by S Lawrence
We walk in silence, hours ticking by, and I can tell her brain is whirling. Mine is doing the same. Plotting their deaths.
“We are like game pieces, aren’t we?” She finally says, just as the sun is beginning to set.
We’ve travelled miles. She walks fast, especially once she begins to get angry. She stops and spins around, glaring at me.
“I’m beginning to believe so.” I don’t like how resigned my voice sounds. “I want to talk to my brothers.”
Did that sound whiny? I think it did. Her smile confirms my thought; it’s indulgent.
“I understand. I want Liam.” Her eyes focus on the way we had travelled throughout the day, and there is worry clouding the Caribbean color of her eyes. “Do you think he’s safe?”
I want to say yes but I can’t be sure and I won’t lie to her.
“I don’t know but I can’t imagine hardly anything that could get the best of that hound. He took down a moose on his own. You get that isn’t normal, right?” I study her face, hoping to see a hint of relief.
Her eyes drift back to my face and there it is. “He is very different. Special. I remember the day I found him, or rather, he found me. I was reading in the woods in my hiding spot. He burst through a bush much like he still does now. At first, I thought he was something coming to eat me, but he just stood looking at me.”
“Did you ever see any others like him?” I ask but I know the answer.
“No.” Her eyes drift again. “He has been my best friend since that moment.”
“What did your parents think?”
“My dad was sure he was an adult when I brought him home, but then he kept growing. People were scared of him at first and remained wary, but he never hurt anyone. He is just my friend.” Her eyes are shining when she looks back at me once again.
“Your protector,” I assert. “He’s protecting you, even now.”
“I guess. I just wish he was here.”
“He will find you,” I promise.
“I hope you’re right.” She doesn’t sound convinced.
“If he doesn’t find you, I will find him.” This time, I reach out and take her face in my hands and force her to see the truth in my eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispers and finally she lets a tear fall.
“You don’t have to be strong with me, Reyna. Your life has been blown up and you are allowed to be sad. You are allowed to be anything you want. Get pissed. Hit something. Hit me. Let this power that is forming in you free.” I get close to her. My breath puffs over her face, her hair moving with it, but I want her to listen.
“I’m not going to hit you. I would never hit you,” she says, her arms closing around me tightly. “Never.”
“You can’t keep all of your emotions locked away. It’s not good for you.” My lips move against her ebony hair. “I’ve done that and at some point, you either explode or implode,” I try to warn her.
She doesn’t pry, and I think I love her for it. I can’t talk about what I did. I don’t know if I will ever be able to.
“Come on, we should keep moving.” I straighten some, and she slowly releases me and steps away but she keeps her hand on me.
Taking that hand in mine, I squeeze it, trying to tell her how I feel, my heart pounding so hard I’m positive she can hear it. She squeezes back and that pounding slows, settling to a smooth steady rhythm.
Reyna lets me lead her away with one last look behind us.
‘You better be okay, you freaking beast.’ I send the thought out into the universe. ‘If you are watching us, directing all this, if you are listening, you better bring that hound back to her or I WILL find you.’
It might not be wise to threaten some enormously powerful being, but I couldn’t care less if he or they come for me.
I would welcome death on my best days.
Chapter Eleven
CYDER
Death would be a blessing.
I have been back in his hands for mere hours, and yet it is like I’ve never left. I’m not the captain of a ship; I am not the man I’ve fought so hard to become; I am once again the starving, broken child, terrified of the sound of a whip in the air.
My skin is untouched, but with every small noise, I flinch. I’m in the hull, in the room. Our room. It is unchanged, except it now holds the meager things of other boys.
It smells the same, like fear and sweat. Blood. Tears. Vomit. All of the things that I’ve tried to forget… They flood through my mind. I can feel my muscles quivering. I know I’m not alone. I cast my gaze around as much as I can without turning my head. I search the shadows, my breath coming faster than I want.
I do not want to give him my fear.
I will give him not one more part of myself.
A slight scraping of fabric against something causes my body to tense, and I clench my teeth, bracing for pain. None comes but instead cool, soft fingers tickle over my scars, and I grind my teeth even harder.
It isn’t the King who stands so close behind me.
The fingers trace the criss-cross pattern before stopping in between my shoulder blades. There the scars are the worst, red and raised, puckered, and the skin is tight from the many layers.
I shiver when a nail scratches over the area.
“They are quite lovely,” a feminine voice whispers, and I can feel breath on the same scars.
“Fuck you,” I growl.
Bell-like laughter echoes in the darkness.
“Oh, my dear, while I would certainly enjoy myself, I have something much more enjoyable for me,” the voice whispers close again. “I’m going to let you pay a tiny part of his debt.”
I don’t want to ask, but as the silence stretches and my back grows warm under her hand, I can’t seem to stop myself.
“Whose debt?” I hate that my voice shakes.
“Nestor, the great Egyptian god. The one that has deemed you worthy. Worthy but not enough to save you from all this.” Her fingers trace the scars again. “And now, you will have more because he will not save you this time either.”
“I don’t need to be saved.” I let my rage bolster my courage.
