Page 36 of Another Damned Storm (Another Damned #3)

HOOK

I stared at my father for several moments, struggling to wrap my head around what I was seeing. Thousands of years. That was how much time had passed since I’d seen his face.

What was there to say after so long?

After every single attempt I’d made to contact him, to contact anyone in the realm of gods, had gone unanswered?

“Atlas, my dear boy.” He motioned me forward, but I stayed where I was. My head was swimming with too many questions.

“Why would you bring us here?” I glanced over my shoulder, wanting nothing more than to wrap Never up in my arms and take her home with me. “What did you do to her?” I snapped.

His brow twitched up. He motioned to the other gods seated in their ostentatious stone thrones. “We have done nothing to this woman.”

“Then why bring her here?” I demanded.

His gaze shifted to the stormy god slumped on the floor several paces away. “It was he who brought her to see us.”

Just the sight of Thrain raised the hair on my arms, pulled to attention by the white-hot anger that raced across my skin. But it didn’t make sense that he would bring Never to this place, of all places.

“Why?” I bit out.

“I suspect because he was woefully close to losing his last battle.”

I blinked. Did he mean?

No.

He couldn’t mean that.

“Do you mean to tell me Never could have killed him?” I asked.

It was a ridiculous question. One god could not kill another unless the power imbalance between them was significant. And Never wasn’t really a god. She was a human who shared my godly powers.

Iapetus tipped his head. “She very nearly did.”

But how? Thrain and I battled fiercely, and despite his supposed weakness, he still managed to get the upper hand. All the lightning in the human world wouldn’t have been enough to finish me off, but he was nothing to sniff at as a foe.

“I don’t understand. She doesn’t have that kind of power,” I said, tossing another quick glance behind me.

Her skin had regained its healthy human hue. Her fingers were now just fingers, without the deadly talons sticking out the ends. And her eyes were the same blue that had enchanted me on that very first day on the beach.

“A minor correction, Atlas. She shouldn’t have that kind of power, but she quite clearly does.”

“This is what I warned you about.” I turned my head to see Nerebis, flanked on each side by his brothers Serus and Tenebris. The three fates.

I ground my teeth. How fitting that they decided to make an appearance. “You gave me a vague warning about the fabric of the human realm unraveling. ”

Nerebis shot me a patronizing look. “I also warned you the stain on her soul could grow given enough time.”

Vague warnings. Coulds and mights. “Never was right. You don’t know what will happen, do you? You’ve seen a human gifted the power of a god before, but one with demon blood?” That was new territory for everyone.

“As I told you on your ship,” Nerebis said, shifting uncomfortably. “Her continued existence poses a threat to the very fabric of the worlds.” He spread an arm out. “Look at everything you’ve seen recently. Can you deny the truth?”

A bitter, feminine laugh drew all eyes to Never. “The truth, Nerebis?” She was still on her hands and knees, her head hanging like she was too tired to lift it.

Her image was a perfect reflection of the energy and emotions drifting along our connection. Save for her innate spark of defiance. That became evident to all when she rolled back onto the balls of her feet and pulled herself to standing, her eyes lighting with a dull amber glow.

What they didn’t know was how much effort that tiny act of defiance required, but I felt it. The energy she’d used to pull herself back, to bottle up whatever was inside her, was far more than even my shared power could replenish in a few short minutes.

“Here’s the truth as I see it,” she said, swaying just a touch before she found her center.

Everything in me wanted to reach out and steady her, but lending my physical support now would be a sign of weakness. Maybe not in the eyes of this immortal council, but certainly in the eyes of the woman who owned my soul.

“I don’t think anything has simply happened,” she explained, meeting my father’s curious gaze before pinning her own on Nerebis.

“The storms in the Nassa were triggered by the upheaval in Charleston, right? I was tied to the city and to the Nassa, making me the logical link. But the storms were Thrain’s doing, weren’t they? ”

“They were, but nothing is as simple?—”

“No shit, but I’m willing to bet it’s a hell of a lot simpler than you’ve made it out to be.

” She rolled her neck from one side to the other, wincing when we all heard the audible pop.

“Thrain created the storms to scare humans into believing in him and to hide the fact that one of the Brethren was summoning demons to terrorize my city.”

A few of the gods and goddesses of the council straightened, as well they should. Every one of them needed to pay close attention to what she had to say.

“That Brethren, Lapalme, just so happens to be my great-grand daddy,” she added. When there was no outward reaction from the council or the fates, her lips lifted in a smirk. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?” She took a step forward, wavered the slightest bit, but ultimately held her own.

