Chapter Seventeen

After another hour of shouting, Hades's snarky comebacks, Michael almost breaking a vase over his head, and Simon making enough food to feed an army, we managed to sit down. On the floor. In Michael's dining room.

"We wouldn't be down here if someone hadn't broken my table," Michael muttered, taking a polite bite out of his grilled cheese. He paused to look at the thing, like he was stunned it actually tasted good. He took another bite, his anger over the table briefly forgotten. Hades cut him a dry stare.

"We could still eat in the living room, you know."

"Over my 13th century Persian rug? I think not."

"Okay," I announced, drawing the attention back to the task at hand, "Let's figure out how the fuck we're going to start looking for Alaric. Because I literally have no idea where to even start." Rowan frowned as he took a bite of his grilled cheese and swallowed it down with some of Michael's weirdass non-dairy organic milk shit. Props to Rowan for not spitting the shit out on the floor. Probably didn't want to fuck up Michael's floorboards to add to the current damage already done.

"Perhaps we should check back in Viviana's realm," he said, making everyone glance up, "Clearly she knows something about this. She's still around. I know I've seen her and spoken to her."

"But how do you know for sure?" Hades asked. Rowan looked at him.

"Trust me. Viviana and this shape shifting thing are different creatures."

"How do you know that thing isn't just taking Viviana's form?"

"Call it a gut feeling."

"I don't like to base my entire battle strategy on gut feelings," Hades responded dryly. Michael looked at him and opened his mouth to say something, but Xiphrus cleared his throat loudly, obnoxiously, and Michael slowly turned to look at him with a look of annoyance. Hades smirked.

"Anyway," I drawled, "I'm taking Rowan's side in this. He hasn't been wrong yet."

"Which brings me to my next inquiry," Hades drawled, "Why the hell should we trust this guy? Hasn't he been around every single time that thing has shown up?" I frowned. He had a point there, and I hadn't actually thought about that until just now. The shape shifter showed up in my hospital room first, where Rowan had been standing nearby to keep watch. Then again at the church, Rowan was also there. In fact, he was the one that suggested we walk into the church in the first place. And the shape shifter jumped me again, here, in Michael's house, with Rowan just downstairs.

"If he was working with that shifter, he would've killed Stanton a long time ago," Simon spoke up from where he sat in the corner of the dining room, licking Oreo crumbs off his lips. Hades glanced at him dryly.

"And what about you?"

"I told you to put my Oreos back," Michael said coldly. Simon smiled and held up the empty package.

"I did. Just not in the pantry."

"I want him out of my house."

"Too bad," I stated, "First of all, I like him. Second of all, I like him more than you. And third, he's going to help us. Just like Rowan has. Because like Rowan, Simon hasn't made an attempt on my life either. In fact, he helped me back in Viviana's place. So I trust him; I trust them both." Hades looked like he wanted to debate that, but Hades didn't trust anyone, so I didn't take offense to it. The guy saw everyone he ran into as a threat. I think the only reason he hasn't killed me off or thrown accusations my way was the fact that he thought I was a lazy bum. Which I wouldn't argue with, because let's face it; if the world, and my husband, wasn't at stake right now, I'd probably be sitting at home watching reruns of Friends.

"I don't know if I want to return to that realm," Xiphrus said, referring to Rowan's earlier suggestion, "It was difficult to escape from there. She'll know once we enter."

"She'll know once someone enters," Rowan pointed out, making him frown, "She can tell when someone stretches the barrier to get in, but she doesn't know who specifically. The only problem will be to get out of the realm. Once I'm inside, I am not allowed to leave without her permission."

"You can say you forgot your keys or something," Hades suggested, and when everyone glared at him, he glared back, "What? For once I was serious. Make up some bullshit. You forgot your underwear. I don't fucking know. Say you just needed to drop in before you go back to whatever you were doing, which was..." He trailed off and waved his hand in circles at Rowan, like he was trying to encourage Rowan to spill the beans about why he was sent out in the first place. Rowan gave him an amused stare.

"Nice try," he answered. Hades rolled his eyes and threw his hand up in the air, as if to toss Rowan's response in a garbage bin behind himself.