More laughter greets my ears and it sounds like pure evil. A cold sweat breaks out over my body. I am going to die in this room.
“If you kill me, how will this Nestor person know?” I ask.
“I’m not going to kill you, and we aren’t staying in this disgusting room.”
That surprises me. “The King will not let me go.”
“He can’t stop me. He wouldn’t try.” Her breath is against my neck. “He knows better.”
The last words carry a deadly threat.
I find the information curious and file it away, in case I survive whatever she has planned for me. We are game pieces on a board, and these two beings are moving us around. The knowledge ignites a fire within me. It isn’t a new idea but for some reason, in this very moment, it solidifies an anger that has been smoldering in me since the moment my mother was killed in front of me.
Over the years, I have tried to extinguish the fire, but it is always there burning.
“We should go.” The fingers snap by my ears and the chains that have been cutting into my wrists holding my hands stretched above my head disappear.
Completely disappear. My arms drop and instantly my nerves scream in pain as the blood begins to flow back into them. Still, I don’t turn around. She drags her fingers over my skin, moving around me. I roll my eyes up, not wanting to see her. I’m still looking at the dark ceiling when I feel my body shifting.
Shifting from the room and through space, maybe time. I’ve felt nothing like it. Magic. Power. It is wondrous and frightening.
The darkness fades to bright blue sky.
Lowering my eyes, I look around and see we are now standing on the edge of a tall cliff, the sea crashing below on jagged rocks.
“Where are we?” I ask, still not looking at her.
“Look.” She points. I can see her hand in my perip
heral and follow the direction with my gaze.
I can see ships tiny in the distance. Five tiny ships. My brothers.
“Brothers,” I scream like a warrior going into battle and as the word dies away, I realize this is part of my torture.
When I finally force my eyes to turn down and look at the woman in front of me, my breath catches. She is literally breathtaking. Otherworldly. Definitely something other than human.
Alabaster porcelain skin with midnight hair that hangs down to her waist. She smiles and it highlights the whiteness of her perfectly straight teeth and ruby red lips. Lips not stained by makeup but naturally bright red. Dark lashes frame eyes the color of an opal. I had seen some in a store in New Orleans. They are truly unnatural looking. Captivating. I find I can’t look away.
Trapped.
She is a spider and I’m caught in her web.
“Nestor. I know you are searching. Listening. Watching,” she whispers, but I feel magic in the words. “Come save your chosen.”
I’m frozen. Muscles locked into place.
“Do you know who I am?” She asks, her hand still on my chest. “Speak.”
I’m released from some of the bonds she has locked around me. Just enough to do as she commanded.
“No.” I want to add ‘you crazy bitch’ but I refrain.
I have my role in our group. I watch people, studying them. I find their tells, their weaknesses, and if I remain quiet, I will start to learn hers. I can tell already she lets her emotions drive her.
Gods are much more human than they would like to think.
Powerful but weak, just like we are weak.
This goddess is letting anger drive her. What would anger a goddess so much that she would stay to get her revenge when all others have left us in the hell they created?
Love.
I narrow my eyes, watching. Waiting.
Tell me your secrets.
“I am Nemesis.” She pauses looking at my face.
I keep my face blank and instead look her up and down. She is wearing her clothes like armor—black leather pants, black-lace up boots up to her knees, a wide-brimmed black hat currently held in one hand, and a shirt made from black raven feathers. When she held out her arm, it had looked like a wing. It has hints of blue when the sun shines on it, like it is right now.
“The Goddess,” she says and her voice has grown harder.
“Sorry. With the apocalypse and all, we didn’t really have a chance to read up on ancient gods,” I quip, poking the hornets’ nest a little.
I can hear her teeth grit.
“You should always take the time to learn about your betters.” She smiles but it is laced with poison. “We were meant to rule you and be worshipped.” Her voice softens as I feel the scrape of nails over the skin just at the base of my throat. “Would you like to worship me?”
“Pass.” I smile back and put as much disgust as I can into it while hiding the fear that is making my muscles twitch.
“Don’t you want to know how I was worshipped?” Her beautiful face is a mask of innocence.
“Not really.” I really, really don’t because while my first thought was sex, now I fear something altogether worse.
“I am the Goddess of Revenge, of retribution… I require blood and bone. I like death as a gift most.” She is practically singing to herself, and I wonder what horrible memory she is reliving. “I’m afraid you, Cyder, will offer a tribute. You are the sacrificial lamb to lure Nestor from his hiding place.”
The nail is suddenly longer and much sharper. I hold steady as I feel the sting of the first cut and the warmth of my blood running down my chest.
Her eyes are practically glowing with excitement at my reaction, or lack thereof.
“I don’t know this Nestor that you think will come for me.” I keep my voice level.
“Sure, you do; you just don’t know it.” Another cut. “I taught a man once. He wanted to know how to draw out his revenge, how to savor that which he had longed for many years. I showed him the art of a thousand cuts.”
Nemesis rips my shirt from my frozen body and once again smiles, and I notice that her teeth all have tiny sharp points.
