Page 27 of Immortal Sun (Dark Olympus)

CHAPTER 27

CYRUS

“The error is the result of letting fear rule your actions.”– The Saga of Harald Hardrada, ch.46.

Inti

So, Kratos told me you failed, need some help?

Inti

Here’s some advice, if she isn’t responding with a, go faster, slower, yes, yes, yes, your name, or a scream, moan, shiver, you suck.

Me

Eat shit.

Inti

Touchy.

Dag

Have you lost your touch?

Inti

Clearly. I’m almost worried for us when it comes time for the choosing. What if she chooses one of us and falls in love only to die tragically later, oh wait…

Enki

Trust me, she’d be more likely to stab you.

Inti

Enki would love that.

Enki

Getting stabbed after the chase would be an honor.

Me

I hate all of you.

Apep

We’re aware.

Tyrell

How did this go from dinner last week at your house to you not being able to please a woman? Why am I in this chat when it’s not even my time to show up yet? I’m so confused.

Me

Oh good, you’re here as well.

Tyrell

I’m quieter than the others, too busy saving lives near Olympus, so many campers. It’s ridiculous how they can’t read signs.

Apep

He devoured a soul yesterday by accident, he’s been out.

Inti

Accident my ass.

Tyrell

Tempting.

Inti

Memories, memories. How is Jor?

Tyrell

Wife keeps him fed.

Me

Gross.

Tyrell

You can’t even please a human woman, sit down.

Dag

Agreed.

Enki

Did you get my links?

Me

I’m leaving now.

Kratos

Yeah well, she’s in a mood. She hasn’t spoken a word since staring at names of the dead , so good luck. What immortal are you teaching her about today?

I sigh and stare down at my phone.

Me

Apep, damn it.

Apep

Teach her well, it won’t matter in the end. It never does.

I toss the phone onto the nightstand and quickly slip on my silk robe. I don’t tell the sacrifices this, but all of the fallen wait and want the human being slaughtered because it gives them an edge against everyone. Case in point, Enki had the last sacrifice and now he can see shapes rather than darkness.

He drained what he could from her, just enough to restore some the godliness he would have had, had he ascended, and then we performed the ritual.

Once this last one is gone, they won’t be able to continue in this loop of devouring the sacrifices. There were ten thousand to start with and there was no way I was going to carry out the murder of each by just my own hand, plus there was no way I would be able to give them the gift of my body each time, which is why we came up with a plan, the sacrifice would pick her god, and the remaining deities would create more mates

No attachments. No wondering.

Just primal sex, sacrifice, and power so the ones cursed to stay on the human plane would at least have partners.

The most basic and important things in our lives and in the world some might argue and say it comes down to love. It doesn’t. It comes down to your primal needs every single time and the lie that if you get those few sad little bones thrown at you, that you’ll finally have happiness despite your epic failure to go to Olympus. A sordid Greek tragedy for us all.

I stomp down the concrete stairs yet again and walk past Kratos, who’s grunting about something and looking at his phone.

He’s probably complaining in his head about the lack of finesse in music these days as he listens to every single pop song on Spotify. He almost jumped from the cliff when I found out Charlie Puth was on his playlist.

I walk into the quiet cave.

Cleo’s sitting with the book open on her lap and casually writing names like it’s no big deal.

Her pen is slow, her cadence almost rhythmic in the way she presses the ink against the old parchment. She’s doing my homework for me. Once the final name is written, it will be complete. All of it.

I didn’t expect her to be so calm though.

Why didn’t Kratos warn me, then? That she’d already been writing the names down? Writing down a memorial tribute to every single sacrifice I’ve taken in order to appease the immortals—in order to end chaos once and for all.

She looks up, and her eyes briefly flash before she sets the book down and then starts to undress.

I back up.

Not in fear, more surprise than anything.

Humans have tried to seduce me, but I never expected her to.

