Everyone on the boat was frozen, every particle of dust stuck in the air as if the moment had been captured and then saved to look in on for another time.
Black tendrils of swirling shadows were interwoven through the air, almost like the blackness was the sole reason for the standstill of time, their pulsing, writhing masses stretching through any and everything on the boat.
One tried to curl up my ankle but I kicked it away and it dissipated into the air, seeping into the atmosphere as if it had never even existed at all.
"What did you do to them? Fix them."
The god standing behind me chuckled softly, the sound causing chills to erupt on my arms and a shiver to traverse down my spine.
"So demanding you are, my betrothed. Ask to come with me."
The breath from his achingly deep voice stirred the small hairs by my ear as the heated force of his body emanated through me and burned directly down to my core.
"What? I don't want to come with you."
"No? Then how else are you going to find your sister and her newborn son? Her husband as well? And let's not forget your dear uncle, who I'm sure you'd love to pay a visit to. Imagine walking into his stronghold with a god on your arm. Can you picture it?"
The sway of his voice lulled me into a deep sense of peace, almost as if I weren't in my body anymore, but standing at the front door to my uncle's estate with this all powerful god standing at my side.
The fear in my uncle's eyes was palpable and delicious. For this god to strike such terror into his heart would truly be a sight to behold...but I didn't just want him to be fearful of the godâno, I wanted him to fear me.
Another husky, low laugh from the being behind me and I nearly jumped to the ceiling.
"How...how did you do that? How can you get into my mind so easily?"
"A mind filled with grief and trauma is an easier mind to compel than one that has never faced any hardship at all. There's nothing I can give to those who are content; but those who seek vengeance? Retribution? Perhaps even atonement or relief. Those are the minds easiest to walk, and your torment tastes like honey to me."
"You enter my mind at will, you harness shadows as easily as others with their limbs. You're not Nicos. So, are you him? The...the God of Shadow and Death? Are you Kyan?"
All at once, his presence disappeared from behind me, but as I turned around to face him, there was no one in his spot.
Instead, a swirling mass of black shadows remained with only a pair of icy blue eyes in the center where his head should have been.
The shadows seemed to collapse in on themselves before reforming, creating a vacuum of power that continuously replenished itself.
"I kept calling you the shadow man because I didn't know your real name. If I had known you were a god interfering with my mind, I might've reacted a bit differently."
"Oh? And how might you have reacted?"
Arms made of shadows sprouted from his form, and I yelped when they reached forward and wrapped around my waist.
They were surprisingly solid in form and cool to the touch, but then suddenly I was yanked forward by them into what should've been the god's body, and I was again surprised to find a naked expanse of chest beneath where my hands fell upon him.
My skin sang beneath his touch.
"What are you doing?"
"You were much too far away for my liking. This is much better."
My mouth fell open in shock at his behavior.
Never had I expected a god to act this way.
One of the shadow fingers from his dark hand reached up and lightly tapped the bottom of my chin, closing my mouth for me as some of the shock abated and what was left was pure bewilderment.
"So what do you get out of helping me take out my uncle and retrieving my family? I don't expect it will be nothing, considering that you're a god, one rumored to be the most ruthless of all of them."
And then his breath was at my ear again, my chin tilted upwards toward those new wooden boards placed over the holes my power had created.
I could still see the scorch marks in the wood.
"And how would you know what kind of god I am? You've barely been able to think my name, let alone speak it aloud but once. Wouldn't you rather pretend I was kind and righteous Nicos, saver of Hefeta and promised one of her grandchildren as my wife?"
His touch was searing but chilled, a jarring dichotomy that spun my head around in circles until it felt like it would never work correctly again.
"You're not Nicos, though. You're...you're Kyan. Aren't you?"
Those silk shadow hands slipped down my chin, past my jaw. They rested on both sides of my neck, the slight pressure still keeping my head titled up to gaze into those endless, ethereal eyes.
Eyes that should've still been trapped in the Everworld if what Amell and Oren believed was true.
"You already know the answer to that. It was so easy to pretend to be Nicos. After all, I have been doing it for a millennia. I was even able to trick sweet Hefeta into believing it, too. Kind, moral, virtuous...Nicos had always been the better of the two of us. What a shame the gods banished him to the Everworld so long ago."
Where his hands had been carefully holding me in place, suddenly air became my only company. Empty air.
"Wâwhere did you go?"
No answer.