"Come on, you can't tell me that's not suspicious as fuck," he said, looking at me. I looked at Rowan, who met my eyes without flinching. Rowan wasn't going to talk about it. He was not prepared to give details about himself, for some weird ass reason. It should've just made him less trustworthy. Normally, I'd be on Hades's bandwagon, all about the pitchforks and torches, but this was different. Rowan was different. I had no idea why I had this sudden blind trust in the guy, but I did. Something told me it was a good idea to believe what Rowan said.

And it's not like he was wrong so far. He'd been helping us this entire time. He encouraged me to go back to Alaric. He tried to talk me out of my fear of the beast. He also knew when I was cured. He had also pitched in with Hades to keep me alive. So why would he be a bad guy if he was keeping me alive?

It didn't make any logical sense.

So I was with Rowan.

"He's here for personal reasons," I said, making Hades frown at me, "He is." I didn't elaborate. Hades could read minds. And while he couldn't read the minds of those who were closest to him, I wasn't really that close to the guy, even if we did share a family and went to the same birthday parties and holiday dinners. So I pinned my response to the forefront of my temporal lobe so it was the first thing he would see. And then I posted up a picture of Alaric in his white and pink panties.

A second later, Hades slammed those blue eyes shut, like he had a sudden headache, and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"You okay?" Xiphrus asked. Hades grimaced at him.

"Nope. Mentally scarred for eternity." He turned to glare at me. I smiled.

"I would have to agree with Rowan," Michael said after a moment, making Hades whip his head up to stare at him in disbelief and Michael narrowed his eyes, "What? He makes sense. Clearly this Viviana is connected to the shape shifter. As such, what better place to hide prisoners than where they both reside?"

"Okay, first of all, how do we even know they live in the same realm? And second of all, since when did you suddenly trust everything that isn't a Christian power?" Hades asked. Michael looked at him annoyed.

"Since I knew it would bother you," he answered. Hades appeared to be debating whether or not to hit Michael with his plate, and Michael appearing to tense in preparation for it. Of course, the attack that came next came from neither of them. The window behind Hades exploded inwards and he cursed, ducking and rolling. Everyone else shot to their feet and backed away from the window as a row of black bubbling shadows rolled into the room, shooting upright and taking form a moment later.

The first one was a muscular female with short, short dark hair and tight black clothing. The second a male, ridiculously ripped so he looked like a bodybuilder on steroids, with his short blonde hair spiked. Another female, this one leaner and taller with her bright red hair coiled back from her face, and finally a male with a mop of blonde curls and built like an Olympic swimmer.

"Traitors," the first female accused the moment she saw Simon and Rowan, who narrowed his eyes, and Simon just offered her a charming smile.

"Lola," Simon greeted her, "And let's see if I remember... Joshua, Phoebe, and Mich?"

"Marshall," the last male corrected flatly. Simon shrugged.

"Just asking so I know what to put on your tombstones," he responded.

"I don't think so," Lola said in a low menacing tone, and her eyes whipped to lock on me, "We're here to deliver his head to our master. Even if it means bulldozing through you lot of idiots."

"Well, that's lame," Hades spoke up, making everyone look at him, "His head? Why not his balls so your master can wear them as earrings?"

"Wow, thanks, Hades, really, I appreciate your support right now," I said to him dryly. Hades gave me a thumbs up. Lola narrowed her eyes, whipped back around, and launched the first attack by charging me. I caught her and threw her up over my head, but she caught herself on my shoulders and bounced around behind me. The other shadows attacked as well, and I vaguely heard Michael say something about ruining his house for the second time. Whatever the hell that meant.

Lola aimed a punch for my throat, but I ducked low and went to swipe her legs out from under her, but she leapt up and kicked me in the face. I cursed, stumbling back into the living room and reaching up to wipe the blood from my face. Lola charged me again, going for a headbutt, except I caught her and swung her around, lifting her right off her feet and slamming her into the fireplace. The bricks crackled and fell apart to the floor, leaving a pile of dust on Michael's Persian rug.

I glanced back in the dining room where he was occupied with one of the shadows that had picked Rowan up and slammed him up against the wall.

Oh good. He was distracted. So he wouldn't mind if I fucked shit up further in here.

