Shattered Heir (Broken Gods Book 1)

by N. M. Howell

  She wondered just how well they all knew each other, considering they all seemed so different. She wondered if they had remained close friends while she was gone, but from what she understood, they all seemed to have been torn apart by the war in some way or another. Perhaps they were just grateful to be back together, long lost friends reunited after battle. Still, it felt weird they were all bathing naked together.

  Shaking her head, she focused her attention on her dagger. She traced her fingers along the intricate carvings, thinking of her mother. The symbols were familiar, but she wasn’t too sure where from. Gasping, she dropped the dagger on the ground as something came to her mind.

  Rhea pulled the crumpled piece of paper out from her pocket and looked at it. The symbols were similar, the same intricate woven patterns layering over the tops of each other with swirls and odd angles. She wondered what they meant, and couldn’t help but think of her mother. The patterns were so similar, she knew in her heart they were somehow related.

  Her mother had always been so quiet, never saying anything more than she had to. Rhea wished that she was here now so that she could ask her questions. She had a feeling her mother would know the answer to the strange riddle that lay before her on the sheet of white paper. She folded the paper back up and slid it into her pocket.

  “What does this all mean?” she asked the dagger, her voice barely over a whisper. She sat there for a while, mesmerized by the weapon before being pulled from her daze by a deep voice beside her.

  “You can look now,” Grayson said, a smirk across his chiseled face. He stood beside her, his pants pulled on but his shirt still off, hanging from his arm. His hair dripped, and he ran his hands through it, wringing it as dry as he could. His muscles gleamed in the sunlight, the intricate network of patterns on his gargoyle skin bright in the midday sun. For the first time looking at him, she realized just how much like a god he looked.

  “Are you guys done?” she asked him, moving her gaze to the ground as she noticed him staring at her. Her cheeks tinged pink as she kicked the ground with her toe.

  Grayson laughed and shook his head slowly. “Yeah, you’re good. Not that you should be embarrassed at all or anything. We are your guardians.”

  It was the first time she’d seen Grayson seem soft, lighthearted. She liked him like this and couldn’t help the sly smile that formed on her lips.

  “We’ve really only known each other as adults for a couple days, you know,” she said to him.

  Grayson shrugged it off, smiling. “Yeah, whatever. We’ve known you your whole life, though.”

  Rhea shrugged and pushed herself back up, peeking around him to look back at the river. At least they weren’t fully naked anymore, having pulled on some of their clothes. They all had left their shirts off, their bare chests glistening with moisture under the sun as she gazed at them down by the river bed, tanning and warming up in the daylight.

  “Okay well, it’s my turn I guess.” She moved around him, headed heading toward the river further down the bank away from her other guardians.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Grayson asked, following in close step behind her.

  She turned back to him, her eyebrows raised. “I’m having a bath.”

  Grayson crossed his arms. “No, you’re not. Not by yourself.”

  Rhea’s mouth hung open as she stared at him in shock. “You’re not coming with me,” she snapped, sounding ruder than she had intended. It was one thing to see them naked, but for them to see her naked would be beyond mortifying.

  “You’re not going by yourself,” he replied, his voice sharp. “Not with all the potential dangers around here.”

  She couldn’t help but laugh. “Dangers? You just literally left me sleeping by the tree as you went to go prance around naked in the water.” She held her hand out toward the river, her expression incredulous yet amused, motioning to her other guardians.

  “We could see you,” he said. “It wasn’t like we weren’t keeping an eye on you.”

  Rhea groaned and rolled her eyes. “Okay well, how do you expect me to have a bath? I’m not getting naked in front of you guys.”

  Grayson rubbed his temples, sighing as the rest the guardians joined them by the tree.

  “You’re still blushing,” Keaven teased, leaning against the tree as he watched her.

  Rhea held her palms against her cheeks, her grin turning into a quick scowl. “Yeah well, you’re the ones who were prancing around naked like weirdos.”

