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It was definitely worse.
“You said “death itself won’t stop you” from making all your ludicrous claims—that the only decent parents your sons have are traitorous thieves, that their famous sister abandoned them, that you are the “good and true” agathos—I tell you, that one made me giggle. It’s fascinating to me that you can say all these things with your inability to lie. A real case study in how deep delusions can run. Someone should put you in a lab and devote research to this.” Thanatos held up his wrist as though he was looking at a watch, except he wasn’t wearing one. “Anyway, I’m in a bit of a rush—incessant piles of dead people to get to and all that—so speak now, or forever hold your silence.”
Aunt Faith didn’t speak. I knew why—she was confused by all the information Thanatos had quick-fire thrown at her, and that must have been by design since he only gave her half a second before he spoke again.
“Forever hold your silence it is.”
The grin on his face was the most terrifying thing I’d ever seen.
“You know, I know a guy who was also cursed to hold his silence, same as you. Well, technicallyIcursed him. And I can’t lift a curse, but Icanchange it, so I think I might tie this one to your life,” Thanatos mused. “For as long asyoulive… Yes, that works. A little treat for him. Not that he’ll be grateful, they never are. Ah well, it can be my act of charity for this century—don’t say I never do anything nice. Actually, don’t say anything at all.”
He laughed at his own strange joke, and with a twirl of his fingers, he was gone, leaving Aunt Faith on the ground, clutching her throat with both hands.
Screaming.
Silently.
By the gods, he’d taken her voice.
Chapter 21
Thesefuckingagathoswererelentless.
I hesitated to call them an army, they weren’t that organized, but they were determined. They came at us in waves, shouting that Gaia herself had sent them to rid the earth of our presence, armed with garden implements and kitchen utensils. The projectiles they kept throwing were proving the most problematic. A well-placed hit from a rock at high speed was a very effective method of taking down an opponent.
There were no loose rocks handy forusto use.
For whatever reason, Gaia was holding back, not getting fully involved. But she did seem to be supplying the army fighting in her name with some basic resources. If I wasn’t mistaken, there were fruit trees behind their ranks, and they certainly appeared to be less hungry than we were.
Ariston growled, both of us throwing up shields at the same time as another wave of rocks hurtled toward us. One of the Spartoi on the back line had given me their armor since I was at the front, and I cursed myself internally for not practicing with it earlier.
“Assholes,” Ariston muttered, a word he’d probably picked up from one of the daimons when we were staying in the villa.
Assholes, indeed.
There were definitely humans mixed in amongst their side, and while I thought they were idiots, I sort of got it. They didn’t have the knowledge we had—even the agathos hadn’t seen and experienced the things I’d seen that made me feel somewhat confident that the world wasn’t actually ending right this second. From the outside looking in… it didn’t look so promising.
We were a moving target, the easiest direction to point all that fear and anger at.
I didn’t care. I was stressed as fuck and couldn’t find Grace and longed for Bullet. Let ‘em fight if they wanted to fight. I could use the stress relief.
Annoyed at the seemingly endless supply of rocks they had, I waved to get Theras’ attention further along the line. We needed to split some of our group off to try to double around the back of the agathos forces. We were outnumbered but not out-skilled. If we could hem them in and knock them out of commission one by one from the outside in, they didn’t stand a chance, but we couldn’t send too large a group, or we’d be seen.
If only I had an armed cavalry waiting in the wings. Or at least some catapults. Bows and arrows.Somethingother than spears, short swords, and shields that required us to fight at short range.
We had to get ahead of our mortal opponents before the immortal ones came out to play.
The logical part of my brain, the part that knew Grace would be scared and hurting, wanted Gaia to concede. To decide that we’d suffered enough and begin healing the earth so we could find some sense of peace again.
But I was still a Keres, and the Keres in me craved blood and destruction. The Keres in me saidlet Gaia send her armies so we could bury them back in her earth.
Theras was watching me sign, mouthing to himself in his language as he translated the words. It was because he was paying such diligent attention, because he’d lowered his shield to reply, that he didn’t see the jagged rock coming right for his head.
“MOVE!” I shouted, eyes wide in alarm as it arced toward his temple. Theras startled, stumbling backward in time for the rock to miss him by an inch, landing with athudin the ground just behind where he’d been standing.
Fuck my life. That had been far too close.
“Wild,” Ariston rasped, standing the closest to me. “Youspeak.”