‘Were they like that a moment ago?’ I ask myself.
No. Just like her nails weren’t talons before but they are now.
“You just don’t know it.’ Her words play through my mind. I search my mind for faces or a face that appears again and again, but it’s out of place. I see him. I’ve seen him on every ship. He has been in different towns, his appearance slightly different, but it’s the same man.
“Now you know.” She is watching me closely. “Was he on the King’s ship?”
I flinch at the question because while I don’t have a memory of it, I’m sure she wouldn’t ask if she wasn’t sure that he had been.
“He let them do this to you.” Her claw cuts one of the scars on my back.
Shivers crawl over my skin as I feel the warm roughness of her tongue. Cat-like.
“Pain makes the blood taste so much sweeter,” she purrs, and I think it is more to herself than to me.
“So what did this person do to you?” I ask as I feel another small slice.
I’m sure at some point I will stop feeling each cut. I can’t help the picture that crashes into my mind. Her power is holding me up, and I know I will stay like this until she lets my dead body drop. I test my arms, but they stay frozen, held out from my body. I think of the images in the church I had often visited in the city. Jesus on the cross. Crucified. I am almost in the same position, and the fact is not lost on me.
I will die for another’s sins.
“Is Jesus the son of God?” I ask, thinking about the stories I had read about the man.
“A god.” She smirks.
I don’t know what answer I thought I’d get, but that wasn’t it. Another cut.
“So this Nestor did what exactly? I figure if I’m going to die for him, I should at least know why,” I ask again.
“He did many things. He sided with the humans. He killed our people. He killed God… My love. They killed my brother. And now, he is meddling.” She looks out at the water, not even paying attention as she cuts my skin again.
“With my brothers and me?” I don’t mention anyone else.
“And the woman.” She steps around me, locking eyes with me and letting me see a hint of anger. “Oh yes, I know you found her. My spy told me what she did with the sea creatures. I know the power is calling to her. I also know I won’t let her get it.”
“You would give it to a sadistic killer?” I can’t hide my revulsion, I don’t even try to.
“Maybe,” she evades.
She plans to get it for herself.
“Why don’t you just go take it? If it is takeable.” I watch for those micro reactions people just can't hide, no matter how hard they try.
Muscles tighten around her eyes, and the vein in her neck and along her temple pulses. So human-like. She moves so fast that my eyes can’t track, and this time, the cut is deeper across my chest. More blood. This time, I see her arm flash back, arcing over her head.
Maybe not a thousand cuts, then. Good.
My only regret is not being able to warn the others. I let my eyes fall closed, and my head drops forward. Surrender. The feeling tastes foreign on my tongue. Never once have I given in, not to him, not to any of the others that thought I was fair game or that my brothers were. I have more than whip scars on my body. It is foreign but somehow I feel calm. Not relaxed, but like a soul deep calmness.
‘If you are listening, don’t come. I’m not worth it. Save the others. Save her. If you are as powerful as I think you are, protect them. Do you know Nemesis is here? You aren’t the only one playing this game.’
“I wanted to make this last but maybe I will just leave you for him to find.” Her breath moves the strands of hair that have come free from the braids along the top of my head. “Goodbye, Cyder. I had hoped you were like the Celts of
old but I guess not.”
I feel outrage flood my system and I jerk my head up hard, cracking her in the face. I understand the mistake as soon as I see her blood smile.
“It could have been quick but now…” She licks at the blood on her lips, and I watch as it coats her wicked teeth.
I brace for pain.
A low growl makes the hair on my neck rise, and I turn my head as her eyes narrow on something to our left, just within the shadows of the trees.
I feel my own eyes widen.
Red eyes shine in the darkness, almost level with my own. What beast is this?
“It’s not possible.” Her voice has a hint of fear in it.
What would scare a goddess?
A moment later, I know as the creature steps from the trees. It looks like Reyna’s beast but not exactly. It’s bigger for one, twice the size of Liam, and the skin isn’t covered with his rough brown fur. Instead it is black, but more. It is more like the complete absence of color.
“Hellhound,” she whispers and starts to back away. “Where is your master? Where is Cerberus? Where is Hades?” Her eyes dart left and right.
I don’t know who those people are but if they scare her, I can just imagine. I think about the stories in the book about the ancient ones. Cerberus was a giant three-headed dog that guarded the Underworld.
This beast has one head that it has lowered to look at her. Another growl vibrates the air.
“You aren’t supposed to be here,” she whispers, but I see that she is shifting positions, preparing to fight.
A howl echoes from somewhere near, but the animal never takes its eyes from her.
“I think you are about to be outnumbered,” I murmur softly, unwilling to draw the animal’s attention.
“I guess I should go then.” She smiles and it is the one filled with poison. Pure evil.
I don’t have time to question what it means before she splits me open and disappears. As soon as she’s gone, I fall. My hands coming to clutch my stomach, to hold my guts in.
Fuck. I blink as tears fill my eyes. I lay there, staring up at the sky that reminds me of the water I love so much. A rustle alerts me to the animal’s approach, and I turn my head, locking eyes with it.