Chapter 3 Welcome to the Underworld
I was going to be sick.
My stomach lurched as reality snapped back into place, and I stumbled forward, barely catching myself before I face-planted onto cold stone. Jeron's hand was still gripping mine, steady and warm despite the shadows that clung to him. I jerked away from him and immediately regretted it when my knees buckled. Strong arms caught me before I could fall, and I looked up into Kael's amber eyes.
"Easy," he murmured, his voice surprisingly gentle. "Shadow travel takes some getting used to."
"Shadow travel," I repeated dumbly, then bent over and dry heaved. Nothing came up, but my body seemed determined to reject whatever the hell had just happened. Teleportation. I'd just teleported through shadows with a god who claimed to be my fated mate. This was fine. Everything was fine.
"She's handling this better than I expected," Kael said conversationally.
"The bar was low," Jeron replied.
I straightened slowly, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, and finally looked at where we'd landed. My breath caught for an entirely different reason. We were standing in what could only be described as a throne room, except throne room felt too small a word for this space. The chamber was massive, with obsidian walls that stretched up into darkness and floors so polished I could see my reflection. Torches burned with silver flames that cast no smoke, and the air itself felt heavy with power.
"Welcome to the Underworld," Jeron said, watching my reaction carefully.
"The Underworld," I said flatly. "As in, the land of the dead. That Underworld."
"Technically, the Realm of Shadows and Souls," he corrected. "But yes."
I turned in a slow circle, taking in the impossible architecture, the sense of ancient power soaked into every stone. Part of me wanted to panic. The larger part was too busy being stunned by the terrible beauty of it all. This place shouldn't exist, and yet I could feel its reality in my bones.
"You brought her here?" A new voice cut through my daze, sharp and feminine. I spun to find a woman descending a staircase I hadn't noticed before. She was breathtaking in a way that made my chest tight, with long silver hair and eyes like chips of ice. Her dress looked like it was woven from moonlight, and she moved with the kind of grace that came from centuries of practice. "To your fortress, Jeron? How bold."
"Elara." Jeron's voice went flat. "This doesn't concern you."
"Doesn't concern me?" Elara laughed, the sound like breaking glass. "You bring the prophecy child into the Underworld, and you think it doesn't concern me?" Her gaze slid to me, assessing and cold. "So this is what all the fuss is about. She doesn't look like much."
"That's enough," Kael said, his voice carrying a warning.
Elara ignored him, moving closer to me with the predatory grace of a cat stalking prey. I stood my ground even though every instinct told me to run. Up close, I could see she was even more beautiful, the kind of perfect that didn't exist in nature. She circled me slowly, and I felt her power brushing against my skin like cold fingers.
"Half mortal," she said with distaste. "I can smell the humanity on you. Tell me, little girl, do you even know what you are?"
"Apparently, I'm someone important enough for gods to show up at my workplace," I said, lifting my chin. "That's more than I knew this morning."
Elara's lips curved into something too sharp to be a smile. "She has a mouth on her. How quaint." She looked at Jeron. "The Council will hear about this. You were supposed to eliminate the threat, not bring her home like a stray."
"The Council," Jeron said coldly, "can go to hell. Which, ironically, is where we already are."
"You're making a mistake," Elara insisted, but there was something desperate in her voice now. "She's dangerous. The prophecy says she'll destroy everything."
"Or save everything," Kael interjected. "Funny how you always forget that part."
Elara's expression twisted with something ugly. "You're both fools. Blinded by the mate bond into protecting the very thing that will be your ruin." She turned her icy gaze back to me. "Enjoy your time here, half-breed. It won't last long."
She swept past me, her shoulder deliberately knocking into mine as she passed. I stumbled but caught myself, anger flaring hot in my chest. The silver flames in the torches suddenly burned brighter, and I felt that strange energy from earlier crackling under my skin. Elara paused at the doorway, looking back with wide eyes.
"Control your pet, Jeron," she said, but her voice shook slightly. "Before she hurts someone."
Then she was gone, and the flames returned to normal. I stared at my hands, which were tingling with residual power. What the hell was that?
"That," Jeron said quietly, "was your power responding to a threat."
"I don't have power," I said, but it sounded weak even to my ears.
Kael laughed, not unkindly. "Princess, you just made the flames in a god's fortress react to your emotions. You absolutely have power."
I wanted to argue, but exhaustion was starting to crash over me in waves. Too much had happened too fast. Gods and prophecies and fated mates and now apparently I could make fire dance. My legs felt shaky again, and I sank down onto the nearest surface, which happened to be a stone bench carved with symbols I didn't recognize.
"I need answers," I said, looking between Jeron and Kael. "Real ones. No more cryptic warnings or half-truths. If I'm supposed to trust you, if I'm supposed to believe any of this, I need to understand what's happening to me."
Jeron and Kael exchanged another one of those loaded looks that suggested centuries of complicated history. Then Jeron moved closer, his shadows parting to reveal more of his face. He looked tired, I realized. Ancient and tired in a way that had nothing to do with age.
"Your mother was a goddess named Selene," he began. "She fell in love with a mortal king, which is forbidden. When she became pregnant with you, the Council of Ascended Gods ordered her execution and yours."
The words hit me like physical blows. My mother. A goddess. I'd grown up in foster care, believing I'd been abandoned, that I was unwanted. The truth was somehow worse.
"She died protecting you," Jeron continued, his voice softer now. "She used the last of her power to hide you in the mortal world, to suppress your divine nature until your twenty-third birthday. Today."
"Why today?" My voice cracked.
"Because that's when the seal breaks," Kael said, coming to sit beside me on the bench. "That's when you become what you were always meant to be. A goddess in your own right."
"And the prophecy?" I asked, even though part of me didn't want to know.
"You're called the Goddess of Ruin," Jeron said. "The prophecy states that you'll either save the realms or destroy them. The Council believes you're a threat. They've been hunting you since the day you were born."
I processed that, trying to fit this impossible information into any framework that made sense. My mother died for me. I was part god. There were people, beings, whatever, who wanted me dead. And these two men standing in front of me, these gods, were supposedly bound to me by fate.
"What happens now?" I whispered.
"Now," Kael said, "you learn to control your power. You learn to fight. And you decide whether you're going to let the Council define your destiny or forge your own path."
"And us?" I looked up at Jeron, then at Kael. "This mate bond thing. What does that mean?"
Jeron's expression was carefully neutral. "It means we're connected. On a fundamental level. What you feel, we feel. Your pain is ours. Your death would be ours."
"That sounds like a prison," I said.
"Or protection," Kael countered. "Depends on how you look at it."
A door I hadn't noticed opened at the far end of the chamber, and two more figures entered. My heart stuttered because I could feel them the same way I'd felt Jeron and Kael. That pull, that recognition, like pieces of a puzzle I hadn't known I was missing.
The first was beautiful in an almost painful way, with platinum hair and eyes that shifted colors as he moved. He wore elegant clothes that looked like they belonged in a different century, and his smile was equal parts charming and dangerous. The second was darker, wild-looking, with storm-grey eyes and an energy that made the air around him crackle.
"Well," the platinum-haired one said, his voice smooth as silk. "Looks like we're late to the party."
Jeron cursed under his breath, and Kael actually groaned.
The wild-looking one's eyes found mine, and his expression transformed into something that looked like relief and longing and recognition all at once.
"Hello, little goddess," he said softly. "I've been waiting a very long time to meet you again."