I didn’t miss the looks of disbelief that Rhain and Ector exchanged, nor did I doubt Nyktos for one second. “I don’t want to harm any of them.”

“No.” His smile was a tight mockery. “Just me.”

The veil slipped. “I didn’t want to harm you either.”

“Save it,” he snapped, grabbing my hand. The jolt of energy was a warm buzz. His grip was firm but not painful as he led me from the room.

Nyktos tugged me past the thrones and off the dais. Ector and Rhain were right behind us. The darkened room was eerily quiet except for the clap of our boots. It was a struggle to keep up with his long-legged pace. All I focused on was keeping my mind from going back to the chamber and why he was now Nyktos to me. I couldn’t think about it as we neared the foyer. Nyktos walked so fast, I missed the slight rise in the floor, the barely-there step between the open chamber and the foyer. I tripped—

Nyktos’ hand tightened on mine, catching me and keeping me from tumbling face-first into the hard shadowstone.

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

“Don’t,” he bit out.

I pressed my lips together as the veil slipped even more. His anger was no surprise. I couldn’t and wouldn’t blame him. It was my inability to remain in that nothingness that caused my chest to twist.

Saion stormed through the open doors, drawing to a halt as he spotted us. “Something’s happening at the wall, along the bay.” His gaze flicked to our joined hands, but he showed no reaction. “I’m not sure what yet. Rhahar is readying Odin. Bele has gone ahead.”

“Do you know if there have been any injuries yet?” Nyktos asked, striding forward.

“One of the smaller ships capsized,” Saion advised, a step behind us. Ahead, Rhahar led the massive, midnight steed toward where several horses already waited. “Rescue efforts were halted when one of those ships turned over.”

“What in the world is in that bay that could capsize ships?” I asked.

“There shouldn’t be anything,” Nyktos shared, surprising me since I half expected no answer.

“The waters have been dead for years. Not many things can survive in them for long,” Rhain added. “Not only that, the waters are pitch-black—”

“Which makes rescues even more difficult,” Saion said. “If not impossible. Anyone, god or mortal, goes into those waters, they’re not likely to come back out.”

A chill swept over me as Nyktos took the reins from Rhahar. He turned to Ector. “I need you to grab me a hooded cloak and meet me at the gates to the bay.”

Ector sent a glance in my direction, brows pinched. He looked as if he wanted to say something but reconsidered. “Of course.” He turned, racing off toward one of the many side entrances hidden under the staircases.

“Have the other gates to the city been sealed?” Nyktos asked.

“In the process, from what one of the guards shared,” Saion confirmed. “And they’ve started evacuating those along the bay, moving them inland.”

I turned to Odin, unsure exactly how I was supposed to mount a horse of his size. I’d have to figure it out because I wasn’t foolish enough to ask for my own mount. I reached for the strap on the saddle as Nyktos gripped my hips, lifting me with shocking ease.

I started to thank him but kept my mouth shut as I slid a leg over the saddle, seating myself.

“Is she really coming with us?” Rhain asked, hoisting himself onto the back of his horse.

“You want to stay back and make sure she remains wherever we put her?” Nyktos swung himself up behind me, and I clamped my jaw shut.

“No,” Rhain answered.

“Then she comes with us.” Nyktos reached around, tightening his hold on Odin’s reins. “Hold on.”

I firmed my grip on the pommel a second before Odin launched into a gallop that quickly picked up speed, kicking up dirt and stirring dust. Out of instinct, I tipped forward as Nyktos guided Odin around the side of Haides and along the Rise. Saion and Rhain fell in line beside us. We raced through a narrower gate, across hard-packed dirt that glittered with specks of embedded shadowstone. Bare-limbed, bent trees that reminded me of the dead ones I’d first seen upon entering the Shadowlands surrounded the road. Mist gathered and seeped around the gray trunks. Through the gnarled, heavy branches full of blood-tinted leaves, I caught glimpses of the Rise, where it began to climb so high, I couldn’t see the tops of the ramparts. Sweeping towers appeared through the trees, spaced hundreds of feet apart before the Rise appeared to flow outward, farther away from the road until I could no longer see it.

Nyktos guided Odin sharply to the right, off the road. He leaned in, his chest pressing against my back. The feel of his cool body against mine threatened to short out my senses and my not-so-rigid control on myself. The contact was…gods, I couldn’t let myself even think of that as we flew between the blood trees. White mist pooled and thickened, whipped into a frenzy. The mist—the eather—rose higher and higher, causing my heart to feel as if it too were being stirred into a frenzy.

“We’re going to take a shortcut.” His arm dropped to my waist, his grip tight. “You might want to close your eyes.”

My eyes were wide open. “Why—?” I sucked in air as the trees disappeared ahead and the very ground itself seemed to fall into a misty abyss of nothing.

A scream lodged in my throat as Saion broke forward, riding low over a black steed almost as large as Odin. Saion and his horse disappeared. I started to press back against Nyktos—

Odin leapt into the mist.

For a moment, there was nothing but white mist and the feeling of…flying. I couldn’t even take a breath in those seconds of weightlessness—

The impact of Odin landing knocked whatever air there was out of my lungs, throwing me back against the Primal’s hard, unyielding body.

Nyktos held onto me as we rode at breakneck speed through the film of eather, Odin’s hoofs thundering off rocks. I couldn’t see anything. Nothing but mist. But if we were going to ride off the face of a mountain or whatever it was we descended, I wouldn’t go out with my eyes closed.

Odin leapt once more, and then we were free of the thickest of the eather, rushing across patches of gray grass and hard dirt. It took me a moment to even know what I was seeing as Rhain and Rhahar joined us, remaining at our side. I saw who I believed was Saion, riding along the wall where the mist gathered in thinner, wispy pools.

 I looked back at the mountain of mist to see dozens of guards on horseback, erupting from the wall of mist. Nyktos called out commands I couldn’t hear over the thunder of hoofs.

A closed stone gate appeared ahead, and on the Rise, torches glowed from the height of the wall where I saw the distant forms of guards, all turned to what lay beyond the Rise.

Nyktos slowed Odin down, coming to a stop a distance from the group of guards. A guard broke free of the others. I squinted, recognizing Theon. One of the few gods who hadn’t been present when my treachery became known. I doubted it would take long for him or his sister to hear. Or would the others obey Nyktos’ command to not speak of what they’d witnessed?

“Something’s in the water,” Theon said, grabbing Odin’s bridle, barely sparing a glance in my direction. “It came from the sea, whatever it is, cutting through one of our supply ships. Snapped the son of a bitch in two.”

“Fuck,” Nyktos growled, jumping from the horse. He turned immediately, extending his arms to me without a word. I took them, a bit stunned that even in his cold fury, he was still…thoughtful. “Any sign of what it is?”

“Not yet,” Theon answered.

Nyktos took a step and then stiffened at the exact moment I felt a throbbing in the center of my chest, a warmth. Under the starlight, the shadows lifted from the thin mist running along the ground. His eyes closed as his features appeared to sharpen.