TARNISHED (Book 5.5, The Caged Series (Novella)) (9 page)

“Do what you must,” he replied dismissively, unfazed by my threats―ever maintaining the lie.

“I will,” I purred, turning to face him one last time. “Just as you did.” He never flinched. “You'll have to tell me one day how it feels to kill one of your own. It's a rare thing to have someone accomplish something that I have not.”

Before he could respond, I exited his home, leaving Jaysen behind to question what was true and what was illusion. His mind would forever weigh the facts until he could be certain of an answer. I needed to do far less to get one. I had a resource that, for the right price, would be all too happy to tell me what I wanted to know.

I headed for the Demeter’s house immediately.

The Return

“I need information,” I barked as I burst through the front door unannounced. “Does your offer still stand?” I loathed the idea of repeating what I had done the last time I had been in her mother's home, but there was no time to entertain such sentiments. I needed to know all I could about what had happened while I was indisposed and what angle Ares was working. There was always an angle with him; I just needed to know what it was.

“I did not expect to see you back here again...,” Persephone purred, unable to conceal the delight in her eyes.

“And yet here I am.”

“There were many rumors spread in your absence...I nearly started believing them. It has been a long time since you went missing.”

“I need something from you,” I continued, cutting off what was certain to be a calculated conversation if I'd let her continue. “
Answers.
”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk...always business with you, Aniketos. You're far too serious for your own good. I was merely trying to make small talk. Besides, I gave you what you sought the last time you wanted something: a connection to your lighter side that cannot be lost. Yet here you stand, dark-eyed and brooding, demanding things from me as if I were your personal oracle, primed and ready to serve at your whim. I think you misunderstand me, Ani, and I think that those who misunderstand me rarely enjoy the consequences.”

“As do those who threaten me,” I growled in response.

She eyed me tightly before relenting slightly, seeing that we were in a stalemate of sorts. She could not kill me, and I could not afford to kill her for various reasons, not the least of which was that I needed answers only she could provide.

“What do you want to know?” she asked curtly, coming to stand face to face with me.

“I need to know what has happened since I was detained.”

“You mean buried alive?” she asked, a smirk painting her face into an unattractive contortion.

“Will you tell me or not?”

“Aniketos, how could I possibly answer such a vast and open-ended question as this? You will have to be more specific if you wish me to respond.”

“Who killed the child?”

My inquiry was met with a condescending stare.

“You already know the answer to this. Do you truly need me to say it aloud for you to move on?”

“Yes.”

“Jerzyr murdered the child as he was ordered to.”

“Why?”

“You already know the answer to this as well,” she lamented, looking entirely bored by my interrogation. “Do you need me to spell that out for you as well?” I said nothing, only nodded in response. With a sigh, she continued. “Because Ares will not tolerate females born of him. Shall I clarify anything else for you that you already know to be true?”

“The child, she was without a doubt Petronus Ceteri?” I asked, ignoring her irritation. I needed to hear confirmation of that fact as well, even though I knew the truth.

It was her turn to nod in response.

“She would have been, yes. But now, she is dead, and you have been ostracized for a crime you did not commit. Ares has painted you as a rogue...one who thinks himself above the rules and above governing. He blames your conscience for this and has turned essentially all of the others away from you. Your allies are few, Aniketos, a fact that you would be wise to acknowledge and address as soon as possible should you wish to continue on your path of enlightenment and
good
.” She spoke those final words as if they offended her greatly. Persephone thrived on evil and immorality. Anything to the contrary was positively incomprehensible.

“What is he trying to do?”

“Your father? Of that I cannot be certain, but to answer that, one should evaluate the god he was. What he was built for.” She looked at me with narrowing eyes, willing me to see the truth that even I was loath to admit. “What did he do best? The answer to that is simple, really—create chaos and disorder. He longs for the days of old where he could initiate and partake in the fight. But now, he's forced to uphold laws, not break them. Find peace when his soul cries out for battle. His mind is breaking under this paradigm of order, Aniketos. I feel that he is desperately trying to find a way to do what his aura, his very essence, demands.”

“He wants to start a war amongst us...,” I muttered under my breath.

“Precisely. It makes perfect sense. He is bored, Aniketos, and an idle god is a dangerous one. Though he has no ability to inflict harm upon others without the gravest of consequences, he can initiate turmoil as easily as you and I breathe. You must not become a pawn in his game. If he pits you against your brothers, you will be forced to fight them and they will die.”

“I have no intention of giving him anything he desires, at any cost,” I informed her, leaning my hate-filled face closer to hers.

“I figured you would not,” she retorted with a wry smile. “To avoid this, you must suffer your punishment in silence. Do not try to make your brothers choose a side. You may not like the outcome of that. You must win them back over time to avoid falling victim to Ares' game. No one else can know the truth about what happened that night.”

“Impossible...,” I growled, knowing that it would take decades, possibly centuries to fall back into favor with the others.

“Difficult, but not impossible. You must turn them back, and do it by whatever means you can, outside of trying to sell them the truth. They're not interested in that. You are not their friend; you are their leader. None are greater than you, more powerful than you. None were born of greatness to the degree that you were. If you seek their respect, you will not get it from them all. You must look to rule them. You have no other choice. In time, this will all be forgotten, but until that time, you must do as I say.”