I swung back around as Lola got to her feet. I dropped down and yanked the rug out from under her feet, making her stumble and land on one of the sofas. She jacked back up like a goddamn jack-in-the-box, though, and picked up one of Michael's French end tables. She caught me across the back with it and I grunted, dropping down, then whipping around onto my back on the floor, wrapping my legs around hers and knocking her down. She landed on top of me and I shoved her back so I could land a punch to her face, making her head snap back. She gasped, momentarily stunned by the iron fist to the cranium, and I took my chance to bash our heads together, further disorienting her.

I swung her around and pinned her down on the floor, reeling my fist back to sucker punch her, but she moved fast like a cobra, ramming her knee up between my legs. I choked and fell off her, clutching at my groin as hot pain flared up into my stomach, triggering a wave of nausea as I gasped for air. She shoved me back onto the floor and got on top of me, holding her arm out and triggering a knife into her palm from a mechanism in her jacket sleeve.

"Maybe I will take your balls as a prize," she sneered at me.

"Gross," I choked out. She slammed the knife down and I caught her wrist seconds before it would've gelded me. She pushed hard and I shoved back, breathing hard as pain continued to pulse through my stomach and panic blasting me at the thought of losing my boys.

Thankfully, Rowan was behind her a second later, grabbing her up under the arms and throwing her clear across the room so she smashed into a wall covered in expensive art pieces, all of which were immediately ruined by Lola's body planting on them and sliding down to the floor with her.

Rowan held his hand out to me and I grabbed tight, letting him heave me to my feet. Wheezing, I clutched myself for a moment longer, trying to catch my breath.

"You singing in falsetto now?" Rowan asked me. I glared at him, then we both looked up as Lola rose to her feet, then swung her arm out and sent a blast of magic that shot across the room and threw us both backwards, crashing out one of the front windows and rolling out into the front lawn.

"Holy shit, she's impossible to pin down," I panted, struggling to my feet. Rowan pulled himself up beside me, reaching up to yank a piece of glass out of his cheek and tossing it behind him.

"Shadows aren't easy to get rid of," he muttered as the cut in his cheek healed right in front of me, "We're like cockroaches." I could agree to that. We looked up as Lola leapt out through the busted window onto the front lawn, cracking her knuckles and preparing another attack. I narrowed my eyes and got into a crouch, and Rowan mimicked my movements. Lola threw her hand out and sent another blast of magic, but this time, I caught it and sent it straight up into the air where it exploded like a shower of fireworks. At the same time, Rowan threw an attack her way, a flow of black magic streaming toward her like tentacles ready to snatch her up and strangle her.

Lola threw up a shield and Rowan's attack collided with it, making her take a couple steps back, but that was about it. She dropped her shield and attacked Rowan directly this time, and he didn't have enough time to conjure a block so he went slamming back into the ground and out onto the street. I cursed, my head snapping to the side, momentarily distracted, and Lola took that chance to blast me.

Everything became a blur of motion as I went flying through the air and slammed into the pavement of the street. The air exploded from my lungs and pain fired up through my back and out into my limbs so I was momentarily stunned from the attack. I blinked rapidly as Lola made her way over, flipping out another dagger and preparing to gut me, judging from the way she was holding her weapon.

I spat blood from my mouth, forcing myself to get up on shaky legs. She swung her dagger at me, but I caught her wrist and slammed my knee up into her stomach, making her grunt and double over. I grabbed her head and brought it down on my knee, once, twice. She slumped to the ground and I stood over her, bending over to twist the knife out of her grasp, doing a little spin with it to give it momentum before I threw it down toward her back. Except she vanished in a wave of shadowy smoke, slithering away and retaking her form a few feet away. She was gasping hard for air, sweat pouring down her face as she bared her fangs.

"Damn," I muttered. Lola spit some blood out and wiped the back of her hand across her mouth before narrowing her eyes on me.

"You have to die," she stated, like she was done fighting and figured talking me into suicide was a great idea. I snorted at that, bending over to take the knife I'd throw out of the ground at my feet. I wiped it off on my pant leg.

"Oh yeah, sure."

"You don't understand--"

"I don't care."

"You should," Lola snapped, "Those events, they need to happen."

"And why is that?"