She throws the silk top to the ground, then slides the pants down her hips and kicks them off.

She’s completely bare to me. Her glorious smooth skin is on full display. What’s happening? This isn’t the plan; this was never part of the plan. Searing pain hits my temples as she locks eyes with me.

Cleo takes a step toward me, then another. My breath hitches, and my chest—it burns for her.

She presses a hand to it like I’ve given her permission.

“Don’t touch me without asking,” I whisper.

Her nails dig painfully into my skin. “Kiss me.”

“Apep doesn’t like kissing,” I say.

“But you do,” she says, “since it’s all you can do.”

Okay this has gone on long enough. Enough of her games. I reach for her and pick her up, throwing her over my shoulder and tossing her back onto the bed. “I don’t know what you think you’re up to, but it won’t work. How many names did you write down?”

Her lips tremble, I ignore the fact that it makes me want to give in, it makes me want to fall. It should be working, my sun that heats my heart should be temporarily frozen against her. “Three hundred so far.”

“You’re slow.”

“I’m trying.” She’s naked beneath me again. I grit my teeth while her eyes roam my body. I’m still in the red silk robe. She reaches to push it over my shoulders.

I slap her hands away lightly and do it myself.

“The first name…” Her eyes search mine.

I jerk away from her and stand.

“Tell me!” she yells.

“Never look directly into an immortal’s eyes.” I give her my back not wanting to tell her the rest of what I know. “A waste of a sacrifice, your mother.”

A kindness that she finally died after being used reincarnation after reincarnation by Apep to sire more children. It was a necessary killing, allowing her to finally leave this realm for good, allowing her to find peace. Maybe that’s why Cleo is different, because her mother was reincarnated and used so many times, a favorite of the gods because she never cried—no she worshipped, she felt it was her calling each and every lifetime—to bring about abominations for ultimate power—she thought she was saving the world from Chaos without realizing she was sleeping with it every single fucking time.

“You killed my mother?” Tears stream down Cleo’s pale cheeks. Her jet-black hair is still a mess around her shoulders, in tangles and dirty.

“No.” I shake my head. “She stared into chaos in hopes of seeing your father one last time, I told her not to, I warned her on her very last journey to never search for him.”

“So where is she?”

I wasn’t expecting this. I lift a finger and point at the water. “Lost. She doesn’t want to be found—by anyone.”

“Can you save her?”

“Once you’re in the depths of chaos, you can only save yourself, and many lack not just the ability but the drive to do so.”

“But she died in a crash, there was a storm and rain?—”

I burst out laughing. “Humans are so stupid.”

“What?” She jerks away from me as a tear slides down her cheek. “I was at the funeral, there was?—”

“Pink cake? All her favorite foods? Family mourned. There was even a totaled car, a news story. Beautiful obituary, by the way. We’ll make sure we do the same for you. It’s the least we can do.”

I can see when it hits her the way it does everyone else.

Her face pales even further.

Her eyes squeeze shut then spring open again. “Tell me that was real, the funeral?”

I stand in front of her, chest to chest and exhale the words. “I can make you see anything in this world.”

Her eyes widen as she looks around, lifting her hands like she can touch the skyscrapers. “I’m in New York!”

“You’re in a cave,” I say. “And humans are so very easy to manipulate.” I snap my fingers, bringing her back. Again, what a waste of power. “Like I said before…” I lean down so we’re face to face. “You aren’t special, only a means to an end.”

“But why?” she asks. “Why sacrifice people, why me?”

“Is that your question for the day?” I ask. “Think about it very seriously because we have work to do and the last thing I need is to fail at your lessons when we have limited time left.”

She chews her bottom lip. I wonder what it would feel like to bite it again, to taste her very special blood, to lick it off her and find out where she came from, even though we all know to where she will return.

“Yes.” She crosses her arms, making her breasts look delectable.

I roll my eyes and grab one of the blankets then toss it at her. “Cover yourself.”

