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“Can you hear Lucien?” Rune taunts. “I’m thinking I’ll toss Carrick and Maddox in as well so they can join him.”
I choke down my hatred because to engage him is to encourage more of the same. The best I can do is keep my wits about me and look for an opening that could save me and the gods… and the world.
CHAPTER 17
Maddox
The gods’ realmis as it ever is with its harmonious scenery, but the minute I step into it I can tell it’s empty of anything godlike.
Up ahead, I see Carrick and Finley at the gazebo. Finley paces the marbled floor with obvious worry and Carrick watches her with even more concern.
My sister-in-law spots me first and runs down the steps. “Did you learn anything?”
“Yeah… quite a bit,” I say as I meet her at the base of the steps where Carrick joins us. “I assume the gods haven’t shown themselves?”
Carrick shakes his head, his arm going around Finley’s waist to pull her in. She looks like she’s about to cry and not because the gods are missing.
Her only concern is Zora.
“The Scryer says the Blood Stone is in play, and Ariman has it.”
“Ridiculous,” Finley says dismissively. “It’s locked up tight, right where it was when we took possession of it.”
“We’ll need to check. More importantly, he said Zora is near the Crimson River.”
“So we’ll search the Underworld,” Carrick says.
“She’s not there,” I say with confidence. “Assuming Ariman has her, he’d never keep her there.”
“But how does he have her?” Finley asks with frustration. “She’s a god. He’s not.”
“The Blood Stone,” Carrick says.
“He doesn’t have the Blood Stone,” Finley snaps and then immediately softens. “I’m sorry… it’s just, I can’t believe it because that would be too horrific. And… you know what he did to her all those years while in the Underworld. He tortured her, abused her…”
Finley lets out a tiny sob, and my gut twists thinking about what he could be doing to Zora right now. Assuming he has her, but if Ariman has the Blood Stone, he probably does have her—and possibly the other gods too.
Carrick pulls Finley into his arms.
I scrub my hand over my jaw. “The Scryer said a power was rising that’s very dangerous. Someone other than Ariman.”
Carrick locks eyes with me, and an unspoken message passes between us.
“I’ll be back in a second,” I say, and then bend distance to the prison holding Rune. It takes only a brief glance to see it’s empty, and I return to the gazebo. “He’s gone.”
“Fuck,” Carrick mutters, and Finley pulls back to look up at him in question. “Rune,” he explains.
Okay… think. Put it all together, Maddox.
I muse out loud. “If Ariman has the Blood Stone, which we can confirm with a quick trip to your vault, then he’s done something to it to make it more powerful. It could be strong enough to free Rune from prison but not to take down five gods.”
“Or maybe it is strong enough,” Carrick says. “We never did understand the full nature of its power. Kymaris tried to use it to pull down the veil, but really… what do we even know about it? It was a myth until we found one obscure reference to it.”
“So, what do we do?” Finley asks. “Because every second we sit here and hypothesize is wasting time. And I cannot lose Zora again.”
Having most recently lost Zora myself, I understand Finley more than she’ll ever know.
“You two go to the vault and verify the Blood Stone is, in fact, gone,” I instruct them. “I’ve got to do something, but we’ll need Amell, so meet me at his castle.”
