Page 4 of Until the End of Ever (To the Cruel Gods #2)

LUCIAN

“ D on’t touch it!” Kleos hissed, trying to get to her friend.

Silver was already back up on her feet, the bow between her hands, admiring the shiny weapon.

How had she even seen it? Moments ago, it just wasn’t there . I wouldn’t have missed such a beautiful, distinctive weapon, filled with so much power it felt like a vestige of the god who it belonged to.

“Oh, Silver!” Gideon chuckled, shaking his head indulgently. “Act first, think maybe three days later, huh?”

“You’re one to talk,” Kleos retorted. “The two of you are the bloody same. Why do you always have to touch the thing? It could have, like, disintegrated you!”

It occurred to me then that Kleos was cursed with two Ronans. I was lucky to just deal with one. Though I also had a Lucky, which was potentially just as dangerous.

“I didn’t even see it,” I told her.

“I don’t know. It felt like it was there for me.” She frowned, tilting her head, as though to make sense of her own words. “Almost like it was…whispering my name. Except, not my name, as much as calling to me.”

My neck knotted as I added yet another item to the long, long list of things I needed to research, record, and analyze after this.

Poseidon’s soggy sock, I was going to have to start journaling, wasn’t I?

I recoiled from the idea, but living through this and not leaving a written account of it went against everything I believed in. I wouldn’t have had any book to amass my knowledge if people living in times like these hadn’t bothered to write it down.

“Well, we certainly can’t leave it behind. If it called to you, it’s safe to assume it’s yours,” I told Silver, before turning to Gideon, fixing him with my most severe stare. “ No one else touches it. I’m not certain it’d be safe.”

“Fine,” he grunted, with a tone that told me he’d intended to ask to touch it immediately. “Now can I have a snack, Daddy?”

“Daddy,” Kleos echoed with a snort.

I couldn’t help it. I looked at her, when I knew she was staring right at me.

Fuck .

Perhaps it was because I’d done my best to avoid studying her too closely all day, but I was struck anew by everything I shouldn’t have noticed.

The shape of her mouth, with a slightly plumper upper lip, and the waves of her wild, fiery curls. The random braids running through it. My runes, red on her skin, pulsing with my magic.

She let me do that. Carve her. Touch her. Pump my cock inside her.

Had she always been this beautiful? No, that wasn’t possible. I would never have been capable of doing anything but look at her.

“He brought sandwiches and water,” Silver said. “And I bet there’s probably Band-Aids in that bag of his. If anything, he’s Mummy.” She winked at Kleos. “You can be Daddy.”

I straightened up. “I beg your pardon. I do not have Band-Aids .”

“Healing potions and elixirs, instead?” Kleos guessed.

Right, but I’d be damned if I admitted it now.

The smile she shot at me was torturous.

I made myself recall why it didn’t matter.

"And what would it mean?"

"You'd become a member of the house of Nyx. Without the words to complete the binding, it's vague. It wouldn't result in a soul bond, if that's what you're afraid of."

"If it's this unimportant, why not just do it?"

I’d informed her I could bind her to my line, and she’d deemed it unimportant.

I’d made a decision right then, the moment I heard those words. I had to guard myself. Yes, I was pretty, and like every woman—and some men—I knew, she was happy to fuck me, but she didn’t see me as anything more. Being bound to me was unimportant to her.

It was fucking unfair that she could say things like that and look at me with this softness in her blue eyes, while smiling.

I made myself move again, retrieving sandwiches from the basket. “Who wants beef?”

“Me!” said everyone.

“I only have two. The others are ham and cheese or turkey club.”

It turned out, no one cared what they were eating, so long as they could eat. Silver waited after I’d given her the last sandwich before grinning. “Thanks, Daddy.”

“I think I preferred you when you were trying to kick my ass.” In an attempt to return her to her former animosity, I added, “And, you know, failing.”

She beamed at me. “Too late, sucker. You’re clearly a decent bloke. And a great group mom on a field trip. You’re either Mummy or Daddy, your call. I figured you’d prefer the latter.”

The good thing about most of my acquaintances was that deep down, they recognized I was something to fear.

For the longest time the only exceptions were my family, Ronan, and Lucky.

Then Gideon and Kleos showed up, utterly unbothered by the fact that I could murder most people with a simple touch.

Now I had to add bloody Silver to the list.

“I think I hate you, Edith .”

“Too late. We’re going to be great friends,” she announced. “You fed me. You can even call me Edith without being murdered.”

I shook my head, speeding up to put as much distance between us as possible. With her short legs, she remained behind.

“So, gods die ?” Ronan reminded me when I’d caught up with him, at the head of our group.

“Yeah, I was going to ask about that,” Kleos said. “I thought the whole point was that they’re immortal.”

“There’s a difference between immortal and eternal—you all know that,” I replied.

“Most of us with elder blood are technically immortal. After we’ve reached our optimal physical form, our cells don’t degenerate.

It’s not that uncommon in nature; there’s even a type of jellyfish that’s biologically immortal.

But we can still die, by taking our bodies to a point where they can’t heal fast enough.

It’s the same for any god. They’re just much harder to destroy. It usually takes a god to kill a god.”

“And then, they can come back?” Silver asked. “Like Apollo.”

