Page 58 of The Unseen Hour

“There’s things she’s asked about over the years. Tidbits about Charon’s residence, the Ether. She can make short forays here, but she can’t get into his more intensely warded areas. I, on the other hand, am invited in. And when I’m around her it becomes easier to discuss the things Charon would rather I keep quiet. Sometimes the gods’ powers come in handy that way.”

Up to this point, I’d only wanted to avoid the gods’ wrath. Earn their favor if it helped us.

But I found myself wishing I could help him the same way a god had the ability to do.

CHAPTER 27

“Ry?” I asked a few weeks later, likely into March if our count was right. We were back at his home in the woods for the evening.

We sat outside, staring at the green and blue lights dancing between the trees.

“Hmm,” he responded, working with a piece of leather from his stockpile. He was close to finishing the holster for my knife.

We’d fallen into a comfortable camaraderie, one I was worried my desires might ruin. Orion had been nothing but a gentleman, although my own reactions were well into the realm of scandal. Even watching him put the finishing touches on the holster, the sure way his hands moved was torture. My skin pebbled, imagining his hands feeling me, his fingers stroking against my skin.

I cleared my throat, aware he’d been waiting too long on my response.

“How did you come to be the head of the Shades? Did Charon assign you that role simply because you’re still alive? Was it because you were here with the first group of Shades?”

Orion ducked his head down a bit, fiddling with the knife that he was using to shape the holster. The muscles in his arms flexed as he worked, his sleeves rolled above his elbows.

“For both those reasons, and I suppose it’s because I’m the best at using Shade song. I personally think I excel because I’m not a full Shade, and therefore more closely related to those we’re drawing into the Ether. That’s just a theory, though.”

I chewed on the information for a moment, twisting my hair into a bun and then letting it fall over and over.

“Why does it matter, though? Can’t Charon claim all the souls himself? What does he even need Shades for? He’s a god.”

Why pull humans into this ridiculous spat he had with Death? The more I thought about it, the more infuriated it made me. We were pawns, cannon fodder, expendable. It wasn’t fair.

Orion gave a tense smile, cutting into the leather with force.

“Even gods have limitations. That’s one thing I’ve picked up in my years here. Just because Charon is powerful, doesn’t mean he’s all-powerful. Shades and Shade song are what allow him to conduct his business within the Unseen Hour. He’d move too slowly otherwise. I suspect he has to expend a lot of his own energy simply to make the Unseen Hour exist. And I’ve noticed as I become familiar with the magic he wields that he’s concealing us somehow during the hour. Not just with the fog, but with the way he impacts time.”

“Not just from his victims, then. From Death? Since he’s trying to overthrow her?” Understanding the politics of the gods might have been easier if I’d known more about them. I’d searched through Orion’s collection of books for answers, and he’d shared the information he’d gotten from the Shades, collected carefully and painstakingly over the years.

Those in Mejje believed in a god that sounded a lot like Charon. They believed in four deities total, but they didn’t name them. Speaking the name of a god there was considered blasphemous. The people of Sez had legends that conflicted, with anywhere from four to six. Tang, like Emrys, only believed in two, although they also believed in an older, more powerful third god from the lost country that they said had ceased to exist. Then, there was the lost country itself. I could not find any references to their religion aside from ‘gods.’ Even more odd, Orion had told me that he’d never seen someone from the lost country in the Ether. Maybe there weren’t any people left there.

I realized Orion hadn’t answered my question. He was still working on the holster, but I could tell he was tense. Another Charon secret, then.

A couple of tree hoppers landed in front of us. I smiled at them and tossed a few seeds in their direction.

Some grey squirrels joined them, eager for a meal. I’d asked Orion about the squirrels when they’d first appeared; what traits made them different from animals in Emrys.

“Nothing. Apparently everywhere has squirrels,” he’d responded. Still, they were cute and harmless.

When the tree hoppers got closer, I pulled out one of my hair pins. This one had a pink jewel set on the end. There was no need for expensive stones here. The rest of the jewelry I’d brought along sat untouched, in a satchel in the cottage.

The birds hopped nearer, tilting their heads as the pin glinted in the blue and green light.

“Here, see what you think. It’s more valuable to you than to me.”

The larger of the birds snatched it gently from my fingers.

Within minutes, the two of them were using it together to scratch out food from the dirt.

“Ingenious things, aren’t they?” I commented.

Orion still didn’t respond.