Unspoken (Unborn Book 3)

by Amber Lynn Natusch

  Kaine frowned. Then his sky blue eyes fell to me again. “He will not abide—”

  “Not a fucking chance—”

  I held up my hand to silence them. To my surprise, my father’s trick worked well on both. Perhaps I had absorbed that trait unknowingly. Or perhaps neither wished to incur my wrath.

  “What is this about, Kaine?”

  “I know who hunts you.”

  I looked up at him, the hazy grey sky behind him as ominous as his words.

  “Who does not?” I countered. “You hunt me. Deimos hunts me. The fallen gods hunt me. You will have to be more specific if you wish to bait me, Kaine. Fear is not a tool that can be used to manipulate me,” I said, turning to Oz. “Ask him. He will be all too glad to tell you.”

  “Her brothers don’t call her batshit crazy for nothing,” he said, a smirk tugging at his lips. “It’s part of her appeal, maddening though it may be.”

  “I speak of the one whose name you dare not utter,” he said, drawing nearer. “I know he searches for you. He has come close to finding you once already.”

  “Perhaps Kaine could be of use,” I said to Oz, pulling away from him.

  “Or perhaps this is a trap.”

  “I am, and have always been, far more transparent than you, Oz,” Kaine said. “Do not suspect your traits in me, for you will not find them.”

  “Her mother might disagree,” Oz said, his voice so low it was barely audible. His anger wound around him like a snake, coiled and ready to strike Kaine down at any moment.

  As if on cue, Dark Ones emerged from the mountains, spreading out around us, though careful to keep their distance. One shake of Kaine’s head kept them at bay. I wondered how quickly they would attack if given a nod instead.

  “Do your best not to start a fight in my absence, Oz,” I said, turning to face him. “I would hate to have to rescue you.”

  He choked on a laugh. “Do your best not to buy his bullshit. I’d hate to have to save you from yourself—again.”

  “They will do nothing to him while we are gone.” My words were not a question; not a request. My demand was clear from the tone of my voice to the set of my brow, and Kaine, in his infinite wisdom, noted it immediately.

  “If he does nothing, they will do nothing.”

  “Then take me somewhere and tell me your secrets so that I can go do what I must to save my father.”

  Kaine gestured to a valley in the distance and I started toward it, looking back to where Oz stood.

  “Do try to behave, Ozereus.”

  His dark laughter followed me as I walked away. “Can’t promise that, new girl.”

  “Then do your best not to get killed in the process,” I said, looking over my shoulder. “We still have unfinished business, you and I.”

  His body tensed at my words.

  He never did reply.

  Kaine moved to place his hand on my back where Oz’s had just been but I slipped out of reach. With a frown, he led the way through a break in the mountains to a valley of dust and decay and darkness. How very fitting.

  Once we were out of sight and earshot of the others, Kaine stopped and stared at the surrounding dullness.

  “You wished to tell me about the one who hunts me?” I prompted, taking a sideward step to put distance between us.

  “He is a problem,” he replied. “One I am working on a solution for.”

  “Deimos said the same, though he lacked confidence in his ability to do so. Why will you succeed if he cannot?”

  Those blue eyes looked greyer in the dim light between the mountains. “Because he is not me.”

  “How very unhelpful—and arrogant. Remind me how you and Oz are so different again, because I seem unable to see it in this moment.”

  “Oz’s motives have always best served him.”

  “And yours?”

  “Mine are for the greater good.”

  “But whose greater good, I wonder…”

  A faint smile crossed his face before disappearing. “You are nothing like her, you know—your mother. Yes, you are strong and sure, as she is, but she is also uncertain and vulnerable. I see nothing of those traits in you.”

  “You presume much,” I said, folding my hands together behind me. “You do not know me.”

  “I know more than you think. I have been watching you for some time to see if my suspicions were correct.”

  “Watching?”