  Keaven shrugged. “Well, I can’t bathe with my clothes on, that would be stupid.” He grinned at her, his smile infectious.

  She couldn’t help but smile back. “Okay well, I’m going to have a bath. Who’s gonna babysit me this time?”

  Keaven pushed himself off the trunk and moved to follow her. “I’ll come.”

  At her expression, he added, “Don’t worry. I won’t peek.”

  Rhea offered him a sly grin, marching down to the river as far away from the rest of her guardians as she could. Keaven followed behind her, trying to keep his silence. She could hear him snickering, obviously finding the whole situation hilarious.

  When she arrived at the river bed, she turned to him and forced her grin into a mock stern look. “Look away, no peeking.”

  Keaven nodded. “Okay, sure. I promise, I promise.”

  When she was sure her guardians weren’t looking, she slowly undressed herself, her body trembling with nerves. She dipped a timid toe in the water and shuddered at the shock from the cold. She steeled herself and walked in, bracing herself against the frigid temperature as she submerged her body to her shoulders, hidden from view. She turned back to Keaven and then splashed water up at him as he had done to her.

  “Hey!” He turned around, shaking his head at her.

  “You said no peeking!” Rhea gasped, laughing. She covered her breasts with her arms under the water, though she was sure he couldn’t see her.

  Keaven rolled his eyes. “I can’t see you, don’t worry.”

  “Mmhmm.”

  The water felt amazing on Rhea’s skin and she dunked her head underwater as she shook it out with her hands, running her fingers through as the water flowed through her tresses.

  She scrubbed her skin with her hand and wished she had brought soap, but the water still did wonders and washed away all the grime that had built up on her skin throughout their journey.

  “You soaked your clothes,” Keaven said, picking up her dripping sweater from a nearby rock.

  “Shit,” Rhea swore. She hadn’t thought of that when she splashed him. “Can you hang them up to dry?”

  Keaven picked up her clothes and walked over to a nearby bush, laying out the sweater, tank top and pants so they got full sun. He then awkwardly strung up her thong and bra, a slight tinge of red appearing in the tips of his ears and nose.

  “Not those,” Rhea hissed. Her own cheeks flushed, and she dunked her face underwater, fully submerging herself so she couldn’t be seen. She was mortified, yet again. She felt as if her guardians were intentionally trying to embarrass her.

  When she came up for breath, Keaven sat next to the bush with something in his hand.

  “Is this a cell phone?” he asked.

  Rhea had forgotten that she had it. “Yeah. All the good it’ll do me here.”

  Rhea watched as he fiddled with her phone, his eyes fixated on the small device. He was whipping it around in his hand and pushing the buttons, taking the battery in and out, his fingers working furiously over the thing.

  Rhea couldn’t help but laugh at his sheer amazement as she shook her head. She stretched her arms out, baring herself underwater as she realized he was far more interested in her phone than he was in watching her bathe.

  That knowledge allowed her to finally relax, and she fell back and let herself float in the water, staring up at the sunny sky. There were hardly any clouds above, and though the air was still cool, the sun felt warm on her skin. She felt goosebumps along her
arms as she swam, but it felt so liberating floating there, her ears submerged below the surface, listening to nothing but the sound of her own heart beat. She floated around for ages, and when she finally became a bit too cold, she slowly emerged from the river, covering herself as best she could with her arms.

  She was about to ask Keaven to toss over her clothes, but she had a feeling even if she went up and shook him on both shoulders he wouldn’t even realize she was there. Watching him was like watching a kid in a candy shop after getting his first allowance. He only had eyes for the phone.

  She glanced up nervously toward where the other guardians were, but they had disappeared off in the distance. She looked around and when she was confident that nobody was watching her, she walked out fully from the water, dripping wet in the sunlight, grabbing her clothes from the nearby bush. They had mostly dried and she slid on her dirty outfit, wishing she had brought a change of fresh clothes to wear. At least they got sort of washed when she’d splashed them.

