“Watch yourself, dickhead. I’ve kept them at bay for centuries. I gave a huge part of myself to ensureyourmistakes wouldn’t destroy the world, like usual. All my family does is clean up yourfucking mistakes,” I acidly spat.
Endymion shrunk under my harsh tone. “Well, like it or not, this is the boat we are in.”
“Should we nullify Atlas’s powers? To keep them at bay?” Ashlynn peeped.
“No, absolutely not. We need all of you at peak performance while we deal with Pandora, especially if there is a threat that someone could release her,” Erasmus automatically answered.
“One question I still have: why was he looking into the rulers of Gehenna? What is their connection to all of this?” Seraphine pointed out.
I pursed my lips as I thought to myself. “I have no clue. He’s getting information from somewhere, obviously, from someone who is connected to us and Gehenna.” I jammed the back of a pen into Endymion’s neck, making him howl. “This fucker is the only one I can think of who has access to all of that.”
“Why is it always me?” he moped. “I told you, I’m doing what I can to make amends. Why would I go behind your back to work with someone I don’t give a flying fuck about? Especially someone who is only going to make our lives that much more difficult.”
Ashlynn gripped my arm suddenly, her hands shaking as a thought consumed her. “Atlas… what if he’s working with Phillip again?”
My blood ran cold. A spine-tingling shiver ran down my back, like I was a cat whose fur stood up when he was frightened. Everyone in the room matched my energy, looking to one another in hopes they’d find some other explanation. My breaths came out as choked little huffs as I spoke, “N-No… he couldn’t be? He-… Phillip wasn’t even a demon until recently?”
“Yes, but he knows enough, now, about the situation because of his position. Ambermourn could easily obtain information about demons and the Original Gods from him?” Seraphine gasped and cupped her mouth. “Gods, does he ever stop hurting people, ever!”
My hands began to turn to bone. Ashlynn winced when she saw it happen and took one of them to try and coax me to a tolerable temperature. “Atlas, honey, now is not the time to get upset?”
“Especially if you’re a ticking time bomb,” Endymion whistled.
I ripped my hand free and summoned my scythe so I could slash the tip across my forearm. My blood splattered like water from a broken faucet, making everyone cringe wildly, before I used the substance to etch a portal into the ground to Gehenna. “I’ll find out right fucking nowexactlywhat those two have been up to.”
“Let us come, please, so you don’t do something stupid!” Seraphine begged as she shot up to tug on my bleeding arm.
I slowly turned to her, and whatever look I held made her freeze. “He’s your father; I don’t think you’re going to enjoy what I plan to do to him.”
The entrance to Phillip’s personal quarters inLibidinewas decorated by an assortment of daylilies, a plant that could withstand the cold temperatures of the Layer. Phillip had lined the archway with plumes of them, trying to make things more inviting in his eternal sentence. I stared at the flowers for a beat, contemplating tearing them down, but decided against it.
Instead of knocking, I threw the door open, which smacked back against the wall loudly. Phillip was seated on an intricate sofa with his daily soul totals in his lap, a pair of reading glasses on the edge of his nose. He jumped wildly at the sound of the door being forced open, his papers exploding from his hands to coat the marble floors. “Gods, Atlas, did you need to make such an entrance?” he hacked, as he had choked up on some tea he was sipping.
“We need to talk,” I barked sternly.
“I see that.” He collected his papers and set them on the coffee table before nodding to me once, a somewhat cheerful smile on his face. “What can I do for you?”
“I think you knowexactlywhy I’m pissed.”
“Not this time, no, not particularly,” he chimed with a light shrug. I flashed across the room and grabbed his throat, slamming him into the desk opposite the sofa. He gasped as the wind was knocked out of him, his eyes crossing from the blow. I used chains made from smoke to constrict around his wrists, ankles, and neck, pinning him to the desk. “What is the meaning of this?” He choked off from how tight the chains were.
“You really don’t understand the dynamic between us, do you?” I began, letting go of him to begin pacing around the desk. His eyes followed my pacing, sweat trickling down his temple. “I am the God of this Realm, of both Caelum and Gehenna, and of Purgatory. I am the equalizer, the final destination, the ender of all things, and you willnotdisrespect me inmyRealm.”
“Atlas, whatever you think I’ve done, I swear I am innocent. I have done nothing but what you’ve told me-…?”
I flicked my wrist, which made an outline of Ambermourn’s face appear in smoke beside me. Phillip clammed up the moment he saw it, his tongue physically popping in the inside of his mouth as he forced it to stop. “Ambermourn and I had a lovely reunion as of late. We reminisced quite a bit, about our Chandler days. I also fucked him.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Phillip heaved.
I spun on my heel. “You know how Ambermourn is when he gets laid, since you two liked to have your fun as well. Out like a light, leaving me plenty of time to stick my nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“And…?”
“And I found some information in his notes; information he should not have access to. Things that no one beyond those in my close circle would know. Things that he would have learned from maybe, perhaps, an old friend?”
Phillip shook his head in bewilderment. “Atlas, what the Gehenna do I get out of giving him information? It’s not like he can exactly get me out of here, you know!”
“Maybe not, but you were faithful enough to him, grateful, even. He got you the fix you wanted, so in return, you slid him some information behind my back.”