The shadows clung to the holes in the wooden planks that were letting in the light, but their inky black swirls refused to allow any to bleed through.
There were no cracks in the shadows.
"Hello?"
Still, he did not answer me, not as I stumbled backward a few steps and almost tripped directly on top of Oren's prone body, still held down by Warrick's knee and kept frozen in time because of Kyan's powers.
"Josephine..."
My name was a whispered caress on his tongue while my mind whirled.
What had he been saying? He had pretended to be Nicos while comforting Hefeta, meaning the real Nicos had been banished to the Everworld by the gods long before...but I couldn't remember why they'd banished him.
If only Marlisa were here still to give me a history lesson on the gods.
My sister, who'd looked nothing like me and yet still I didn't doubt our parentage until my uncle figured it out.
What was it Marlisa had said about the gods...none of them were related, exceptâ
Except Nicos had a brother.
A twin brother.
And Nicos had been sent to the Everworld for something his brother had done.
For something Kyan had done.
The God of Shadow and Death and the God of North Wind and Ice. Kyan and Nicos.
It was how Kyan had masqueraded as Nicos.
But if Kyan was pretending to be Nicos when Hefeta had promised him one of her grandchildren, then that meantâ
"No."
"Have you figured it out yet, my betrothed?"
It meant that I was betrothed to Kyan, the God of Shadow and Death.
The god who'd invaded my mind and shown me things that couldn't possibly be true.
The god who had kissed my forehead in a tender moment and placed his mark of death upon me during it.
I just didn't understand how I was so content with him in that dream in the first place. I should've hated him.
But there was something so kind about him, so comforting. So loving.
It was a caricature so at odds with the god hiding from me that I almost succumbed to the strike of fear in my chest, but I held firm.
He'd shown such an interest in me since I'd arrived in Hefeta, but remembering back, there were other instances of him interfering with my life.
The air pocket that had saved me from drowning in the Gold Sea prior to entering Hefeta, Oren being knocked back to the ground after an argument with me...
All those times, he'd been there, lying in wait.
And it had all been for this, all because my ancient grandmother had promised one of her descendants to him to be his wife.
"I'm really betrothed to you."
The words came out in a bewildered whisper, but that didn't make the information stick in my brain any better than it already had.
"Now you're getting it, love."
"But...what could you possibly want with me? Why would you want to marry me?"
Like a cloth being pulled from over my eyes, the darkness was illuminated.
Shadows recoiled in the harsh light of the early morning, but where the wooden planks had been thrown over the holes my fire had created, none remained, showcasing the pure fury of my fire that had come from somewhere deep within me.
Power I hadn't known resided beneath my skin.
Power that had been awakened by a torture I shouldn't have had to endure.
Discolored scorch marks licked up the walls of the boat and my flames had burned most of the wood to a fiery crisp. Briggs' body lay in a blackened pile of near ash in the corner where my eyes had singed him.
"You ask what I could want with you. Why I would want to align myself in a marriage with you. Look around, Josephine. Your power...it is glorious."
Kyan wanted to marry me.
A Siren...the heir to the Elders of Hefeta, who likely had a god as a father...a heritage that had imbued me with magic that allowed fire to drip from my eyes and smoky mist to spill from my mouth that incinerated anything that it touched.
I was a creature born for death incarnate, and here he was coming to collect his prize.
"So, you only want to use me for my power? To what end?"
Kyan's presence was behind me suddenly, that wicked warmth dripping off him like the blood had dripped from Briggs' corpse after my song had wrung the last dregs of life out of him.
His whip was still on the ground beside him, painted gold with my blood.
I didn't dare move as Kyan's mouth returned to the spot by my ear, his voice a temptation and a curse as he spoke once more.
"No, your power is definitely not the only reason I might want you. I have more selfish reasons than those for wanting you to myself. The answers you're looking for behind my reasons aren't freely handed out, but rather earned. How about I tell you a truth, and you give me one in return?"
Those shadows returned, crawling up through my legs like vines, but I didn't bat them away, not yet.
Not as they stretched and writhed across my limbs and a fluid heat dropped low in my stomach, the flutters inside of me threatening to turn me inside out.
"That hardly seems fair seeing as though you probably know everything about me. You've been inside my mind."
"The mind can be a mysterious place. Humor me, my betrothed. We can find out together if this will be a fruitful endeavor for the both of us."
My mind was spinning and my chest was heaving.
A stray shadow tendril picked up a loose strand of my hair and lifted it in the air, almost like it was inspecting it.
