Page 102 of A Haven of Brimstone and Darkness

"Why?" Regis tilts his head as he looks back at Ruen, true confusion on his features. "With the Gods gone, you don't have to go back there."

"No," Ruen says, "but for them." He nods to the gathered crowd of Mortal Gods. "It’s all they know. They'll feel safer in a place that they recognize as their home."

"What about those from Perditia?" I ask, turning to him.

Frowning, Ruen turns to survey those standing behind us. With his arms crossed and his feet braced shoulder width apart, he looks like a general looking over his army and coming up short with what to say. I bite down on my lower lip to keep from laughing once more, especially when several of the onlookers at the front of the herd take a wary step back.

Stepping away from Regis and walking over to Ruen, I place a hand on his shoulder, sliding it around to his arm as I move to his side. “Don’t scare them too badly,” I quietly urge. “They just lost their parents.”

Kalix snorts. “Their parents were a bunch of greedy assholes who wanted to strip them of their lives in order to live longer,” he points out.

I shoot him a glare. “So?” I snap. “It’s not the actual people they’re mourning, it’s the potential.”

Kalix waves a hand at me as if saying it’s all semantics to him and he couldn’t give a shit less even if he tried. I return my attention to Ruen to find his midnight gaze locked on mine. Since being freed and the end of our battle with the Gods, he’s washed up some, but there are still some healing bruises and cuts on his face and arm. He remains as handsome to me as he was the day I realized that this damaged, brooding man was one of mine—when that day was, though, I can’t guess.

“Those from Perditia are going to want to go back to their own Academy,” he says.

Quiet descends over the group and this is what I feared most about what is to come next and the true reason for my ‘I don’t know’ answer. I want to give these people the freedom to make their own choices, but doing so also puts mortals at risk. Mortal Gods have lived their whole lives being given what they wanted by mortals due to the hierarchy of our society, but now that’s gone and a new one must take its place.

“I will take them,” Ophelia announces.

As one, all heads in the nearby vicinity turn to her. “What?” I couldn’t have heard her right.

She nods and settles her hands on her hips as she strides to stand alongside Ruen and me. Her gaze scans the ground. “I will take them back to Perditia,” she says. “The Underworld is gone now, thanks to my son. Our headquarters was revealed and we cannot return.”

I blink.Carcel.I’d completely forgotten about Carcel and the soldiers of the dead he’d attacked Regis with. Whipping my head to my friend, I part my lips to ask when the question is answered by Ophelia before the words can even spill forth.

“He was working with one of the God Council,” she states. “To take over the Underworld.”

“Take over the Underworld.” I shake my head in disbelief. The Gods would never have allowed that. They must have been using him. “Where is he now?”

Ophelia’s face grows tight and her gaze distant. It’s Regis who answers. “We tracked him back to the headquarters,” he says. “He was attempting to set up the soldiers he had as his personal guard and new assassins.”

I want to ask how that would have worked since, according to Regis before, they’d been dead men walking—corpse soldiers without a will of their own. Regis steps around our trio—Ophelia, Ruen, and me—and rocks back and forth on his heels. “Obviously that would never have worked.”

“Do you know which God he was working with?” Ruen asks.

Regis blanches but nods. “Azai.” I close my eyes. Of course. The Darkhavens’ father was nothing if not intent on getting what he wanted. Killing off those in my background to garner more information for Tryphone is just the thing he would have done.

“He doesn’t have the ability to raise the dead though,” Theos points out from behind us.

Regis turns his head, looking back at my golden-haired Darkhaven. “No, but he had lower Gods under his control,” Regis answers. “He was using them as the go-between and it took a lot of hunting to find the God on the mainland and get information from him. Once he was killed, though, the dead soldiers were no more.”

“So, Caedmon wasn’t lying,” Ruen says lightly, “about mortals being able to kill Gods.”

Regis’s brow puckers. “No, I suppose not.”

Unsure if I should reveal what I know, I gaze at my friend for a long moment. Ruen says something and Regis responds before Theos comes into view, his eyes flickering between us and the crowd. In the end, though, I don’t offer up my suspicions. Telling Regis that he’d most likely killed a someone who’d somehow survived and escaped a power siphon won’t help. To know that he’d killed someone who needed help more than murder might hurt him and he’s had enough of that now.

“So, where is this Carcel now?” Kalix asks, bringing me back to the conversation at hand. “You never did say.

Ophelia and Regis exchange a look. The secret conversation between Zalika and Nubo before Makeda had rescued me comes back to my mind and I know the truth, before either of them answers.

“I killed him,” Regis casts a look down at the wooden slats as he says the words.

My attention flickers to Ophelia and she makes it a point not to look at Regis or me as she speaks. “It appears Caedmon revealed the existence of our group in an effort to lead the God King away from information about you.” She shakes her head and without looking at me, continues. “Azai found Carcel and struck a deal with him to get rid of the current head—myself—and place him in charge. In return, he wanted information on your abilities and skills and anything else about you. My son was planning to get him that information before killing us all.” She releases a delicate snort of disbelief. “Were we caught, we would have been tortured regardless of whether or not we could provide information so the fact that he thought he was doing us such a favor by playing the great betrayer was foolish.”

“You would have given over exactly what he was trying to hide,” I guess with a sigh.

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