  “Checking in on you, in a sense. In the Underworld…in Detroit…”

  The sly twinkle in his eye took a moment to register. Once it did, realization crashed upon me like a bolt of Zeus’ lightning.

  “You knew who my mother was before the covenant was broken…you knew who I was before you took me from the Underworld.”

  He nodded.

  “Your mother’s lapse in judgment with Ares led to the birth of one of the greatest powers the world has ever known: your twin, Aniketos, or Sean, as I’ve heard him called more recently. But I always wondered how virtually none of his mother’s capabilities, save his meager ability to heal, were passed along to him. I could not make sense of it, since all the PC express so much of their mothers’ powers. Sean had no wings—no ability to fly. It made me curious.

  “Then I saw you one day in the Underworld; this dark-haired goddess with emerald eyes and an emptiness within her. When I asked Hades about you, he cleverly evaded the question, but made it clear you could never be mine.”

  “When you took me from Hades, he shouted at you—he said to take me where ‘he’ could not find me—that you owed him that much.”

  Kaine laughed at my words, the loud tenor of it reverberating off the rocky walls surrounding us.

  “He did indeed…” he said between amused outbursts. Then, as if a switch had been flipped, any shred of humor left him, and he stared at me with keen eyes. “He did not wish for Ares to find you—the fool.”

  “Is that why you took me to Detroit—to my brothers? To keep me safe?” I asked, uncertainty crawling along my skin, making me itch. Kaine shook his head. “Did you take me there because of Oz?” Again, he shook his head. “Then why?” I asked, stepping closer to him.

  “To finish what she started,” he replied, as if those words made sense to anyone other than him. Seeing my confusion, he continued. “I wanted to see your wings brought forth in the color they should be, so I placed you in the city that could ensure that. There is no tastier treat to a Soul Stealer than an Unborn…”

  “So that was your plan all along? To make me like you?”

  His amusement reappeared. “Of course. Why else would I have taken you there and not kept you for myself?”

  “Perhaps you should have given me to them—perhaps they would have succeeded.”

  At that, his expression soured. “It seems fate intervened on your behalf…” His gaze fell to the dark appendages tucked behind me. “And then on mine.”

  “These are temporary, Kaine. Do not forget that.” His hand drifted up as if to reach over and touch the down of my wings, and I stepped away from him. “I think it is time for me to return.”

  A mask as indifferent as Oz’s slid into place, hiding every emotion he felt.

  “Do what you must. I will keep your father and his bride safe until then.”

  I started back the way we had come, unease settling upon me like grey had the in-between. When Oz finally came into view, I tensed at the proximity of the Dark Ones. They were far closer than when we had left. And their weapons were drawn.

  “There you are,” he said, giving the two nearest him a menacing glare. “I was just telling them that I was going to go look for you if you didn’t come back soon.”

  “They seem pleased by that idea,” I replied.

  He smiled at my droll response. “Did you learn everything you could have ever hoped to?”

  “Hardly.”

  “She learned what I wished to share with her,” Kaine replied on my behalf, no doubt to irritate Oz.

  “Great. She c
an fill me in on the way home.”

  “This is her home—”

  “Not yet,” Oz said, cutting him off.

  Kaine’s smile grew wide. “It will be.”

  “Enough!” I shouted, heading toward Oz. The Dark Ones surrounding him took a step back, allowing me to pass, as though I were concerned about their presence. “Let us go.”

  “Yeah,” Oz said, his hand sliding into that same spot on my back. “Let’s do that.”

  Moments later, I followed him through an unseen portal back into the skies of Earth. We flew in silence, his jaw working furiously to contain the myriad questions that begged to escape. How mad it must have made him, being forced to stay behind—to have no control over a situation. I would have thought that his greatest fear had it not been for our sexual encounter only hours earlier. Perhaps that was the exception to the rule.

  Perhaps Oz liked me in control of his body.

  “Kaine is the one who took me from the Underworld and left me in Detroit,” I said, drawing his attention. “He hoped the Stealers would taint me.”

