Page 70 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

“He can help, Rain.”

Her crying ceased just like that, and my heart shrinked at her desperation to find a solution to what she was. “Alright.”

Atlas shot up from his seat on the garden bench. “Where are you taking her?”

“I’ll bring her back within an hour. If I don’t, tell my brother we are in Hellas.”

His eyes went wide. “Hellas? Wait—”

Fading into Golgotha’s domain was no different than fading in the middle of a hurricane. Easy to do, but not the smartest idea. Especially when my little companion was an impressionable five-year-old with a love for the ugly and the gory.

Rain’s eyes were wide and round and her mouth was stuck in the shape of awe as she surveyed the eudemons that had stopped in their tracks and were looking at us, most hungry rather than curious.

The guard in front of the Demon God’s palace didn’t say a word of greeting before pulling the heavy gates open and then guiding us through the wet tunnels that stank of dead fish and mould.

Golgotha sat mighty and tall on his throne of bones, surveying our surroundings as if he was expecting someone else with us. “Long time no see.”

“Wish it had been longer.”

Rain stepped beside me, curiously blinking at the God of Demons. She tugged on my jacket a couple times until I lowered my ear for her to whisper, “Who is the ugly one?”

Golgotha puffed up his shoulders and sneered down at her. “You look familiar.”

Rain put a finger in the middle of her cheek and tipped her chin down to glare at him under her lashes. “Everyone says I look like ma.”

That made the Demon God look extremely unsettled. He stood and descended the throne steps to us. “Blessed mother of all. You’re the Lightning Guardian’s child.”

Rain crossed her arms. “I know.”

“I come to speak to you,” I said before my little niece would jump on his shoulders and braid his hair until they were the bestest of friends.

“Must be important since you’re being oddly courteous.” At the click of his fingers, the empty cave filled with furniture of all sorts, and he took a seat on an overly decorated armchair, signalling us to sit, too.

He pointed at Rain and quickly retracted the finger when my niece glowered at it. “Did you bring her here to scare me or something?”

Scare him? “Was it the pigtails or the glittery shoes?”

Rain scooted a bit closer to my side, holding her ghastly doll tightly on her lap. “He speaks funny,” she whispered.

Filling up a goblet with some thick reddish liquid that I hoped to the Moon Goddess wasn’t blood of some creature, he said, “We both know what she is. Drop the act.” Wiping his mouth, he turned his surveying eyes on me, his nose twitching like he was a hound of sorts. “You’ve got the scent of a hundred worlds on you. Is that why you are here, Godling? To help you cut your search short? No luck in finding home sweet home?”

“That—”

“That and?”

“To warn you.”

“Warn me of what?”

Too much. What I’d seen and heard beyond the confines of our world wouldn’t grant us the comfort of warnings and preparation. “That actions have consequences. What you did to my sister-in-law ten years ago changed the course of many worlds. I know her power lingered in your realm. I know it fed it enough for the earth to breathe again. And if the earth breathes again, so does the air. You know how this goes, I guess.” Dissiri would come back to life. Would have been mildly unconcerning if the whole three demon realms weren’t connected to one another. Part of the reason why Fader, the God of All, didn’t even bother considering bringing Dissiri back to its glory, and had instead offered Golgotha residence here. If Dissiri came back to life, so would the other two. Heavens demanded their Gods. Wherever they were held prisoner, they would be no more.

“What has happened, has happened. No need to bother with the past.”

“You will not reinstate Dissiri. Ever. Your realm was fated for doom, and we both know what is fated cannot be un-fated.”

“What is it that you’re asking?”

“Drain Snow’s magic out of your realm. Let what is dead rest.”