by Nicole Thorn
Erebus stood when we arrived, and he waved the host off. “Glad to see you all. Have a seat.”
We did as he said, sitting at the big table. None of us seemed to know what to say, so we waited for the man in question to start the conversation.
“You all are very loud,” Erebus said. “The whispers about you carry far. Do you know that?”
“We do now,” Zander said with a smile. “What we don’t know, is what you want with us. We hear you’re on the wrong side of things.”
“Sides,” the man sighed. “You can draw all of your imaginary lines, but they don’t mean anything. Everyone is in it for themselves at the end of the day. Don’t tell me that you’re on the side of the gods? I know how they treat people, even when they’re their children.”
I stiffened in my seat. “What about it?”
A waiter came over for our drink order, and we all stared at the table as Erebus picked a mimosa. “Get anything you want,” he said to us. “I’m buying.”
We all got water.
“Anyway,” Erebus went on. “I don’t especially care for either side of this. What you’ve named good and evil. Things are not so black and white, as easy as that would make things.”
“Okay,” Jasmine said. “Then what do you want from this? You like to cause trouble.”
“Trouble to you, but not to me. I’m sure the gods have a different opinion on trouble too. You view the world from a box. How unfortunate.”
“Sir,” I said, because I didn’t want to set him off. “You came to our house, saying you wanted to have lunch. Can you at least tell us why you wanted this? I don’t buy that you were aching to meet us.”
“Maybe I was. Maybe the idea of a few demigods and the seers entertained me, and I thought I could have some fun. Pick what you want from the menu.”
When he lifted his up to look at it, the rest of us had a moment where we didn’t know what to do. Then Jasmine grabbed her menu, opening it. Verin went next, then me. The others followed, and then we picked out food to eat with darkness itself. I used to spend my free time knitting . . .
“Oh, shit. They have steak here,” Jasmine muttered. “Right in the noodles.”
“I like that a lot,” Erebus said. “But ask for extra sauce on the side.”
I might have been going insane, and this was all a fever dream. Maybe I died while Jasper and I had sex, because the bliss made my brain explode. I could have been in some weird state of being in the Underworld.
“You wanna split something?” Verin asked Juniper.
She blinked at him and set her menu down. “You pick.”
The waiter came back, and we actually ordered food. How we got here, I really didn’t know. Yet I had the ability to find it amusing that Jasper and I got the same thing without even talking about it. I didn’t expect to eat much.
“Um,” I finally said. “Why. Are. We. Here?”
Erebus sipped his drink and set the glass down. “You really need to take a breath or two. This is nothing bad.”
“Is it not?” Verin asked. “Because you thought you could relate to us because the gods are tossers?”
“The gods are unkind to those who depend on them. They’re selfish, as they’ve always been. If you insist on picking sides, I wouldn’t recommend going with them. They have had more children than you can ever know. After you die, they’ll still have more. You are one in thousands. They don’t care enough to step in when they need to, and they don’t deserve any kind of respect or loyalty.”
I didn’t totally disagree with that one. My mother had let me down countless times in the past, and it seemed to sting more now. I thought something would have changed. Aphrodite cared enough to match us all up, and I thought that meant something that it didn’t. She matched us because that was her job, and nothing more. It happened with so many other people too. If they cared, then they would have saved us when they could have.
“Who said we respect them?” I asked. “Because it’s not like I’m praying to my mom for help. None of us count on our parents.”
“Good, because you shouldn’t. It would be a sad waste of time for you. Like everyone else, I think you should fight for yourselves, and nothing else. Pick what you do, based on how it’ll help you survive. You owe nothing to anyone.”
Zander tapped his fingers on the table, watching Erebus. “And you wanted to, what, be nice and let us know? You can say you’re better than the gods if you want, but this feels like you want a favor or something.”
“It’s not a favor,” Erebus told us. “I don’t ask for favors, and I don’t make deals. I state what will happen, and let other people make their own choices. I would never force anything. Where’s the fun in having that kind of control?”
Jasper shifted in his seat, and I took his hand under the table, like I had when we were safe at home. I did not feel safe here. “You cornered me in a store,” he said. “And you threatened a bunch of people. It sounds like you might have a bit of a control issue.”
Erebus smiled slightly. “Ah, maybe I do. I don’t intend on controlling you people. That’s not what I’m after. The food is here.”
We all went quiet as the waiter dropped off the meal that I didn’t want to eat. We should have met up in a park or something, because it would have at least felt open. This whole place made me feel like we sat in a trap, waiting for it to spring. Erebus wanted something, and the other shoe had to drop.
“Thank you,” he said to the waiter, and the man walked away. Erebus picked up a fork and looked up. “Eat.”
We didn’t.
“Maybe we could enjoy the meal if we understood your motives,” Juniper said. “You should try being straightforward, because I don’t like having to play guessing games.”
“I second that,” Jasmine said. “You can go ahead and let us know what’s up. I kind of do want to eat this, but I’m half worried it’s poisoned. Though it smells like really good poison.”
Erebus finished his bite of food, then set the fork down again. “Fair enough. I think it would be interesting to get you all on my team, as you would say it. You would make for a fascinating chess match, if you don’t mind being used. Which I assume you won’t at the end of this meal.”
