Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 129912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
“Why does she want me? I have nothing to offer her.”
Hassha studies me a moment, as if she’s looking for a secret I may be hiding. I stare right back, proving that I’m not hiding a damn thing.
Finally, she relents and walks away from the fire, running her fingers along the top of a nearby chair.
“Have you ever heard of the god Kronos?”
The name sounds familiar. I’ve seen it before in my mother’s studies. She used to carry a book around with her about gods from other realms that were never believed to be real.
Greek gods, celestials, Norse—they all sounded like a load of shit just like The Regals did. Yet here they are standing in the same room as I am.
“Possibly,” I answer.
“There was a time before Vakeeli was created when The Regals reigned with the gods on Earth,” she says. “We were created by Gaea and made from her tears when the wars amongst Uranus and his children were erupting. She saw the havoc happening on Earth and wanted to create a new world—one of peace and order—so after Uranus was defeated by Kronos and we’d left the war unscathed, she sent Korah, Selah, and myself to Vakeeli. The history of Vakeeli will tell you that there were only three Regals. But in actuality, there were four.”
I shift on my feet, waiting for her to continue.
“The fourth of us was named Yuri. He was the only male Regal and the most powerful.” Hassha lowers her eyes to the fire, losing herself in the confession. “There was supposed to be peace in Vakeeli. It was all we wanted—an escape from the madness and the rage. After seeing so much bloodshed and pain happening on Earth, we ached for something new—something fresh and exhilarating.
“But Selah…well, she was always a bit of a troublemaker. It wasn’t until we battled with Kronos and the Titans to take down Uranus that she became this way. She’d fallen for Kronos. She wanted to be just like him. She loved that he was the god of war, that he could swindle the humans into battle and watch them mutilate one another. It served as her entertainment.”
“She sounds demented,” I mutter.
“Oh, no. Trust me,” Hassha says, her eyes snapping up to meet mine. “She was perfectly sane. That’s what made her desires so terrifying. She saw the power Kronos had over a vast number of people, and she wanted that power too. She loved him, but when he died she was devastated for years. She went back to Earth for his remains and returned to Vakeeli. She cut her hand to place her blood on his remains before burying it in our soil. She thought by doing this, it would bring back some version of Kronos that she could love. Instead, Decius was born.”
I feel a twinge in my chest at hearing that fucker’s name. “You can’t be serious.”
“The original Tethered had already been created with just her blood and energy, and they were at peace. But by adding Kronos’s remnants to her blood, it made Decius much more powerful than the others when he was created. Korah, Yuri and I were perfectly content with the way Vakeeli was—the animals, the land, the peace. We didn’t feel the Tethered were necessary, but we accepted them because they caused us no issues…at first.
“Then Selah created The Council. Then the commoners. And The Council slept with some of the commoners, thus creating the Mythics and the Gilded. For some time, Selah allowed the people to live in harmony. She took care of them, provided them their territories, gave them and the Tethered the power to bond and mate.
“We thought she’d turned a new leaf—that she wanted peace as much as we did after Kronos’s death. And back then, Decius was no threat. He simply followed Selah around like some lost child. Of course, the Tethered had no idea what she was really up to—not until she grew bored and forced Decius to mate with Oriah.”
Oriah, one of the original Tethered.
“This disrupted the peace we’d worked so hard to build. It caused animosity between Lehvine and Decius. Selah fueled Decius with both her rage and her power. This led the Tethered to stand against him, especially when they realized he was coming for their children and, once again, there was madness. It erupted like lava and spilled over the lands.
“We intervened, of course, but it was over before it’d even started. Decius had harnessed the Tethered’s energy and still sought the Cold Tethered children. Selah refused to stop him. In fact, she found it humorous—these tiny babes being hunted by her evil creation. That was something I simply could not stand for, so we created a place Decius was never meant to escape.”
“The Trench,” I whisper under my breath.
“Yes.”
I look away from her to Korah who has finally faced us but still has her arms folded.