26. Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

Rook

" W hat the fuck happened?" Hades said, his voice barely above a whisper.

You knew he was pissed when his eyes were as bright as the fires of Tartarus, but his voice was calm and quiet. It was fucking scary. And we'd fucked up. Not only had I had a momentary lapse in judgement and fed on Raevyn, but she'd also somehow managed to disappear into an impenetrable prison cell. Oh, and he'd found out about the shredded soul of Nissa Crowley.

To say we were in deep shit probably didn't even begin to cover it.

"We didn't expect the complications we encountered," Korbin said, his voice steady.

"This is worse than ‘complications' Korbin. It's an unmitigated disaster." Hades steepled his hands in front of his face. "Explain everything."

Korbin walked Hades through everything that had happened, including the conversation he'd had with Raevyn's mother. That was certainly interesting to hear. Could it be possible that she's not actually dead? She was definitely stabbed through the heart, so something happened… but what?

"She stopped time?" Hades asked perplexed.

"Not stopped, just slowed," Hawk replied carefully, clearly getting the memo not to piss the God off even more. Who knew Hawk could be so sensible?

Hades straightened his spine with a jerk. "But that's not possible."

"It's not?" I asked. "Why?

"Because there is only one person that I know with that type of power, and he's been exiled."

I looked to the others, and they all gave me blank faces in return. I didn't know of any God or Goddess, alive or dead, who could control time.

Hades walked over to his overly large kingdom viewing window and clenched his hands behind his back. I felt a twinge of something like sympathy for him in that moment. It must be a burden running a kingdom with no one to share it with. I at least had my fellow Revenants to talk to when things got tough but who did he have?

The door to the office slammed open and a flash of bright red hair swanned in like she didn't have a care in the world.

"Yoh, Kingy, I need to talk to you about—" she stopped when she saw us, her face lighting with mischief. "Ooh, are you being told off? This totally looks like you're being told off."

Hades took a deep breath before turning to face her. How could I have forgotten about Hades' little reaper? I could never work out whether something was going on there or not. There was a definite thread of tension between the pair and I was just waiting to see it snap and pull them together. Last time I saw them together, she looked like she was sat in his lap and warming his cock.

"What can I help you with, Roux?" Hades asked.

"Just needed your advice on something, but it can wait." Roux turned towards us. "Is the gorgeous lady out there with the purple hair yours?"

"Yes," we all said at the same times. Spooky.

Her eyes widened and a smile curled her mouth. "Cool. I'm gonna go and make a new friend." She turned to Hades. "Don't rip them to shreds, I actually quite like these guys."

"You do know I'm the king here, right?" Hades drawled.

Roux nodded and waved over her shoulder as she walked towards the exit. "Of course I know that. We all know that. You're reminding us all the time."

Hades growled and Nox snorted. He tried to cover it with a cough but he didn't succeed in masking it.

"Call me when you're ready, Your Majesty," she said with a ridiculously low bow before leaving the room.

"I like her," Nox said cheerily.

Hades harrumphed and turned back to the window.

I had the feeling that she enjoyed pushing his buttons and the only reason Roux still had her head was because secretly, somewhere deep down, he perversely enjoyed it himself. He'd been on his own since Persephone had died, that perhaps Roux was going to do him some good and help heal the grief he cocooned himself in. She'd be good for him. He just needed to give himself the patience to accept it.

"So, about the time slowing thing," Nox said, oblivious to the tension in the room. "What did you mean?"

Hades let out an exasperated sigh. I knew how he felt. Nox just never seemed to be able to read the room and it was more effort than it needed to be to keep him in line sometimes.

"That there was only one person with the ability to manipulate time. But it is impossible for your necromancer to have anything to do with him because he's banished to the Isles of the Blessed."

"What are they?" Hawk asked.

"A paradise reserved for only the most deserving," Hades explained. "Or for those given divine permission."

"Once you enter you cannot leave," Korbin added.

I frowned, not quite putting the puzzle pieces together. "But Raevyn is twenty-one. Does that mean—"

"Yes," Hades interrupted, his jaw clenching. "He escaped the Isles and somehow returned without my knowledge."

"But who?" I didn't know of anyone who was on the Isles of the Blessed. It was a place reserved for, well, the Blessed. Most people either went on to Elysium, or Tartarus if they were really bad. Or they were shipped to the Ascension Planes for judgement.

Hades fixed us all with a dark look. "My father."

Fuck me. And I thought things couldn't get any worse.

Casimir scoffed. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

My sentiments exactly.

Raevyn

T he woman with the bright red hair swanned back out of the throne room with a wide smile and mischief dancing in her eyes. There was something about her that I instantly liked. Probably her blasé attitude towards Hades.

"Hey," she said with a grin. "The Revenants say you're with them?"

"Apparently," I replied with a shrug. I wasn't too sure where we were up to with the connections we shared, but I guess ‘with them' was an apt way of putting it. I had fallen into their laps pretty much so yeah, until we defined it, I was ‘with them'.

"I'm glad. They've been the four of them for so long, it's nice to see the Fates hand them something good. Wanna grab a drink?"

I looked to the door my guys were behind and had a sudden panic about leaving them. I hadn't really been anywhere without them and that thought stirred something uncomfortable in my chest.

"We won't go far. Hades' study is just across the hall, and he has a great selection of drinks." She pointed to a door about ten feet away and that made me feel a bit better. That I wasn't going too far. I wasn't sure why the thought had made me panic that much.