“We won’t?” Zander scoffed. “And how do you figure?”
“If you refuse me, then everyone in this room dies.”
CHAPTER NINE:
What are we capable Of?
Jasper
I THOUGHT HE had to be joking, because he said it so casually. Of course, the gods didn’t take things like death seriously. Why should they, when they didn’t have to worry about it. To them, the twenty people in this room wouldn’t matter, because it was twenty people who didn’t care about them. The gods worshipped themselves perhaps more than anyone else ever had.
Erebus smiled, but it looked sharp, and wicked. “Not that I expect you to answer immediately. That would be rude of me, and I try not to be rude.”
“I find killing an entire room of people exceptionally rude,” Jasmine said.
Zander draped his arm around her shoulders, and pulled her in against his body, as if that would shut her up. Nothing shut Jasmine up.
Erebus pointed at her. “I can see how one would think that, but I disagree. Sometimes, entire rooms of people need to die. I like to pick the ones that will cause the biggest stir, which no one in this room will. No one cares about people willing to spend this much money on one meal. Some would even say they had it coming, don’t you think?”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Kezia said, softly. “You would really kill everyone in this room?”
Erebus nodded. “Yes, I would. It wouldn’t be any great loss, though. Look at that man and woman over there,” he said, gesturing to them with his knife. I tried not to flinch away from the knife, and barely managed it. It wouldn’t have cut me easily, but I didn’t want to feel the sting of the blade, nonetheless.
We all turned to look at the people in question, but not at the same t
ime. To me, it felt like it would be a mistake to look away from Erebus. The entire room seemed to darken around him, without Erebus doing a thing to make it happen. I worried about him putting effort into something.
His power practically vibrated from his body and drove into me.
The man and woman seemed to be a married couple. She wore a business suit that only lawyers could get away with. She had one leg crossed over the other, and a napkin draped over her lap. Dyed blond hair had been curled around her head in a style that made her look sleek, and sophisticated. Her husband also wore a suit. He had a bald head, a ratty face, and a watch that sparkled every time he moved his wrist. Since he had to cut his meat, that meant it sparkled quite a bit.
Erebus talked while my attention stayed on them. “Now, she’s a lawyer who works for large companies. Mostly, she sues littler companies until they have nothing and go bankrupt. She’s paid a lot of money to do that. He, on the other hand, is CEO of one of those large companies. He likes gouging his employees, giving them as little as possible. They are all numbers on a screen to him. It doesn’t matter what their lives are like, or what they do from day to day. It only matters that he gets what he wants from them.”
“And you think that’s a good enough reason to die?” Jasmine asked.
“No,” Erebus said, laughing. “Not at all. But can you imagine the chaos that their deaths would bring. The company would be in a panic, trying to calm their stock holders before they jump ship. Stock holders hate change, you know. And for her, the entire law firm would be doing the same thing with her clients, with her cases. They would be in utter panic, and that would leave ripples all throughout the world.”
“Are you trying to convince us to say no or yes?” Juniper asked.
Erebus smiled again, taking a bite from his lunch. “I’m not entirely sure. It would be so much fun killing everyone in this room, but having the six of you on my side . . . Now that would be even better. Can you imagine the destruction that you could cause with one little vision?”
Jasmine lifted her head. “I wouldn’t tell you anything that would get someone else needlessly hurt.”
“Yes, you have morals. You all do. I get it. But I’m a patient man. I can wait two hundred years for when those morals go out the window.”
“What makes you think they will?” Verin asked.
“You’ve met the gods,” Erebus said. “You’ve met me.”
“You were raised to be selfish,” Zander ground out through his teeth.
Erebus cocked his head. “What makes you think that?”
“Because all the gods are arrogant, selfish creatures, spoiled with their own power, and tired of humanity.”
“Again, you are not wrong,” Erebus agreed. “But what about everyone else. What about all the demigods that are just like their parents? Are all of them arrogant, selfish creatures, spoiled with power?”
“Yes,” Zander said.
“No,” Kezia argued, glaring at her brother. After their fight this morning, I hoped that they would find some smooth ground. While I didn’t particularly care about what Zander had said to me—yes, it had hurt, but it had also been far gentler than many of the things my father had said over the years—I understood why Kezia had been upset. I would’ve been angry if he said something like that to her, as well.
“The years weigh on them, just like they will weigh on you,” Erebus said. “You have all this power coursing through your bodies, but you still cannot change humanity. They always want something from you, and then curse your name when you cannot give it to them. They are the selfish creatures, and they are the arrogant ones, to think they can take on gods themselves. And after centuries of that, it becomes harder to deal with, harder to justify helping them. Why should you help to save one person, when that person will spit in your face? You too will lose those morals and holier-than-thou attitudes. It’s only a matter of time.”
“I won’t be like you,” Zander said.
Verin shifted around in his seat. Perhaps better than the rest of us, he could see how it could happen. He had lost someone he cared so much about, and it had cracked his mind like an egg.
“So, you’re saying we should let these people die, just so that you can try to break our morals apart?” Jasmine asked.
