THE GODS OF THE LIVINGsank to the bottom of the abyss with a dissonant thud.
This was no place for such beings as them. It was the antithesis of their godsworld, barren instead of flourishing, a graveyard of souls too dark for their once luminous divinity to touch. They were supposed to be vitality incarnate, effervescent and enduring, forming together an ineffable harmony. But not in these hellish depths.
The living did not belong with the dead. Yet here they were in death’s domain, forced to cower in the cold and the dark to preserve what little divinity they had left. It had waned to near extinction, stolen by the monster who had cut them off from their source of power and sought to make himself a god in their place.
They would make him pay.
Centuries may pass before they clawed their way out of here, but what were centuries to gods, even diminished ones? It gave them time to orchestrate their return to the living, to formulate a plan that, ironically, rested so much on death and those touched by it.
It was only a matter of time now before they escaped this prison. And once they did, they would bring the false god to his knees and save the realms of the living that he was bound to destroy in their absence.
18KAI
EITHER FARRAN CAINE WAS ALIVE, or Kai was dead. Neither option made any sense, but here they were, on a silk-sailed ship floating across the cosmos.
Luce looked between them quizzically. “You two know each other?”
A trace of Farran’s dimpled smile, tinged with sadness. “We have… a history.”
“Yeah. A history of you screwing me over.” Kai wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. “But that’s two hundred years from now. Clearly, hell doesn’t account for time, otherwise death would have spared me your ghost.”
“This isn’t quite hell,” Farran said. “And you’re not exactly dead.”
“No? Butyouare. You died years ago. Centuries from now.” Fucking time travel logistics. “You’redead.”
What did that make of Kai and Luce if not dead too?
“I did experience death, yes,” Farran said. “But I was brought back. I guess you could say I was never really mortal to begin with.”
“Then what the fuck are you?”
“Immortal, obviously,” Farran said with a weak smile at his bad attempt at a joke. “I was brought back to life to become an apprentice to the god of balance.”
“You mean that bastard crowned umbra?” Maybe it was some kind of death god, looking to claim souls, and Farran was a wraith doing his bidding.
But Farran shook his head. “Not him. He’s no god.”
“Did this god of yours send you to save us, then?” Luce asked. “I thought we were plummeting to certain death before you showed up.”
“The god of balance doesn’t know our paths are crossing. Or maybe he does, I don’t know. Anyway, my allegiance is no longer to him. I’ve jumped ship, pardon the pun, and I serve other gods now. The only ones who might help stop what’s coming.”
Kai and Luce exchanged a wary glance.
“I know this is all confusing,” Farran said. He looked toward the horizon, as if mapping out their progress through these sparse stars. “There’ll be time for all your questions. We’ve got a long journey ahead.”
“Where are we even going?” Kai bit out.
“To hell,” Farran said. “To seek the gods who are trapped there.”
“I take it thishistorybetween you two didn’t end well?”
Luce’s question snapped Kai out of staring daggers at Farran, who was busying himself around the ship, making sure it stayed the course. The course to fuckinghellitself, apparently.
Kai breathed heavily through his nose, trying to tamp down all his anger. “What gave it away?”
“The glaring, for one. The venomous animosity, for two. All the makings of a lover spurned, if I had to guess.”
“Has anyone told you you’re too observant for your own good? It’s annoying.”