I sigh and bend over to the dirt beneath my feet then dig my fingers inside it and speak his name. The sound is like a booming guttural yell, causing her to cover her ears with her hands in horror. Tears stream down her face. I never told her calling an immortal’s name aloud was easy especially one so different from myself. The heavenlies are balanced differently than us. To speak is to have knowledge of them, to have knowledge of them is to wield the very power of the creators themselves. “Cassius. Come.”

Lightning strikes across the sky. Tiny pebbles from the very earth I helped create start to rise and fall near my hands before bursting into dust.

And then one large purple feather falls at my fingertips. I grip its sharp edges, my blood spills onto the shards as I slam it into the ground.

It sinks into the dirt and goes up in purple flames.

Cleo is silent.

Does nothing terrify her? Not even a fallen angel of old?

My blood, mixed with the dirt and sharp edges of the feather all disappear, the last drop of silver from my blood also vanishes.

“You.” The voice echoes through the cave.

Suppressing a laugh, I turn. “That was fast.”

“You used your blood.” Cassius crosses his arms, he’s hiding his wings, though I can see the purple feathers flickering like fire at his sides, ready to strike anyone who gets too close. He’s a walking, talking weapon.

He peers around me. “New sacrifice? Final one?”

I nod.

“She’s pretty.” Why does everyone say that?

She. Is. Human.

Cassius must be able to sense my irritation. “What did you need, Ra? I was busy dealing with Anubis.”

“You’re always busy, especially with Anubis.”

“Get back to me when you have a family and an entire house full of immortal misfits, your brother included.” He’s over seven feet tall, bulky, wearing jeans, in slippers and has a black cable knit sweater on. How very weirdly domesticated. Marriage looks good on him.

Talk about a weird wedding.

Oh, look an angel and a goddess.

I shake my head and point at her. “She’s on day two of training before the eclipse.”

“Either you’re slow or she is.” He frowns, his dark eyebrows drawing together. His jet-black hair rests past his shoulders nearly down to his ass.

Thus, the nickname dumbass that we use behind his back.

“She’s stubborn,” I fire back.

“Gods be with you.” He smirks. “I’m suddenly thankful I answered your call.”

“How are the Creators?” I ask.

He shrugs. “Probably waiting for you to come to brunch, why?”

“I loathe brunch.”

“No, you just loathe Anubis complaining about cold eggs.”

Man has a point.

The guy is impossible to please and last time burned my chair to the ground while laughing even though I’m partially responsible for creation of the cosmos, but sure, burn my chair for your own amusement.

“Does she speak?” Cassius asks, his eyes narrow even further like he’s suddenly perplexed for the first time in a millennia.

Cleo makes a little grunt and then plops onto the bed. Wow, I’ve finally shocked her and all it took was a fallen angel.

Miracles do happen.

Cassius checks his watch. “I’m gonna go ahead and do the fast version. Hi there!” He peers around me. “Try not to pass out, though if you’ve been dealing with Ra, I’m surprised you’re still standing,” He pauses and looks over at me. “Hey, I heard about the first training day, if you need any?—”

“Not a word .” I clench my fists.

I can tell he’s trying not to smile as he looks away. “Yes, well, there’s this book that I think?—”

“Do not make me spill your blood, angel,” I hiss.

He sighs and walks barefoot over to Cleo then bends down to meet her at eye level. “He’s a god.” That’s literally all he says.

Cleo regards him in silence, her face expressionless.

