God Bones

Chapter 21: Key To All Doors

My breaths were shallow, yet they echoed in the small chamber as I tried to get a grip on myself. It felt like the world had spun off its axis because nothing made sense anymore.

I guess while the Hellis had forgotten their gods, the Vagi hadn't.

A God. Rhys is a literal God. Despite my world being filled with magic, I had trouble believing it. Gods really existed and one of them was here.

I looked down at my palm, the edges of the bone had made small cuts into my skin when I clutched it in my fist. For the first time, I actually looked at it. It had bits of blood clinging on to it, but I was right. It looked like a piece of a rib and based on the sea salt glitter, it was most likely from the skeleton in the library.

I felt strange holding it, almost like it was radiating energy. I felt pins and needles where I held it, and if I could feel the energy, it was probably a nuclear fuel rod to sorcerers. That's going to make it very difficult to hide.

I looked around the chamber. It still creeped me out and I really didn't want to come back in here, neither did I want to leave the bone. Of course I wouldn't leave it. I could use it to jump into the head of the person who attacked my sister.

And Rhys. Zagreus.

Did he notice me in his head? Can he notice me? I don't know. He did seem to think the vision of me in the sacrificial chamber was a dream but the main point is: he saw me.

I'll have to be careful. But at least I'd made progress.

I had to admit that being inside Rhys' head was a terribly tiring experience. The God was, well . . . depressed, somehow.

I could recognize it. It reminded me of the days I refused to get out of bed, even to shower, when my depression had reached its pinnacle. Rhys seemed to have a similar numbness and dread inside him. I saw the way he felt when he realised he had to wake up for another day. Scared.

And hopeless.

He also seemed lonely. Very lonely. It's sad, but not really surprising. I've seen the way LeConte treats him. Arion and his friends treat him like he's a vector for the plague though I don't know why. I don't like him being around either.

Anyway, on the bright side, his traumatic past is not really my problem and I kind of didn't care.

Firstly, you can't help everyone and not everyone is worth your effort. And who am I to interfere with Karma?

Secondly, my Agent Provocateur sets could not be referred to as 'tasteless scraps of blue lingerie' under any circumstances.  They were 'tasteless scraps of expensive blue lingerie.' Not that I'd expect a heathen God to know the difference. Or which kidney I sold to pay for it.

But I digress.

The bone is coming with me, anyhow.

I could hide it in the library. Nobody uses it except me anyway. The bone itself was a piece of a rib, a small one. If nobody could sense it's power, it could fit in my purse, undetectable.

Being in Rhys' head also told me the sun was about to come up soon. I can't believe so much time has passed already, but it was around midnight that I drugged Arion. I had to get out, quick.

I kind of remember that this room connected to the library but I'm not sure how. I left my phone in my room, in case Arion could sense it and find me. I looked around the room for a door. The one that led to the cold storage room and hence the library. There's a good chance it'll be locked from inside but maybe I didn't need a key for it.

If I could find it.

I surveyed the room. Trying to hold in my revulsion as my gaze traveled over the dismembered skeletons. Now that I think I know how they died, I could barely look at them. At their clothes in the corner, at the chunks of hair in the pit.