Grayson

I should have killed him when I had the chance, I thought to myself. It would have been simple and saved me a lot of hassle. But Scott had distracted me, and the delay was costly.

A blinding blue light illuminated the room, causing the long fluorescent bulbs overhead to flicker wildly from the sudden surge of power.

Well, that happened quicker than I'd expected.

When the blue cleared away, Hunter was visible, uncuffed, at the far end of the lab. I would have wagered that they'd released my older brother from the restraints as soon as he had entered his designated lab space. Hunter was the favourite child. A shining beacon for the rest of us to look towards and emulate.

"What are you doing?" Hunter asked me furiously.

His blue eyes, the only common feature among us three brothers, narrowed and focused on me. Where I thrived on chaos, Hunter strived for order. Even now, in his rush to get to the room and get a handle on this situation, Hunter's sandy blonde hair remained perfectly in place. The perpetual poster boy for the elite Gods.

My aura coiled back towards me slowly, receding so that the room appeared less dark. "Just reminding them of their place," I answered, completely unfazed by my brother's anger.

"This is not why we are here," Hunter hissed.

His eyes flicked over to Scott, picking herself up from the floor. As she straightened up, her hands went to her ribs, and she winced in pain. Pride trickled through me, warming my chest. I'd got her on her knees, and considering how pretty she looked there, I'd have been interested in how well she could worship me before the rude interruption.

Pulling my attention away from her, I enunciated every word as I responded to my brother. "May I remind you yet again that I had no desire to be part of this idiotic plan you concocted. You're going soft. Bartering with mortals and wanting us to pretend like we're one of them."

The disgust seeped into every single word, cocooning them in hatred. I couldn't reconcile with the fact he expected us to walk among mortals and behave like them. Integrate and blend in as if we weren't destined to control every aspect of their menial lives. I was a divine being, and to ask me to lower myself was a great, if not the greatest, disrespect I'd suffered in centuries.

The door to the lab behind Hunter opened. Gareth marched in, letting it swing close behind him before making a beeline for Scott. She braced herself against a lab bench, trying to catch her breath that the pain had stolen. Holden had called for reinforcements, and I smirked, knowing that for all his talk, Matthew Holden couldn't handle me on his own.

"We need a better understanding, Grayson," Hunter said, parroting the point he'd made multiple times. "You need to stop this."

Black curls of my aura drifted languidly across the ground, like a sinister fog, towards my brother's feet. I longed for it to consume him, to pull him towards me so I could press a foot against his throat and silence the sanctimonious preaching.

"And if I refuse?" I asked innocently, cocking my head to the side.

One of my favourite pastimes was seeing how far I could push my luck with people. It gave me a thrill to watch the moment they snapped. The moment they lost control, they ventured into my territory.

Apparently, Hunter's patience was already thin. The electric blue of his aura appeared less like the smokiness of my own and more like a solid barrier that slammed into me and pinned me against the wall at the opposite end of the lab.

"See." I laughed maniacally, eyes lighting up at the fight. "Even you can't help but use your powers down here! We aren't meant to mix with them!"

"If you refuse," Hunter said, ignoring my words and walking towards me with purpose, "I'll ensure the council knows about your blatant disregard for their King."

"I am a King in my own right!" I thundered. My voice caused the room to shake for the second time that day.

Sometimes, I wondered if Hunter forgot we belonged to the same bloodline. There were certainly times where I would rather deny the fact that I was related to a pompous, self-righteous airbag like Hunter.

Hunter gritted his teeth, tired of my antics. "And yet it is I who lead the Gods."

I had enough of people trying to force my hand. Unleashing the full strength of my aura, the black of it darkening the room, I let it strike Hunter, knocking him clean off his feet and halfway across the lab.

"You're leading them blindly," I roared, advancing on him.

It was an age-old argument between us that the rest of the Gods no longer batted an eyelid at, but the mortals in the room looked concerned at where this was heading.