"Because if they don't, we can't--" She was cut off by a spine-chilling roar. I recognized it immediately, looking up at the same time Rowan was recovering and wobbling onto his feet. Lola's eyes widened and she spun around as the front door of the house flew off its hinges and went flying over our heads. We ducked low, watching it sail into the neighbor's yard before we turned slowly to see Xiphrus coming out the front door.

Except it wasn't Xiphrus. It was Fido. The beast had its fangs elongated, its blazing hot red eyes scanning us, claws extended. It scanned right over Rowan and I and locked on Lola, who took a step back. Fido threw his head back and roared like one pissed off motherfucker. He dropped down low and sprinted right at Lola, who threw an attack at him that barely touched him. It was like Fido was wrapped in some kind of magic because it cut right through the attack. Lola went to start another attack, but one second Fido was there and the next he was gone, making her stiffen and whip around.

A second later, Fido appeared in front of her, reeling his arm back and blasting it right through her chest. Lola choked and her head fell back, blood running from the corners of her mouth. Fido snarled and struck at her exposed throat, sinking those long fangs down into her tender flesh and yanking back, ripping everything open so blood gurgled out and splattered to the pavement. Fido ate whatever he'd ripped out of her, slurping it down like it was a Thanksgiving turkey, then he heaved her up and broke her in half.

Like, literally lifted her clean off her feet and tore her body in half at the waist, throwing her body parts to the ground. I flinched as her head snapped off her body and rolled to my feet. Those black eyes stared up at me, blinking once before they seemed to fade, her mouth twisted in a silent scream. I jerked my head up when I heard a growl and watched Fido settle down his King Kong action to look at me.

I went rigid, not moving. I reminded myself quickly that Fido wasn't going to kill me. I wasn't a shadow anymore. There was no reason for him to attack me. Right?

Right?

I said nothing, didn't move, as Fido stalked toward me slowly, a growl rumbling in his throat before he stopped in front of me. He seemed taller right now as he stood over me, his breath reeking of blood as he got in my face. He sniffed a couple times, and I saw Rowan out the corner of my eye making a gesture at his neck for me to keep my mouth shut.

So I did.

Fido pulled back to cock his head at me, then his growl became a low purr. He snatched me in his arms and pulled me close, rubbing his face against mine. I grimaced, not really big on the fact that he was wiping blood on my face, but you know, whatever, no biggie. Rather let him snuggle than get my ass torn up. So I said nothing, didn't move as Fido seemed to reassure himself I was alright.

Only for his wings to suddenly jut out of his back. They exploded forth like a pair of black blades, slicing through his back and sending blood flying across the street. They flared out and stayed out and I heard something slam against him, making him take a step forward with me.

Fido's cuddle bunny expression was gone and replaced with utter rage as he tightened his hold on me for a moment. He picked me up, like literally lifted me right off my feet, and set me aside so he could turn slowly to see the huge shadow by the name of Joshua standing on Michael's front lawn, preparing a fire attack as he formed a fireball in his palm.

Fido snarled at him, flaring his wings out. I looked at Rowan bewildered, but he said nothing as we watched Fido attack Joshua.

And it didn't take long at all.

He ripped the shadow to pieces, tearing into his insides and black blood spraying straight up into the air like a fountain before creating an oil spill on the ground. Fido thrashed with what was left of Joshua's corpse before he spun around to look at me. I just stared at him, and he stared back, like he was waiting for something. Rowan and I look at each other.

"Uh, good boy," I said at last, clapping my hands. Rowan just looked at me like I was a goddamn idiot. Apparently, however, that was what Fido was waiting for because he brightened at that. He disappeared from his place in body parts to appear right in front of me. His arms went around me tightly and snuggled up against him like I was his favorite chew toy. I looked at Rowan over Xiphrus's shoulder, mouthing what the actual fuck and Rowan just held his hands out as if to say hell if I know. I grimaced, but I supposed a bloody hug was better than being part of his body parts pile.

Fido's wings folded up behind him and tucked themselves away, vanishing from sight. He took a step back, growling low. His claws slowly returned to normal, shrinking down into regular fingernails, those fangs sliding back up into his gums, his fiery red eyes flickering from red to blue and back again several times before settling on pale sky blue.

