Everyone tensed up at my question.
Galaxy scratched the back of his neck as he thought of a response. “He’s, well… in Gehenna, we think.”
“Gehenna?” I scoffed.
“The rulers… they summoned him abruptly, and have denied all of us, including your mother, access to the Realm. We don’t know anything about what’s happening.”
I went to sit up, but a sharp pain from my surgical wounds sent me right back into the bed. Odysseus jumped from my outburst and pinned me down, his eyes wide with frustration. “Don’t you dare try to get out of this bed! You are in no condition to be running through Gehenna!”
“I need to know what they’re doing to him!” I wheezed, clutching my bandaged chest.
“Youneedto take a chill pill. This has nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me!”
“Wait, wait!” Mom pulled her phone loose and showed me the screen. “Evris is calling. Let’s put her on speaker phone and see what we can find out.” She answered the call and waited for a beat. “Evris, honey, I have you on speaker phone. Can you tell us anything about what’s going on?” Mom coaxed in a loving, yet firm, tone.
Evris was surrounded by pure silence. This was something very odd for her. Usually, the ruler of Layer One was around constant noise, especially from the Inn. For her to have nobackground noise, not even a whisper… I knew something was wrong immediately.
Evris took a settling breath before lowering her tone drastically. “I really need to talk to Nick,” was all she could say.
“I’m right here, Evris…” I confirmed, moving the mask away from my face so she could hear me better.
She waited another beat, then began to speak slowly, “Peregrine and the others… they’re really mad about what happened with the Horsemen, like, super mad. They feel Atlas disrespected all three Realms, Caelum, Gehenna, and Earth, to the highest degree, and he and his familiars need punishment for it.”
“They can’t punish a God of their Realm for anything!” I barked back.
“Oh yes they can. Gehenna is its own beast, with its own rules and regulations thatallbeings must follow, especially Gods. Atlas is not Endymion or you; he was a placeholder God, someone to fill the role while they waited for you to be born, and that is how they have always treated Gods beyond you two. They do not care about him or respect him the way they do you, nor do they give a shit about what happens to him. Not only did Atlas harm Humans, demons, and Life Elementals, but he hurt Endymion’s Successor, the God of all Gods to Gehenna. This is not boding well for his sentence.”
“What sentence, Evris? What the Gehenna is going on!”
She exhaled loudly. “They have sentenced him for his crimes against the Realms. He tried to convince them that he was innocent, that he had no say in what Ambermourn did, but they refused to listen.”
“I need to come down there and talk some sense into them-…”
“You will do no such thing!” Mom barked, firmly pinning me to the bed. “Odysseus is absolutely right. You cannot be running around the most dangerous Realm in existence in this state.”
“So you’re going to sit here and let the fate of your husband rest in the hands of demons!” I shot back, which made her shrink into herself.
For a moment, she contemplated what I said, then brought her head up gently. “My son comes first.”
I was astonished by her response. She was my mother, so of course she loved me, but I never thought she would put anyone before Dad. They were inseparable, indisputably obsessed with one another, and each other’s entire world. How she could stomach the idea of losing him, much less to Gehenna, was beyond anything I ever could comprehend.
“Mom…?” I whispered in disbelief.
Mom brought the phone up to her mouth. “Evris, can you request a meeting with the rulers for this evening, and have them meet us in Nick’s hospital room? I want to know from them what his fate is, and maybe Nick can talk some sense into them, but from a safe place. Would they be willing to leave Gehenna and see him?”
“They would do anything for Nick,” Evris stated plainly. “They worship him, which is why they are so mad that Atlas has hurt him the way he has. I will do what I can, but no promises. They are firm on their decision.”
“Is he at least safe? Please, Evris, promise me he is,” I begged.
She exhaled again, a frustrated sound. “He is alive, and safe, but not comfortable by any means. I will explain more when I come see you tonight. For now, keep this conversation between us. I will say that you requested the meeting personally so they do not know I have spoken to the others. Make sure no one else is in your room when they come. They do not want other voices buzzing in their ears regarding a situation between Death and his Realm.” She was so formal in the way she spoke that I knew to heed her warning.
“We’ll make sure to vacate in time,” Mom promised. Evris hung up the phone abruptly, leaving us in a lingering silence. Mom slumped forward until she had her face buried in my shoulder, where I could feel tears spill across my bare skin. “What have you done now, Atlas.”
At six o’clock sharp, all Gods exited my room and moved to collect around the main waiting area a few doors down. They huddled in collective piles and mumbled to one another, unsure of what to say or do, but feeling the tension in the air. Odysseus kissed my nose delicately, the last to depart, and whispered, “Good luck, my love,” in my ear before following Mom out of the room. She gave me a side-glare that said it all: don’t let these fuckers bully you. I nodded to her once to assure I could handle myself. The door shut firmly behind them, and Lysander locked it for good measure.
All that was left to do was wait.
