Chosen - Kiersten White Page 0,106
hold our breaths, but the cavern ceiling holds. And, unfortunately, so does Cillian’s father’s body. So blowing up the stone didn’t make a difference. Sean gestures to a couple of goons, and they run off to see what happened. I hope Jade is ready.
“Why did you let them in?” Sean asks the hellgod.
He appears confused by the question. “She is yours.” He points to me. “But now there are two of her.” He thought I was Artemis, and that’s why he let us follow. Score one for being identical. “One of any human is still too many. Why did they make two of this one?”
“When did you get back?” Cillian takes a step forward so he’s got a direct sight line to his father.
His father tilts his head. He’s scratching idly at his arms, opening up welts that close almost as fast as they appear. “Who are you?”
“Fecking hell, Da, it’s me. Cillian.”
Still no recognition appears on the hellgod’s face.
“I’m your son!” Cillian shouts.
“No.” He holds a hand out so it’s level with his side. “The child is this tall. And he has longer hair than you.”
Cillian’s laugh is harsh and angry. “Kids grow. Do you have any idea how long you’ve been gone?”
His dad raises his hand slowly as though adjusting his measurement of Cillian. He appears deep in thought. “I never left.”
“Yeah, you did. You left us. Mum and me.”
He shakes his head. “I never left the earth. I had so much time to think. So much aching, crawling, buzzing time. Why leave? Why struggle back and forth? I did for so long because it was too loud here—so loud, so loud, all the voices and claws and hungry mouths sucking at it—but I had gotten used to the noise. You were noisy.” A brief, dreamy smile flits across his face, but then it goes back to a neutral expression so lifeless it’s almost terrifying. “I stayed. And because I stayed, I was here when the doors all shut. When the noise was cut off. Only I am here now, and it’s time.”
“Time for what?” Rhys’s crossbow is pointed right at his boyfriend’s dad.
“For my third form. For my final form. For earth to have a god once more.”
“Bit of a monopoly.” Sean grins. “Used to be more competition, yeah? But we partnered up, and it’s been good business for everyone. Once the Sleeping One here is fully awake, we’ll use my network to spread his word, and before you know it, my products and his worship will be in—” Sean twitches, then looks down to see the crossbow bolt embedded in his shoulder. “Bloody hell, you shot me.”
I turn to Rhys, but his weapon is still loaded and trained on the hellgod. Doug looks at me, his crossbow no longer loaded. “I’ve had to listen to a lot of his speeches over the years.”
Sean staggers back toward the tunnel he came from. “Enough!” he shouts. “They’re wasting our time. Take them.” The pounding of dozens of sets of feet surrounds us with metallic rumbling as black-cloaked minions pour into the cavern. They’re behind us and in front of us, totally blocking any paths we might take.
Tsip pops into existence in front of me. “Just so you know, you’re surrounded. Okay, bye!”
I don’t have time to ask if Jade, Maricruz, and Chao-Ahn are all right before Tsip disappears again. Teleportation is wasted on her.
“Keep my son,” the hellgod says. “I am curious about him, and he should see what happens next. The rest can go.”
“You’re letting them leave?” Sean sounds outraged. His shoulder is bleeding and I’m sure quite painful, but Doug didn’t hit him anywhere that would kill him.
“Why should I care about them?”
“Because.” I stand on the edge of our walkway and calculate distances. “I’m a Slayer.”
Cillian’s dad smiles. “A Slayer never killed a god.”
“Nope,” Rhys agrees. “But a Watcher has.” He fires his crossbow. The bolt lands with deadly precision exactly where a human heart would be. The hellgod pulls the bolt out. It trails a shimmering gossamer substance that evanesces into nothing as it hits the air.
“Triangle thing, right?” I turn my head toward Rhys.
He nods. “When in doubt, break the big glowy thing. We’ll add it to the Slayer handbook.”
“Go,” Cillian says. “We got this.”
I take one step back, then push off the edge and leap. I soar through the air, covering the distance between catwalks in a way no normal person could. Maybe even no Slayer could. Faith’s right. If I have