Erebus laughed again and shook his head. “I don’t care what you do with these people, actually. You should have realized that by now. Let me kill them, and it will create chaos. Let them live, and it will do the same thing. Now, I should give you a second to talk about it. While you’re doing that, I’ll be in the restroom.” He patted his mouth with the napkin and started to rise. “If the waiter comes back, you should order the cheesecake. It’ll ruin other cakes for you.”
As he left, the six of us sat there, stiffly, staring at the food we had ordered. It had felt too strange to eat. Some part of me had wondered if Erebus had somehow poisoned it. He could have done so without us even leaving the room. Gods knew that they had all kinds of tricks and poisons up their sleeve. They could easily kill us.
“We can’t let them die,” Jasmine said, starting to get up.
Zander tugged her back down. “What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed.
“I was gonna tell them to leave,” Jasmine said. “Even if I shouted that they were all going to be killed by Darkness himself, and seemed like a crazy woman, they would want to leave. I would’ve made them uncomfortable. Isn’t that better than them dying?”
Zander locked his arm around her waist, preventing my sister from dying. “I’m not going to put you on Erebus’ radar.”
“And I’m not going to let these people die,” Jasmine hissed.
Zander covered her mouth, and I eyed him. “You wanna let my sister go?” I asked.
“You want her to get killed?”
“I don’t think Erebus wants to kill us,” I said, simply “I think we entertain him too much. Of all the gods that we’ve met, he’s the most dangerous, but I also think his motivations are the simplest, too. If we entertain him, then he’ll want to keep us around. I think the only question we have to answer is if we can save everyone in this room or not.” I looked at the people sitting around us. Most of them looked like married couples, but I saw one group of people, having what appeared to be a business lunch. I looked back at Zander.
“I can save them,” Verin said.
“Cockiness aside,” Kezia growled. “We have to actually make a decision. I don’t want to join with Erebus on anything. I think being in his company would drive a person insane after a while. But I also don’t want these people to die.” She looked at all of them and bit the corner of her lip. “Look. Those men over there are sharing pictures of their daughter with the waiter.”
“I can save them,” Verin said, again.
Kezia glared. “Okay, I get that you think you’re this infallible demigod and all, but this isn’t the time for your arrogance.”
Verin sighed, rising to his feet. “If you could make the ground shake, Aunt Kizzy, that would be very helpful. These sods don’t know what’s about to happen, and they might need a little push.”
“I work with plants,” Kezia said, pushing to her feet as well.
Verin didn’t argue. He just looked back at her.
Kezia frowned, and then a line puckered between her eyebrows. She focused on the ground. A second later, the entire building shook. We all looked at the floor, and it started to shake again.
Verin jumped up and ran to the fire alarm. He shouted, “The building’s going to fall!” and pulled the alarm.
Kezia made the building shake even harder, until the windows shattered in their frames. A manager started to shout at everyone to remain calm, but Verin’s hysterical voice did more than the managers could. Panic caught on faster than logic any day of the week.
Everyone in the room start to scramble to their feet. Four of them managed to get out of the building before all the lights went out, shoving us into complete darkness. “Shit,” Zander said, risin
g up.
“Aunt Kizzy?” Verin said. “Could you, perhaps, break the windows?”
“I don’t think that would help,” I said. “Erebus is darkness. I don’t think lights are going to come back if he doesn’t want them to.”
“Also, I work in plants.” Kezia’s voice sounded put out.
“Get creative,” Verin suggested.
I rose from my seat, as Zander said, “My phone won’t turn on.”
“Which I told you,” I said.
I reached out and found Kezia’s hand. I squeezed it, and then said, “He’ll be coming out any moment. We need to get everyone outside. Does anyone have a suggestion?”
“Erm, I might,” Jasmine said.
“Jasmine, no,” Zander barked, before she could even throw out her idea. “Just stay behind me. I’ll walk us out of here. If we have to fight everyone in this building, you’ll get home safely.”
“But—” Jasmine started.
Zander spoke over her. “Kizzy, you stay with the seers. Verin and I are going to try to find our way to the door, and we’ll drag as many of the humans with us.”
The darkness started to pulse. I didn’t know how else to describe the feeling. It felt like it had pushed against me from all sides and tried to steal from me. Steal my breath, and my heart, and my thoughts. Erebus’s laughter rose throughout it as well.
“Shit,” Juniper whispered as Verin and Zander walked away from us. “Jasmine, what was your suggestion?”
I heard the metallic swish of a blade coming free, and then saw the glow of it bounce around the room. A second later, the knife lit up, like the sun had found its way inside the blade. I blinked at the sudden change and looked away from the shining bit of metal. Kezia gasped in surprise.
Jasmine swallowed and looked up. The halo of light encompassed us, but only us. We could only see a few feet head before meeting a solid wall of darkness again. “I thought that it might come in handy, so I brought Henrietta.”
“You named your dagger, Henrietta?” Juniper asked.
“It only seemed polite,” Jasmine said. “But the gods made this, and it’s tied directly to me. I mean, Artemis gave it to me, so I figured that maybe it would help me do more than kill.”