Page 52 of Wild Hunt
“The Underworld?” the orc snarled, his eyes narrowing once more. He looked at Hades with a viciousness that made even the cocky young god take a step back. When he rose, I realized I’d been way off on my original estimate. He was easily pushing eight feet. “That would make you Chronus’ brat.”
“You wanna say that again?” Hades asked, a blue flame leaping into his right hand.
Before I could chastise him, Loki grabbed his arm. “Maybe don’t antagonize the not-so-jolly green giant, huh?”
“He’s not real,” Hades said, shirking out of his grasp. “None of this is real! We’re in a fucking dream.”
The orc was looking at him like he was crazy, which was better than looking like he was going to murder him. I decided to step in before things could escalate since he seemed partial to me for some reason, even if it was a case of mistaken identity.
“What my friend here is trying to say is that this world isn’t exactly, uh, real,” I said.
Loki facepalmed. “Much better.”
“You try wording it in a less offensive way, then,” I hissed.
The orc didn’t seem offended, at least. Now he was looking at me with concern. “Your majesty, however you came to be here, this place is as real as Olympus.”
That seemed exactly like something a dream person would say, but for the sake of argument, I decided not to go there. “And where is here, exactly?”
“The entrance to the Aether,” he answered, as if that should be obvious.
My heart raced. The Aether? If that was true, then that meant we were in the same place where Ares had been banished.
“The Aether,” Hades scoffed, folding his arms. “Right.”
The orc looked warily over at Fenrir. “Is that thing with you?”
The wolf bristled and I couldn’t blame him, but in the interest of keeping the peace, I put a hand on his head to settle him. “He is. He’s our friend, but for some reason he’s not able to shift back into his other form.”
“He is a hellhound,” the Orc said knowingly, clearly displeased. “It is difficult for such creatures to maintain illusion here, where the laws that govern your world are not quite so rigid.”
His words echoed Loki’s a bit too closely and for the first time, I found myself wondering if he was right. If we really had ended up in the Aether somehow and this wasn’t just an elaborate dream world.
And if it was, whose mind was it a product of?
“Go back to the whole your majesty thing,” Loki said, twirling his finger in the air. “What did you mean by that?”
“What I said,” the orc answered impatiently. “She is the daughter of the Dark Lord. An Aetherean warrior would know his Princess anywhere.”
“Right,” Loki said slowly, glancing at me.
I shrugged, feigning ignorance. I had a bad feeling I knew exactly who this Dark Lord was, and there was no way my own brain would have let that cat out of the bag. A feeling of dread washed over me as I realized it was real.
All of it.
“I don’t know who you are,” I protested.
“But I know you,” the orc answered, bowing low to me. “The entire realm has been awaiting your return.”
“Return?” Hades echoed.
“Enough,” the orc grunted, stabbing his broadaxe into the earth once more. He stepped back and motioned for me to walk through into the city streets just beyond the gate. “We mustn’t linger here. It isn’t safe, and the Dark Lord will wish to know of your arrival.”
I stayed where I was, taking in the cityscape. This certainly wasn’t what I’d pictured when I thought of the Aether, but I figured the other place was just the lobby.
“You heard the man,” Loki said, taking my arm to pull me along. “Let’s not keep your people waiting, Princess.”
I gave him a filthy look, groaning inwardly. He thought this was all part of the game, and there was no way I could tell him otherwise without explaining the truth about my father. Or that the danger we were all in was real.
