Page 71 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

“My realm is not dead.”

“Black mould does cause some form of delusion,” I said, studying his wet and leaking cave. “But I can kill delusions, too. As I can kill you.”

He leaned back in his seat. “You know what death of a God would cause. You’re too much of a…samaritan to consider that, so spare me your threats.”

Fading right beside him, I put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in to whisper, “Despair.”

The old God choked on a pained moan, blood gurgling out of his mouth as the emotion seeped deep within his skin.

“Agony,” I continued, watching his eyes roll back and then the ground shake from the loss of magic feeding it. “Pain.”

Then I decided to give him a little taste of his future. “Death.”

Blood erupted from all over him, and he put a shaking hand to mine.

Pulling back and letting him catch his ragged breath, I said, “I don’t have to kill you at all to kill you. I just need to put you in a constant state of dying. Which would have been the case if I wasn’t so kind as I am to pull away all of it. Or was I?”

“What do you want from me?” he gritted out, shaking and letting a touch of his magic encircle me with its retching scent. But even rot could die off. The cloud of his magic dying around me.

“Drain Snow’s magic and help me open a portal in Nihilia’s realms.”

A choked laughter left him, and he spat blood at my feet. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“Your brothers are imprisoned, not dead. If your realm breathes even a whiff of life, it will feed your brothers’ realms. The more Snow’s magic lingers in there, the better are the chances some of it might harbour just enough energy to help your brothers escape.”

From the way he lowered his eyes to some odd dent in his floor, told me that he’d thought about it. He’d known about it and hadn’t even given it a single thought of fixing it. “How did you know that Nubil’s guardian had left magic behind?”

“There are perks to being what I am, to being one with death and life. It gives me access to worlds across that portal no one else has. You should have seen the surprise on my face when I crossed a lowly hell guarded by one of your former guardians and he looked like he’d had a fresh facial. So energised and full of life. So unlike the rest of your folk trapped under here.”

He grunted dismissively. “Why don’t you ask the Lightning Guardian to open your portal?”

“Nubil won’t allow her out of his domains and she has no jurisdiction in Nihilia’s realms either. But you do, little mama’s boy. We’d go in and out unnoticed entirely.”

His eyes narrowed on me and then drifted on Rain who as predicted had fallen asleep, already bored with us. “She will be much more dangerous than you and your brother, or even the Guardian herself. Whatever answer you are looking for will only make you more aware and terrified of her. Hand her over to Nubil. She belongs ruling a heaven. Away from causing carnage.” He shrugged. “At least carnage on human panes. Gods love their carnage, they will love her.”

“Never. She’s not a tool. She’s not carnage. She’s a child. Who will grow up to be a woman living a normal life. Away from all of it.”

“You might not like the answers you find.”

“Like them or not, those are for us to decide on.”

“My brothers still have supporters all over Nihilia’s realms. Do you have any idea what will happen if they know the Astral born Godlings are returning from their hiding?”

“Good thing no one will know.”

“Good thing.”

“At the next red moon. Bring a vessel, something that can hold inside the guardian’s power without breaking. Something hollow and without soul itself.”

I nodded. “At the next red moon then.” Only eight months from that day.

“The Mother Goddess would never allow them to escape,” Golgotha called as I hoisted a sleeping Rain in my arms.

God or not, all creatures had the same signature colour of distress and worry. Human or God, we all lied the same, and we all forced ourselves to believe our own lies. “No, she would not.”

“Which realm?” he asked again.

“Valinhel.”