Page 37 of When Death Called Life Home (When Deities Awaken #1)

Chapter 37

How To Handle Chaos

ALORA

S he hadn’t broken and he’d still found her. Alora hadn’t needed to scream for Ascian to discover where she was taken, and it’d ended with him in chains beside her. The exact thing she’d hoped to avoid. She didn’t want to admit she was grateful to have his company in the darkness of the dungeons. Only because of what it meant.

“Are you awake, amorsa?” Ascian whispered. His head rolled to face her as she shifted into a sitting position. The cold raced over her body, leaving tiny bumps in its wake.

“I don’t think I’m ever actually asleep down here. More so simply unconscious,” she replied, her voice gravelly.

“Come here.”

Alora shifted onto her knees, crawling as close as she could get to him. Ascian did the same, although he had the freedom of not having his ankles in chains. One of Alora’s hands slipped from beneath her, her arm giving way. Ascian caught her before she could hit the ground and gently laid her head in his lap.

“I’m sorry.” He cleared his throat as the word broke off, but Alora knew what she’d heard. His voice cracked. The sound was more raw than a freshly made burn.

She rolled onto her back and stared up at him. “You haven’t given up yet, have you, Commander?”

Ascian choked on a laugh. “Well, unless you were unaware, we’re currently chained up with cuffs that reduce our energy to basically nothing.”

“It’s a good thing one of us spent three years without access to it, then.”

“There’s no lock for you to pick,” Ascian added and her grin disappeared.

“There isn’t? ”

“No, amorsa,” he chuckled. “We’re stuck here until they move us.”

Alora sighed, staring at the ceiling, or was it the floor? What did one call something that was both? “What does it mean?”

“Hm?”

“Amorsa,” Alora clarified. “You keep calling me it, but what does it mean?”

Ascian grew a tiny smile, so subtle nobody would notice unless they were focused on it. Alora always noticed it.

“It’s what Reapers call the flower we grow when burying the soul husks. But the meaning behind it is ‘friend in death.’” Ascian explained, drawing Alora’s gaze back to his. “Because you will have me as such, in life and in death.”

Alora cursed the chains and cuffs that bound her and kept her from pulling his head down to hers. Not to mention the spectators that she wished her brain would block out, again, but now that she remembered them it was difficult not to think of them potentially watching.

Ascian brushed the back of his hand over her cheek, pulling her back. He managed it every single time, a simple touch and she flew from her mind back into the present moment.

“That’s why Osiris called me ‘little flower,’ because of what you call me.” The realisation sunk deep into her bones. Ascian paused, his brows furrowing and searching her face for something she didn’t understand.

“He called you little ‘flower’?”

Alora nodded, her nose scrunching slightly at his need for confirmation when she’d already said it. “Does that mean something?”

Ascian stared at her a moment longer before relaxing his features and slowly shaking his head. “No. It can’t. He just must have been watching us for longer than we realised.”

“Ascian, if there’s something I need to know…” Alora trailed off expectantly. He’d never withheld answers from her, or information that mattered. He had been an open book since she returned.

His lips parted to respond but immediately clamped shut as the dungeon entrance squeaked open at the top of the stairs. Boots thudded against each step until they came into view, then shins, knees, slender thighs, and narrow hips that lead to a long torso and equal shoulders. Verena’s face dropped into view, no smile or brightness to her eyes .

“Good morning, all. Breakfast will arrive shortly, Elders’ orders, unfortunately.”

Her gaze swept over them all, pausing on Alora and Ascian. She tapped her foot rhythmically as she appeared to internally debate something. Finally deciding, Verena strode to Alora’s ankles, crouched and unlocked the chains from around them. “You, I didn’t mean to get dragged into this.”

“A little too late for that,” Alora replied. “You drag Ascian into it, you drag me, too.”

Verena tilted her head like a feline, humming beneath her breath. “That’s your decision, not mine.” She straightened and addressed Ascian, “Your punishment won’t be dealt for another couple of days. The Elders wish for Osiris to be present.”

“Osiris survived the night?” Alora asked in astonishment.

“Surprisingly, yes.” The woman’s voice was every bit as sultry as she looked. She would’ve won over all the suitors on Earth had it not been for her red irises. “With the help of a couple hearts.”

“Where are our guardians?” Maelo asked.

Varena sighed, spinning to face the black-haired beauty. “Your delinquents are in their own cells. Until the Elders say otherwise.”

“You put a lot of faith in a group who murdered your kind.” The words left Alora before she could think better of them. She pulled herself up more with the help of Ascian, her back resting half against his chest.

Verena stiffened and then turned like a creepy toy in her nightmares. “My … kind? The Reapers are my kind. I don’t see the Elders murdering them.”

Alora wished her body and mouth would stop betraying her and listen to her brain when she told it to stop . “You’re different from them. You know it. We know it. They know it. You’ll never be given a position of power, not when it means giving Primals a voice, again.”