His shadow hands gripped my hips and tugged me back against Kyan's form, the feel of him strong and obstinate behind me.
I cursed myself for the gasp that left my lips at the action.
"Fine. How are you going to help me get my family back?"
"I have been living amongst the mortals for quite some time now. I know all about your uncle, and where he lives. I know where he'll be taking your family, and how to retrieve them for you."
"Soâthe Summoning. It was all a lie? You've been here this whole time? How? Why?"
"Ah, but I thought we agreed. A truth for a truth. Now tell me. Why did your fire first manifest last night?"
I thought back quickly to the moments before the fire burst free from me and shivered in disgust at the oily stain those memories were going to leave in my mind.
"Iâthey were torturing me. Whipping me. I thought that was obvious."
Those shadows tightened on my hips ever so slightly.
Even the seemingly playful strand of shadow seemed angry before it dropped my hair and went to my cheek, caressing the skin there before moving down and doing the same to the side of my neck where a shiver wracked through my body at the sensation.
"What exactly was it, though, that brought it out? Any specific reason you can remember that would awaken something so primal within you that you didn't know existed in the first place?"
Kyan's voice had turned dark, almost emotionless, like he couldn't be bothered discussing my torture; like it was an everyday occurrence for him and we were talking about what to have for dinner instead of this.
"Why do you care?"
"Call it getting to know my betrothed. Call it simple curiosity. Either way, I'd still love an answer."
"Fine. My nephew had just been born, and I started thinking of all the horrible things he would grow up believing about me and his mother. I thought of all the terrible things that have ever happened to the people that I cared about and it just exploded out of me."
"Ah, so it is your emotion that controls your power, not your rationality. We'll have to work on that when you come home with me."
"And what makes you so sure that I'm agreeing to go home with you?"
"I am holding all of your people hostage as we speak. I'm sure you'll want to bring a few friends with you, so as a show of good faith I'll allow it, but don't mistake me for a god as benevolent as my brother. You'd find soon enough I'm only good at playing pretend in his role. I don't ever intend to live as he did. I do not have moralsâthe balance between power and weakness is the only scale that demands respect in nature. It is my desire to make sure I'm on the correct side of that scale."
"Oh, so you plan to use me and my newfound powers to...what, exactly? Conquer all your enemies? Vanquish any foe? Couldn't you simply wipe them all out with these shadows of yours? Or perhaps trickery would be better suited for youâconsidering how well you play the part."
The shadows slithered up my legs and held me firm, trapping me against Kyan's body as a few more banded across my front under my breasts.
My hands that had been holding up the silk robe that Oren had thrown over me were suddenly caught and tugged to the side, my breasts still mostly hidden beneath the fabric that had stayed in place, but my chest...
Raw and ragged, my chest was a red, angry welp that hadn't healed over.
"I thrive in trickery and lies, but hear me this day, Josephine. You are my betrothed, and that means something to my kind. It means something to me. Though I might've tricked your Sirens, I have never lied to you. You have my vow from this day forward that I never will lie to you, and I'd like that same declaration."
"Give me my hands back so I can cover myself up."
Kyan didn't listen. Instead, there was the distinct sound of a metal blade slicing over skin.
And then there was blood dripping on me.
"What in the gods' name are you doing?!"
The blood dribbled down onto my chest like hot mud. Thick and steaming it coated my skin until I could no longer see the angry wounds the whip had made.
"This might not take away your scars, but at least it'll heal the pain it caused."
"What do youâ?"
One by one, the wounds still visible through the thick curtain of blood on my chest healed, but Kyan was right.
In their place were deep silver and white scars on my skin.
Across the plump skin of my breasts and to the sensitive tissue of my nipples, raised scars decorated my flesh.
"Why did you do that?"
"It looked like it hurt. My only purpose for now is to help you, Josephine. Help you heal, help you find your family, and help you get your revenge against your uncle. And the best way to do that is to come with me. So, come with me. What else do you have to lose?"
Nothing. I had absolutely nothing left to lose.
My uncle had stolen away my family, Oren had betrayed me, the Elders didn't want to help me.
I might've had Inala if Kyan had actually been Nicos, a benevolent and morally pure god, but he was nothing of the sort.
One of his stray shadows slipped a clump of hair behind my ear, and I trembled beneath its touch.
For the first time in my life, I wanted to let go. To give someone else my problems on a platter and let them deal with them.
