“Do you still believe Persephone? That this is not all some elaborate ruse concocted by her and her mother to be rid of you both?”
“It is not a ruse.”
“You can’t know that—”
“I saw the look in her eye when she went after Athena. The ferocity was great and terrible and exactly what I felt in that moment. She did what I would have done—was going to do—to save my father.”
“You trust her?”
“I trust that she loves him. Beyond that and what Muses has confirmed, I cannot be certain.”
His brow furrowed as he stared me down. “And if she betrays that trust? If she kills your father or ultimately leads to his demise, what then?”
I felt my blood begin to boil at the thought. “If she so much as looks at him sideways with a hint of menace in her eyes, I will flay her alive, then relegate her to the Oudeis to live for eternity as a skinless, screaming beast.”
The corner of his mouth curled, and his brown eyes brightened. “I could get used to this protective vibe you have going on, new girl. Vengeance suits you.”
“It feels as though it suits me,” I replied. “I have come to the realization that I have no love for traitors.” The way his expression fell at my words piqued my curiosity. I moved closer, and his body went rigid. “Betrayal offends me on a level I do not fully understand, but I feel it deep within all the same.”
“I betrayed your brothers, remember?”
“Only because you endeavored to keep me safe,” I said. “We have been over this before.”
“You are evolving, Khara… what didn’t bother you before might now. I just need to know that you’re not going to come after me in the middle of the night for something I did in the past.”
I stepped nearer still. “I can make no promises, Oz, for you insist upon keeping your secrets. The longer it takes for them to come to light, the more volatile my reaction may be. Perhaps you should just share them all now to ensure your safety…” I looked on as he contemplated my words. His lips pressed to a thin line to keep those secrets from spilling forth, and I knew that he would once again tempt fate. “I see,” I said, warning in my tone. “I hope you do not live to regret this decision.”
His eyes lingered for a long moment as I turned and walked away, my silent dismissal clear. Even with my back to him, I could feel his piercing stare. I may have been done with our conversation, but it seemed as though he was not.
I started to disrobe, unfazed by his attention, until I was almost bare. I looked back at him to find his gaze even darker than before.
“I should like to get some sleep. It has been a long day. Tomorrow promises more of the same.”
“Then go to bed,” he said, his voice tight. He made no move to leave.
“Is there something else you wish to discuss?” I asked, turning to face him. “Something you would like to tell me?”
“Discuss? No. I don’t want to discuss anything right now.”
“Then why do you remain?”
I stood two feet from him, looking up at his shadowed face. His expression told me nothing more than it normally did.
“Why are you naked?”
I cocked my head at him. “I am not naked. And how else should I sleep? Fully clothed with knives strapped to my thighs?”
A wry smile crept across his face, his amusement plain. “The knives could make it interesting…”
I moved closer still, our bodies nearly touching. I could feel the heat emanating from him—could hear the wild beat of his heart.
“They could make it deadly,” I countered.
He leaned into me. “That too.”
“Shall I go get them, then?”
His eyes flared with hunger and his breathing deepened. “I think that kind of fun would only be broken up by your brothers,” he said, pulling away from me slightly, “and I don’t like to be interrupted.”
“Surely they would trust that I can handle you.”
“I’m not sure you can,” he replied, regaining his hubris.
“Is that why you never follow through, Oz? Are you so certain that I cannot weather your storm that you keep me from it?”
His expression hardened, his eyes narrowing. “Something like that.”
I leaned into him and lifted my chin. “There is nothing you can do to me that I cannot take.”
The quirk of his brow told me he was far less certain of that than I.
“Go to sleep, new girl. We’ve got shit to do and your shitty adoptive mother to find. You need to be ready.” He turned and walked toward the stairs, never looking back. “Don’t make me come drag your naked ass out of bed.”
“Try, and you might find yourself wearing my knives.”
The steady fall of his feet on the stairs stopped. “Maybe that’s my plan.”
With nothing left to say, he opened the door to the first floor and stepped through, leaving me and my dark, wandering thoughts behind.
18
I emerged from the basement to be greeted by the embrace of the healed nymph. Aery launched herself at me the second the door opened—I had not even closed it behind me when her arms wrapped around my neck and her body molded to mine.
“Thank you, Khara,” she whispered in my ear. “Thank you…”
“You would have done the same for me,” I replied, my arms drifting up to her waist. I gently pried her from me to look her over. Her pale white skin had regained its normal glow and her crystal blue eyes were as bright as ever—possibly brighter. She looked radiant and well, and all of that was owed to Persephone and Kierson. Without the former’s speculation and the latter’s feelings, Aery would have wasted away to nothing. “Besides, I think I am not the one worthy of your thanks.” I looked over to where Kierson sat staring at us.
Aery followed my gaze and smiled. “Oh, I’ve already thanked him… a couple of times.”
She winked at me, then joined him on the couch while the others groaned.
