Page 55 of Tempest

“It’s fine.” Iason sounded a little less suspicious, his shoulders migrating downward as he took a visible breath. “I’m used to it.”

Azaiah’s laugh sounded like bells. “He has you there, brother. Iason, I’m not offended that you don’t wish to welcome death into your home. Few do. But I assure you I am not here for anyone’s soul.”

“Yes, I— My apologies, Lord of the Dark,” Iason said, using what must have been the Mislian title for the god of death. “I did not mean to give offense.”

“He’s very hard to offend,” Nyx said. “But we spend a lot of time outside. It’s fine.”

“Yes. Do tell me, what’s the problem?” Azaiah tilted his head.

“I need to ask you about your companion bond,” Levi said. “Because I think Iason is mine, but we didn’t… make our bond the way Astra or Arwyn did. I think it’s more like yours—but the one you had when I stood beside you and Ares and we drowned the old empire in sand. The one Nyx had with Death.”

Iason glanced at Nyx, who said tightly, “Like I said, I was a killer. That wasn’t a bond, Lord Tempest. That was… a vow I made to mete out death as Azaiah’s scythe, not his lover.”

“Yes,” Levi said. “That’s exactly it. You were a tool to be used, not by Azaiah, but by Death. Iason bound himself to my dragon, which is the form I chose to represent the storm that I truly am. Can he die, Azaiah? Could you take him across your river, if he wanted to go?”

Azaiah moved toward Iason and studied him. He went still, and thunder rumbled faintly in the distance. Levi wondered idly whether Iason would react to Azaiah’s godhood the way he did to Levi’s, and he realized that he didn’twanthim to. Iason washis, and while Levi might not have a dragon form anymore, he felt his old possessiveness rise, pulling wind and rain to add to Azaiah’s distant thunder.

“Lord Tempest, your companion has no designs on mine,” Nyx murmured. He actually smiled. “If you had hackles, they’d be up.”

Levi narrowed his eyes, but Nyx grinned at him, fleeting but warm, and Levi let it be. The wind eased, and Azaiah finally answered the question.

“Only by his own request, but yes. If you wished to cross my river, Iason, I could take you. As with our other siblings and their companions, I cannot take you against your will, but Icantake you.”

“I… see,” Iason answered, glancing over at Levi. “Because I would be immortal?”

“Yes and no. There are others who are long-lived, but I do not need their permission to take their souls. Their time will come, and I will come for them. That’s not true for you.”

“What about Levi?” Iason asked. “You said you could take the souls of gods if they wanted to go.”

“All of them but his,” Azaiah admitted. “He’s a god, but he’s also something more. The essence of him isn’t something you can take from the world. Itisthe world, in a sense. That’s his card in a Winter game for a reason. Levi changes, but he endures. If this world one day ceases, then perhaps he will, but I don’t know, I’m afraid.”

“And if I have a companion?” Levi asked.

Azaiah tilted his head. He blinked. “No,” he said, after a moment. “I didn’t know until you asked, but no, your companion is bound to you. Which puts them beyond my reach.”

“But you said you could still take Iason,” Levi said.

“Yes, but there’s… May I do something?” Azaiah asked, turning the full force of his regard on Iason, who made an admirable effort to retain his composure. “You have a light, and it’s that light that tells me about your soul. May I see your light, Iason?”

“I don’t think I could stop you,” Iason said. “But yes. Do what you must.” He went tense, as if trying to prepare himself for some sort of pain—physical, mental, or both.

“Don’t hurt him. He’s been through enough,” Levi said, surprised at the force of his words, and Iasondidshiver at that.

Nyx laughed softly. “I told you, you old dragon, he’s only got eyes for you.”

“Impudent man, be glad your empire didn’t require seagoing vessels,” Levi hissed, but that only made Nyx laugh again, unperturbed. Which was fine; Levi had always liked him. Nyx was unassuming and kind, and he was good at games and knew old songs that no one else sang for Levi anymore.

“I won’t hurt you,” Azaiah said, bending down slightly to stare into Iason’s eyes. “Ah. I know this flame. It reminds me of Nyx, when he was called by another name and bound to something else besides me. There is… some other fire in you, I think. Yes. Something to burn away before you can be Leviathan’s as Nyx is mine.”

“But if you do that,” Nyx added, clearly understanding something Azaiah was missing, “you will be with him until the heat death of the planet, or whatever takes us all out for good. That’s what’s bothering you, isn’t it? An eternity of regret. You think of it not as freedom to walk the earth but as chains binding you to a life you wish you’d never led.”

Silence. And then, to Levi’s surprise, Iason put his face in his hands and started to sob.

“I told you,” Nyx said, as Azaiah turned worried eyes toward Levi. “I know you. I’vebeenyou. And I think maybe you and I should have a talk. Without the gods who really aren’t as omnipotent as they want us to think they are.”

With that, Nyx took Iason’s arm and gently led him to the house, somehow knowing which one was theirs without having to ask.

* * *

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