“Quentin!”
I looked to my left to see Gareth emerge from the stairwell. He was breathing heavily and clutching his side, having just run up several flights of stairs to catch us.
“What do you want?” I asked. “If you’re about to kick me out of this place, then?—”
“I’m not.” He reached me at the door. “I’m not,” he repeated. “I’m sorry. It’s not been easy trying to man this project. I thought there would be a more…”
“Just let me into the lab.” I wasn’t in the mood to hear Gareth’s pity party about how difficult his job was.
Without another word, he swiped his card against the access pad, and the three of us walked into the room. There were a few lights on, but most of the benches were tidy. I moved towardsthe windowsill where the oleander had last been. It was clear now, not even a speck of dirt remained as a reminder of what was once there.
“Quen—”
Ignoring James, I walked through the lab and through to the tissue culture area at the back. Stopping at the door, I was grateful to see someone still working there. I knocked hard, habit stopping me short of walking in without a lab coat and ripping her headphones off. The woman looked up at me and startled before taking herself out of the hood and pushing her headphones from her ears.
“Is everything okay?” she asked warily, eyes flitting to Gareth.
“We need some oleander,” Gareth told her. “Would you be able to get us some?”
“Oh.” She looked surprised. “I don’t think we have any more in the lab. Hunter said it wasn’t going to be needed and took it. I don’t think we have any extra. I mean, I could check for you.”
“What about the engineering department?” I asked, desperate to salvage something from this.
Gareth shook his head. “They were given what was needed for the cuffs after your titration experiments. They haven’t made cuffs since the final set needed for you.”
I closed my eyes. “Right. Okay.”
“Quentin, maybe you should go home and sleep. You look exhausted, and surely we can wait a few hours? If you can’t get back up there straight away…” James placed a hand on my shoulder. “We can try and get in touch with some labs and see if they have any oleander they can get delivered to us.”
“I don’t want to wait that long,” I muttered, realising he didn’t quite grasp the severity of the situation. It wasn’t about the mess in Elysia, but the chaos that would ensue down here. “What about a key?” I asked, holding up my wrist and lookingup at the pair of men. I noticed the conversation was being overheard. Turning back to the woman, I nodded. “Thanks for your help.”
She bowed her head and bobbed a curtsey, realising who and what I was. The rest of us walked out of the room and back into the corridor.
“I’ll have to check with the engineers to see if they have a set of spares. There should be more than one set,” Gareth said.
“Can we check if anyone is there now?”
“Sure, let’s head over there.”
The chaos that ensued was one that I revelled in. Hunter had finally popped the cork on the bottle that had been threatening to burst for decades. The Gods wouldn’t be happy until blood was spilled, and it was fine by me if they wanted to paint me as the bad guy. There wasn’t much they could do when I finally got rid of my brother and left them with no other choice but to listen to me. Though, judging by the way the minor Gods had rallied, many of them had come to their senses and realised Hunter wasn’t the saint he portrayed himself as.
“You’ve made the biggest mistake of your existence, Grayson,” Hunter bellowed.
Around us, Gods and Goddesses unleashed their auras. It was a frighteningly bright mixture of colour and power. While some stayed firm, using their gifts to attack one another, others had disappeared—whether out of cowardice or strategy, I didn’t know and I couldn’t honestly say I cared. The rest of the Gods meant nothing to me. I was only after one. I was not interested in war, just a clean and simple murder. Trust the rest of Elysiato take my clear objective and make it into a scene. If anyone accused me of being dramatic again, I would point them to this time in our history.
Unleashing my aura around me, I let the black tendrils reach out, stretching and curling in the air. “The only mistake I ever made,” I told Hunter, “was trusting you. You never had my best interests at heart. You only cared about yourself. You still only care for yourself.”
“I wanted the three of us to build something that could be heralded for an eternity. Brothers at the dawn of a new era. We would never have to worry about disappearing into the ether. Ceasing to exist the way the others have.”
“Yes, and how has that worked out for you?” I asked, approaching him. “The demigods are gone and we are disappearing at an alarming rate. Ceasing to exist because mortals no longer have faith. It did us no good. And now you want to blame it all on me? Really, Hunter, a bit more foresight might have helped rather than these half-baked plans. I’m sick of hearing the entirety of Elysia bitch and moan about how you never seem to follow through on all your plans. Empty promises from a fraud no longer seem to have the impact.”
“You are the fraud,” Hunter spat back at me. “What is it, Grayson? Do you want us all to believe that you are some reformed character thanks to your little half-breed?”
My blood boiled as he dared to bring her up. “Don’t you dare speak about Quentin like that.”
“I told you, she has her uses. I’m not about to let her go to waste.”
“Where is she?”
