And he’d heard nothing about a rampaging dragon. That couldn’t be something that was easily hidden.
Sitting on the stone floor of the tiny building he’d been shoved into, he crossed his legs again and rested his hands on his knees. He’d passed most of the time meditating as his grandfather had taught him. He kept his energy balled within his chest and ready.
The time to strike was nearly upon them.
Eno, Rayne, and Drayce were still alive, and he would find them after he dealt with the gods.
Adrian was also drawing close. So very close now. Some part of his brain expected to see his bodyguard poke his head into the open doorway and ask him why he was hanging around such a dark, damp room.
He didn’t so much hear as feel the presence of someone new in the room. Just the tiniest pressure from a foreign energy that was taking up space within his cell. It was the guest he’d been expecting.
Opening his eyes, Caelan could barely make out the frail form of Lore standing beyond the open doorway. There were no guards holding him in place because Zyros knew that none of her hybrids could hold him in place. No, he remained in his cell because of the unspoken threat. If he didn’t obey the wishes of the Goddess of the Hunt, his family would be hurt. All of Thia would be hurt.
So, he stayed. For now.
The light in his prison was what weakly flowed in through the open door, but it was enough to show a god who was only a shadow of the man he first met in the caves under Brightspire. That had been less than a month ago. Zyros could have killed him, completely drained him of his powers long ago, but she was torturing him slowly.
The gold collar around his neck still glowed faintly in the darkness against his pale skin and ragged clothing. There was no chain visible now, but he had no doubt Zyros could easily pull her pet to her side with a flick of her wrist.
“Have you decided?” Lore asked in a dead voice. It was as if the god had completely given up, and Caelan honestly didn’t know if he should pity the poor creature. Wasn’t this his own doing? Hadn’t he been the one to decide to aid the Goddess of the Hunt? To give in to her mad whims?
“Have I decided whether I will turn my back on all the people of Thia? Whether I will betray them while clinging to false promises from a mad goddess?” Caelan replied evenly, closing his eyes again.
“You must know that anything you say I will tell her.”
“Just as she must know that I don’t trust anything she says.” An ugly smirk twisted his lips, and he huffed a bitter chuckle. “Do you trust her words, God of Wisdom? Or are you better titled God of Fools now? Maybe God of False Hope?” He opened his eyes to find lines of anger drawn across his forehead, but there was a deep sadness within his gaze.
“She’s rebuilding the world for the betterment of her people.”
Caelan barked out a harsh laugh. “You don’t believe that. I can hear it in your voice.” He shook his head. “You’re the God of fucking Wisdom. You can see the entirety of history. You have a deeper knowledge of all civilizations that have ever existed on Thia. How can you see so much and yet be so blind to one woman?”
Lore stood trembling over him for several seconds, his fists balled tightly at his sides. Caelan expected Lore to simply turn on his heel and march away from him. He didn’t need to answer Caelan. He didn’t need to put up with his accusations or harsh words.
“Because I love her,” Lore suddenly admitted. His voice was rough and twisted as if it had been dredged from the very darkest parts of his soul. “And she loves me.”
“This isn’t love. It hasn’t been love for a very long time.” Caelan shook his head. “I don’t know. I wasn’t there. Maybe centuries ago, in the very beginning when she was still human, it was love. But the second Tula dangled the carrot of power in front of her, all her actions stopped being about love. You became less and less a thought in her mind as she focused all of her being on becoming a goddess. The only one still holding on to the love is you.”
Lore reached up and wrapped his fingers around the gold collar, tugging it a couple of times. “This is love! She wouldn’t punish me for betraying her if she didn’t love me.”
Something inside of Caelan ached for this man. He didn’t see a powerful god any longer, but a man lost in pain and the fragments of a dream he couldn’t let go of.