“How do you suppose a forgotten god like Thrain and an outcast demon like Lapalme crossed paths?” I asked, giving her a moment to gather herself.

She cast the briefest of glances my way in response, but gratitude fluttered along our connection.

“It would be quite the serendipitous meeting,” Iapetus replied, setting his amused gaze on Nerebis.

“Someone once told me affecting fate was a lot like sailing,” Never said. “The bigger the ship, the more time and space you need to change course. And who controls the flow of time?”

Every eye in the room turned to the fates.

“We only helped to move things along. Your transformation into this...” Nerebis motioned toward Never. “It was inevitable.”

“It was deliberate,” she snapped. “You put Thrain and Lapalme on a collision course. You fucked with the flow of time so you could put all the pieces in place in the human realm while I was scrambling to learn how to control my powers in the Nassa. And you manipulated me into going to the Alius, probably knowing full fucking well I didn’t plan on staying there. ”

She paused, and I was sure a rebuttal was imminent, but the fates continued to say nothing.

“It wasn’t inevitable,” she said, disgust dripping from the accusation. “It was a test, because you have no fucking clue what I am or what I’m capable of.”

Tenebris turned his attention to my father. “Given what we’ve seen with how rapidly her power has increased and her inability to control it, she must be destroyed.”

“No!” I yelled, lunging forward only to have Never catch me by the wrist.

“Aw, Ten, you hate me that much, huh?” She asked, feigning like she was wounded. Except, deep down, his words struck a nerve. She was terrified that someday she would lose control and hurt someone who didn’t deserve it.

Nerebis held up his hand. “I agree with Tenebris. She bears the mark of defiance. That alone should be enough to end this. Allowing her continued existence presents a risk to us all.”

She ran the tip of her tongue along the edge of her teeth. “Why is that? Because I haven’t found the limits of my power yet or because you’re afraid when I do, I’ll be gunning for you?”

That was my Never, rebellious to the end. An end I was now almost certain would be swift and immediate.

There was no way out of the Hall of Othrys without the council’s permission.

We could try to fight it, but for all our combined strength, we weren’t a match for the council.

Factor in that two of the three fates had put the motion to destroy her on the table, and the fact that Never had nearly succeeded in killing a god?

That act was enough to have her sentenced to death on its own merit .

Our futures, and our likely deaths, were in the hands of the council.

When my father looked to me, a question swimming in his green eyes, I took Never’s hand and laced our fingers together in a silent declaration. Whatever punishment they deemed fit for her, we would suffer it together.

His gaze narrowed, and with a snap of his fingers, they all disappeared. It was just Never and me in the center of that ridiculous room.

I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, expecting her to stiffen at my touch. Instead, she curled into me, holding me tight with her head resting on my chest.

I kissed the top of her head. “How are you feeling, love?”

“Like I’m about to face a firing squad and there’s fuck all I can do about it.”

She wasn’t far off. “Did you find your family before Thrain dragged you up here?”

She nodded weakly. “Lily, Matt, and Angie made it through the fight.”

“Well, that’s something.”

The council would likely punish Thrain for his actions, but that still left the problem of Lapalme.

Silence ticked by for minutes, or maybe it was hours.

It was difficult to gauge with the way my mind was whirring and my heart was slowly breaking, but neither of us made a move to separate.

We just stood as we were in the middle of the room, holding each other up.

“I summoned the Brethren,” she finally said.

My brow lifted. “Really? And did Emerson come to your aid?”

“Yep, him and a bunch of other big, muscled guys.”

“You summoned them all?”

“I don’t know. Six or seven of them showed up. ”

So, not all, but it was hardly worth quibbling about. “Summoning so many powerful demons at once is an impressive feat, Never.”

She shrugged. “I was kind of pissed at the time.”

A chuckle rattled out of me. “I can only imagine. I take it they’ll be handling things with Lapalme?”

“Since I summoned them when he had my niece in a chokehold? Yeah. They didn’t look too happy with him.”

“Caught red-handed. That, love, is some clever timing.”

“I’m pretty sure it was my last rational decision.”

We fell into another long silence, but the connection we shared was wide open.

I hid nothing from her, letting her feel how utterly and completely she owned my heart.

She hid nothing from me in return, revealing how she was tormented by the power inside her, by the way it made her feel, by what it turned her into when she lost control of it.

But there was plenty of good mixed in with the bad, as though she was reliving her most cherished memories in her mind too.

She tipped her head back, her blue eyes searching. “I love you, pirate.”

My heart swelled and twisted all at once. I knew a goodbye when I heard it, but before I could say it back, Iapetus reappeared.