The Grove of the Gods is a cold, lightless forest.
From the sky, I’d glimpsed its massive boughs, its shimmering green canopy. But that was a shield for what lies beneath.
We didn’t land together. It was a rough awakening, my body aching now as I crawl over what must be roots, gnarled and puncturing the earth like woody tentacles. I would hold up a palm of fire, but that seems too dangerous a thing to do here in the cemetery of the gods.
Suddenly, a few starlights come into view, and I follow them, still crawling in my dress, my knees and palms scraping on rough bark.
When I find Alexus, he’s creeping over and around a mass of roots, big around as his arm, some the size of my thigh, tangled together across the rocky side of the mountain for as far as the dim light allows me to see.
I reach him, and he kisses my forehead. “Gods, you scared me. I was looking for you. Where’s your sister?”
I shrug, and he takes my hand as we keep looking, unsure where we are or where we’re going.
Alexus sends his starlights a little ahead of us to light the way, making my heart pound like a drum. I half expect to see Vexx’s ugly face around a corner any second, or for Fleurie to rip through the air and vanish with Alexus. The thought has my muscles tense, my nerves vibrating with anticipation.
I don’t have a dagger. I wish to the gods I did.
When we come upon Nephele, it isn’t her I first see. It’s Neri, squatting at her side.
He looks up, his shimmering white skin and hair visible in the darkness. “She’s hurt. A broken ankle, I think. Can you help her?”
I swear I hear concern in that bastard’s voice.
It’s hard to hurry on this terrain, but Alexus helps me reach Nephele quickly.
“I’m so sorry,” she says, pain and tears in her voice. “It happened when I landed.”
Alexus squats beside me as I work to heal my sister’s bones. “Where are they?” he asks Neri.
“Further toward the cliffside,” Neri points beyond Alexus. “This is the rear of the grove. Loria is here, and other old gods from around the world. Thamaos, me, Urdin, and Asha are all toward the cliff.”
Alexus glances over his shoulder toward absolute darkness. “They will see us coming if I light the way.”
“I can guide you,” Neri says. “But it won’t be an easy trek in the dark.”
A wave of tiredness washes over me, already. Healing broken bones is a tedious task. I feel the weight of it so quickly.
Still, I finish, hurrying at Nephele’s insistence, and we get back on the move.
Neri leads the way, and though I can’t grasp it, my sister holds to his hand as though it’s nothing, following him into the dark. I hold Nephele’s hand, and Alexus holds mine. The linked chain we’ve created keeps us together, but it also makes it harder to balance as we navigate, too slowly, over twisting roots.
The only sound here is the swishing of the tree limbs under the touch of a soft, desert mountain wind. It’s like the leaves are whispering and dancing, waiting and watching from above. Their hushed rhythm reminds me of a song, like a requiem for the dead who lay buried here.
The hulking white figure at the front of our line reminds me that the gods are not so dead, not even in spirit form, and I have to wonder if the many whispers I hear in the trees are not from them.
We walk for too long. So long that I’m certain we are too late. Though if one of its dead has been stolen, the forest has yet to announce the thievery.
Finally, Neri halts, but he says nothing, and I instantly know it’s because he’s seen something.
He gets down, the bright white of his body too noticeable against the darkness. The rest of us keep moving, just a little ways, until we’re slipping behind a tree trunk that shields all three of us.
I peer around the side. The next tree over is clearly Thamaos’s tree. It amazes me how far away it is. At least sixty strides.
The Prince of the East kneels amid a spread of roots, the God Knife in his hand. The only reason I can see him is because Vexx has bravely lit a single torch.
Vexx. Standing there with a torch in one hand, holding it over his prince, while the other hand is wrapped around that pike, that head—probably maggot infested—gaping from the tip.
I don’t see Colden, but then Nephele tugs me around to her side of the tree, and I do. His hands are bound in chains, which confuses me. His power is gone, isn’t it?
