not seek me out. The truce with my mother allows me to escape him for six months while I am on earth. I believe mortals call it a restraining order.” I winced, and she curled her fingers around the arms of her throne. “So I sought out another companion. Someone I knew he would despise.”

  “Ares,” I whispered.

  Persephone nodded. “It was brief and meaningless. But it was my choice. I endured Ares out of spite, and it was worth being locked in darkness when I returned to the Underworld just to see the jealousy on Hades’s face.” The goddess rubbed her hands along her stomach. “I had no idea I would be left with something more.”

  My heart started to pound. Beside me, I was certain Liam was no longer breathing.

  “I knew the moment I returned to earth that I carried a child. I also knew what Hades would do if he learned of the baby. He would never physically harm me, but he has other ways of inflicting pain. I went to my mother, and we learned of a spell that would conceal us from Hades for a day, and we expedited the pregnancy.” She rubbed her abdomen again. Her smile was soft and loving. “I bore my first child three days after I returned to earth and cared for her for the next six months. It was the happiest time of my life.

  “I knew that Hades would eventually discover what I had done if I did not act. So I called Ares to my mother’s home, still warded against Hades’s eyes, and told him what had happened. I gave him my daughter and told him to raise her strong. I am no fool. I know what his affection is like.” Her eyes flicked to the scar on my neck. “He is a monster, but he cares about protecting his children.”

  “Care” is the wrong word, I thought to myself, doing my best not to touch the Pact.

  “I did not trust Ares, so I tasked my scions with watching over the bloodline from a distance, to inform me if my child and her future children were being mistreated. All was fine until we fell into the slumber. When we awoke, I chose an heir, a young woman whose family had been devoted to me for centuries.” She smiled again. “Her name was Katerina Asteri.”

  I felt as if I’d been punched in the stomach. Memories flashed through my mind—a furious woman with dark magic. A glaring knife and a spray of blood.

  “Katerina was quick to find my descendent, who had become Ares’s heir. He had changed drastically from what the men and women of his lineage had been. Ares had taken complete control of him. But there must have been something in his strength, something in his demeanor, because she fell into bed with him.” Persephone looked at me. “She gave him a son.”

  Liam’s head snapped to me, his eyes wide with shock and horror. I couldn’t look at him. Persephone’s words sank into me like a knife.

  “Thomas sent her away and kept their son. Six years later, she returned to claim her child, and Thomas Areios manipulated her again. He promised that he would let her see her firstborn if she spent one more night with him. He tempted her, showing him photos of her young Derek, and eventually, he coaxed her back into his bed. Nine months later, Derek was given a brother.”

  Liam’s breath turned ragged. I watched him shake.

  “She tried to keep you, Liam,” Persephone said. “She had you in secret and was going to keep you away from your father and find a way to take back your brother. But Thomas’s ruthlessness knew no bounds. He discovered her deceit and tore apart the sanctuary she hid in to take you from Katerina.”

  Tears streaked down my brother’s cheeks.

  “Where is she?” he whispered. “Is she still alive?”

  Persephone looked away. I swallowed the knot in my throat.

  “No,” I answered in a broken whisper.

  Liam turned to me, eyes shining with pain. “Did you know?”

  My chest tightened. “I have a brief memory of her. She came to the house a couple of hours after we brought you from the sanctuary to our old house. She… I’d never seen anyone tear into him like that. Not even me. She fought him with everything she had. Until I saw her landing blows, I didn’t think he could be fought. And she didn’t give up. She actually made him bleed, but he…” I looked away.

  “He killed her.” Liam finished.

  I nodded, wishing I could drive the memory away. For a moment, I was there again, six years old and peering through the railings of the staircase as a woman with dark-brown hair and bright eyes sent all her fury at my father. Calling him a dishonorable liar, a sham, a predator, a man unworthy of his title. She fought him even as he landed more powerful blows against her. She used her fists, her magic, and a knife when she couldn’t break his defenses. She never stopped fighting. Never stopped screaming for us.