  She wrung her wet hair out as she stood baking under the sun, letting her wet skin dry. Her hair dripped down her back, soaking her sweater. She shivered but felt invigorated, like she was a whole new person. Now all she needed was a hot cup of coffee and a shot of whiskey and she would be golden.

  After shaking out her hair and tying it back into a knot, she went to go sit by Keaven. He didn’t even acknowledge her when she sat down, hardly flinching when she leaned over his shoulder to watch him work.

  “What are you doing?” she finally asked him.

  He ignored her, his fingers running the length around the edge of her cell phone.

  She laughed and poked him in the back. He jumped, and turned to look at her, smiling. “This is fascinating.”

  Rhea shrugged. “It’s just a cell phone. It’s from about ten years ago, too. Nothing fancy. You should see the newer ones . They’re insane.”

  Keaven’s eyes went wide. “More advanced than this?”

  He looked down, disbelieving, at the small phone in his hands.

  Rhea reached out and took it from him, and he grudgingly let her take it.

  “The new ones have full-width screen displays,” she said, tracing the outline of the front of her phone. “Some are even bigger than this. They’re touch screen, so all you have to do is press your finger against the right spot on the screen for it to work. There aren’t even really buttons anymore on the new models.”

  Keaven looked as if he had just been told that Santa Claus was real. He shook his head in disbelief and snatched the phone back. “Remarkable,” he whispered.

  “Yeah, I guess humans have managed to come up with a few cool things in their world,” Rhea said. “Too bad it doesn’t work here. I nearly forgot I had brought it.”

  Keaven bit down hard on his lower lip, his eyes determined and his fingers thumbing through the buttons. She had no idea what he was doing, but she watched as he sat there playing with it, completely mesmerized.

  She observed him work for a while, his intensity soothing somehow. Watching him get so excited over something so simple made her happy. She was happy that she could at least bring a small amount of joy to any of them, after everything they’d been through.

  She sat there and watched him work, listening to his hums and groans as he played with the device. She closed her eyes and tried to stay warm in the sun, fighting off a shiver every time the cool air blew over her damp skin. She nearly fell asleep, leaning against her arm on the ground, when Keaven’s gasp suddenly made her jump.

  “What, what’s going on?” she asked, sitting bolt upright and expecting an attack.

  Keaven turned to her, the widest grin she’d ever seen on his face. His light blue eyes sparkled and his fangs shone an icy white in the sunlight. He handed her the phone.

  “What?” she asked him again, her eyebrows raised. She turned the small device over in her hand, inspecting it, but looked back up at him, her eyes confused. “What did you do?”

  Keaven simply grinned and stared at her, waiting for her to figure it out.

  She scratched her face and looked back down at her phone, flipping the small thing open. Her finger found its way to the on button, and she pressed it tentatively.

  “Holy shit,” she gasped, nearly dropping the phone. The thing sprang to life, the small familiar ring that it made every time it turned on and off sounded around them, the melody carrying in the wind. The screen flashed alive, thirty-six missed messages waiting on the digital display. All from Lanei.

  She was in shock. She had no idea how he had managed it. Technology like this didn’t exist in the Otherworld. There was some sort of weird interaction between the magical energy in the air and digital technology that made things like this completely die in the magical realm. She had never heard of an instance of technology working, not even once.

  Some races absolutely had their own technologies, she knew that much. But it was all fueled by some sort of magic, not batteries and whatever the hell else made these things run in the human world. She didn’t quite understand how cell phones and the like worked, but all she knew was that they didn’t exist in the Otherworld for a reason—because magic killed the technology, rendering it useless.

  Until now.

  Rhea stared down at her phone that flashed before her, buzzing in her hand. She couldn’t help but be in awe of Keaven’s genius, and was afraid to press anything for risk of ruining his brilliant work.

  She looked up at him, her face white and her mind confused but impressed. “You know, I think you’re the only person in this entire world to figure out how to make human digital technology work here.”

