“All right, I will,” I said out loud.
“You will what?” Re walked in at the perfect time.
I'm still here if you need me.
Thanks.
“This is going to sound crazy,” I said.
“In light of everything that's happened lately, I'm not sure that it will,” Re countered. “What's wrong?”
“A voice just started talking to me.”
“A voice?” Re's expression went serious. “What kind of voice?”
“A male one.” I shrugged. “He says that he's the Consciousness of the Void. Have you ever heard of the Void?”
“The Void,” Re whispered. “That sounds familiar.”
Tell him what it is.
“This voice—he calls himself Alaric—he says that the Void is the place where souls go.”
And come from.
“And come from,” I repeated.
The place where human souls were supposed to go before the Gods started misdirecting them.
“It's where human souls were meant to go,” I said. “If not for God intervention.”
Re gaped at me, blinked, and then recovered. “Is he speaking to you now?”
“Yes.”
“And what else does he have to say?”
“That the reason I know so much about Gods, and the reason we have this connection is that a god named...”
Aion, Alaric supplied the name. He's a god of time.
“Aion, a god of time, changed my past and altered our present,” I said. “He says that Aion is Zeus' son, and I did something to Zeus that prompted Aion to persecute me.”
“And in this other life, we were together?” Re asked.
Other time.
“Alaric says it's another time, but yes; we're engaged then too.”
Not going to tell him about your husbands? Alaric's tone was amused.
I don't think that's necessary, I said.
“You're right; this does sound crazy,” Re said. “But it explains all of the other insanity.”
“He offered me proof,” I added.
“What proof?”
“Persephone's murderer,” I whispered. “He says that it's a goddess named Nyx; that she teamed up with Aion. Aion wants to hurt me, but Nyx wants to hurt Hades.”
“Killing Persephone is the surest way to hurt Hades,” Re murmured. “We need to tell him, but not until we confirm it.”
“Alaric said that Hades could confirm it,” I said.
“We can't count on him to.” Re shook his head. “We need to go to Hades with absolute certainty; especially if it's Nyx.”
“Why? Who's Nyx?”
“She's a Greek Primordial; a god who holds a primeval magic. In her case, it's the Night,” Re explained. “She's powerful, but that's not as big of an issue as her status. As a Primordial, she's given a lot of respect. Hades will be loathed to go against her unless he knows for certain that Nyx is the murderer.”
“So, how do we prove it?” I asked.
“I think that may be where your God Squad will come in handy.” Re smirked. “Finish gathering your spell components; we can talk to Thor about this when I take you back to Bilskinir.”
“All right.” I went back to gathering my tools.
This is our last shot, Vervain, Alaric said grimly. If you don't kill Aion before this timeline settles itself, there will be no way to right this. And if Aion goes back further and changes history again, your memories will be lost forever.
Part of me wondered if that would be a bad thing. I looked at Re and knew that I could be happy with him. Only him. What would I do with multiple husbands? Frankly, it sounded like a lot of head and heartaches.
You say that now, but your tune will change when you meet them. Re was one of the last lovers you took; your husbands have a far stronger connection to you.
Stronger than this? I glanced over at Re.
V, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Now, I'm really scared.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“You want me to believe that the reason you know so much about the Gods is that you were friends with us in another life?” Thor asked with a raised brow.
“Another time,” I corrected.
“You have to admit that her knowledge of us is uncanny,” Re said. “Look at this painting she did of you.” Re pulled up a picture he'd taken of the Thor painting on his phone. “She even painted that piece of stone embedded in your forehead, Thor.” Re magnified the picture and handed the phone to Thor.
Thor's expression went from skeptical to amazed. “How did you...?” He slid his fingers beneath the fall of hair on his forehead. “You could have read about that in the Prose Edda.”
Tell him that he got it in a bar brawl when he was dressed as a woman, Al urged.
I gaped at Thor and then chuckled. “How did dressing in drag end with you having a chunk of rock in your head?”
Thor's eyes went wide as Re laughed.
“See? This being—Alaric— knows about us,” Re said.
“That doesn't mean we can trust him,” Thor grumbled. “And it was a joke, by the way; the drag thing. I'm very funny.”
“I'm sure you are,” I said. “But that's why Alaric gave us the information on Persephone's murderer; he wants to prove that we can trust him.”
“What does he expect us to do; walk into Tartarus and ask Nyx is she killed Persephone?” Thor huffed.
“That's not half bad,” Re mused. “We confront Nyx to her face, and then we can judge her reaction.”
“And what if she has no reaction?” Thor asked. “Nyx could claim innocence and still be guilty; Gods are good at dissembling.”
Tell him that I will supply you with information that will startle Nyx if she doesn't reveal her guilt immediately.
“Alaric says that he can give us more information; things that will get a reaction from her,” I offered.
“I don't know if we should tell Hades about this or just confront Nyx alone,” Thor mused.
“As I said to Vervain; I