  He bit out a laugh. “I wish that surprised me…”

  “Would it have worked? Without my wings having been birthed first?” I asked, trying to puzzle out the details.

  “I suppose it’s possible, given your age and resilience, but I don’t know.”

  “Then I do not understand his plan—”

  “He knows me,” Oz growled. “He was betting that the tiny shred of decency I possessed before I turned Dark would take pity on you and birth your wings in an attempt to keep you safe.”

  “He said he had always suspected that Celia had more than one child.”

  “I’ll just bet he did. Kaine’s smart—and he knew your mother well.”

  “How well?” I asked, daring another glance in his direction.

  “In the biblical sense…”

  “And now he wishes to know me that way as well?”

  Oz shook his head. “He wants you for something, but I don’t think it’s that.”

  Silence fell upon us once again as we weaved our way through the thickening clouds.

  “He did not give your secrets away, if that is what you fear,” I said, looking over at his strained profile. My words did nothing to alleviate it. “Nor did he touch me.”

  The creases around his narrowed eyes eased slightly.

  “I figured you’d fry him if he tried, but…”

  “But what?”

  “Old habits die hard, new girl, and you’ve admitted to fucking Deimos before to get the answers you desired.”

  “Did you not just warn me off those behaviors today?”

  “I did.” The newly relieved tension made its way back into his features. “But you’re not really keen on listening to me.”

  “Perhaps that trait has evolved as well.” He turned to look at me, and I quirked a brow at him. “Besides, I no longer need to fuck answers out of anyone, thanks to Muses.” Oz went deathly quiet. “Fear not, Dark One. I, unlike you, would not endeavor to use such methods without permission—not unless forced to, of course.”

  “Mind-raping is a bridge you can’t uncross, Khara,” he said, unwilling to meet my eyes. “There’s a reason the others dislike Muses. He’s earned their hatred.”

  “I do not require a lecture on morality from you,” I countered.

  “Good. Let’s keep it that way.”

  With a great flap of his wings, Oz shot out in front of me, cutting through the clouds with grace and assuredness. But something lagged behind: an air of discontent. A wake of uncertainty. Something was amiss inside the Dark One, enough so to give me pause. Whether it was the thought of my fate with his kind, my possession of Muses’ gift, or the job we were tasked with to return my father to the Underworld, I could not be certain, but something had shaken the unshakable.

  And that did not bode well.

  22

  I followed Oz as he flew past the Victorian, headed to an unknown destination. It was not long before he descended, landing on a street in the Heidelberg Project; the one where Zeus had attempted to torture then kill both my father and me. Had it not been for my ability, he would have succeeded. Oz and I had not really spoken of that night since it happened, but as he stood on the very spot where Zeus had blasted me with lightning inside his electrical cage, I knew why we had come.

  “I could never understand why you care for Hades so much,” Oz said, his voice distant as he stared at the spotted house beyond the vacuum graveyard. “He’s not your true father. By your own account, he wasn’t always there for you when you needed him most, whether you truly realize that fact or not. He’s married to a devious bitch whose reputation is nearly as sullied as my own. And he’s the King of the Dead. How could an angel be so loyal to someone so unlike her own kind?” He grew silent for a moment, and I looked on as his gaze fell to the scorch marks on the road created by Zeus’ lightning cage. Then his narrowed eyes fell on me. “Then I watched you stand against the god above all other gods to keep him safe, and nearly die for your efforts.”

  “And what did you discern from my actions?” I asked, slowly closing the distance between us. “That I am ‘batshit,’ as Casey says?”

  He barked out a laugh. “I already knew that, new girl. We all did.”

  “Then why are you sharing this with me? What profound knowledge did you gain from that day?”

  His lips pressed to a thin line. “That you are so much more than I expected. More complicated than I could have ever imagined.”

  I cocked my head at him. “That sounds dangerously like an insult wrapped in a compliment, Oz.”

