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“What … what was his name?”
“Hyrieus,” Aidas answered. “He was a good male, Hunt Athalar. As you are.”
Bryce squeezed his knee, her hand so warm—or was he unnaturally cold? “Okay, so Hunt was made to be a backup battery for me—”
“Can I do the same for Ruhn, then?” Hunt interrupted.
“No,” Thanatos said. “The prince’s light, his affinity for these thin places, isn’t strong enough. Not like hers.”
Hunt gripped Bryce’s hand atop his knee. “Is it in my DNA that Bryce and I are mates? Was that engineered, too?”
“No,” Aidas said quickly, “that was never intended. I think that was left to higher powers. Whatever they may be.”
Hunt turned to Bryce and found nothing but love in her eyes. He couldn’t stand it.
Horror cracked through him, as chilled as hoarfrost. He’d been created by these males to give and to suffer, and where the fuck did that leave him? Who the fuck did that make him?
“Okay,” Bryce said, “Helfire and starfire: a potent combination. But Helena left all this shit to help end this conflict. It sounds like you guys just want me to open a gods-damned door for you to come in and save the day instead.”
“Is it so bad,” Thanatos purred, “to have us do your dirty work?”
Bryce glowered at him. “This is my world. I want to fight for it.”
“Then fight alongside us,” Thanatos challenged.
Tense silence stretched between them. Hunt had no idea how to even begin processing this insanity. But that cold in his veins … that felt good. Numbing.
“I could have used a bit more time to prepare,” Bryce muttered.
Aidas only shook his head. “You weren’t ready before. And what if you had told the wrong person? You know what the Asteri do to those who challenge their divinity. I could not risk it. Risk you. I had to wait for you to find the answers for yourself. But haven’t I told you from the start to find me? That I will help you? That is what Apollion was attempting to do, too, in his misguided way: to ready you both for all this—to battle the Asteri.”
“But how,” Hunt asked, fighting past that numbing, blissful chill in his chest, “did you kick the Asteri out of Hel the first time?”
“They had trouble feeding off our magic,” Thanatos said, voice thick with disgust. “And found that our powers rivaled their own. They fled before we could kill them.”
Bryce swallowed audibly as she surveyed Apollion. “And you really ate Sirius? Like, ingested her?”
But it was Aidas who answered, pride flaring on his face. Apollion slew her with his Helfire when she attacked him—he pulled her burning heart from her chest and ate it.”
Hunt shuddered. But Bryce said, “How is that even possible?”
“I am darkness itself,” Apollion said softly. “True darkness. The kind that exists in the bowels of a black hole.”
Hunt’s bones quaked. The male wasn’t boasting.
“So why can’t you just … eat the rest of them?” Bryce asked.
“It requires proximity,” Aidas said. “And the Asteri are well aware of my brother’s talents. They will avoid him at all costs.”
The princes flickered, like they were on a screen that had glitched.
“We’re running low on time,” Thanatos said. “The black salt is wearing off.”
Bryce focused on Apollion. “You guys have been telling me nonstop about having your armies ready to go.” She gestured to the temple, the dead city beyond. “This place looks pretty empty.”
Apollion’s eyes grew ever darker. “We have allowed you to see only a fraction of Hel. Our lands and armies are elsewhere. They are ready.”
“So if I open the Northern Rift with the Horn …,” Bryce said. Hunt cleared his throat in warning. “All seven of you and your armies will come through?”
