Page 10 of The Hellbeast's Betrayal

“Okay, so we take out the queen and her nightmare daughter, what next?” I stated firmly, making her scoff a humorless laugh.

“Even if you could, it still doesn’t solve the problem of my uncle, and now with the power of the Summoner King he has somehow managed to take possession of, I fear the fight is lost before it has even begun,” she argued, shaking her head in defeat.

“What do you mean?” I asked, making me think back to what Clay had said, for surely, Garmr had merged himself with the wrong King. But if this was true, then how then did he gain his power? Had Clay transferred it over to his replacement in some way and if so, did that mean Clay could claim it back as the rightful ruler of Fraud?

This ended up becoming a mute question when Lerna replied,

“Garmr bound Ella’s soul to his, meaning that he may not have the true power a Summoner does, but he does have the power to command them…to command her.For no one has the same power as my father or…”

“His daughter,” I finished off for her, wondering what would have happened had she not gone back in time and touched that damn book, making me ask, “And what if she had never taken possession of the Book of Souls?”

“It wouldn’t have mattered. Garmr would have just forced her to become one with her true self by touching any Book of Souls. He now has many Summoners under his command since taking Geryon’s kingdom, with one called Niniane being his most powerful,” Koro told us.

“Yeah, well he killed that bitch,” Orth said, making Marcus chuckle sinisterly at the memory.

“You did?!” Lerna asked in shock.

“What can I say, she lost her head over me,” I replied in a dry tone.

“Good, for I hated that bitch,” Koro replied, obviously pleased about this fact.

“With all that being said, our goal remains the same. We are to find Ella and keep her from that fuck Garmr, so he can’t use her for this fucked up end of the world shit he wants her to achieve… and just so as we are clear, she is not fucking leaving my side, so you can get any idea of her going back to your fucking temple out of your head now!” I stated harshly, making her flinch before astonishing us all.

“Well first we would need to find our father, Hades, as without her power and with her now being bound to this realm, she is…”

My hand snapped up to stop her, and again I was faced with new fucking information that had me feeling as if I was a step behind once more.

“Whoa, back up a second, what do you mean she is without her power and what is this bound to the realm shit you’re talking about?”

Her eyes grew wide before realization kicked in.

“Oh of course, you don’t know.”

“Don’t know what, Lerna?” Koro said, as clearly even he wasn’t in the know either.

“It’s just that with everything that happened and being taken, and we were running after it, then it just happened…” she said in a rush of words, making me take a step closer.

“What happened, Lerna?”I asked, forcing myself not to bark at her this time, despite having the urge to shake the information out of her by this point.

“She was attacked by a…”

“Attacked!? For fuck sake, is she alright, was she hurt…? Fuck! Lerna, why didn’t you say that before?!” I snapped the second I heard the word, my whole body tensing as panic and fear swept through me.

“Well, there was so much to tell you and I… I…” she stumbled on her words, the emotions rising up within her.

“It’s alright, my love, just say it now… and before the HellBeast loses his head completely,” Koro said after my outburst, now trying to shield his wife from my wrath.

“She wasn’t hurt, but the creature, it’s one known as Epiales, master of Melas Oneiros. He works for the queen.”

Finding out that Ella wasn’t hurt made that stabbing ache in my chest ease enough to ask,

“And exactly what did this soon-to-be-dead thing do to her?” My intent to maim this thing was evident, even though I had never heard of it before. But then that wasn’t unusual, as fucking clearly, I still had a lot of supernatural shit to learn.

“He stole her powers and bound her to this realm, we had been trying to make our way back to our temple by getting on a boat from the river Arceron but as we rested, it took hold of her dreams.”

My fists clenched, vowing that this thing was going to die… and slowly… by my hands.

“He made her eat a pomegranate,” Marcus surmised, clearly knowing more than me. Although I did know what this meant, as it was how Hades bound people to his realm through temptation.

---