Page 45

45

THE DEAL

Darina

I don't recognize where we appear, which is logical, as I've never been anywhere but the Hollow.

"Night," Ryther says immediately, answering the question in my mind. "Close to my wilderness. We can stop by my home after, if you'd like to see it."

I smile back. "I'd love to."

We're in the middle of a forest, cold and murky. There's a twisted ash tree that almost seems dead, it's so white and bent. Nonetheless, there's power pulsing out of it. Beyond, something dark lingers. And something just as dark comes to the gate.

"Come out," I call into the blackness. "I'm sure you didn't travel all the way to our little world to play hide and seek."

The things stepping out of the shadows would have made me curl up into a ball and weep for the rest of time, not long ago. Some are monstrous. The worst are so unbearably beautiful I can't look away.

"You feel old and taste new," one of the creatures tells me.

He's in the shape of a man, remarkably handsome and, strangely, not so different from Ryther himself, though his hair is white as snow, and his eyes, more silver than blue.

Hypnos. It's his brother beyond the gates.

"New Gaia," the woman at his side says, with a slight bow of her head. "We mean no harm, and would part as friends."

There's a big if there.

I try to place her, but the immediate knowledge I had that the man by her side was the god of sleep does not extend to her. All I know is I know her face. I've seen it before, on more than one woman.

And that face is trouble .

And suddenly, I remember her name. The first to have worn this face was Aphrodite, but this woman is even more dangerous. "Helen."

The woman who destroyed ancient Greece before joining the gods and causing so much more than mischief inclines her pretty head.

"This world is not to be touched. Nothing and no one will be harmed in retribution for your husband's imprisonment." Because, naturally, Helen is wed to Death. "We had nothing to do with it. It was Zeus's will."

They know that. The thing with immortals is, they can rarely afford to rise against their leader, so they just destroy his toys, his houses, his minions, and his prisons to make a point.

And there's exactly one thing that can stop their wrath.

A more powerful immortal.

Helen inclines her golden head. Hypnos narrows those silver eyes."My brother has cause to be upset with this little garden of yours. It's his right to set it aflame if he so wishes, after a thousand years of captivity. Did you know they made him birth half-mongrels?" He looks Ryther up and down. "Of course you did. Your folks would chain him in iron and have their pleasure upon his flesh until they could spawn you."

Ryther winces. "It does sound like my mother, I have to admit. You're about a thousand years too late for retribution against her, I'm afraid."

"I'll take my due against you ."

He moves faster than light, a silver flash launching himself at Ryther, with all the power of the first generation of gods, so close to the primal forces.But not enough.

Hypnos is son of Nyx, daughter of Chaos.

Gaia created herself, and then her mate, Uranus.

In short? He's hopelessly outmatched.

We are primal forces. I simply will him to his feet, and that's where he kneels. Ryther is less kind. He makes his throat hit the ground, too.

"This was not a negotiation," I tell them. "You may take your brother. You will claim nothing else. Wake my folk and leave, or die ."

As I speak, I start to undo the spells and flesh knitting him together, attacking each of his immortal cells, ever so slowly.

"Fine, fine, it's done. Dammit, I forgot how grumpy you were."

I let go and smile. "Good. I'd hate to get in trouble with your mom. She's scary."

Hypnos grumbles.

During our altercation, Helen approached the bending ash, and now I see Hypnos's twin, just as dreadfully handsome, but with the darkest hair.

Like Ryther, he's covered in shadows.

The picture Hypnos painted of his treatment at the hands of the folk makes me wince.

I cross the distance separating us and face Death. "You will depart with my goodwill?"

"I swear by Styx: I will depart in peace," he assures me. "Though I will return, with your leave. I have children here."

There's no animosity when he looks at Ryther, just curiosity.

"You're always welcome at our table, so long as we can count on your friendship."

Thanatos is awfully polite.

I bring my thumbnail to my palm and press hard enough to draw a drop of blood. Instead of the pitch blackness I remember from that day they shot me, I bleed gold.

Ichor.

It still does the trick; my blood may not be exactly like my mother's anymore, but it has the high queen's authority over those immortal prison cells.

The door disappears, freeing the first and most terrible of our many prisoners.

In each court, there's a primal tree and a gate that I open, after extorting promises of peace from each occupant.

We're all surprised Eris chooses to remain where she is, in the court of bones, right below Valdred's keep. "Mine is a thankless office. If someone else wants it, it's for the best."

I frown. "Wouldn't you at least like to be free to roam?"

"Would you like strife and retribution to take root in the hearts of all your subjects?"

I leave her to her isolation, promising to visit and bring wine.

"I wonder if due to her influence that bone is so brutal?" I ask Ryther, thinking about the way Valdred grew up in the fighting pit.

"You're sure we can’t ship her off to another world?"

"I'd rather not force her to do anything."

And I certainly won't forget to bring the wine I promised.

There's no need for any of us to be enemies, provided they're reasonable.

It takes all day, but at long last, we return to the palace in the Hollow. I am curious about the wild, but more so about everyone we left asleep, or, in the case of my brother and sister, very concerned.

Hypnos kept his promise; everyone's awake, and greets us with cheers and screams.

I receive a hundred crowns—several from every court, including wings. The duchess writes to me, albeit a little formally, addressing her letter to High Queen Darina . Reina, the bright queen, visits herself, bringing wagons of flowers, fruit trees, and crops, plus the staff to tend it all. Her court feeds most of Ilvaris, and the seeds she brought will grow even in our winter nights, making the Hollow the only land completely independent from hers.

The tributes are nothing; the unvarnished fact I'm no longer prey and a target is what matters.

"You deserve it," Ryther reminds me.

I shake my head. "Not yet. But I will."

There's one thing I intend to do for Ilvaris. I've not told Ryther, preventing him from glimpsing the vision in my mind, lest he stop me.

The lords and ladies of the court will come to the Hollow for a conclave on the next solstice. He'll hear about it then, like everyone else.

I know that if it wasn't for the power now coursing through our veins, the gods locked up here would have gladly decimated Ilvaris on their way out. We stopped them. But it was Gaia and her mate's decision to let us be that truly saved us.

All of a sudden, I have to wonder about everything that brought us here. The decisions my mother made about Loch and me, and even the nixie whose head currently rests on my lap.

Did she see this? Did she realize Loch would live, that Death would be released without destroying every living thing, that so many horrific creatures would spare this land because it would be under the protection of Gaia's power, only if she took this path? Petrify her own daughter, banish her to a world where she'd suffer every day for decades, force her son to sacrifice himself for hundreds of years? All for peace?

But no. Morrigan was just a bitch.

Right?