“What did I ever do to you?” an indignant voice comes through the fog.
Dreven, followed by the fish woman, and some guy who looks like he lost his best friend, emerge from the fog.
“Excuse me,” I say, ignoring Dreven and glaring at the other god.
“He’s the god of Despair,” Aurora says. “He thought you meant him.”
“Then maybe stop radiating doom like it’s your hobby,” I tell Despair. “No offence.”
He shrugs. “None taken.”
Dreven steps in front of me. He looks furious and controlled at the same time. “You walled me out.”
“I didn’t even know it was me,” I say carefully. “So it wasn’t intentional.”
He narrows his eyes but doesn’t start lecturing me. Good thing too, or I’d have to re-fog this place up, and I’m not even sure how.
“Where are Dastian and Voren?” I ask when he says nothing.
“No idea.”
“Well, we need to find them. If we only have part of the Devourer in that box, we need to find the rest.”
The ground rumbles underfoot, and everyone freezes.
“What was that?” I ask as Dastian and Voren join us from the opposite end of the fog, having also picked up some strays along the way. I glare at Tabitha.
“An earthquake,” Dastian says.
“No shit. What does it signify?”
“Deep shit,” Fire god says, also joining the party.
“That doesn’t surprise me. Not even a little bit,” I say with a sigh, and wonder where my life went wrong.
Oh, yeah. The day some madman opened the sealed Pantheon realm, and I killed its ruler.
Fun times.
Chapter 29
Nyssa
The floor keeps shuddering under my boots. Dust skitters across the obsidian. The vein of gold ahead pulses faster, out of time with my heart.
“Stop,” I murmur. Nothing happens.
Dreven’s gaze shoots to mine.
“Again,” he says, trying not to make it sound like an order. I think.
“Stop.”
The shuddering abates, and I smile at him with a nod, but then it returns. Tenfold.
“Earth!” Dreven bellows. “Show yourself.”
“It’s not Merse,” Fireman says as a creature made out of rock lumbers into view.