He shuddered a little, and Rowan came over just as Xiphrus looked up. His eyes widened.

"What happened? What did he do? Are you hurt anywhere?" He demanded, grabbing both Rowan and I to check us over. Rowan looked incredibly uncomfortable and shrugged Xiphrus's grip off him, clearing his throat and taking a step back, holding his hand up.

"Fine. This blood isn't mine," he added. I nodded, then pointed to the ruins of the shadows behind him.

"Actually, it came from those guys. Well, except this," I gestured to the bright red blood on my face, "This is mine. Chick packed a hell of a punch. I think my nose is broken." Xiphrus immediately frowned and reached up, touching my forehead. A split second of pain went through my face and I hissed, feeling my nose right itself again.

"Thanks," I said slowly, "I think." Xiphrus studied me a moment longer, then looked at Rowan, who shook his head.

"I'm already healed," he responded. Xiphrus still looked like he was about ready to risk Rowan, but he seemed to suddenly remember that there were more people involved. He spun around in time to see Michael, Simon, and Hades standing on the front lawn. Michael looked super peeved as he looked up at his house, which now had three different holes in it and no doubt everything inside was destroyed. He rubbed his face with his hands, and Xiphrus winced, moving over to comfort him.

"My house," Michael groaned, rubbing at his temples now, "My stuff." Xiphrus came up behind him to put his hands on his shoulders. Michael jumped for a moment, then relaxed when he saw it was Xiphrus. He reached up to put a hand over Xiphrus's on his shoulders as Xiphrus leaned down to give him a kiss on the head.

"I'm sorry. We'll fix it."

"Not soon enough," Michael muttered, flexing his fingers now, like he was resisting the urge to go in there and fix everything up, even though it was all destroyed. Hades reached up to run his hand through his hair, brushing it back from his face.

"Well, that was fucking hellfire," he declared, then paused to crack his back and grimace. Simon cracked his neck from side to side and glanced over at Rowan and I, arching a brow.

"Have a good time?" He asked. Rowan scoffed and I shrugged, making a shaky gesture with my hand to say meh, sorta. Simon smirked.

"Looks like they're stepping up their game," Michael said at last, frowning deeply, "They're done playing hide-and-seek." Rowan nodded grimly.

"They're not going to stop until Stanton is dead."

"I wish you hadn't killed that one chick right away," I said, making Xiphrus look at me, "She was about to let slip why they need to trigger the events in the first place."

"That would've been a handy piece of information," Simon responded dully.

"Sorry," Xiphrus murmured.

"Doesn't matter," Hades decided, "Besides, it's our turn to make a move." I looked at him with a scowl.

"What'd you mean our turn? We can't just launch an attack in Viviana's realm. There's several castles filled to the brim with those shadow things," I said. There was no way we would make it out alive. Hell, we all got our asses whipped just now against only four of them. And that was putting them up against three ancient beings, an archangel, a deity, and another shadow. If we struggled against only four, I could only imagine how fucked we were if we took on several thousand.

Hades shook his head.

"Not a full out battle. Nothing flashy like we did with ol' Atlan. I'm talking serious stealth. Get in, get rid of the shape shifter thing, give Viviana a good spanking, then we're out. Easy as pie."

"I wish you had worded that differently," Simon said, wrinkling his nose in disgust. Hades shrugged, clearly not finding anything gross in his wording.

"What in the Source's name happened here?" Everyone turned as a unit to see Joxeia walking toward us with Zeus right on his tail. As fashionable as ever decked out in probably twenty thousand credits worth of high end attire, Joxeia looked like a goddamn super model, as usual. His long white hair was pulled up into a ponytail that trailed down to his waist, and his ankle boots clicked on the pavement. At his side, like a Calvin Klein model, Zeus had his blonde hair slicked back all business-like and those sapphire blue eyes were on Joxeia the entire time we approached until he seemed to realize Hades was part of our group.

"Of course you're involved with this," Zeus deadpanned. Hades looked at him innocently.

"Whaaat? For once I didn't do this shit. Not all of it. He did it," he pointed at Xiphrus, who averted his eyes awkwardly. Joxeia frowned at them, then looked at me. I didn't say anything, just stared back at him. I waited for him to out me about our little showdown a while back, but he just studied me for a while longer, then looked at Xiphrus, only to see Rowan, and his eyes widened.