  I’ll never forget the moment she saw me watching.

  It was a glimpse, a moment where our eyes locked. A flicker of shock when she realized who I was.

  And then she smiled.

  It was a moment that lasted a second, but I’ll never forget it. That smile could have lit up a room. It was relief, joy, and love. I knew what a parent’s love looked like in that single moment. It was something I’d never seen from my father before but would know from then on and show to my little brother.

  And then Thomas killed her. Tore the knife from her hand and drove it into her body. Then he kicked her backward off the blade and out into the rain and left her there. He slammed the door and never looked back. He stormed off and called the police to tell them he’d been attacked. Then he called the Polemistés, informing his supervisors that he’d been attacked by another scion, knowing they would get involved and clear his name of any wrong-doing. I heard him shout the lies through the phone, knowing that by the time they contacted the police, my mother would be dead. I’d tried to creep down the stairs and sneak outside to help her, but Thomas heard me. He’d set the phone down and looked directly in my eyes. He’d looked like a monster, covered in blood and his blue eyes cutting through the shadows of the house.

  “If you take one more step, you will meet the same fate as her.”

  Of all the things he ever said to me, that was the one had terrified me the most. It would take me years of growing and responsibility to break away from those words. Because I knew he meant them. He had two sons. He could kill me and still mold his spare.

  So I went back upstairs to Liam’s room. I soothed his cries and slept in his room, scared to leave him alone, scared to just be alone. I cried that entire night and never slept a wink.

  I never saw my mother again.

  I blinked away the memory and swiped at my eyes. I had no idea it would hurt so much to miss someone you’d never really met. Yet at the same time, I knew what she would have been like. From her ferocity and her smile, I knew she would have been protective, but kind. She would never have raised a hand to us. She would have taught us to be strong, to be good. She would have patched up our hurts and told us that we were loved.

  When I was growing up and raising Liam, I thought about her sometimes. I wondered what she would have wanted from me and my brother, and I tried to emulate that as best as I could under Thomas’s rule.

  But I was regretting the lies. I could see
in Liam’s eyes that while he was devastated by hearing the truth about his mother, I had hurt him more.

  “You didn’t tell me,” Liam whispered. “Again, you didn’t tell me.”

  Words strangled, I said, “I didn’t want to hurt you. If you’d seen her, knew what happened… you would have loved her, Liam. You would know she died because she wanted you, and that was why Thomas killed her. You’d think it was your fault.”

  “So you lied to me. You told me she ran away because Thomas scared her.”

  I winced but didn’t deny it. “You were a toddler. I couldn’t… and when you got older, I thought it was better to let you live with the lie. Gods, I even started to believe it. It was so much easier. But now, with everything that’s been happening, with the way you’re looking at me…” I shook my head and brushed the tears away again. “I realize I made a huge mistake. I should have told you when you were old enough. I should have told you when you asked when mom was coming back. I’m sorry.”

  It felt heavy with my shame, but I managed to raise my head and meet my brother’s gaze. “You had a mother who loved you, Liam. We both did. She died for us.”

  He staggered back, as if he’d been punched in the stomach. He stopped at a pew and gripped it until his knuckles were white.

  The shrine’s silence closed around me. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t move.

  “You should have told me.” Liam’s voice was ragged.

  “I know. Maybe it would have changed how we lived as kids, but… we already knew so much pain. I didn’t want to give you more.”

  He closed his eyes. Tears slipped from his eyelashes, and he quickly wiped them away. “Gods. Sometimes you can be such an asshole.”

  I winced He wasn’t wrong.

  “I confess, this is not what I hoped to see between my only children,” Persephone said softly. “Your mother had a kind heart. Separately, I can see that she passed that trait on to both of you. The hostility is a trait of your father’s, for whom I never cared. It is… displeasing to witness.”

  I bowed my head. “Apologies, my lady. We’re brothers, so we fight sometimes.”