"Okay," I finally said and followed her into the opulent study.

"I'm Roux by the way," she said as she walked to the cupboard on the far wall. It was all mahogany and glass and probably looked better suited to some study from the 19th century than to one befitting a modern-day king. The whole room looked like it was in a time capsule, deep leather chairs, dark wooden desk, and large oil paintings hung on the walls. It was all very fancy and hideous.

"I'm Raevyn."

"Love the hair." Roux handed me a glass of amber liquid and a familiar scent wafted under my nose.

"Is this ambrosia?"

Roux's eyebrows reached her hairline. "You've had it before?"

"Yes. I met someone and he shared it with me." His image flickered in my mind, but I struggled to pinpoint exactly what he looked like. I knew it had something to do with the guys being summoned by Hades, but it was like a memory dissolved by time. I twirled the ring around my finger. It was warm to the touch and I couldn't remember exactly where I'd got it. It was black and it had been made to look like feathers entwined in a band. Somehow I knew it was his. I just wish I could remember his name. I'd have to ask Corvus when I returned home. He said he'd help me and I felt like I'd been neglecting him with everything else going on.

"You okay?" Roux asked, a frown over her green eyes.

"Honestly, I'm not sure." I don't know why I felt like I could be honest with her, but there was an openness and a warmth about her that soothed something in me. Like she was a kindred spirit. Out of place.

"Want to talk about it? I know this place can be a lot, and from what the Revenants said about you when I saw them last, you kind of fell into the Underworld with a bit of a bang."

I huffed a laugh and took a small sip of the ambrosia. "You could say that again."

"Come on, let's sit down and you can tell me all about it."

So I did. I told her everything, from the moment my grandmother killed me, to waking up here, to pulling Hawk from the Depths and the incident with Nissa, to the mystery guy who'd been talking to me in my mind.

"And you have no idea who this mystery guy is?" Roux asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.

"Nope. I'm sure he told me his name, but I can't remember." I wished that I could, but the more I tried to remember, the more he seemed to fade.

"Maybe he'll come back in your dreams, and you can ask him."

"Yeah, I guess."

"I landed in the Underworld with no memory at all," Roux said, a weird sort of grin on her elfin face.

"Really?"

"Yep," she said with a nod. "Thane – the Grim Reaper – found me and kind of took me under his wing. Now he's gone missing and I've become the Grim Reaper. Which is not fun. At all. I've got a Metus Demon investigating everything and he's a real jizzstain."

I snorted. "Jizzstain?"

She grinned. "Yep. Sexy as fuck though."

My mind tried to conjure up the image of the mystery guy again. He'd been sexy, in a rugged sort of way. All dark hair and vivid eyes. A sigh escaped my lips. Would I ever have a normal day?

She fixed me with a narrow stare. "What is it? You look worried."

"It's just I feel like I'm massively out of my depth. With everything. The last time I saw my grandmother I felt the same weak little girl that she always made me feel. Even with all this supposed power at my fingertips, I was useless. I can't help but feel the power made a mistake in choosing me." Oh Gods, I was going to cry. I really was pathetic.

"Now you listen to me, Raevyn." She grabbed my hands in a tight grip. "The fact that you're still here is testament to how strong you are. You are powerful, I can feel it and I bet you know how to use that power. It feels so tightly woven into the very fabric of your core, that I bet it's instinctual." She placed her hand over my heart and closed her eyes. "It thrums through your veins. The power didn't choose you, Raevyn. It was always there."

"What?" I gasped. I had always had magic. But how? Had my mother known? My grandmother? No, if she'd known I had magic she would have used it to her advantage. That meant my mother must have done something. Rage boiled my blood.

"What is it?" Roux asked cautiously. "Your magic is going crazy."

"I think my mother knew I had magic and I think she hid it from me."

"Well, shit." She slumped back in the chair. "That's… I can't even put into words how shit that is. Perhaps she had a reason."

"Maybe."

"Why don't you go topside and—" She broke off with a gasp, her hand resting over her heart. "Oh, Raevyn, I'm so sorry."

"What?" Panic bloomed in my chest. "What is it?"

"It's your mother. She's here."

"Here? I don't understand." She couldn't be here. The only way to be in the Underworld was if she was…

Oh, Gods.

No.

It couldn't be.

"It's not possible."

"Raevyn, I—"

"You're wrong." I jumped to my feet, panic and fear squeezing my heart with an icy grip.

The door flew open, and my guys ran in, ready to do battle.

" Draguta , what is it?" Hawk had his axe raised above his shoulder, his amber eyes as bright as fire as he searched the room for a threat.

Tears pooled in my eyes. "Roux says my mother is here. But she can't be. She can't be."

"Is it true?" Korbin asked Roux, his voice soft as silk.

"Yes," she replied. "She's at the pier."

My knees collapsed beneath me as reality set in. Hawk fell to the ground with me, cradling me in his arms. I felt the others crowd in around me, their silent support the only thing stopping me from falling apart completely. She might not have been the best mother in the world, but she was still my mother, and the thought of her death hit me harder than I thought possible.

I looked at Roux and her green eyes were filled with tears. "Can you take me to her?"

She winced. "I shouldn't—"

"Please," I begged. "I have to know what happened."

Roux gave a resolute nod and held her hand out. "Come with me."