“And what will this wisdom cost me?” I asked, knowing full well what she would want in return. The serpent-like smile I received in return confirmed my belief.

“Do not play dumb with me, Ani...it does you no justice.”

“And if I refuse?”

Her smile bled away quickly only to be replaced by a near snarling expression.

“You would dare to cross me? I thought you to be far smarter than that...”

“No deal was made before you so freely gave what I sought, Persephone. You are losing your edge. Perhaps your need to have me fill you is clouding your ability to do what it is you do so well―torture the souls around you.”

“Do not anger me,” she threatened, pressing her body against mine. Her words meant nothing. She could bring me no physical harm and she knew it. Her seething anger further underscored that truth. “There will be no going back if you do this...if you dishonor me so.”

“So be it,” I growled as I turned to leave her, festering in her own hatred. I had the answers I needed. I would not continue to play her game.

“You will pay,” she shouted after me as I stepped through the doorway before me. “I shall live many lifetimes, Aniketos. Do not think that I won't be afforded the opportunity to make you suffer.”

“I already suffer one female. You shall have to get in line.”

Her screams of rage followed me as I escaped her wrath, her words washing over me like waves lapping at the shore. I feared no one. She could do nothing to punish me, helpless to assert her dominance. Her frustration was nearly palpable as she ranted on while I disappeared into the surrounding forest. The haunting melody of her wails echoed through the trees long after I was out of earshot.

With every step, I felt my lighter self returning, the soulless warrior being replaced with the angelic man she herself had ensured I could be. Along with it, my sensibilities returned, alerting me to the fact that Persephone would never rest until I felt the repercussions of crossing her. It made me uneasy momentarily, but there was nothing she could take from me to repay her injustice.

With a smile on my face, I walked toward the falling sun, knowing that I had betrayed the greatest betrayer of all, and there was nothing she could do about it.

The Dilemma

In the years after the turning point, I spent much time in my head, analyzing, scrutinizing, and replaying the events that had led me to where I was. Inevitably, my mother came up repeatedly. Ares spoke of her seldom, unless to badger me about the repugnant goodness I held. On the rare occasions throughout my long life that he did illuminate her past, it was always the same story: she abandoned you the day you were born.

I had no recollection of my mother. No memories whatsoever. It made it hard to discount what he had told me. But, as I reconnected with the side of me that was a direct result of her genetic input, I realized there had to be more to the story―more reason behind her actions. She may have abandoned me, but there was an explanation out there somewhere as to why. I wouldn't find peace until I knew what it was.

Before, Ares' account of her forsaking me had been enough, but those days were gone. Left to hypothesize on my own, I nearly made myself mad sorting through all the potential reasons for why she could have left me with him. Something had to have been dire for her to have done what she did. She’d made a decision and followed through with it―but why hadn't she ever returned?

Perhaps she couldn't.

Ares was never clear on the circumstances
of her disappearance. He was an expert at making things, and people, go away when it suited him, even if he couldn't dirty his hands in the process. Unknowingly, I'd aided him in that very way for centuries under the guise of it being for the good of mankind. In truth, near the end, I did it because I enjoyed killing. Taking all that into consideration, it made me wonder if my mother was even alive.

I didn't know if you could kill an angel.

I had only tried once.

If she was alive, I wanted to see her, meet her, know her. I needed something physical to ground me in my better half, to remind me of where I came from. The good as well as the bad. Ares had said she was in a dark place when he sought her out. Yet another mystery for me to ponder with no way to solve. The mounting questions were maddening.

I was so used to having all the knowledge, the answers. To be left with nothing but curiosity and speculation was nearly more than I could bear. It was paramount that I find a way to reconnect with her, if she was still alive.

The problem was I had no idea how.

I knew I couldn't get any helpful information while working so close to Ares. I had once been his most trusted confidante, but those days were gone. I had no doubt that his spies were everywhere, keeping tabs on me and reporting back to him. I never cared enough to confirm that truth. But if I were going to go digging around in something he'd sought to keep secret for nearly a millennium, I was going to need to exercise some measure of discretion. Being under his thumb would not make that task an easy one. I needed to get away from him.

Unfortunately for me, I could see no way to accomplish that.

The New World

“You are going overseas to the colonies,” Ares informed me brusquely. “There is a rumor there...”

“Of what?” I asked, instantly irritated with his unwillingness to just give his orders and be done with it. It was the perfect mask for the growing elation I felt inside. Perhaps I wouldn't have to find an escape at all. It seemed as though I had been handed one.

“You have heard of the Chameleon, have you not?” His eyes looked right through me, knowing that I had undoubtedly heard of the myth—the phantom supernatural. It had floated through the otherworldly community for longer than I could accurately remember. Why it was suddenly of the utmost importance was a mystery to me. “It has been said that he has sought to hide in the New World―far from the PC's watchful eye. I want you to find him.”

“I cannot be expected to chase a figment of someone's imagination. He is lore, Ares. He cannot be a threat when he does not exist,” I argued, my insubordination fueling his desire to be rid of me. He was playing right into my hands. “I have work to do. Real work. Find someone else to go on your snipe hunt.”

“You can and you will,” he said much more forcefully that time. “Your 'work' has suffered as a result of your growing conscience. If you can't be trusted to carry out the less savory part of your job, then you will go on this manhunt until you find him...or her. One shouldn't rule out the possibility that this master of illusion is a female.”