I cast a glance at him, and the solemn look on his face intensifies my unease.
My fidgeting fingers lace with Creed’s, and every eye in here tracks our movements. I hold my tongue until our entire group enters a long hallway.
“What the hell did you mean two Veilatara?”
He lets out a low sigh.
“I need you to understand that everything that goes on here wasn’t my doing, but there’s more I should’ve and could’ve already done, and haven’t.”
V’s words echo in my mind, and I swallow roughly.
“You weren’t the first God of Death.”
“No, I wasn’t. I killed him when I was seven and my father brought me here for the first time. It was an unfair execution. One that wouldn’t have happened had my father let Vihaan use his powers fairly.”
He falls quiet, and the stern mask he had a moment ago reappears on his face as we make it to the end of the hall. The space opens up once again to a large room that’s even more full than the one we just left.
He doesn’t slow his steps as we approach a heavily guarded door in the center of this strange area. My curious gaze turns both ways, and I find more doors with gods—some chained together, some not—lined up, waiting to pass through the thresholds.
There are guards scattered about as well. Our group and them are the only ones with weapons.
Gods…is this a role from Godsden they’re assigned or were they once the criminals who’ve done their time and are now in charge of keeping people in line?
I startle as the door opens, and the god who Creed ordered to prepare a carriage steps out of it, bowing low to us.
“Your carriage awaits, sir.”
My gasp echoes around us, and I cover my mouth as my eyes roam over the boundless sight before me.
Creed and Kyzen attempt to pull me back by my elbows, but I snatch free as I gawk over the cliff’s edge.
Shock tears through me as I trace the many structures hundreds of feet below us. There’s no sun, which means thereare no stars or moon. The only light source is the blazing fire pits and torches spread out everywhere.
“This is the upper level. It’s where those whose crimes aren’t as horrid come. I know this is a shocker and believe me, a lot of this place is wrong, but remember, these gods are criminals. The only true change they experience by coming here is they’re cut off from the glitz, beauty, and luxuries of Godsden. For those from the Abandon, this life is nothing they aren’t used to.”
My gaping mouth opens and closes repeatedly as I peer between Creed and the structures.
Note to self, remember to ask him how beings from the Abandon get here at a more appropriate time.
“I don’t know what to think. I’m just shocked. I didn’t expect to see…like a whole-ass town at the bottom of a freaking cliff.”
He grunts as his fingers wrap around my bicep. “Let’s go.”
My feet stutter as he turns us around, and my stomach bottoms out.
“No,” I breathe.
Kyzen, Riven, and Amick stand at the open carriage doors without the others, and their sober, most certainly angry faces, search mine. I can’t focus on them.
Attached to the front is the most horrific sight I’ve ever seen.
The two Veilatara don’t resemble the revered creatures I’ve grown to know and love.
Rotting wounds litter their—what’s supposed to be—gorgeous black coats, and their golden braids are merely a pale yellow. Instead of boundless white eyes, theirs are abysses of black. Their muscled legs are nothing more than skeletons, and their impressive wings aren’t feathered.
They’re webbed skin.
“What is this? What happened to them?”