He heaves another sigh. “Many people and cultures worship different deities, but there is only one where sacrifice was the main form of worship as time went on.” He presses his hands together and pulls them back. Between them shows a graphic with a long timeline of war, famine, the Greek gods, Roman, Egyptian, African, and so the list goes on. “All the stories are the same, even though the locations were spread all over creation. Free will allows people to decide how they worship. And in that, the very god you’re looking at, decided he would rather not be worshiped for his godliness. What happens when the people stop worshiping? Take one look at the Greeks and get back to me.” Cassius sighs and slams his hands together then pulls them apart again. “The Great War between all the gods caused many deaths, much destruction. It was asked of the demigods to participate in the armies of heaven. Many lives were lost, but as the demigods fell, the land became fertile again, and the gods that created them became more powerful—mainly Chaos. There were trials established by the gods to keep their power strong while the worship stopped. Chaos decided not to take part in the trials and hid away his power as much as he could in his abominations. Always twins. Always linked, always searching, never satisfied. Ra can’t go back to the skies where he belongs without ending Chaos for good; and in order to finally be able to end Chaos, he has to kill off the last of his power—you.” He sighs. “So you see, you were drawn here, now you will be sacrificed here, you will return to the Nile and the world will have a deep exhale because of it.”

“What happens,” Cleo finally speaks, her voice weak, “when the children of Chaos die? After the sacrifice.”

“That’s a third question.” I reach for her, but Cassius lifts up his hand and then shifts closer to her, his lips a breath from hers.

I’m annoyed, but I do nothing.

It would cause unbalance to kill him and I do genuinely like him and the rest of the immortals out of Seattle even if they drive me crazy.

“You return to the Nile. For you die as a warrior. You return to where you were born, and your spirit returns to where it was created.” He slowly points upward. “You will be reborn.”

“Only to be sacrificed again?” she asks in an even tone.

Cassius smiles. “No. To live as a human without any memories of the horror of death. So you see, it’s a gift.”

“Dying isn’t a gift,” she says. “And I don’t trust you either.”

He stands abruptly. “She’s stubborn.”

“Told you.” I sigh.

“Well, I did what I could.” Cassius suddenly stops moving and looks back at her. “What was your name again?”

“Cleo.” She doesn’t look as terrified as before, but her right hand is shaking.

Cassius suddenly reaches for it, and his eyes blaze white as the temperature drops in the room. Frost forms on his lips, and he licks it. Then his eyes go jet-black before he drops her hand and backs away slowly.

“What is it?” I ask.

Cassius shakes his head. “Despair.”

“For what?”

He looks over at me, breath exhales and freezes from his mouth. “You.”

He’s gone in seconds.

An eerie feeling washes over me. The room matches the chill in my heart when I turn to Cleo.

She’s staring down at her shaking hands; they hold tiny flakes of snow that are melting against her skin.

“So now that I’ve answered your question.” I drop my robe to the ground. “Get on your knees and face me.”

“You have no heart.” She looks up at me with tears in her eyes. “Were you trying to scare me? Make me feel better? What’s the point in even talking to a god? An angel? Anyone? The end is the end, isn’t it?”

“YOU OWE ME!” I yell, shaking the cave with my voice. “You owe me for my sacrifice for my years of patience! You are the last name to be recorded! I’m giving you a gift! Do you understand what Chaos truly is? What it does?” I wave a hand in front of her face and snap my fingers.

Anubis appears by my side. “I don’t think this is the best way to?—”

I glare at him.

He lets out a sigh and nods his head toward Cleo. “Daughter of Chaos, shall I show you why Ra chases and why Chaos rises?”

A tear slides down her cheek. “You’re the God of the Underworld.”

“I am.” Anubis puts a hand in front of her eyes and then pulls it away, he’s suddenly in his jackal helmet, and full black armor with gold sewn in, wrapped around his arms and legs. “But I am not one to fear. I am one to respect. Now…” He holds out his hand to me. “A coin for the trip. Two if you plan on coming for the next few seconds.”

I tap his open palm twice. Two gold coins with my face appear on his hands. They melt into his skin.

The room goes still and then very dark.

She reaches for him, not me, and I’m instantly pissed. Does she feel nothing? And why do I?

“Chaos is everything, it’s in front of you, it’s inside you,” he rasps. “Wake up, daughter, wake up.”

