It was the third dawn, and I didn’t have much hope of finding Eos. Everyone I asked knew nothing about her whereabouts and hadn’t seen her for days. And Nyx… I couldn’t find her either. She hadn’t been at the cave during any part of the night.
Guiding my chariot to the usual patch in the Moonflower Meadows, I set it down and saw five rogues lying down around a bunch of flowers toward the north. My stomach tightened, and I hurried over to them.
I doubled over when I saw Eos.
Torn to pieces, gashes all over her body, limbs almost detached, and eyes gouged, Eos laid totally lifeless amongst the surrounding beasts. I stumbled to my feet and over to her, shaking my head. “No,” I whispered, picking up her limp body in my arms and holding her to my chest. “No.” I shook my head. “No, no, no, no, no…” I lifted my head to the sky and cried out. “NO!”
This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be true. She wasn’t breathing. She wasn’t moving. She was completely and utterly as dead as any other mortal could be in these Sanguine Wilds.
“Selene!” I shouted, hoping to the Gods and Goddesses that she’d hear me. “Selene, get here now!”
Selene appeared between some trees with two beat-up warrior wolves behind her, looking as if she had gone straight to the Underworld and came back in one disheveled piece. When she saw Eos in my arms, she screamed and rushed over with wide eyes. “Oh, Gods!” She collapsed over her dead body. “What happened?”
My lips curled into a scowl. “Your wolves,” I said, holding Eos’s body away from Selene and gesturing back down at the rogues in the meadow. “They did this.”
Selene shook her head, gazing toward them. “You know that they loved her. They would never do this. They protect her at all costs. This had to be by someone else.”
“Do you see the claw marks and canine puncture wounds in her body?” I asked, fury building inside of me. My fingers burned so hot that they nearly blazed right through Eos’s pastel dress. “Rogues do this.”
Selene stepped forward and shook her head, her wolves following and standing right by her side. “Do you see those dark, charcoal marks? Rogues don’t do that. Hounds could. Gods could. People from Erebus’s Kingdom could.”
We paused for a long moment, and I shook my head. Medusa warned me about Hella. She fucking warned me, and I didn’t do anything to protect Eos. I was too caught up in Nyx, too blinded by how much I loved her to give a single shit.
Selene’s chin trembled, and it seemed as if she finally let it sink in. “How is she dead? We’re immortal…” She wiped some tears from her cheeks. “She shouldn’t be dead. It doesn’t make sense.”
I wrapped my arms around Eos’s body, holding her so tight that if she were still alive, she’d probably push me away, giggle, and tell me that I was crushing her. But she wasn’t alive. I wouldn’t hear her voice anymore. I wouldn’t smell that dewy, fresh scent of hers anymore. I wouldn’t get to hold her anymore.
This was my fault, and I would do everything in my power to make this right.
“This has Hella written all fucking over it,” Selene said strongly through the tears. “I’m going to kill that necromancer bitch.” Her eyes glew as white as her moon. She turned to her warrior wolves. “Prepare for war,” she said to them, storming through the woods. “We’re going to kill those fucking hounds. I don’t care how long it takes. We’ll annihilate them.”
When Selene left to prepare, I walked to my chariot and placed Eos in the carriage with me. It would be her last ride. The sky stayed dark as I took the reins and guided my chariot to Medusa’s where I’d beg for her to help me again and where I’d lay Eos to rest.
My gaze was clouded with tears, so many thoughts of this morning racing through my mind. Blood. Claws. Teeth. Tearing into my sister. I couldn’t understand why anyone would ever want to do this to her. She didn’t have enemies. She was loved by so many of the gods. She was soft and kind and loved even the dark things in life.
She was the epitome of goodness and new beginnings, happiness on new days. She didn’t deserve death, and even if someone thought she did… not like this. This was pure torture and utter destruction.
When I made it to Medusa’s, I took Eos’s body and kicked on Medusa’s front door with the front of my foot. “Answer, dammit,” I said, tears streaming down my face. “Answer, Medusa!”