But I knew that if I went with Kyan, that wouldn't be the case. I would need to be front and center, making decisions, and making sure my family was safe.
"And you'll fix my friends? Make time move again?"
One flick of his wrist and the air shuddered. It was like someone had taken a mirror and warped the image for a moment or two.
But then there was the blessed sound of others breathing.
Of Oren coughing.
Of startled gasps as the others realized what was happening, what they were seeing.
The shadows released me and I pulled the fabric back over me, though I was startled to realize that his hold had felt safe. Like nothing could hurt me once I was wrapped up inside his arms.
But that was because he was an all powerful god, and he needed me alive. To manipulate and use for my power, no doubt, but at least he wasn't going to let anything hurt me.
For the time being, at least.
I hoped.
"Pick...three. You can start now."
"What? They...they have to agree, first."
"Fine. Three of you, either by Josephine's choice or by volunteer, will accompany her and myself back to my home. There, I will help her track down her family and her uncle and dole out her justice the way she wants."
Velda stepped forward, horror on her taut features.
"Josephineâstep away from him. That is not Nicos."
"Clearly," Kyan replied dryly from behind me, any good humor he might've had apparently long gone after Velda pointed out the obvious.
"He'sâ"
"Kyan. The God of Shadow and Death. Thought you were supposed to be trapped in the Everworld."
Inala came to stand beside me, her fire red hair blowing in the breeze coming in from the open wooden slats in the ceiling and cerulean eyes staring the swirling mass of shadows in the face until he sucked in a deep breath of air and his body reformed into something more resembling the god we had summoned.
Except this time, his hair was pure night, darker than Marlisa's charcoal hair. Darker than a moonless night. As dark as sin and the lowest layers of the Everworld itself.
Kyan's eyes remained that ice blue color, though, and with the shadows constantly warring for attention inside his irises, I wondered if they ever tried to escape their brightly lit home behind his eyes.
Towering above the rest of us, Kyan glanced down at the people below him as if he were their ruler and they should have been bowing down before him.
"Apparently not anymore."
Inala and Kyan eyed each other suspiciously, like a predator might size up a formidable opponent.
"I'll be going with Josephine, clearly. I'm her blood bonded," Inala said dryly, as if nothing about this situation was surprising to her. As if gods tricked the Sirens everyday and this was as mundane as wondering if it would rain soon.
"Ah, the blood bonded. I look forward to sharing that title with you one day soon."
My eyes widened in surprise at his words, but before Inala could curse him for everything that she was worth, Soraya stepped forward, her milky white eyes examining the scene as if watching through a different pair of eyes. Mystical eyes.
"I'm not going anywhere without Inala."
"Soraya, don'tâ"
"Hush, Yuni. I've made my choice. I refuse to leave Inala's side after what has happened."
And she chose Inala over her brother.
Soraya's tawny skin gleamed almost golden in the fading morning light, and Inala's throat bobbed with an emotion she wouldn't have named for any price.
"So that makes two. Any takers for number three?"
One of Kyan's shadows curled around my shoulder and tugged me into his suddenly human-like form, and as I followed his line of sight I found Oren staring at us with barely restrained rage pulsing behind his features.
"Something to say, beast? Upset you lost your bargaining chip with Adira? I do hope we get to see your dear mother again. She's always been so...lovely."
"I hope Adira comes down with the rest of the gods to send you back to where you belong. You'll rot in the Everworld, past the last layer. You'll turn decrepit and old in Hell."
Kyan's boisterous laughter filled the sea salt tinged air in the dingy space on the boat's bottom level.
I flinched as Kyan's real arms pulled me even closer into him.
"We'll take the traitor with us as well. Josephine, love, pick one more. Or I will."
"What is your plan, then? Steal away Josephine for her powers? What do you need her friends for if not for hostages to keep her in line?"
"Josephine is free to disregard my offer for help, but since it looks like she doesn't have any options on saving her family, I'd say I am her only hope Orenthal, unlike you, who is her betrayer. You are nothing but a self serving demigod with one purposeâto break your curse. And to think, I might've helped you if you'd delivered my betrothed to me unharmed. Instead, look at this ugly mess we've all gotten ourselves in because of your actions."
There was a grace and calm lethality beneath Kyan's demeanor and words, but there was something unrestrained prowling beneath his skin.
A shadow hand started playing with my ear, but I was too distracted to bat it away immediately.
"Josephineânow."
"Iâ"
"I'll go."
