Page 46 of Until the End of Ever (To the Cruel Gods #2)

KLEOS

T he fifth body was another woman, this one around my age. Her name was Dona. From the picture stapled to her folder, I remembered her from high school, one year below Silver and me. Now she was dead and mutilated.

It could have been me. It could have been anyone.

This had to fucking end .

I turned to the window in my aunt's office as I waited for her, my eyes looking past the several rows of handsome houses behind the arena, and straight at the temple of the god responsible for all of this.

The temples were greater than life, each one as tall as the Hall of Truce, and Zeus's, standing higher still, the obnoxious gold lightning bolt shining on the front facade.

I remembered my rage when I first felt the claws of that spell tearing through my skin.

I wanted to make the person responsible suffer.

How did one go about punishing the king of gods?

In the distance, lightning cracked in the graying sky. It felt like a purposeful mockery today. Longing to return to the underside, I tapped my fingers impatiently.

The door opened before my aunt. One inch or two taller than me, warm, gold-skinned and with jet-black hair, paired with amber eyes, she was stunning, her bare arms and back packed with enough muscles to belong on the front page of a body-building magazine.

She rarely ever bothered with sleeves, her skin naturally immune to cold.

"Kley!" she called out, with the smile she reserved for family. "How are you doing, sweet?"

I was taken aback. Auntie Hilda never treated Gideon or me any differently from any other Guard employee here. She was first and foremost the captain of the Guard, not our aunt or mother.

But I supposed I didn't usually see her in her office.

"Good, thank you." I swallowed.

Eager to get going, I didn't add.

When we’d arrived,Timothee zeroed in on Gideon, accosting him with questions about the case, seeming overwhelmed, so I made my way to the office alone.

I launched into the details."We've uncovered the cause and purpose of the spell.

Someone is attempting to enslave a victim, using an ancient rune ritual that requires sacrifices.

That's the bodies you're finding all over town.

I bookmarked the relevant pages in this source.

"I gestured towards the book I'd already dropped on her desk.

She didn't open the book. "Good. Good work, love. You were always excellent at research."

I folded my hands behind my back, head tilted. It wasn't like her to praise excessively. To be completely honest, if that was everything I'd learned after two weeks outside of work, I'd be highly disappointed in myself.

"Sit," she told me, making me more and more uncomfortable.

Gideon made it sound like she was dying for information about the case, and she wasn't so much as asking one question. It was strange. "I'd rather stand. I sit a lot. Reading," I explained.

I wanted to stand because I wanted to be gone.

It hit me then. This place—the Vale, even my job. It didn't feel like home anymore.

"I see." Hilda did sit behind her desk, staring at me for the longest time. "It's your birthday soon."

I blinked. I'd barely even thought of it, but she was right: I was born on the 22nd of November. "Yes, Saturday."

"Any plans?"

I shook my head. My only current plan was avoiding death or enslavement.

"You wouldn't want to see your parents?"

I laughed. "Hilda, I haven't celebrated my birthday with my parents since I was seven."

I'd spent plenty of them at her place, blowing candles with herself, Uncle Leo, and Gideon. Later, Silver joined us. Since we opened it, we've all spent our birthdays at the Silvervine, enjoying the relaxing environment and the privacy.

Hilda sighed. "Look, kiddo. I don't want to get in the middle. It's not my place. But your mother's worried. She showed me all the unanswered calls. And you revoked her guardianship?" She shook her head. "You need to talk, all right?"

Fuck.

I wasn't there for a case report, after all. I'd been ambushed into a talk with my mother.

I stared at my aunt in disbelief as the door opened again, revealing a smirking, self-satisfied Zenya Pendros.

Auntie Hilda didn't even like Mother. How the hell had this happened?

But I knew. My mother was excellent at lying and manipulating people into doing what she wanted. She wasn't half bad at guilt tripping, too.

My aunt looked between the two of us. At the smugness in my mother's gaze, she seemed to realize she'd been played, and started to frown, clearing her throat. "Right. Well, I'll let you two talk."

"Captain?" I called before she could run away.

My aunt turned back to me, stiff and uncomfortable.

"I quit," I said without a second of hesitation.

No fear or regret followed the announcement either.