After kicking the door a few more times, Medusa pulled the door open, her usual green veil covering her face. Almost immediately, she pulled it away and half the pegasus-like snakes on top of her head turned to wolf-heads and stopped moving completely. “Oh, Gods and Goddesses, what happened?”
My lips quivered. I never cried, but I needed to let it out. I couldn’t even comprehend what had happened, hadn’t truly come to terms with it yet. All I had known for the past thousands of years was Eos.
“This is all I have left of my sister,” I whispered, still not understanding how an immortal—a goddess—like her could die. “You warned me about Hella, and I didn’t fucking listen to you. She must’ve put the Hounds on her. They ripped her body apart and it’s all my fucking fault for not protecting her.”
Now she was dead.
She was fucking dead.
“This was more than Hella,” she said, examining Eos’s body. “Where’s Nyx and her brother?”
My heart stopped, and I let out a growl. “Nyx had nothing to do with this. They were best friends,” I said through gritted teeth. My chest tightened, and I feared the absolute worst. What if the same thing happened to Nyx too? It couldn’t be a coincidence that they were both gone at the same time.
“This is not a time to feel for your fling,” Medusa said, words sharp. “Eos is dead.”
“You think this was Erebus?” I asked.
Medusa shook her head. “Nyx under Erebus’s influence,” she said. “Nobody can do this to Eos like Nyx would be able to. You know that these dark marks all over Eos’s body weren’t just from wolves, but something more divine, dark, and godly.”
“That doesn’t mean that it’s Nyx,” I said through gritted teeth. “It could be anyone from Erebus’s Kingdom.”
Medusa pressed her lips together and turned away from me, as if she didn’t understand me. She pulled her veil back over her head to shield the snakes from me and walked to the window, staring out at the warriors preparing for war.
“You’re declaring war?” Medusa asked, fingers curling into the countertop.
“They already declared war,” I said through gritted teeth, holding Eos closer. “We take this into the Underworld, and you will be helping us get mortals there, because I will not have the one place Eos loved turn into a battlefield.”
Medusa blew out a deep breath. “You are blinded by your pain, Helios. Think this through. Gods and goddesses in the Underworld are stronger than you think they are.”
“And gods are immortal,” I seethed to Medusa. “We’re not supposed to die.”
Medusa stepped closer to me, pulled her green veil back just enough for me to see her eyes, and snapped. “Your souls are immortal, but your bodies decay when nobody worships them for thousands upon thousands of years. You will someday die the way your sister did, Helios,” she said to me. “I highly suggest you don’t participate in this war. You have seen the consequences. You know the outcome. You will die.”
“So, should I let other gods and all these warrior wolves die instead? What if Nyx is being tortured by them? If we don’t put a stop to this madness now, this is how it’ll be for eternity.”
A silence fell upon us, and Medusa shook her head. “If I send you and a bunch of warriors to the Underworld, there’s no saying that you’ll come back. And if you get out alive, the world may be different than how you left it.”
But her words meant nothing to me anymore. I wanted revenge for everything that Erebus had done to me and to my sister. I would not let anyone get away with this.
Eos might be back one day in another body, under another’s control, but that didn’t make up for the fact that she was gone now and the people who ordered her death walked free in the Underworld.
This was punishable.
And I would be the one to punish it.
“I’m going,” I said to her. “And I don’t need your permission. All I am asking is for you to use your powers to allow me to bring warriors who were born and bred for war with me. Those warriors have been hurt by Eos’s death. They deserve to fight, if they want to fight.”
I looked out the window to see the hundreds of lycans—men and women warriors of the wolf race who were stronger than their counterparts—gathered down below by my chariot. They had trained relentlessly to protect themselves, their families, and their packs from harm. They’d do well in the Underworld.
Medusa stared at me with a hard expression and clenched her jaw. “You’ll be sorry.”
“You’ll help?”
“Once,” she said to me. “I’ll turn them to stone once, and that’s it.”
“And Eos? Where can I lay her to rest?”
Medusa paused and took her from me. “I’ll preserve her soul, then I’ll lay her to rest in the Moonflower Meadows.” She gave me a pointed stare. “You don’t have time. You must prepare.”