Page 22 of As Darkness Fall
“Yes,” Vir said tightly.
“What can it do?” I asked, not entirely sure I wanted the answer.
“If activated,” Vir replied, looking back and forth between Aaron and me, “a single nick will send someone to the Underworld.”
“What?” I yelped. “That’s terrible!”
“Agreed,” Vir said, disgust for his brother’s rites evident. “It was for sacrifices. To make them painless.”
“How humanitarian of your brother,” I muttered, shaking my head, reviled at the idea of human sacrifices.
Aaron coughed. I looked at him. He glanced at Vir, then back at me, before pointedly eyeing the altar. I frowned. He nodded his head at Vir and then again at the table. Then, he put a finger to his lips while staring at me.
“Oh, my God,” I burst out as I realized what I’d done. “Uh, Vir, I mean, um. I didn’t mean to insult your brother. A god, you know. Um, it’s just–”
Vir waved me off while Aaron rolled his eyes and turned away.
“I never approved of Irr’s habits,” he said quietly, staring at the altar. “But we are born of Amunlea, and even she was born of shifters.”
“She was?” I asked. This was something new.
“All gods are,” Vir said with a shrug. “Your beliefs create us.”
“Oh. So, what you’re saying is…”
“Our habits are influenced by you,” Vir said quietly. “Not the other way around.”
“Yeahhhh,” I replied, thinking back on thousands of years of bloody history. “Oops.”
Vir nodded.
“Did all the gods have something like this?” I asked, remembering more of my studies.
“Yes,” Vir said quietly. “Mine is the Champion’s Spear.”
A spear. I’d seen that one before. The golden weapon he’d used to sever the Soulbond between Johnathan and me and to fight off the Invaders when we’d been trapped in the Direen. A formidable weapon. Yes, I knew all about–
I snickered.
Vir raised an eyebrow.
“Nothing,” I say, still sputtering.
Aaron was grinning nearby. “You got it, too, eh?”
Vir looked back and forth between the two of us. “What are you both on about?”
As one, we exploded. “Vir’s Spear!”we howled, laughing over the rhyming euphemism.
The shifter god grunted. “A thousand fucking years of being forgotten, and they pick that up in the first few days again,” he growled.
“I’m sorry,” I sputtered, though we all knew I wasn’t serious. “Vir’s spear.” More giggles.
I opened my mouth to make a joke about how long the spear was and equating that to him possibly overcompensating.
Vir arched an eyebrow at me, and I was suddenly reminded of one of the first times I’d accidentally dream-traveled to the Direen and he’d been wearing nothing but gray sweatpants. The image immediately dispelled any thoughts about a joke, and I snapped my teeth together hard enough that it was audible while my cheeks began to burn.
“Right. The Champion’s Spear,” I said, coughing purposefully. “Any others?”
