Page 10 of Branded By Shadow
Already bracing myself for the unavoidable onslaught, I pressed my palm against the far wall. My hand passed partially through the dimensional boundary, disappearing up to my wrist. Thevoid pulled at me, hungry and familiar. “Father,” I called out. “Can you hear me?”
Silence greeted me, at least at first. I waited for a few moments, then reached out again. “Father, I know you’re there. Answer me.”
The gloom before me shifted, coalescing into a half-visible figure. My father’s features blurred and wavered, like smoke underwater. Only his gaze appeared solid, dark pits that reflected nothing.
Victor Blackwood. The only man I’d ever really trusted or respected my whole life.
Twenty years had passed since he’d become a mere specter. My father had pushed his abilities too far, and the backlash had torn him away from the physical world. He hadn’t even left a body behind to bury. Now, he existed only here, in this half-life between worlds, sustained by my visits and abilities.
“Damon,” he croaked out, his voice now so hollow compared to what it had once been. “You’ve finally found an Omega of your own. And she’s good stock, isn’t she?”
I swallowed around the knot in my throat and nodded. “She’s a latent Olympian. House Demeter bloodline.”
My father chuckled. “How traditional of you. And ambitious. We haven’t had a Demeter Omega in our house in centuries. Hades himself would be proud.”
For all that it never got easier to see him like this, his approval warmed my heart. Still, I hadn’t come here for empty validation. “There’s more. Alexander Stormwright already hunts her.”
“The Zeus boy follows his father’s pattern.” Victor’s body flickered, parts of him dissolving into the murk before reforming. “Unsurprising. But... His interest in her isn’t so simple, is it?”
I kept my hand steady in the boundary between worlds. It felt like plunging my arm into freezing, static-charged water, a thousand numb needles prickling my skin.One moment of lost concentration, and this realm would devour me. Many members of House Hades had been lost that way, consumed by their own birthright, their consciousness dissolving into the nothing.
I needed this connection to my father, but we all knew the risk. “It’s her scientific background,” I told him, ignoring my discomfort. “She created some kind of new suppressant. House Zeus seems very interested in it.”
My father snorted. “I can’t say I’m surprised. The Stormwrights and their ilk have only ever cared about power. They exist because Zeus couldn’t fathom the idea of Hades having descendants among humans, while he did not.”
The story of our appearance as an Olympian House had always filled me with a bitter sense of irony. We’d been the first Olympians created by the gods, through the heirs of Orpheus and Eurydice. But as the old tales explained, the other deities had grown jealous, and granted their own subjects secondaryblessings. And Zeus, of course, had been the first to act on that envy.
To this day, the difference between our origins never failed to haunt us.
“I’ll try to look into the matter more for you, Damon,” my father promised. “I don’t like this at all.”
The cold crept up my arm as he spoke. The longer I maintained contact, the harder it became to resist the pull. Every extra second required payment, life force, heat, warmth. But I ignored it and focused on my father. “I’m not too happy about it either, Father, but I won’t let that stop me.”
“Of course not,” my father told me. “We’re House Hades. Nothing can stop us, least of all those lightning-mad upstarts.”
Victor’s figure solidified as I pushed my hand deeper into the boundary. His features sharpened, the high cheekbones and strong jaw I'd inherited standing out in the gloom. A pool of pure black spread beneath his feet, rippling outward toward me.
I touched my fingertips to its surface. It was dangerous, and if Elara had seen me, she’d have skinned me alive. But the connection strengthened, anyway. My father met my stare, his own completely black now. No whites, no pupils. Only the absolute void.
His right arm no longer resembled anything human, instead tapering into writhing wisps of shade. The right side of his face occasionally melted away, revealing the emptiness beneath.
The pool between us rippled with whispered conversations, words and thoughts from others trapped there. If any of it bothered my father, he didn’t show it.
“I can tell you have doubts, son.” The chamber echoed with the depth of his command. “But House Hades never gives up. We’ve never lost an Omega in a thousand years, and we won’t start now.”
The pitch black pool churned violently before settling into something quieter, almost peaceful. “Whatever Alexander’s planning, you can’t let him get to you. I don’t want you to join me here. Not ever.”
My breath caught at the unusual warning. To this day, I didn’t know why my father had lost control. I had a feeling it had something to do with House Zeus, but he’d never confirmed it. He never spoke of the circumstances that had destroyed him. And yet, here he was, bringing it up without me asking anything.
“Now you sound like Elara,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.
Victor’s mouth twisted into what might have been a smile. “Your cousin’s always been very smart. But even Elara’s wits can only get you so far.”
The air grew heavy, the deep cold intensifying, sinking into my bones. A vortex started swirling around him. The void grew louder and insistent, dragging me an inch deeper into the nothingness.
“You’re losing focus, Damon,” Victor’s voice sharpened, cutting through the whispers. “Something about this Omega is affecting you more than you’re letting on. I can feel it. The Realm can feel it.” A dark tendril, thin and sharp as a razor, sliced across my cheek. Blood trickled down my face, a shocking line of warmth against my chilled skin.
I didn’t dare to lie to him, not like I had to Elara. “I know. But this was always going to happen, no matter what Omega I chose.”