I didn't like it here. I wanted to be back home, with Zazel, Phobos, and Lucian.

Or really, anywhere in the underside. Even though the weather was bloody awful, the light in the vale felt all wrong, too bright. I'd gotten accustomed to the darkness.

And I loved it.

I'd join the Guard because I had no direction, and hanging out with my best friend and favorite cousin seemed like a good idea. The Archives were a good enough fit for me. And at the time, I hadn't known what it meant to belong anywhere.

Hopefully, Ronan meant it when he said I could have a job teaching at Night Academy.

That might be a good fit. But I wasn't concerned about finding a job; I knew I would.

I could walk in the animal sanctuary or the House of Frey and ask if they needed a healer.

Maybe I'd give in to Andrea's demand and open a bakery.

My aunt gasped. "You don't mean that!"

"See?" My mother drawled. "It's past time we intervened. She's getting out of hand."

"The only thing wrong here is my boss manipulating me into talking to my mother. In case that wasn't clear, I needed some time alone."

"Time during which you humiliated yourself and me?" she seethed, her voice raising.

Hilda cleared her throat. "I should leave you to it. I'm needed downstairs. The murders." She glanced at me hopefully. "We'll talk later about work."

"No need," I assured her. "I'll mail my formal resignation."

Seeming to understand that there was nothing she could add that would make the situation any less fucked up, she turned on her heels, closing the door behind her.

I tensed the moment Hilda walked out, wanting to scream, and knowing there was no point. Part of me couldn't believe I'd been tricked into this. But at the same time, I wasn't surprised.

Zenya Pendros never showed her true face outside of four private walls. No one knew her, not even Silver or Gideon.

The privacy spell she cast over every corner of the office came as no surprise. How else was she going to bellow obscenities at me? But the resounding slap that followed? I didn't see it coming, too fast for me to even think to stop it.

I held my cheek, lips parted in shock.

It had been years since she'd hit me.Eleven years, to be exact.She stopped the moment I'd retaliated by setting the room on fire.

"How dare you!" she shouted, lifting her hand again.

I raised mine, erecting a shield before she could get a second blow in.

"How dare you ," I countered. "Some mother you are."

I'd never said anything like it before, but I meant it.

I didn't see many examples of good parenting growing up.

Hilda was all right, nice to Gideon and I, but she'd left most of the parenting to Leo.

Silver's foster parents didn't really bother with her.

But after meeting Cassiopea, I knew what a mother was supposed to feel like.

Warm, caring, kind, reassuring. I never got any of that from the woman before me.

Just anger, disappointment, accusations, orders I was supposed to follow without protest.

Really, I should have expected her to be enraged enough for physical violence.

She wasn't used to not getting her way. By the time I'd been old enough to figure out that I didn't have to do every single thing she demanded, she had her guardianship to dangle over me, like a carrot and stick all wrapped in one.

"Oh, you have no idea what I've done for you, ungrateful little brat! Without me, you'd already be dead ."

I chuckled. "What, I'm supposed to be oh so grateful because you decided to bring me to life?"

"Ignorant fool," she sneered. "I tried to play nice. To make this as seamless as possible for you. But as you intend to singlehandedly destroy this city, you give me no choice!"

I was quite honestly confused. Mother was prone to exaggeration, but none as grotesque as the ones she was spewing at me.

But the next moment, she called to her magic, gathering pure white clouds between her palms. This was no longer my mother, but the White Witch, the leader of all priestesses of Highvale, head of the temple of Zeus.

I stared in disbelief.

Up until this very moment, I hadn't even thought it possible. The idea didn't so much as cross my mind.

She was right. I was a fool.

Lucian had known, or suspected, hadn't he? “Would you?” he'd asked. “Murder your mother. If you needed to.”

I'd said yes, and I meant it. But by the time I realized that the person behind my suffering, behind the threat of enslavement, was my own mother, it was too late.

She knew better than to throw a spell directly at me—my innate immunity would have simply deflected it. Instead, she filled the space with thick clouds, blinding me. I could feel her, but not see anything to appropriately defend myself.

The next thing I knew, there was the sharp sting of a syringe piercing my skin, and everything went dark.