Warrick took his knee off of Oren finally and stood to his full height which, while not coming anywhere near close to Kyan, was still very formidable.
"No! If you're going, I'm coming, too."
Erinna stepped forward, and I tried not to draw my eyes to her shaking hands that were clasped in front of her.
"I said three, not four."
I turned to Kyan, his eyes nearly drowning me in their intensity, but I blinked his power away and cleared my head.
"You said to bring Oren, so you'll need Warrick to carry him. I chose the Sirens, and you chose Warrick. They're betrothed. I won't separate them."
Kyan's jaw ticked before he glanced away to the side, at sweet Erinna who had come to my rescue despite having just witnessed Sabira's death.
"Fine. It's settled."
Except Velda stepped forward, and there was murder in her eyes.
"It is not settled. You are not Nicos, and you will not be taking our only Heir."
"In order to save her family, and the rest of her people, I believe I will be taking her, Elder. Now, you can either stand in my way and be cut down in the process, or you can stand aside and let us leave. It is your choice."
"I suppose you'll just have to try and cut me down, then."
She lifted her arms in the air as her ceremonial gown raised with them and a wind tunnel started up in the small space too many people were occupying.
Broken wooden planks began flying around and some of the ashes from Briggs' body flew up into the air.
Kyan watched the scene in mere annoyance before a shadow lashed out and gripped one of her hands, then the other.
"I don't want to have to hurt you, Elder, as you seem to be a person my betrothed cares for. But don't take my inaction for anything other than mercy on her behalf. Step. Aside. If you don't, I'll be forced to be much less merciful."
Velda's eyes flashed with fear, her age finally showing as her forehead wrinkled and her eyes drooped.
The shadows let her go and her hands dropped.
"That's what I thought. Come, love. Let's leave this wretched place. There is a castle waiting for you with your name on it, not to mention our bed."
I choked on a dusty inhale.
"Excuse me?"
Kyan turned back to me with a roguish smile on his sharp features, and the breath tore from my lungs at how beautiful the sight was.
"What, did you not have jokes growing up?"
"No, I was too busy running from a psychotic king and killing men with my voice to learn jokes."
Kyan's smile grew even wider, if that was possible.
He put his hand out for me to take, and I eyed it suspiciously.
"I won't bite, my lovely betrothed."
His shadows unfurled from his body once more just as Erinna gasped and clung to Warrick.
"Unless you ask."
His whispered promise might've been meant jokingly, but I saw the truth behind those words in his eyes, the desire front and center for anyone close enough to see.
A few tendrils of shadows slithered up my arms like snakes wrapping around me, but they weren't constricting, as instead they dripped from me like jewelry, a comforting presence with a pleasant grip on me that somehow, through everything, made me feel safe.
Something I hadn't felt since the false sense of security Oren might've given to me.
But while Kyan might've been planning on seducing me and making me his bride easily, he wouldn't be prepared for the fight that I would put up if he went back on his word with helping me save my family.
If he hurt anyone I cared about.
If he so much as looked at Inala, Erinna, or even Soraya the wrong way.
That strange power behind my eyes burned and I knew some of the magic was shining forth because in Kyan's eyes was an emotion he hadn't shown before, and that was the closest thing to fear that I imagined had ever flashed behind a god's eyes
"Come now, you're not changing your mind, are you?"
Warrick had Oren standing up already with the collar back around his neck to keep him from speaking and a knife placed at his throat.
Erinna was standing directly behind them, fear and determination warring for the permanent placeholder on her bronzed skin.
Inala had Soraya on her arm and both looked as if they were about to travel into battle together, but it was Yuni who stepped forward to interrupt the moment of trepidation I'd been having, and I was glad for the distraction as he pointed a finger in Inala's direction.
"You had better watch over my sister, orâ"
"You do realize your sister is more powerful than you, right? And that she can take care of herself?"
Soraya reached out and hugged her brother after pleading her own case, and she punched his shoulder lightly before turning to me.
They were all turning to me.
"Well? What's it going to be, love? Take my help and rescue your family and unleash your vengeance on your uncle, or return to Hefeta? It is your choice."
"What else do I have to live for, if not the lives of the ones I love?"
I placed my hand into Kyan's, and the God of Shadow and Death smiled.
***
Author's Note:
What did you think of this chapter?
What do you think will happen in the epilogue?
What do you want to happen?
Until next time my lovely readers,
Kristen :)
***
The World of Irena: