Book 3 - Chapter 11
The darkness was alive.
It pressed against the vault walls like a living tide, heavy and suffocating, curling through the cracks where the shattered runes had once glowed. The air was thick with power, raw, ancient, merciless, pressing against my chest until every breath felt like drowning.
Outside, the howls rose in a chorus of hunger and rage, shaking the earth, but inside…inside was worse.
The gods moved closer.
Figures carved from shadow and flame, their forms shifting like smoke caught in a storm. Eyes burned like suns, searing through the gloom, and their voices curled through the air like silk and steel-soft, beautiful, and terrible all at once.
“You were never prey,” they said, their words slicing through the silence like a blade. “You were the promise.”
Jasper stood before me, his body a wall of flesh and fury, his blade raised through it, looking pitiful against their vastness. His breath came in ragged gasps, his muscles taut as steel cables, but his eyes… his eyes burned like fire.
“You’re not taking her,” he snarled, his voice raw, feral. “Not now. Not ever”
The gods laughed -a sound like shattering glass, beautiful and cruel. “You think you can stop this?” one asked, its voice curling like smoke around my mind. “You think steel and mortal blood can defy eternity?”
Jasper didn’t flinch. “Try me.”
The chamber trembled, the runes pulsing like a dying heartbeat. Guards appeared and fired into the darkness, their weapons only offering a glimpse of light and sound in the tense moment.
Bolts fizzled against the gods' forms like raindrops on fire. One God titled its head, almost curious, and with a flick of its hand, the nearest guard crumpled bones snapping, blood spraying in a crimson arc. “That’s cute, but I like my weapon better,” the god laughed.
The others froze; terror etched into their faces.
“STOP!” Dr. Kellan shouted, his voice cracking. “PLEASE STOP! Don’t do this!”
The gods turned their gaze on him, and for a heartbeat, I thought they would kill him too. But they didn’t. They smiled a slow, terrible smile that showed too many teeth.
“Explain,” Jasper barked, his voice slicing through the chaos. “Explain why they want her.”
Dr. Kellan swallowed hard, his throat bobbing. “Because of the pact,” he said, his voice trembling. “The Broken Pact.”
The words hung in the air like a death knell.
“Centuries ago,” Dr. Kellan continued, his tone low, urgent, “before humans ruled the surface, there was balance—two realms, ours and theirs, bound by an oath older than time. We would stay in our world; they would stay in theirs. No crossing. No bloodshed. It was peace…fragile, but real.”
“Yes, you have said this numerous times, but you never really gave the details.” Jasper’s voice was like a blade slicing through the stillness.
“We..The humans broke it. Well, not all of us, but a small fraction of the government. Humans hunger for power.” Dr. Kellan said his eyes were darkening. “They were power hungry and decided that to become better, we would need to splice the supers' DNA with humans and thus, by doing so, use their strength and power to bind the gods' magic. It worked: the mutant humans entered their realm and, with it, brought destruction and chaos, naturally angering the gods. We stole their strength, their secrets. Built empires on their blood.”
My stomach twisted. “What happened?”
“When the gods found out first, they had to contain the situation in their realm, and then, when they did that, they came for us. They tore the pact apart. The first breach nearly ended humanity.
Entire cities became wastelands of death and destruction. The gods demanded restitution, a price for our betrayal.”
“What price?” Jasper's voice barks out.
“The pact wasn’t just broken, it was rewritten,” Dr. Kellan mutters.
The gods moved closer, their forms towering, their voices curling through the chamber like fire and ice. “We gave you a chance,” they said, their words echoing like thunder.
“Fourteen days every cycle. Fourteen days to remember what you are. Fourteen days to pay what you owe.”
I watched as Jasper clenched his jaw. “And what do we owe?”
The gods’ laughter was a storm. “Blood,” they said. “Always blood. But not just any blood.”
Their eyes locked on me, burning like suns. “The blood that binds the oath. The blood that broke it.”
My breath hitched, a strangled sound tearing from my throat. “I didn’t do anything,” I whispered, my voice cracking. “I didn’t…”
“It doesn’t matter,” the gods said, their voices curling like smoke around my bones. “You are the promise. The living key. The heir of the broken pact.”
“Then you’re not taking her,” Jasper snarled, his voice a roar of defiance. “I don’t care what your damn pact says.”
The gods tilted their heads, their forms shifting like shadows caught in flame. “You would defy eternity for her?” one asked, its voice soft, almost curious.
Jasper’s grip tightened on his sword. “I would burn this word to the ground while giving your eternity the biggest fuck you that I can. JUST. FOR. HER”
Outside, the howls rose again, low at first. Then sharper, hungrier.
The super’s outside grew restless, clawing at the walls, their rage a living thing. The gods’ laughter rolled through the vault, beautiful and terrible.
“Then choose,” The gods said.
The air thickened, pressing against my chest until I could barely breathe. “Choose?” Jasper rasped.
“Her life,” the gods said, their voices curling like silk and steel. “Or your world.”
The words hit like a blade. Jasper froze, his breath ragged, his eyes burning with fury and fear. “What does that mean?”
“Give her to us,” the gods said, their voices echoing like thunder. “And the breach ends. The supers return to their realm. The cycle stops, and humanity survives.
“And if I don’t?” Jasper’s voice was a snarl.
The gods smiled a slow, terrible smile that showed too many teeth. “Then the hunt begins, and it will not end until your world is ash.”