  He did not acknowledge my words. “I feel like we have history with this neighborhood,” he said, turning away from me to look at the street full of bizarre homes. “I saved your ass here.”

  “And I stabbed your arm in there,” I countered, looking at the spotted house Kierson had stashed me in when the Soul Stealers attacked us.

  I felt the weight of Oz’s gaze and turned to find him staring at me with a wicked smile.

  “I still need to have a chat with Kierson about that.”

  “I saved my own ass here as well, as you noted only moments ago,” I added, thinking of how I’d taken Zeus down.

  “You did.”

  Silence.

  “Something vexes you,” I said, the hard set of his jaw giving away his trepidation.

  “What will happen if we fail…if we cannot return your father to the Underworld?” he asked, eyes boring into mine. “If he never reigns again…if he doesn’t survive this ordeal.”

  “He must,” I said without faltering. “He cannot die…”

  Oz’s expression darkened. “I know. But what will you do if he does fall?”

  I looked at his hardened features for a moment, doing all I could to find the true meaning behind the question. When I did, a feeling I could not name washed over me.

  “You are not only concerned about what will happen to the Underworld,” I said. Something shone through his sharp gaze—something I had seen when he tried to free me from my cage of lightning and failed. “You are concerned for how I will take his death.”

  His expression gave nothing else away. “I’m concerned that this plan of ours is shit, and if he dies, you will take his place in the Underworld.”

  “Would that be such a terrible fate for me?” I asked. “To rule in his stead if Persephone cannot?”

  “You are not meant for that place,” he said, words clipped.

  “The dead may disagree with you.”

  “The dead are wrong…”

  Silence fell upon us again, and I took that moment to really reflect upon his irritation. Why the idea of Hades’ death bothered him as it did. I did not believe it was the chance I would be forced to rule the Underworld that angered him; it was something else entirely.

  “Would you be so concerned if I was not to be tethered to the Underworld if he died?” I asked, fishing for the answer he withheld.

 
He clenched his teeth. “I don’t know.”

  “This is not about the Underworld at all,” I said, daring a step toward him. “This is about what would happen to me in the wake of Hades’ death. You do not wish for me to feel grief at his loss. Feel pain.”

  “I wanted you to feel pain on the roof before we left for the in-between,” he said, pinning narrowed eyes on me. He masked his true feelings with a fearsome countenance, but I saw right through it. He could not hide the truth from me. I knew him far too well for that.

  “When we were training or when you were inside me?” I asked.

  His wicked smile returned. “Both.”

  I met his approach with the same steely indifference with which he had met mine more times than I could count.

  “Do not fool yourself, Oz. You forget that I saw you when I was lying inside that dome of lightning awaiting my death. I saw you fight to reach me. You care for me in your own dark way. Try though you might, you will not convince me otherwise. It is no longer about owning me or beating Deimos at his twisted game. No, this is very much about you having feelings you can no longer deny. Feelings I have seen with my own eyes. Feelings you cannot convince me I did not see.” I stepped closer to him. “I will not let you.”

  “Let me?” he asked, his brow quirked with challenge.

  “I will no longer allow you to live the lie.”

  “You think I care for you?” he asked, a note of mocking in his tone. “The way your father cares for Persephone?”

  At that, I laughed. “No, because you are not like my father. You are a dark, self-serving, selfish being and everything he is not.”

  He took another step closer. “I guess that’s why Daddy’s never too happy to see me. Doesn’t want his precious little princess tainted by a Dark One.”

  “That is likely true—but it is also too late, and he knows it.”

  Oz finished closing the distance between us, his body only inches from my own. “And does that bother you? That Hades doesn’t approve?”

  I leaned in closer to him. “Did I seem fazed by his admonishment when we returned from the rooftop?” My face tilted up to see him better—to take in his curious stare. “I do not like the person he has chosen to be with. I do not require his blessing or his permission to be with whomever I choose.”