Retribution [malexmale]

Chapter One

Chapter One

Nightmares about my pantheon were never shocking.

I'd had nightmares about them since the day they were brutally betrayed and slaughtered without so much as a goodbye. A race so powerful that even the Romans whispered in awe when they told stories of us, legends that lived on even today in a purely modern world. A race so powerful that most humans passed it off as a mere fairy tale, when they had no idea of the continent that had once dominated the Mediterranean.

Atlantis.

My home, my people, my family, my everything. In one vicious mistake caused by a bunch of bratty siblings, the entire continent along with its pantheon had been broken up and plunged straight to the bottom of the sea where it now lay in ruins. My siblings had never been nice people. Seriously. They were downright cruel, especially to my brother, Anexius, or as he was called now, Callias. They'd brutally raped and slaughtered his lover, the Atlantean prince, Dexius. Fed up with their treachery and cruelty, Callias had called upon the Source and struck a deal that resulted in our entire pantheon being put out of existence, their powers sucked back into the Source.

As payment for his actions, Callias was forced to suffer eternal damnation in slavery to whomever gave him a new name. As for myself, I'd been cursed to serve those who called upon me for help, a deal maker. And there was a third surviving member of our pantheon of mixed blood, Hannibal, who was also cursed with immortality-- you'd think it wasn't that bad at first until you actually met the hybrid god. Then you'd wonder how he hadn't gone insane by now with all that he'd suffered.

And that was all that was left of a once great and powerful nation.

Three cursed gods, living and reliving the death of our pantheon, night after night after night.

The screams of innocent mortals ringing through the air, infants wailing, children sobbing, families torn apart and forced to die the slow and painful death of drowning, with no way to reach out to them and save them because your brother was using the last of his free will to keep you trapped on the shoreline with no choice, but to watch your beloved people perish.

Yeah, it was definitely something that kept me up at night.

But nothing like the headache that struck me that morning as I sat at the breakfast table, pressing the heel of my palm against my forehead, teeth clenched together tightly. It sounded as if a million people were screaming in the back of my skull. Only this time, instead of mournful sorrow, it was the sound of rage. Pure hatred being let loose in the worst war cries I'd ever heard, and they chilled me to the bones as a shudder wracked me.

"Kitty, are you okay?" I blinked past the pain to peer up at Dorean, who stood off to the side of the small breakfast table out on the patio, his silver eyes twinkled like the glitter that coated his silky blue tank top. I offered him a small smile, not wanting to worry him.

"I'm all right, just a bit of a headache." I assured him. Being the astute imp he was, Dorean didn't buy the excuse as he cocked his head and wrinkled his nose up as if he didn't like the smell of my lie. As an imp, they were pretty good at picking up on how people truly felt about things. Not quite as strong as a fae's ability to read emotions, but close enough.

"You get headaches a lot, but I don't see you cringe like that." He pointed out. I shrugged, still pressing the heel of my palm to my forehead to alleviate some of the pressure caused by the screams inside my head that still rang out in anger.

"It's just.... I don't know. Something feels off."

"A summon?"

"No, it just... I don't know, maybe. Listen, I'm gonna drop by Callias's today to see if maybe it has something to do with the curse." I said, moving to get up, but Dorean pushed on my chest so I was forced to sit back down and he moved a plate of pancakes and bacon on the table in front of me.