  He continued to smile and shrugged at her, brushing it off as if it were nothing. “Yeah, probably.”

  She couldn’t help but laugh loudly at how casual he acted. He’d just accomplished something so remarkable, she hadn’t thought it would be possible in a million years. She stared down and turned the phone over her hands, wondering if what she was seeing was actually real. Had she hit her head before?

  “Are you going to check the messages?” Keaven asked.

  Rhea steadied herself and pressed ‘okay’ on the keypad, the first message flaring to life before her. Her eyes widened even more as she read the text, completely overwhelmed at what she was doing.

  She flipped through the messages, Lanei getting more and more worried with every one. She bit her lip and hit reply, extremely grateful that her friend had thought to give her that spare battery, otherwise the phone wouldn’t have been charged.

  She glanced toward the flashing battery symbol and saw she only had 25% left. She would have to conserve it, and quickly replied to a message from Lanei.

  I miss you. I’m okay, everything’s fine. I’ll update you when I can. I’m so sorry I left like I did.

  The then turned the phone off and handed it back to a rather pleased-looking Keaven.

  “You’re something else, you know that?” she asked him, incredulous.

  He accepted the phone, smiling broadly at her. He shrugged. “I know.”

  Keaven pressed the button to turn the phone on again, looked at it with reverence one last time, then handed it back to her.

  Rhea shook her head. “Nah, you keep it. The battery won’t last that long if we keep it on, though, and I highly doubt will find anywhere here to charge it.”

  Keaven raise his brow. “What do we need to charge it?” He looked eager, ready to accept the challenge.

  Rhea laughed and rolled her eyes. “Well an electrical outlet would be a start,” she said.

  Keaven nodded his head, his hands rubbing against his chin thoughtfully. “Okay, okay. An electrical outlet.”

  He was lost in thought, staring off into the distance, probably trying to puzzle through any way to get electricity into the Otherworld.

  She rolled her eyes again and pushed herself up, stretching her stiffening muscles as Keaven played with the flashing phone.

  Rhea bent over and let her arms hang down, her
hands resting on the ground. It felt amazing, stretching out her muscles. She allowed herself to relax. She bent her knees, feeling the full stretch in the lower back. Although riding on horseback had made her muscles tense, if she was going to continue without her body breaking completely, she would have to do what she could to stay limber.

  “So how does a vampire become so interested in technology?” she asked him, genuinely curious. Vampires were generally quite a recluse race, and she had never heard of anyone in the Otherworld so obsessed with something so human. His obsession with videogames especially baffled her, considering there was no way in the Otherworld for him to actually know what they were without human interference. He must’ve traveled quite frequently back into the human realm, though she was unsure how he would have managed to do so with her father in rule.

  Keaven shrugged, a slight tinge of pink appearing on both cheeks. “I dunno, just seems really cool.”

  Rhea smiled and sat back down next to him, leaning against her arm, staring up at him curiously. “Yeah, some things are pretty cool. Where does your obsession with videogames come from?”

  Keaven beamed. “Oh, Rhea. They’re absolutely incredible. You can sit there and look at a screen and put yourself in another person’s world. You can be anything you want, it’s incredible.”

  Rhea nodded and laughed. “Yeah, I know the concept. It’s pretty neat.”

  She couldn’t help but be drawn toward Keaven and his sheer happiness over the topic was completely infectious. He was smiling as if it was his happiest day on earth, and she realized he had never looked at her quite like that before. He seemed genuinely happy and genuinely interested in talking to her. Another pang of regret broke its way through her chest, as she realized how cruel she had been in trying to evade them for so long. Especially in the castle, Keaven had seemed closest to her in age, though she knew in actual fact he was much older as a vampire. He always was the friendliest one, always trying to hang out and do cool kid stuff when she was young. She felt terrible for giving him the cold shoulder for so many years, but she figured she now had a chance to make it up to him.