As the goddess prepared to chase away dusk with the final knell of nightfall, she threw her shoulders back and took a deep breath. This was usually Erebus’s job, bringing forth the final curtain of darkness that cemented Nyx’s hold over the world. She felt calmer than she had in days, burying any confusion that she may have over Erebus and surrendering herself to her power—power that could handle both night and darkness. She flexed her fingers and felt that building wave within her. There was a solitary moment before she unleashed, where in a dance of the balance of her own totality and emptiness, Nyx surrendered.
She let go of the feelings of frustration, confusion, and love, and gave everything over to the night. Each argument that she had, the way she had screamed at the Fates, attacked Hades, whatever would happen tonight with Erebus, none of it mattered anymore. Her mind was blissfully blank as she closed her eyes and settled in to do what she had created herself to do. Nyx felt her body slowly beginning to electrify, a sensation that swept up her phantom legs. She tossed her head back and let go, darkness pouring out of her like a flood. It dripped from the sky and began to cover Mt. Olympus, chasing away the evening dusk. It drank the last drops of light from the horizon as it made way for the moon and stars.
Nightfall began moving over Greece, still pouring from Nyx’s body, when she suddenly almost fell out of the sky in surprise. There was another wave of power rushing up to meet her, covering her body with its own. It wrapped her up completely and held on tight, buoying her as the sudden combined strength doubled the potency of the darkness. It started coming from every pore, cascading down from the heavens, and covering the earth in a dance.
“Nýchta.” Erebus’s voice was rough, nearly dropping to a heady growl as it broke the silence. He had followed Hermes’s instructions to the letter, waiting until the sunset and then joining Nyx in the heavens.
“Erebus.” She tried to keep her voice even, but there was too much between them. Even now, both in their primordial forms as their power licked at one another, the feel of him caused her chest to seize. She knew that she would always love Erebus, but she hadn’t been prepared for the feeling of his working alongside her again—to be reminded of what it had felt like for thousands of years to push and pull in such a way that they made the earth turn each night. She should’ve known that Hermes wouldn’t have orchestrated a simpler meeting when they were both in mortal forms. She couldn’t think of that now as another dark wave of Erebus’s shadows flicked over her, the last remaining spots on earth succumbing to it.
“I’ve missed you.” Erebus’s words were simple, but they were potent. Overcome with the dizzying effect of nightfall once more, Nyx leaned her head back and sighed. Erebus was next to her, similarly affected. When she looked over at him and met his gaze, she saw an expression that she rarely saw on Erebus’s face. He was nearly drunk on her power. Both were. The heady presence of their powers working together, caressing, touching, sliding over one another, was causing the lines to become blurred. Nyx felt hot all over, a great heat rising in her wherever Erebus’s shadows licked at the lines of her phantom body.
Erebus was similarly affected, feeling intoxicated on the sweet scent of her. It was like waves of jasmine and poppy, threatening to hold him down and drown him in it. His body began to tense as sweat broke out on his brow and chest. The loose, black chlamys that he wore slid back down to earth and turned into smoke. Nyx rolled over on her side to face him, the last of her own celestial coverings falling away. They laid there in their primordial forms, throttled by the overwhelming feeling of being pressed up against each other, unable to find words. There was so much unspoken between them, but it was fighting against millennia of togetherness. Erebus leaned forward until he bent down and covered Nyx, his lips just barely grazing against hers. His body shook with the willpower to not throw himself upon her, but he waited.
It was that hesitation amidst the headiness, the patience. Even when they were threatening to rip the sky apart with a forgotten need for each other that bordered on bloodlust, he waited.
Nyx didn’t.
She tilted her head and kissed him, capturing his mouth with hers as her arms immediately went around his neck. As soon as Erebus felt Nyx, he responded on instinct. He tangled his hand in her hair as he wrapped an arm around her waist, made of waves of moonlight. His dark shadows curled around her moonlit body, cradled in the heavens, and the contrast drove him nearly insane. Here was Nyx, in all her heavenly glory, painted against the nighttime sky—and here was Nyx, curled up in his shadows and relishing the pushback as she ground her hips up against him. Their embrace grew more frantic as Nyx bit at Erebus’s lower lip, her hands moving to rub over his broad shoulders. Erebus growled, flipping them over and covering her body with his. Her head fell back against the clouds, starlit hair spreading out across the sky. Nyx fit perfectly in between Erebus’s shoulders, his body caging her in such a way that she feltfree.
“I’ve missed you,” Erebus said again, and Nyx nearly moaned out loud at the sound of his voice, breaking the steady sound of their breath. His chest was heaving as he picked up his head and looked down at her, his hand cupping her face. “Could you ever forgive me?”
His voice was tinged in regret, a deep sound that seemed to reverberate in Nyx’s bones. She felt her heart slow down just a beat as her hand bent his head back towards her, and she nestled her face in the crook of his neck. They stayed there for a moment, breathing each other in like it was the last thing they would ever remember. Erebus let out a low moan, his hips bearing down on hers, his arousal heavy between his legs. Nyx pulled back; her eyes were wild as she spoke.
“Don’t ask me questions right now, Erebus.” She was nearly panting, struggling to keep her eyes from rolling back into her head as shadows licked up her legs. “Just fuck me.”