"Nhyt?" He asked. Rowan looked back at him stoically.

"Actually, it's Rowan nowadays," he answered. Joxeia wrinkled his nose.

"But your name was so cute," he said, and I was surprised to see Rowan's cheeks stain pink, "I was the one who told Xiphrus to name you that. He was going to name you Blit." He turned to give Xiphrus an irritated stare and Xiphrus's eyes widened a little.

"What? I thought it was a good name."

"It means black, Xiphrus."

"He's the deity of nighttime."

"So Nhyt is a better name because it literally means nighttime."

"Hey, take it from me," I said, "He's not good with naming anything. He named me friggin' Death and our siblings Plague, Famine, and War. The guy is not good with names."

"You're telling us he's bad with naming when you named his beast Fido," Michael deadpanned. Everyone looked at me. I looked down at my boots, pretending to find them utterly fascinating. Thankfully, the awkward silence was interrupted by Joxeia clearing his throat.

"Anyway, anyone want to explain to me why Michael's house is full of holes and Xiphrus's other son is here? I thought they were all wiped out," he said, looking at Rowan.

"That's not important," Rowan responded swiftly, and by this point, nobody was surprised by Rowan's smooth evasion, "We need to focus on the fact that the shapeshifter creature is coming after Stanton to kill him, in order to bring one of the the Source's prophecies to fruition." Joxeia immediately frowned.

"Wait, shapeshifter?" He asked. Michael gave Joxeia the crash course information about everything that had happened recently, and I watched as Joxeia's expression changed from confused to realization, like he was catching onto something that we missed.

"Where are the books?" Joxeia demanded immediately after Michael finished. Michael led the way back to the house, inside where he stopped for a moment to stare at the ruin of his house. Xiphrus gently touched his back to urge him forward. Michael managed to focus on the task at hand after that, going to the living room where the books somehow managed to survive the wreckage we'd wrought on the household.

Joxeia took the first book gently, holding it open and scanning it over. Meanwhile, Simon retreated to get drinks from the kitchen and Hades did a thorough check of the house to ensure that nobody else was hiding in the shadows. Xiphrus went around picking up some of the mess, not that it would do much considering everything was falling apart. Wallpaper was peeling off the wall, floorboards had been not only scuffed, but some torn up from the floor, some pieces the ceiling hanging down, the chandelier in the kitchen was busted on the floor, and a bird flew in through one of the holes in the front of the house to land on the fireplace mantel.

"Nice place," Zeus commented as he looked around. Michael glared at him, folding his arms over his chest, clearly not amused with Zeus's sarcasm.

"Damn," Joxeia said suddenly when everyone had returned to the living room.

"Is that a good damn or a bad damn?" Hades asked.

"Bad damn," Joxeia muttered, looking up, "This isn't exactly a prophecy. It's a specific series of events that have to happen to trigger what we call the Reset." Xiphrus stared at him in disbelief. Rowan and I looked at each other. That didn't sound familiar at all. I couldn't remember ever reading something about a Reset.

"Reset?" I asked. Joxeia nodded.

"Every few eons, the universe will self-destruct. It starts with the meltdown of the realms, one by one they begin to grow unstable, until they implode, on after another. The Source swallows everything up and it all disappears. Only to return brand new, clean slate," he explained. I frowned slowly before my eyes widened in recognition. In the back of my head, I could Viviana asking me the same question over and over again.

Don't you wish you could go back and redo everything again?

"Wait a minute. That's what Viviana meant," I said suddenly, making everyone look at me, "She always asked me if I could go back and redo everything, would I do it." Xiphrus blinked, surprised that.

"Actually, I think she asked me the same thing once."

"Same here," Hades muttered.

"She's working with this shape shifter to trigger the Reset," Joxeia realized grimly.

"But wait, how can you do that if the Source already has a specific time in mind?" Michael asked. Joxeia shook his head.

"There are events that need to occur before the decomposition of the realms begins. This here is a list of those events. And it looks like a few of them have already taken place, but with considerable time in between them all. If you rush all these events into a cluster, it could make the reset unstable. For all we know, the universe may backfire and not reset itself. It'll gone. Done. Over with." Joxeia snapped the book shut and looked up at us. Hades stared at him.