Any remaining colour Verena may have had in her skin drained away. “How do you..?”

Alora’s gaze shifted past her to Riven, who flashed her approving eyes. “I listen when people talk to me, and not just with my ears.”

Verena followed her sightline, turning her back on Alora and facing Riven fully. “A copy of Osiris? I’m surprised you’re not on his blacklist.”

Riven shrugged. “We’re brothers, even when we fight … we still have each other's back.”

Verena grunted. She’d likely never had a friendship like that between siblings, not if this is how she treated her non-related friends.

“Why’re you here, Verena?” Ascian asked. “Other than to ‘assert your authority’ that you don’t actually have.”

Verena tapped her sharp nails against her thigh, continuing to watch the two prisoners on the opposite side of the dungeon. Her fingers paused their movement and she moved forward towards Maelo. Ascian tensed against Alora’s body, his own surging forward as Verena grabbed Maelo’s arm and hoisted her up. The chains fell to the ground with a loud clunk .

“Don’t you fucking touch her! Verena!” Ascian growled, yanking against his chains. “If you hurt a fucking hair on her head!”

Verena ignored him, pulling Maelo towards the stairs. She at least made sure she didn’t trip or hurt herself, despite Maelo fighting against her.

“Verena!”

“I’m fine, Az!” Maelo called, but there was a quiver to her voice. A fear of what Verena could do to her to hurt Ascian, and a sorrow that perhaps they’d never see each other again. Would Verena do that to him? Alora tried to rake through her mind to find what was so special that she needed Maelo specifically. She was Ascian’s sister, yes, but this couldn’t just be about punishing him , could it?

“Verena!” Ascian yelled, louder and louder each time. His voice grew hoarse. “If you take my little sister, I’ll rip out your fucking throat with my bare teeth!”

Alora’s brows shot up, her hands falling to Ascians’ thigh and offering as much comfort as she could in their current situation. He’d already lost Raine. To lose his other sibling? Alora didn’t know whether even her return could save him from the torment that would bring. She’d helped him heal through so many things - heal . Alora’s head shot up, locking onto Verena.

“Take me. I can heal him.”

Verena stopped on the stairs and turned to assess Alora. Her gaze flickered to Ascian, as if debating who’d bring him more pain to lose. Alora truly didn’t think Ascian could even answer that question.

“No,” she stated simply. Her lips curved into a sickly sweet smile. “You’re being saved until last. The one thing that will shatter what remains of his strength.”

Alora’s heart dropped into her stomach. Verena’s eyes met hers again and Alora swore they softened. A blink and it was gone, and Verena once again disappeared up the staircase with Maelo in front of her.

Ascian sagged behind her, his forehead falling to rest on Alora’s shoulder. “I can never find peace in this lifetime.”

Alora closed her eyes and leaned back into his warmth. “Let me be it for you,” she breathed back, turning and pressing a kiss to his head. “Let me bring you whatever peace I can offer.”

He shook his head against her skin. “I can’t do that to you.”

“You aren’t. I’m offering. I can handle chaos, Ascian. I handled being thrown into two different worlds, both of which I knew nothing about and had to rely entirely on instinct.”

“Verena is a different kind of chaos, amorsa.” Ascian lifted his head, turning to look at her. “She’s a type of feral only the forest knows. In all honesty, I should’ve picked up on the Primal heritage sooner than you were able to.”

Alora lifted her hands to shift his hair from his face, her touch lingering. “From the sounds of it, you had plenty of other things that kept you occupied.”

“And now Maelo’s about to pay for it.”

“Verena’s not going to hurt her. I meant it when I said the Elders wouldn’t give her authority. They were killed before they could take any sort of control in Elysia. They’re seen as a threat,” Alora soothed. “She would be down here on other orders.”

Ascian frowned. Alora watched as the wheels in his mind turned, and went over the reasons why Verena would have been sent down to grab Maelo. His forehead smoothed out, head lifting as the pain ebbed away. “She can heal.”

Alora nodded. “And Verena already gave us a clue as to who she’d be going to heal.”

“Osiris,” Ascian muttered. “The Elders want him present at our council for punishment.”

“On Earth, witnesses were needed to charge anyone for anything. I assume it’s the same here?”

“It is.”

“So, Verena took Maelo to speed up Osiris’ healing. So that the Elders don’t need to wait to deal out our punishment.” Alora looked back to the staircase. “I only hope she remembers how to dispel the damaged energy.”

“She will,” Ascian assured her. “Maelo’s more intelligent than people realise. She just hides it and uses their assumptions to her advantage.”

“She’ll be fine.” Alora stretched her aching back, glancing across at Riven. He appeared to be sleeping, but considering how hard that was down here, Alora knew he was more than likely meditating. “We’ll all be fine.”

Riven gave the subtlest of nods in confirmation of her words.