The Return of the Gods (Children of the Sun Book 1)

Chapter 21

"Wow, and I thought the alarm was too much," Nef commented, but he was grinning, which meant that he couldn't wait to look the turrets over. Nira kind of wanted to do so as well, just because it felt so overboard.

"Where are they, though?" she asked. Nef looked at her with confusion. "I mean, they're not there when you look out the window." She gestured to the window on her right to emphasize it. Nef turned his head as if to see if Nira was just pranking him or not. Then he raised his index finger and looked at the settings that came with the turrets. They looked just about as complicated as the ones for the alarm.

"Oh, they're underground," Nef said and started typing furiously. Before Nira asked what he was doing there was a sudden groan of metal moving, coming from the outside. "And now they're not!"

Nira went to the window and was not disappointed. The turret she could see looked exactly as described, except for the silver color, and dirt and grass falling off it.

"Wanna go check them out?" Nef asked, smiling at her with excitement.

"Sure, you go find Alor while I get something to drink," Nira told him. Nef looked a little disappointed that she wanted to involve his brother in this as well, but he agreed with a dramatic sigh.

Nira headed towards the kitchen. She suddenly felt really thirsty after her nap, but that was to be expected since the last time she had drunk anything was in Alor's car. That man always had a bottle of water on hand, as well as other survival things, such as gloves or tissues.

The kitchen, like most of the rooms in the house, was made to look antique, but also incredibly expensive. The room wasn't overly large, but this and the decorative brick walls made it cozy.

On Nira's right, there was a huge, black kitchen unit with a sink, two ovens, and a dishwasher, and right next to it, in the center of the room, there was a wide table with four chairs, and an elegant ceiling lamp hanging over it. The western wall was completely made of glass, with a door leading outside, and on the left side was a fridge the size of two regular ones.

Nira wasn't sure how anyone could need a fridge this big. She opened it, hoping there would be a bottle of water somewhere inside. It took her almost a whole minute to find it. There were so many things in the fridge. Before she even closed the fridge, she had already drunk about half of the small bottle, and she was about to leave and finish it on the way when a voice stopped her.

"Hi, Nira!" Startled, Nira dropped the bottle, which immediately started to spill water out on the marble floor. As soon as she saw who it was, she quickly backed away until her back hit one of the ovens.

Smiling at her pleasantly with his hands in his pockets was Relioth, only a few steps away from her. Nira didn't know why he was keeping out of her personal space, but she was immensely grateful for at least that.

She flinched when the fridge door closed by itself and watched as the water that had spilled out of the bottle on the ground flowed back in before the half-filled bottle flew onto the table. She had known the Eternals could move objects with their minds, but it did nothing to prepare her for actually seeing it.

"Much better," he said with a pleased tone. "Mustn't waste electricity or water."

"Dexrah." She blurted out automatically without meaning to. Seeing Relioth's smile dissipate made it suddenly hard to breathe. He didn't have to be intimidating to intimidate her because now she knew very well who he was, and what he was capable of. Still, when he was smiling, it was easier to pretend he was just a politician and not a killer.

Had Relioth posed as the President of Enoria from the start or had he possessed the actual president only recently? But the man's name was Relioth Morthan—that couldn't be a coincidence.