“Do I have to fuck you back to life to get you to look at me that way, new girl?” Oz asked as he descended the stairs. His sentiment was ruined by the amusement in his expression. He had not truly meant those words for me; he’d only wished to anger Kierson with them. And it had worked.
“I did not fuck her back to life, you asshole,” he yelled, launching to his feet. He stared Oz down as he rounded the newel post. “I know you have zero idea what love is, but it isn’t fucking.” He dared a glance my way before glaring at Oz again. “Maybe that’s why she’ll never look at you that way. You wouldn’t know how to love her if your life depended on it.”
“Then I guess it’s good that it doesn’t,” Oz replied. There was ambivalence in his tone but murder in his stare. Kierson’s words bothered him on some level—struck a chord deep within that still resonated. “So did we get the lowdown on Deimos yet, or were you waiting for Khara and me?”
Aery’s expression went blank for a moment, and I wondered if she were having one of her episodes. Had it not been for the way she fidgeted with the hem of her shirt, I never would have known that fear had paralyzed her for a moment. At least until Kierson sat next to her and took her hand in his.
“Tell them, Aery… they need to know.”
She stared at him for a moment, his hand still wrapped around hers, and began to tell a tale that sent shivers down my spine. A tale of Phobos’ return, a hunt for the ultimate prize, and a fearsome brother who wished to keep it all a secret for now. Aery had trusted Deimos with her vision, and he’d beaten her within an inch of her life and imprisoned her for it, but only after he’d pulled every vague detail about what she’d seen from her.
I knew Aery’s visions well—she had shared many with me over the centuries. They were never crystal clear; never certain. They were a mix of feelings and words and pictures left for her, and whomever she entrusted with them, to discern. Over time, she and I had gotten quite adept at deciphering them, but Deimos lacked that ability altogether. She had turned to him out of concern
for me and the Underworld, and for her loyalty to both, he had nearly killed her.
My blood boiled slowly.
“A love once lost is found again,” she said, pulling me from my devolving thoughts. “He wants Khara, but I don’t know why or for what.”
“Deimos thinks he wants me to replace Eos,” I said, taking in the blank faces of those in the packed living room, “though his intentions after he takes me appear to be up for interpretation.”
Aery nodded in agreement. “I didn’t see anything beyond him coming for you. I’m sorry, Khara.”
“It is because of you that I learned he is a factor. You have nothing to apologize for,” I said. “Deimos told me that he is doing what he can to deal with his brother. For now, that may be all we can do unless he shows himself.”
“Don’t say it,” Casey growled. “I know where this conversation is going—we’ve heard it before—so I need you to hear me when I tell you that you are not handing yourself over to that psycho, got it? Get that shit out of your head now, because it ain’t happening.”
I looked at his harsh face—a face that promised pain and suffering to all that looked upon it—and felt no malice at all. The anger that had coursed through my veins only moments earlier began morphing into that sharp chest pain that I detested. That and the tears that had accompanied it only the day before.
“I will not endanger you if it comes to a choice between your life and surrendering to Deimos’ brother, or Kaine, or anyone else, for that matter. And you will never convince me otherwise.” I looked around the room, reaching deep inside to find that spark of anger yet again. “None of you, do you understand?” My eyes fell upon Oz last. His steady expression gave nothing away. “Now, do we have a plan to find the other gods and Demeter? Because I for one would like to focus on the threat we can actually do something about.”
“Muses has brought up a valid point,” Pierson said.
“Which is?” Oz asked.
“No matter what we do, Hades will remain a target until he is returned to the Underworld. We cannot keep him at the Victorian. It’s not safe…”
“We could harbor him at the warehouse in Chicago,” Muses offered, “but I wonder how long that would work before he would need to be taken somewhere else for refuge.”
“The souls of the Oudeis seem to be hanging around Detroit,” Kierson added. “We think it’s because he’s here.”
“Or they are here for me,” I argued, though it sounded weak to my ears.
“We contemplated that, Khara,” Pierson said, standing to face me, “but there is only one way to test that theory.”
“You must split us up.” I finished his thought for him, the words painful to speak aloud. “You are asking me to trust brothers I have never met to protect Hades as I would.”
“Yes we are, though they would know what is at stake beyond your feelings.”
I looked to my father, but he gave nothing away.
“No,” I said plainly. “I will not do it.”
“Khara—” Kierson started before I cut him off.
“NO!” I shouted, the word ricocheting off the walls like a stray bullet. The look on Kierson’s face told me it had struck him hard; right through the heart. “I need to think about this…there has to be another way.”
Before anyone could attempt to make me see reason, I walked out the front door, headed for nowhere. I needed space to think. My newfound emotions clouded my judgment; I needed distance from those who evoked them to find a solution to the problem. Though I wanted to argue—had argued, in fact—Pierson was right. My father could not stay in Detroit any longer, certainly not until the Underworld was secured. And I knew that I could not go wherever he went because I was needed not only to hunt those that hunted him, but also to fix the mess my leaving the Underworld had left behind.
“Penny for your thoughts, new girl.”