"Well, you didn't have to put it so lightly," he said dryly. Joxeia shrugged. Xiphrus frowned.

"But who is the shape shifter?" He asked. Joxeia shook his head.

"No name is ever mentioned, from what I've seen," he said, then went and picked up another one of the books to flip through it while shaking his head, "No name. No identity at all. It's just referred to as the one who changes shape, or the one without a permanent form." Hades sighed heavily at that, wiping a hand down his face.

"Great. We have two psychos on the loose trying to reset the universe and all my hard work, and Lucifer's kid is still missing," he groaned. Joxeia looked up with a frown.

"What?"

"Oh yeah," Simon said, coming in with drinks, "Alaric's been kidnapped by the bad guys." Joxeia paled.

"What? Alaric? Why? What happened there? Why didn't anyone tell me about that?" He demanded, turning to pin me with a glare. I glared back at him.

"You wanted to know about the books first. We're not sure what to do from there. Probably break into Viv's place and scout around for him," I responded. Joxeia rubbed at his temples and Zeus was right there to rub a hand on his back. Joxeia looked at him helplessly for a moment before he took a deep breath, spreading his hands out in front of him. It was always a weird technique he did to calm himself down before he blew up.

"Okay," Joxeia said slowly, "Tell me what happened to Alaric. And please tell me one of you contacted Lucifer." His eyes went to Hades, who turned to look at Michael, whose mouth fell open.

"Me? Certainly not me. I'm just beginning the steps of talking to him without wanting to strangle him. The Greek is the one who's sharing a bed with him," he said incredulously. Joxeia glared at them both.

"Nice. Now he's going to be mad at all of us," he muttered, picking up a book and opening it up to flip through the pages, "I just got him to start talking to me again too." No one said anything to that. See, Lucifer wasn't Zeus's biggest fan. In fact, Lucifer had plotted to kill Zeus at least one time that we knew of, and gave the Greek king the stink eye whenever he was in the vicinity. Lucifer was about as forgiving as me, if not worse at it. At least where Zeus was concerned. And when Joxeia started shacking up with Zeus, Lucifer had been positively livid. The idea of his long time friend having a relationship with the asshole brother of his lover was not okay.

And while Lucifer and Joxeia had been patching things up, there was still an intense hatred for Zeus coming from Lucifer. He only put up with Zeus for the sake of Hades and Joxeia, both of whom still valued Zeus's existence.

I could understand why Joxeia was hesitant to make Lucifer angry again after just getting things to smooth over. And the fact that it was one of Lucifer's babies, as in, one of his youngest, was only going to infuriate Lucifer further. The archangel was overprotective of all his children, but in particular the youngest two, Nikias and Alaric.

If Lucifer knew Alaric was missing, he'd have all of our heads mounted on the wall over his fireplace and not think twice about it.

"So we think he's with Viviana?" Joxeia asked at last. Rowan nodded.

"It's the most logical place. It's where Viviana is at, and clearly Viviana has something to do with this shape shifter. There's nowhere else I can think of where they would hide him."

"The only problem is that if we enter that realm," Xiphrus pointed out, "Is that we may not be able to return. I have no idea how I managed to enter that realm in the first place. Maybe I got in with someone else, maybe it was magic, maybe Viviana wanted me in. And if that's the case, if we get in and out because Viviana lets us, that means we're playing her game and that's not what we want."

"You've got a point," Joxeia muttered, brushing his fingers over the book in his hand, "Damn. This is one of those times I really wish Geara were here." Xiphrus nodded solemnly. For once, I agreed. Geara was wisdom. Intelligence. Grace. She would know what to do, how to do it. But she was still in slumber, refusing to escape her dreamworld to enter reality. Things were too different for her. I was still pissed she did it in the first place, but when I took a step back and looked it from her point of view... it made sense.

Her world had been all fluffy bunnies --literally-- and love and affection. All of her family was still alive and the world was safe and perfect. Now, it wasn't like that. There was danger lurking everywhere. Conflict arising from everything. She wouldn't be able to handle it. She hadn't been able to handle the war. I still remembered the last time I spoke to her before she left.

