Her gaze settled on the barely perceptible scar on his flat stomach. Not from his job, but proof of his torture. God, it hurt to even breathe.
However, his hard expression and his rigid shoulders had her tensing, holding her breath, and preparing for the worst. Through the years, she’d sailed through life, her heart mostly intact. And now the one man she’d given it to bore scars so deep; had lived horrors no sane person could ever endure.
“What you saw? It was my punishment.”
“For what?” she asked softly, her voice the only thing she could use to soothe him so he wouldn’t close up.
“After Inara, the Goddess of Life, was abducted and the massacre at her temple, we were brought in front of the council at the Gates of the Gods for sentencing,” he said, tone flat. “We were found guilty of negligence, for so many innocent murdered, and sentenced—”
“Butyoudidn’t kill anyone!”
“It didn’t matter. The handmaidens and most of the soldiers there had been slaughtered by Lucifer’s hordes. They were underourprotection. We, the protectors, were the all-powerful ones. We failed. We were stripped of our powers, our godhoods, and banished from our pantheons…” Týr wearily rubbed a palm over his whiskered jaw.
“And your hand?”
He shook his head. “It was an accident. I got it back once I became a Guardian. The ancient goddess to whom I swore my fealty restored it. My childhood friends, Fenrir and Narfi, were at the trial. Fenrir, my wolf friend, grabbed my hand with his jaws, probably thinking to save me from falling through the portal, but he snapped it off instead. None can escape Tartarus once condemned. My punishment was to die every night. Whatever the demon said meant nothing. It was my sentence.”
“Every…night?” she whispered, her stomach twisting in pain.
“I’ve been killed in so many ways—” His laugh was like rusty nails, abrading her hurting mind. “Death, torture. None of them scare me. You saw one way, there were many,manyothers, but I always came back the next day in that cave, healed, no matter where I ended up.”
“Wh-what do you mean?” She stared at him unblinkingly, her swollen eyes burning from tears shed.
Týr pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled as if in resignation. “Over the last century I was there, I had a demon guard who liked the arena fights, the bets and the victory. If I won, he gave me the next day off to do whatever I wanted—”
“Knowing you couldn’t escape because death pulled you back to your cave.”
Those bleak eyes met hers. A terse nod followed.
“What did you do then?”
“I searched for Dagan. I soon learned that we, the gods imprisoned in that hellhole, provided enough gossip to last the demons centuries. And rumblings of a Sumerian deity trapped in Reapers Hell, a place where blood avians reigned, reached me.”
But he hadn’t found Dagan, Kira knew this because Týr had told her at the cabin they’d just buried the hatchet of their blood-drenched past and were back on speaking terms only recently. “Does Dagan know you searched for him?”
He shook his head. So, despite them mending their friendship, he hadn’t revealed what he’d done. “What happened?”
Týr pushed his balled fists into his pockets, his stare dropping to his boots. “None of us could die. We were still immortal despite our lack of abilities. Reapers Hell was worse than any desert, unbearable heat even with no sun. Just endless, gray skies. At nightfall, death struck when massive, vulture-like creatures descended…”
Kira bit her trembling lip, struggling to hold back more tears. No words could compensate for what Týr had been through, what she’d seen. Cautiously, she padded across to him and lifted a hand to his face, tenderly touching his rigid jaw.
His gaze lifted to hers.
“I’m so sorry…” she whispered. “For everything. And for the bidding, too.”
He froze, looking as ifshe’dgutted him.
“Týr—”
“No…” A nerve pulsed hard on his brow, he stumbled back. “You don’t want to hear this, you don’t!”
“Týr!”She rushed to him, but he wheeled away as if he couldn’t look at her and stared out the window again. His closed-off expression had her stalling a few feet from him.
After an endless moment, he finally spoke, his voice impossibly low. “The spectators grew angry that even when I won, I still died, and they were denied their end game…” His tone was empty, like he was speaking of something that had happened to someone else. “So, new rules were applied to me. Every few days, they had an auction instead of a fight. Males and females all turned up because of this damn face! I was taken by whoever won top bid, stripped and chained to a bed…” His voice wavered.
Nooo!She bit her lip, trying to keep from breaking down, her heart fragmenting into shards as he revealed the degradation and the humiliation he’d suffered during his captivity. Unable to endure his torment, she reached out to him. “Týr—”
“What?” He whipped around, his brittle mask cracking. “You gonna tell me everything’s gonna be okay? How the fuck can anything ever be?” There was so much pain behind those furious words. “They laughed afterward when they gutted me like I was nothing. Theylaughed—” Power crackled, sparks pinging around the room and pricking her skin.
