Page 9 of Deadly Games
That night, my dreams were filled with gods of war and time, chaos and endlessness. They whispered foreign words into my ears that fled my mind as soon as they’d left the speaker’s lips, and I went tumbling into an abyss of my own confusion. My eternal fall was interrupted by a pair of bony white hands wrapping around my neck.
Like the siren’s song, this crushing grasp was so strangely familiar, even as it forced the breath from my lungs. No matter how I struggled, I couldn’t get away from it. The swirling hiss of the void took on a shape that was barely distinguishable as one word, echoing through the nothingness.
No. Not a word. A name.
Eris…
“Kore!”
The familiar voice pulled me from those grasping hands before they seemed like they were going to crush and wrench me out of existence. I gasped sharply as I shot up from the bed and tore free of the sheets constricting my limbs. I found myself in the embrace of surprisingly strong arms and Loki’s scent enveloped me, familiar and more soothing than I wanted it to be.
“Hey,” he said, his blue eyes glinting with concern in the pale light coming in from the window. It was still night, assuming there was anything else in this wasteland, but it felt like I’d been falling forever. “Easy. You’re okay.”
As reality set in, humiliation began to bleed in at the edges. I pulled out of Loki’s arms in time to see Hades rise from the burgundy sofa across the room, looking half-asleep. He’d shed his shirt at some point in the night, so his pale, sculpted torso was on full display.
“What the fuck are you shrieking about?” he growled.
Loki gave him a scolding look before turning back to me. “That must have been some dream.”
“It wasn’t a dream,” I said, but I felt the absurdity of those words before they were all the way out of my mouth. Rather than the mockery I was expecting, Loki was watching me with an unreadable expression and even Hades seemed to have shifted from irritated to concerned.
“What happened?” he asked, his voice still rough with sleep. His white hair was mussed up, and I’d never seen him look less than completely put together. It was almost endearing.
“Nothing,” I answered, drawing my legs up to my chest. Usually when I had a nightmare this bad, I woke up in a cold sweat, but my skin was just...cold. I couldn’t help but wonder if it had something to do with being brought back from the dead, but I wasn’t in any shape to entertain such a disturbing thought after the dream I’d just had.
“It must have been bad to have you shaken,” Loki said, studying my face. I could tell he knew I was lying, but I was more taken aback by his words than anything. It seemed like he was oblivious to the fact that he’d just given me a compliment, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
“You’re freezing, and shaking like a leaf,” he said before I could respond, and I realized only then that he’d taken my hands in his. I hadn’t even noticed that I’d been shivering, but he was right. My hands were trembling and I couldn’t stop it. He looked up at Hades. “What’s going on?”
“How should I know?”
“You’re the one she’s bound to,” Loki said, his voice laced with irritation I’d never heard in it before. Certainly not toward his friend. “It must have something to do with the death magic.”
Hades frowned, but the sheen of fear in his gaze put me off more than that dream had. He sat next to me and when he reached out to touch my cheek, I froze. Everything within me, however, grew warmer. I wasn’t sure if the shift was a hallucination, but he seemed to notice it, too. Hades looked down at his hand and when he pulled away, the cold returned.
“What is it?” Loki demanded impatiently.
“I think you might be right,” he said in a tone that made it clear the concession was physically painful for him. He looked back at me, his somber gaze boring holes into my soul. “Did you feel warmer when I touched you?”
“Yes,” I answered warily. “What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
For some reason, I actually believed him. Maybe it was the fact that he seemed as confused as I was.
“I told you it was related to the necromancy,” Loki snapped.
While driving a wedge between them had once been my goal, I didn’t like being the object of any “I told you so.” “What, are you saying it didn’t take?”
“Don’t be dramatic,” Hades muttered. “This is the first time I’ve brought someone back, so there are bound to be glitches.”
“That’s comforting,” I said flatly. I glanced across the room where Fenrir had been sleeping on the rug by the window only to find the pane open and the rug bare. “Wait. Where is Fenrir?”
Hades and Loki looked around the room and seemed to realize their friend’s absence only then.
“I opened the window last night. He must’ve jumped out for a run,” said Hades.
“Jumped?” I echoed. “Wouldn’t he get hurt?”