Erebus stopped, and she saw the flicker of worry on his face. That this was another fleeting embrace, a mistake, something that they were falling into out of habit and lust. Nyx looked into his eyes, and she saw the devastation of a man possessed, whose heart was churning in his chest at the thought of her rejection. There were no words, in Greek or any language she had ever known, to cry out to him how much she loved him. Nyx loved Erebus, but there were too many questions, perceptions of her own rejection that she had suffered at his hand, in memories that were too recent. All she could offer him was this moment, right now, nestled in the starlight as their bodies stretched across the heavens. He hesitated.
“Please…”
Erebus’s expression contorted to one of almost rage as he kissed her, his movements dominating and possessive. His hand wrapped around her throat, and his grip tightened, sending Nyx’s hips canting up on their own volition as her eyes fluttered closed.
“Look at me,” Erebus growled, bearing more of his delicious weight down on top of her. “If this is what we have, thenlook at me,”he said again, the command in his voice impossible to ignore.
Nyx opened her eyes and met his stare, slid her arms down, gripped his back, and held on. Erebus’s other hand went to her hip and wrapped one of her legs around his waist. He stayed there for a moment, poised at her entrance, and Nyx whined. She was drowning in the heat and power radiating off his body, the ache between her thighs pulsing to the point of pain.
Erebus was no better off, feeling throttled by her scent and the sweet, divine feminine starlight that she was made of. It had him preparing to sink Greece into the sea if someone looked at her the wrong way. Nyx opened her mouth to beg to him to move, but the words died on her lips. Erebus thrust forward and sheathed himself in her entirely in one movement as Nyx’s head fell back in a silent scream.
The last barriers of control that they had were gone and Erebus’s movements were wild. He set a merciless pace as he drove into Nyx again and again, her hands scrambling for purchase at his wide shoulders. She left scratches in her wake as their passions fused, pouring everything into one another until they were breathless. The heavens began to shake, and stars dropped from the heavens as Erebus hit that blessed spot inside of her again, and again, and again. Nyx’s release came so suddenly, so intensely that she wept comets, dazzling streams of starlight pouring from the panes of her body as she convulsed.
Erebus fucked her through the throes, his pace losing his rhythm as his movements became wild and manic. He leaned down and bit at Nyx’s shoulder to keep from bellowing like an animal as he finished; shadows blanketed the earth in its entirety.
For a moment, the world was plunged into utter darkness as he collapsed against her. When Erebus picked his head up, he nearly screamed in agony as Nyx’s celestial body dissipated beneath him, like sand blowing away on the wind.
Erebus was alone.
32
Erebus had to breathe slowly and fight the urge to go hurtling after Nyx. They both knew that he wouldn’t, even though there was no place on earth that he couldn’t find her. She needed space. He would respect that, above all else. His need for her was strong but not nearly as much as his need to please her, respect her. It was a line he had crossed once, and he wasn’t ready to do it again. The night sky was thick around him, both of their powers still bleeding into one another. Erebus waited until it was the earliest hours of dawn, unable to move without running towards Nyx until their powers had started to ebb.
When the first hint of light crept up on the horizon, the stranglehold that her scent had on him started to lighten. Erebus dropped back down to the earth, materializing in his mortal form as he landed in a cloud of shadows. He stalked out of the fog, shadows curling over his shoulders and around his ankle. The world was quiet as he crossed the valley with one destination on his mind. He bent down swiftly, picking up his chlamys without stopping and drawing it up on his shoulder. Once he was adequately dressed, he pulled his shadows back into him, masquerading his appearance once more. As Erebus’s features dulled and lost their immortal edge, he let his power dim in his eyes.
The gates were slowly filling with traffic, even this early in the morning, as Erebus looked around. There were great cracks in the ground surrounding the city’s wall; trees were uprooted, and scores of earths were black as if they’d been badly burned. Erebus cursed under his breath as he looked around, blending in with the crowd as they walked under the stone arch. Inside, the city itself wasn’t looking much better. Some of the houses were leaning to one side, pools of water flooded out parts of the road. Only half of the market carts still stood, the other half lying in piles of kindling. Erebus knew that he was looking at damage from the gods’ war; anytime they clashed like this, using power with abandon, it sent tremors out into the physical world. Each crack, every broken door and burned strip of land, could be attributed to Ares’s spear or Artemis’s arrows. Every time an immortal drew blood, the earth responded in kind. Fractured.
This is what Nyx wanted to prevent.The self-loathing bubbled up again in his chest.No matter who wins in a gods’ war, mortals lose.
The deeper that Erebus got into the city, the less damage there seemed to be. The buildings grew closer together and the alleyways and roads were tighter, so it was only through luck that the aftershocks didn’t do extensive damage to the interior of the city.Although, the Fates would be livid to hear me say that it was in part due to luck.
Erebus kept a watchful eye on the street as he maneuvered it, taking note of each person. No one seemed to be in excessive peril; they moved about as though this was to be expected. It got more desolate as he got to the city center, his mind made up as he made a beeline for his final destination. Since there was no one around, Erebus picked up speed a little, hitting a pace too fast for a mortal man and stopped when he finally reached the door that he was looking for. He knocked once, remembering to smile at the last minute as to not upset delicate mortal sensibilities.