Silver and using names . We were not instantly evaporated, so I supposed there wasn’t much harm.

“As for that, most of my knowledge was acquired less than an hour ago. I wasn’t certain of anything.

But nothing ever disappears; matter is transformed by the universe.

It makes sense that a god’s power wouldn’t easily be disintegrated.

They remain in the cosmos until something or someone that feels familiar calls them.

” I had read that theory before, I just never expected to have it confirmed by an Olympian god.

“From what our new friend implied, the god and its vessel fight for dominance of the body.”

I couldn’t help an apprehensive glance to Kleos. We’d all seen her, golden, shining, and real, speaking in an unfamiliar, ancient language, the meaning of each word echoed in my mind.

She’d been possessed; enthused was the exact word. And I doubted the goddess was done with her.

Her wide opened-mouth look told me she was coming to the same conclusion.

The god usually won.

We could be losing her. My heart tightened in my chest, demanding I comfort her. I also needed to feel her here, alive, herself. I crossed the three steps separating us and brought one hand around her back, pulling her against my chest.

There. This felt right. This felt perfect. Her heart beating hard against my chest.

It also felt hopelessly dangerous.

Step away. Let her go. Don’t get more attached.

“Nothing is going to happen to you,” I vowed, meaning each word.

If you’re listening, Great-uncle, feel free to write that down. I was not letting her disappear. No matter the cost.

After I’d given in, it was impossible to stop touching her. I gently guided her onward, keeping my arm around her waist.As usual, the space where my palm touched her was electrified, hyperaware.

“You’re so confident, I almost believe it.”

I managed a smug smile. “You should. I’m never wrong.”

Ronan was the first to leave the mouth of the cave. Pale, visibly grumpy, wearing a dark pair of sunglasses, and holding a black parasol over his head, he’d never resembled a vampire more.

“When’s the portal back again?”

“In two hours or so?” I estimated as Kleos and I emerged. Iulia gave us five hours, and we couldn’t have been gone for longer than three. “And there’s another one at dusk, Highvale time. We could take the portal to the actual town of Delphi, if you’d like to visit the temples in the meantime.”

“Nah,” my friend replied. “I’ve already been. It’s boring compared to meeting those guys in there.”

“I wouldn’t mind seeing Delphi. Athena has a temple there, right?” Kleos asked.

I nodded. “And Apollo. All right, we can split in two groups. Ronan, you’re aware how to spot a portal. If we’re not back on time, take it and get Iulia to reopen it at sundown.”

“I’ll wait for you. I could do with a nap. See you later—” he started, smirking.

“If you call me Daddy, there will be multiple hells to pay,” I warned.

My friend pouted. “That’s not fair. They got away with it!”

“They don’t know better. I’m plotting my revenge,” I assured him.

Somehow, the others took that as a joke.

Silver opted to remain behind, no doubt needing the rest, but both Gideon and Kleos wanted to see Delphi.

I activated the portal, pressing my hand against the rock nearing the cave’s entrance, and pulsing my energy through it until the doorway shimmered. We could no longer see our companions on the other side.

I stepped through, letting the familiar wave of magic pass through me, like breaking the surface of water.

“You’ve really been here before, huh?” Kleos asked.

“To Delphi, yes. To the cave, no, but several sources made it clear that there was a direct portal between the two.”

“You always seem like you know what you’re doing,” she grumbled. “Makes the rest of us appear inadequate by comparison.”

That was woefully inaccurate. I had no clue what I was doing with her . “You couldn’t be inadequate if you tried, Valesco. Come on. Athena or Apollo first?” I asked.

Both opted for the first option. We all had seen enough of Apollo for—well, a lifetime, as far as I was concerned.

“Two by sea—” I found myself muttering as I led the way, reflecting on the strange prophecy.

It made no fucking sense to me, but that in itself meant that it was a proper prophecy. They never helped anyone. But now that Silver made us hear it, it was impossible to dismiss it entirely. We’d been given the words of the gods about our fates. Kleos’s fate, specifically. We had to work it out.

“I wrote it down,” Kleos announced, handing me her notebook.

I read it once, then twice, frowning more as the words danced in my mind.

It didn’t sound good. Five beyond death ? Was that referring to the corpses mutilated in order to control Kleos? I didn’t really think any of the verses seemed to directly talk about the ritual.

I was pondering the words when another mini earthquake grumbled. Familiar with that specific sound, I smiled at Kleos, who was blushing adorably.

“Didn’t you eat a sandwich?” I was fairly certain I’d given her the first beef.

“They were tiny sandwiches,” she whined. “Like the stupidly small ones they serve at afternoon tea. And we’ve been walking forever, in a bloody cave, then dealing with gods .”

My lips curved up. “All right, little goddess. Let’s get you fed.”

“Yes, let’s. We have twenty-seven minutes until she goes from our little goddess to a vengeful, hangry nightmare,” Gideon teased.

“Enough teasing already. I’m not a godsdamned goddess,” she grumbled.

That wasn’t entirely true. "Not yet.”

She bit her lower lip. “I still can’t wrap my head around it all. That’s just…insane. But Gideon’s right, let’s go.” She winked at her cousin. “Twenty-six minutes until I strike.”