And standing in front of them, half turned to stone, were Kai and Luce.
36KAI
BAZ. OPENING A PORTAL INTOhell.
It was all Kai could think, all he could hear as Farran struggled against his grip. Farran had kept this from him. The slimy bastard had somehow reached through the recesses of time to find Baz and manipulate him into getting these gods out of the hell they were desperate to escape.
The pieces of the puzzle all fell into place in Kai’s mind. “You knew Luce and I would be falling off the path, didn’t you? You meant to bring us to the abyss so that Baz would have a reason to open this damn portal.”
“Kai,” Farran sputtered as Kai’s hands squeezed his windpipe. “Please—”
“I swear, if anything happens to Baz, I’ll make you regret ever being reincarnated.”
“Nothing’s going to happen to him.” Farran’s face was red as he fought for breath. “He doesn’t—he won’t have to—”
“Let him go, Kai.”
Luce was tugging at his arm, but Kai didn’t care, rage overtaking him, darkness pulling him under, as if exacerbated by this dark place they were in. As if hell wanted him angry, wanted him feral, all so it could feed on those negative emotions and keep him down here forever.
“Enough.”
Kai was ripped away from Farran by the sun god’s mighty grip. It only enraged Kai even more.“Don’t touch me,”he snarled.
The god let him go as if burned, a yelp slipping from his lips. He stared at his hands with confusion that quickly turned to anger. “What did you do to me, boy?”
“Kai.”
Luce was looking at him with wide eyes. Staring, like everyone else, at Kai’s collarbones—where his Luaguan tattoos shone faint silver.
Before Kai could make sense of things, the floor beneath his feet rattled, the roots above his head shaking as if under the impact of some great, terrible force. A thunderous sound filled his ears, like a boulder being pushed down a cliff. Or a heavy door being opened.
The goddess of the moon smiled, her head tilted back to stare at the roots above. “The way lies open, my siblings.”
Baz had opened the doorway to the living realms.
“See?” Farran spat at Kai, rubbing at his sore neck. “I knew he could do it. I would never have made myself or you or him suffer through the ripples of time and hell otherwise. Now we canallleave here and save the worlds we call home.”
The god of the air laughed, mischief dancing in their eyes. “Such a hopeful way to look at things. If only it were that easy.”
Confusion knit Farran’s brows. “What do you mean? I thought—”
“You played your part well, Reaper,” the goddess of the earth praised him. “You told us about the tree we knew would opena portal. Delivered our ritual to the Timespinner at the proper moment in time, thanks to that pocket watch of yours. And brought the Dreamer and Nightmare Weaver to us so that both the Tidecaller and Timespinner would have the proper motivation to save us. Now we can leave, you’re right about that. But not all of us. The abyss, as you know, does not relinquish mortal souls freely.”
“Lucky for you,” the god of the air said with a mischievous smile, “we only need one of you to act as our vessel and emissary in the living realms. One whose soul has already been touched by the divine.”
A strangled, bitter laugh tumbled out of Kai’s mouth. The gods had never meant for him or Luce to leave this place. Only Farran, who seemed to come to the same horrible conclusion, eyes going wide as they met Kai’s. They had all been manipulated, all been used. And it was too late now to stop the gods from doing what they’d always intended.
It happened at dizzying speed: the four gods dissolving before their eyes, turning into specks of colorful dust that swirled around Farran in a maelstrom of power. Farran screamed, his eyes shifting to quicksilver to rust to fiery coals to lightning blue. Roots reached down to him, curling around his torso and pulling him up into the depths of the tree.
And just like that, the four gods of the living realms vanished with their emissary.
Desperate not to be left behind in the abyss, Kai made to follow them but found that he could not move, his feet rooted to the floor beneath him.
“What’s happening?” Luce cried out.
She was also frozen in place, kept there by obsidian roots that crawled up her ankles, same as Kai. Unimaginable pain shot through the base of his feet and spread to his ankles. He heard himself scream, the sound mixing with Luce’s own helpless cries.
They were turning to stone, like all the souls of the dead sentenced to the abyss. As if hell was claiming their souls, too, even if they weren’t dead. They might as well be, if there was no way out of here.