Hunter rose to his feet, no sign in his demeanour that he'd just been thrown across the room. He ran a hand through his hair calmly, but I caught the flash of anger in his eyes. Before I had the chance to do anything, Hunter's aura snaked around my throat. We were different in so many ways, and yet we both favoured the same body part for the first line of attack. I was sorely disappointed that the similarity had revealed itself. I'd need to become more creative.

Suspended in the air, feet clean off the ground, Hunter brought me down with such force that the floor cracked beneath me. The room shook from the impact and a few pieces of lab equipment teetered precariously on the edge of the shelves before a symphony of shattering glassware filled the space. My bones rattled beneath my skin as the aftershock ran through my body, and there was a faint ringing in my ears.

"I mean it, Grayson," Hunter warned me, refusing to ease his aura from around my neck. "You need to listen and cooperate, or I will have you stand before the council and let them decide your fate. I will ensure you cease to exist if you ruin this for me."

I looked up, thriving off the chaotic energy around me. It made my blood tingle, like static electricity running through my veins. The ringing had stopped, and I had already recovered from the blow.

A wicked smile came to my face as I pontificated. "Pride is a sin, dear brother."

My gaze flicked over to the three mortals who had congregated by a bench, huddled together, and enraptured by the undignified manner by which those they worshipped behaved. Whereas the men in the room assessed the damage and the strategy between myself and Hunter, Scott was concerned about the state of her lab and Hunter's wellbeing. I could hear their thoughts loud and clear, but it was Scott's that piqued my interest.

Directing my words to her, I said, "This is child's play."

"I'll take my brother back to your residence," Hunter said before Scott could respond. "Please, join us when you can."

He enveloped us both with his aura before we were transported from the lab and reappeared inside what I assumed was Scott's home. We stood in the living room of the house, a bright and open space where bookshelves lined the walls, and a large grey sofa took centre stage.

"I don't intend to warn you again, Grayson," Hunter continued his lecture while I rolled my eyes. "It is not an empty promise this time. It is a guarantee. You may see yourself as invincible, but I wouldn't have set this up unless there was no other option."

"You should have discussed it with me first," I growled at him.

But there had been little chance of that happening. We had never been the type of siblings who shared their ideas and struggles, victories, and defeats. We were brothers who'd been at war for years. Hunter, with his overbearing need to control every aspect of Elysia and the residents, and I with my overwhelming impulse to undermine him in everything he did.

"You aren't exactly the most receptive to new ideas." Hunter scoffed.

It had always been difficult to sway me when I was comfortable and set in my ways. Things were running smoothly. Or, more accurately, things were running smoothly for me. I saw no need to muddy our pristine natures by slumming it with mortals.

"I looked like an idiot when Larkin brought it up before the council meeting," I told him, still livid over my sister-in-law casually dropping the information. "She enjoyed her moment making me squirm."

"She did not," Hunter defended his wife. "She merely thought it would be better to let you know before we were with everyone else. Larkin thought it might soften your reaction."

The harsh laugh left my lips and echoed in the space, loud and empty of joy. It came as no surprise that Hunter would choose to side with Larkin. He tolerated his wife only marginally better than he tolerated me. Their mutual irritation at my existence served as a strong bond between the pair.

"Yes," I said. "I'm sure that's what my dear sister-in-law was doing. Looking out for my wellbeing has always been at the top of her priority list."

Everything to do with Larkin was a power play. I maintained that was the primary reason behind her union with Hunter; power first and love second. She enjoyed being partial to knowledge before others and delivering it in the cruellest ways.

Hunter opened his mouth to respond, but the sound of footsteps made my ears prick and he seemed to have picked up on them as well.

"Make yourself scarce while I do some damage control," Hunter told me.

I refused to move from my spot. I stood there, looking at my brother with a defiant tilt of my chin.

"That is an order, Grayson!" Hunter barked. "You've already pushed your luck today."

With one last glare and the nagging reminder of what I had to lose, I took myself out of the room and upstairs to find the cell that would be mine for the duration of the sentence Hunter had condemned us all to.