It'd been near the end of the first war. Geara had been sitting outside her cabin. She was still as a statue, staring straight ahead, her arms wrapped around herself. She was a beautiful demon. Her skin as black as night, her thick curly black hair loose and flowing over her shoulders, her golden eyes hollow and empty, like the world around us. She was still dressed in her battle gear, even though she herself was never quite the fighter, but rather the strategist of our side. She'd just come back from a battle that witnessed not only the death of several of her own children, but a couple of Joxeia and my siblings, War and Plague. I was still shaken from seeing them go down. War was not the type of deity you could take down easily, and Plague never let anyone get the jump on her. But there they were, moments later, laying in pools of their own blood that splashed up around my feet when I tried to see if there was some way to revive them. No such luck.

So I empathized with Geara's trauma at that time.

"Geara," I said softly, approaching her from the side. She didn't look at me, but I knew she knew I was there. I came over and stood beside her, looking down at her. I was exhausted. I wanted to lay down and snuggle up to someone to sleep, but somehow, it felt wrong to do that with Geara and even worse with Joxeia, who at the time was on a warpath to bring Xiphrus down to his knees.

My family was no longer joint at the hip. We no longer hugged, no longer kissed, no longer wished each other good night. We were too wrapped up in the war.

It was why I never knew what Geara was planning. That that time I approached her on those rickety steps, her body as still as a statue, that what was going through her mind was not the war itself, but her escape from it. She was plotting her slumber. She knew what was going to happen to Xiphrus. She knew she was going to have to imprison her beloved brother. She was wracked with grief, with guilt, sorrow.

I just didn't know why.

I wanted to tell her it was going to be okay, but why lie? She was wisdom. She wouldn't fall for that. I wanted to ask her if I could do something for her, but what? What power did I have to bring back everything that was once great?

"Death," she spoke suddenly, her voice nothing more than a hoarse whisper, and I knelt down by her side to hear her better, "There comes a time in our lives when we must make... horrible decisions." I frowned at her words.

"Aye," I answered slowly in agreement. Geara turned her head to me, staring down at me. I looked at her confused. She reached out, placed her hand on my cheek, and fuck, her skin had been so cold. No longer warm like the rays of the sun. Just icy, bitter cold. Overhead, the sky was dark and rumbling with the threat of a storm. In the distance, lightning flickered between the clouds, licking at the earth below.

"I am sorry, my love," she murmured to me that day, the last day I saw her. I hadn't understood what she meant at the time, and to be honest, I'd blocked it out after all these years. Because I was angry with her. I was pissed she ditched me, ditched Joxeia. I was pissed she was still hiding away in some fantasy world.

But looking back on it now, I realized she was apologizing for leaving. Apologizing for why the world had become what it was. Apologizing for what Xiphrus had done. And apologizing for not being there when we needed her most.

I took a deep breath, pulling myself from the memory.

"Here, let me see that," I said now, reaching out to take the book from Joxeia, making him look at me quizzically, "There's a spell in here somewhere, I came across it before. It might be able to open the barrier long enough for us to get out. To get in, we'll have to use Rowan to open the barrier in the first place." Rowan nodded. I thumbed through the pages until I found the spell and handed it over to Joxeia, who frowned as he studied it.

"This might work. But if it doesn't, we'll be trapped."

"It's all I got to go on. It's all we got to find Alaric," I answered. Joxeia looked up at me for a moment. There was indecision in his eyes. He didn't trust me. And it made sense. The last time he saw me, I was infected. I was angry. I was on the verge of ripping his head off, and Xiphrus's.

I reached into my boot, taking out my spare knife and laying it across my palm. Xiphrus made a noise of distress when I slashed my palm open and held it out to Joxeia as the bright red blood welled up from the slice and dripped to the floor. Joxeia stared at it, then lifted his eyes to meet mine.

"I want to get my husband back. And I need your help, Jo. Yours and Xiphrus's." Joxeia blinked, then looked at Xiphrus, who pursed his lips tight in a thin line. The look on his face was resolution. He was going with me to the ends of the universe. Joxeia looked back at my hand, then reached out and clasped it tight.

"Then let us do so."