Oz walked up beside me as I strode aimlessly down the road.
“My brothers are right,” I said.
“They are.”
“And yet I cannot concede to their wishes.”
“Because you love your father.”
“If I love him, I should do whatever it takes to keep him safe, even if that safety is not ensured by me.”
“Yes. You should.”
I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to stare at Oz. He had not yet said anything condescending or smug, and I wondered if it was a new way of taunting me. Sharp but earnest eyes met mine, and I wondered if the world was about to implode; if hell had frozen over, as Kierson so loved to say.
“Why did you follow me?” I asked, my tone laced with my growing annoyance.
“To make sure you didn’t nuke some poor vagrant sleeping on an abandoned front porch because you thought he might be Dionysus sleeping off a bender before coming to kill your dad.”
A smile broke through his serious expression and I groaned in response, then started walking again, desperate to escape his attempts at humor.
“I’m in no mood, Oz.”
“In the mood or not, we need a plan for your father.”
“That is precisely why I am walking—to clear my mind and find a solution.”
“I have one, but you won’t like it. Hell, I’m not sure I like it, but if I can find a way to make it happen, it should work. The gods won’t be able to get to him there—none of the things that go bump in the night will either. Well, unless you consider me one of those things…”
“Say what you wish to say and stop blathering on,” I snapped at him. The warmth in his eyes died in an instant.
“We could hide him in the in-between…”
For the second time since we had left, I stopped dead. “Are you suggesting we deliver him to Kaine for safekeeping?”
“Essentially, yes.”
“And why on Earth would he ever agree to this?” I asked.
“Because he offered to in the alley—”
“Which we did not agree to for myriad reasons, all of which are still valid.”
“So are his motives…”
Oz stared at me, a knowing look in his eyes that begged me to see what was so obvious to him. That Kaine would gladly take my father if, in exchange, I would willingly hand myself over to him when it was all over.
“We promise him me in return for keeping Hades safe until he can return to the Underworld.”
“Exactly.”
“And do we intend to follow through with our end of the deal?”
The black of night swam in his eyes for a moment. “Not a fucking chance.”
“He will expect a trick of this nature and plan for it.”
“Probably. A problem for another day.”
“Didn’t you say yourself that we can’t outrun him forever? That we will eventually have to deal with him? This plan does not seem to help that outcome.”
“Do you have any better ideas?” he asked, knowing full well I did not.
“My father will not agree to this.”
“Your father won’t know the details.”
“Persephone will have to go too. After last night, there is no way she will leave his side.”
“Fine. I think Kaine will do just about anything to get you.”
“Why does he want me so desperately?” I asked, stepping closer to read every inch of his reaction.
“I don’t know, but I have no intention of finding out.”
“His wrath will be epic,” I said. “You have betrayed him once and used up whatever leverage you had with him. All that is left for you is death, Oz. You are a traitor to your kind in his eyes.”
“Yeah, well…that’s also a problem for another day.”
“It would not be if I made this deal with him alone—behind your back, so to speak.” Oz looked at me, his expression dubious. I elaborated in an attempt to assuage his doubts. “Kaine would not believe for one moment that you sanctioned this plan, given that your every other action has been to keep me from him.”
He continued to sta
re. “Go on…”
“Kaine’s retribution will be for me and me alone if I betray him—”
“Which you will—”
“Because you were not involved.”
He shook his head but said nothing, his mind working to find fault with my plan when there was none to be found.
“If I’m not there, I can’t intervene—”
“I am certain I can negotiate this alone.”
“Your dark charms and perky tits won’t be enough to negotiate with...”
“I have a plan,” I said, a wry smile overtaking my countenance. “Trust me.”
We returned to the house and I immediately proceeded up the stairs to the roof, Oz’s words assaulting my mind. Do not let him near you. Do not let him touch you. And do not, under any circumstances, let him take you away. To maintain the illusion that he was not aware of my meeting with Kaine, he waited downstairs to keep the others busy while I sold my soul to the Dark Ones.
Except, judging by the blackness of the wings extending wide around me, I already had.
I looked to the sky, just as Oz had instructed, and waited. My wings were a beacon, he had explained; they would attract Kaine’s attention, especially because they belonged to one who had not yet joined his ranks. I hoped that Oz was right.
The wind whipped my dark hair around me as I waited for Kaine. Moments passed like eternity, each causing my confidence to wane ever so slightly. If I could not do this alone, our problems would only grow in number. And Oz’s fate with Kaine would grow even more contentious—and deadly.
I squared my shoulders and faced the horizon, looking every bit the dark princess I was. If Kaine did show, I needed to look formidable enough for him to agree to my terms. Then, off in the distant sky, I saw a speck of black that grew larger every second. It approached at a daunting speed, with a sense of urgency I could not comprehend.
Kaine soon landed on the far edge of the roof, the hint of curiosity in his stare unmistakable as he folded his wings behind his back.
Unspoken (Unborn Book 3) Page 14