millennium or so, I will restore my powers to their full capacity, if my judgment is clear again.”
He’d punished himself because he’d bent the rules for me by bringing Ian back? I was both flattered and appalled.
Ian snorted. “That’s why you didn’t respond to her or Ashael’s summons? Because you’d put yourself under the supernatural version of house arrest down here?”
My father’s gaze became so bright, Ian had to look away. “If I did not restrict myself, her world might not survive what I would do to its occupants to ensure her safety.”
I once laid waste to an entire world for my beloved, he’d said before. I couldn’t imagine doing such a thing, but then again, I had ripped a hole between two worlds, and look where that had gotten me. Maybe a little restriction was a good thing.
“How do I get those gods back to you, since using my netherworld powers apparently cracks veils in a number of places and could possibly cause more breakouts if I do it again?”
My father fisted his hands. When he opened them, he now had two pairs of crystalline shackles that he held out to me.
“Put these on them. They will pull them down to me without disturbing any of the veils between worlds.”
Suddenly, we were right in front of the veil that bordered the netherworld and Phanes’s realm. True to Ian’s word, our bodies were no longer lying on the floor on the other side. Or, if they were, I couldn’t see them. I couldn’t see anything past the piles of collapsed stone and marble.
“The fucker collapsed the room behind him after he left!” I said with a new surge of fury.
“Can’t fault him for his thoroughness,” Ian replied.
My father gave us a look that was almost—not quite—amused. “Only here, in the land of the dead, do spirits still have mass and weight. Once outside it, spirits are merely air, so stone cannot stop you until after you reenter your bodies.”
Right. Of course. I hoped I wouldn’t get used to not having a real body. That would ruin my plans for stopping the two runaway gods, let alone my revenge on Phanes.
“However, Phanes did seal the veil behind him,” my father noted. “That would have taken an impressive amount of power. Perhaps that is what brought down the ceiling.”
That got Ian’s full attention. “How could Phanes do that? He has none of your powers, or does he? Is there more to Phanes that you’re not telling us, besides him being unkillable?”
“Yes,” my father said bluntly. “But he has none of my powers. Still, many gods can strengthen a door to the dead, though only those with a key can unlock one.”
One question answered, one ignored. For the warden, that was a gracious ratio.
My father stared at the veil. A seam in it parted as if he’d cleaved it in two with a sword. Then, he turned to me.
“Good-bye, daughter. I hope I do not see you again for a very long time.”
From anyone else, that would be insulting. Coming from the Warden of the Gateway to the Netherworld, it was almost a benediction. I shouldn’t push him for more, but I did.
“Before we go, we need to know about the two gods Phanes let out. Who are they? How can we defeat them?”
He was silent for a full minute. I was about to take that as a “no” when he said, “Morana’s powers lie in ice and death. Ruaumoko can shake the earth and has power over volcanoes.”
Just like Phanes’s play had depicted. I’d hoped that Phanes had been exaggerating. Apparently not.
“Morana and Ruaumoko will strike at the humans’ protectors first,” my father went on. “Vampires and ghouls banded together to fight Morana and Ruaumoko back when the gods reigned before the Great Flood. You must rally the protectors to fight together again alongside you. Then, you will have a chance.”
My faint hopes sank. Get vampires and ghouls to put aside their differences and unite? That was impossible—
My father thrust Ian and me through the seam in the veil before I could tell him that. I didn’t even get a chance to say good-bye. When I turned around, the Warden was already gone.
Chapter 20
Finally, I could fly again. Sure, I was a disembodied spirit, but hey—progress, not perfection, right?
Ian gripped my hand and led me through the piles of stone that immediately turned my vision into various shades of gray.
“Do you even know where you’re going?” I asked him.
“’Course. If you concentrate,