Her breath shudders in front of her face coming out in short icy puffs, suddenly her eyes open, they burn white as she stares ahead at the mirror of the dead. It’s a picture of herself or herself the way the immortals see her. Eyes white, skin pale, nothing but unhinged power pulses beneath her skin, her eyes turn red then white then red again. Her image laughs at her, fangs appear and then she turns and starts ripping through a sea of people, killing them, confusing them, whispering lies into their ears. Disease spreads, confusion, miscommunication, she is the embodiment of what is wrong with the human race.

We’re on the river Styx on a boat, there are hundreds surrounding us with mirrors in each of them, showing people their true identities as they’re carried to the afterlife.

“Fear.” Anubis whispers. “Is not welcome here.”

“I’ve heard that before.”

“Because.” Anubis points her toward the mirror. “Daughter of Chaos, you have been watched by the stars themselves, counted, from every breath you take, from every hair on your head, every wrinkle you earn through the years of living—you have had the honor of being watched by heaven.”

My chest burns while she stares at her own reflection, the stars burn bright for her in her reflection, a million, no tens of millions shine down on her.

Anubis continues. “They choose to fall, and they would if they could for you, but it would upset the balance between humans and immortals. Chaos created you out of his own selfish need to hide the very power that was bestowed upon him. He wasn’t always bad, he just wanted more, and now you have that within you.”

She touches the mirror with her finger and jerks back when a flame hits her fingertip. “I’m destined to die? How do I purge the chaos?”

“You misunderstand my words.” Anubis taps the mirror, tiny sparks fly from the glass while we continue our journey down the river. “You are the last daughter of Chaos. You’ll be rewarded for doing the one thing Chaos never did.”

“What’s that?”

“Give up the thing he holds most dear. His power. His life.”

“Sacrifice.” She repeats. “And if I say ‘no’? If I walk away, if I decide to fall into the river Styx? What then?”

“His power will continue to grow and Ra will continue to be stuck here fighting him until he can bring reprieve to humanity.”

She swallows and looks away. “Anubis, will you please bring me back now?”

“Of course.” He pulls her in for a hug. “You know, just because he’s Ra doesn’t mean he’s the only light,” He smiles and wipes her tears. “When you feel lost in the dark all you need to do is look to the stars the way they look to you.”

My heart feels like it’s cracking at the way hope fills her eyes and then we’re back in the cave. Anubis gone.

Rage at the way he spoke to her, the way he got through to her fills my veins until I can’t stand it any longer.

“ON YOUR KNEES!” I yell.

“No!” She jumps to her feet. “Just kill me now!”

“That’s not how this works, human.”

“I hate the sun and I hate you! Stupid, ridiculous immortal!” She spits on the ground.

I’m so stunned I almost laugh. “Do you want to know how stupid this immortal can actually be?” I grab her by the hair and shove her against the wall, then press my mouth against hers in an angry kiss.

My other hand moves to her neck, holding her captive. “The very fucking air you breathe was given to you by the immortals, so you will get on your knees and serve me, then you will write more names in the book so you understand our sacrifice. And you’ll smile while doing it!”

I shove away from her so pissed off I want to burn the world to the ground. I walk in a small circle and then jab a finger at her. “I’ll be back in an hour. I want another hundred names, and for your attitude, you’ll serve me tonight.”

She stumbles forward. “What do you mean?”

I lift my chin and grip my cock. “You’ll serve me…on your knees. And you’ll say ‘thank you’ while I hold your mouth captive. Mock me with your mouth, and I’ll force you to worship me with it.”

I leave. Pissed the hell off.

Kratos is gone, Daggon is in his place.

He opens his mouth.

Without touching him, I slam him against the cliff. Part of it falls to the ground on top of his head, and he still has the audacity to yell after me. “Is this a bad time?”

“Fuck!” I keep walking.

And walking.

And decide I’m going to make her pay. She should be on her knees thanking me, and tonight, she will be.