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“I… how? I don’t remember hearing your voice before…” He was sure his brain was melting at this point.
He heard an irritated sigh and wondered what this ancient being had to be frustrated about. Devon wasn’t aware he made him sleep. He didn’t know who or what this thing was.
“I. Am. You,” it said again, the aggravation palpable. “The sooner you accept this, the sooner we can merge, and you can fully ascend. You are wasting my time and those of Chaos with your ridiculous need to stay human when you are clearly not, nor have ever been, fully human.”
Devon wasn’t sure if he was having a breakdown or not, but this seemed like some sort of episode. Perhaps this was what people who thought they had multiple personality disorders dealt with.
“I will give you more time and do you the favor of not flooding your fragile mortal mind with power,” the being said, more than a little derisively. “But you will ascend soon. Be ready, little God. We will be one.”
He felt a jolt as if he was being slammed back into his body. His eyes opened, and he knew they were glowing, casting a green haze over the riverside.
Persephone was in front of him, her eyes concerned, her hands gripping his shoulders.
His attention moved over her shoulder and he watched as lights flickered and danced around the beings in the Underworld. As they moved along, they left behind trails of color, the same as the lights around themselves.
“There are trails of color leading away from Tartarus. Ones that match the colors of the people currently in it,” he mindlessly told her as his eyes focused in on the trails that seemed to be following no one. Power left behind. An almost sickly greenish orange.
“You can see people’s power,” she whispered, looking back over her shoulder. “The color indicates their type of power and the health of it. No one has been able to see the color of power since the Primordial Gods.”
“There is one that is different... A sickly green in the orange undertones,” he told her as he sat
up.
“None of us can read power signatures, except now you. Whoever was here was banking on the fact we couldn’t trace them. The orange is a Titan color if I remember my mother correctly. The green, I am not sure.” Her voice was lost in the past as she dispensed with her knowledge.
“Why would a Titan come into the Underworld only to turn around and leave?” she continued to muse, almost like he wasn’t there.
She stood up quickly and looked towards Tartarus again.
“Why break in past the veil and just leave?”
“Scouting,” he replied without thought. “They were scouting it out. Planning something along this river.”
He could see her thinking, her fists clenching and unclenching.
“So, they know a way in and found what they needed. The question is, what did they find and
how do we keep them from coming back? They cannot open Tartarus if that is their plan.”
He placed his hand on her elbow as he turned her to him.
“We plan. We scout ourselves and set up a trap, but we need to call on your sisters and your friends. You need to let us help. If there was any reason for me to be here, I am pretty sure this is at least one reason why.”
Her eyes searched his before she raised her hand to his cheek.
“Thank you, Devon,” she whispered, her voice low and vulnerability colored her words. He put his hand over hers as he let himself smile. A real, genuine smile.
“You lead and I will follow,” he whispered back.
Chapter 27
Persephone heard it first. Her soldiers scrambling back to the rocky gate that held her father. She turned away from Devon to walk to the edge of the river.
She saw four of the soldiers as they moved close to Tartarus, the souls in the boneyard still mindlessly looking for whatever it was they always did, unaware of what was happening around them.
“Wait here,” she told Devon before she used her earrings to turn herself invisible.
She doubted the Titan would appear with her and Devon nearby, but something had moved her soldiers to act. She shadow jumped to the gate of Tartarus first. She had seen the gate this morning and wished she had been able to see the power signature like Devon could.
