Page 20 of Kronos’ Consort

“Is gone.” He glanced around, as if to demonstrate the point, and looking up from his body, she was aghast to see he was correct.

The water, the bath, and the impressive bathroom it was housed in had all vanished. Equally, the wetness of her skin and hair had disappeared, both of their bodies dry as though all remnants of that bath had been lost to her memory. Where she had once been entwined with him, they now both stood on their feet with wispy shrouds of cloth covering their naked forms. All of that should have been unviable, but what she witnessed in the place of his bathroom only ramped up her terror.

A vast blackness stretched around them in every direction. It looked as boundless as space, but staring around her, Kristina could find no evidence of the stars that made up the ever-expanding universe. Worse was the prevailing mood of the place. It was impossible to say why or how she sensed the difference, but instinctively, she did. The ambience clawed at the pit of her tummy, twisting her trepidation until it threatened to rise as nausea.

Something was very wrong with wherever he had brought her.

“How about this?” He motioned with one hand, ensuring she was snug against him with the other.

“What is this?” She pushed the question out in one terrified breath.

Kris had no clue why the eerie environment was so menacing, but her flesh had started to crawl, a deep sense of foreboding amplifying inside her.

“What was that?” he barked, that same errant palm landing against her backside with one loud thwack. “Did you forget how to address me, Kristina?”

His voice roared like thunder, the sound whipping around her and returning with equal ferocity. Quivering at the noise, there was no choice but to cuddle in closer to him. However ferocious Kronos was at that moment, she feared him significantly less than the feral wickedness he appeared to have brought them to.

“Master.” She craned her neck to find the comfort of his gaze in the encroaching gloom. “I’m sorry.”

Knowing eyes met hers, and although no words were exchanged, the way his free hand lowered to cradle the back of her head went some way to console her.

He was still there for her.

He would protect her.

“Kronos!”

Her heart rate spiked at the booming noise, and if she thought she’d known terror at Kronos’s displeasure, then she’d clearly been mistaken. It was nothing compared to the fear that rocketed at the menacing new sound.

“Why have you come here?”

The deep, gravelly snarl rose from the dark depths, and gasping, she peered down to the black mists surrounding her ankles. Blinking at the furling smog, she stared into the gloom. The more she scrutinized the shadows, the more it looked as though the fog had morphed into hundreds of tiny grasping hands, each clutching to claw at her calves.

“Master!” Horrified, she buried her face against the fabric covering Kronos’ abdominals, though she swore she could still feel the nails scratching at her skin.

The hand at the back of her head stroked her hair, but there were no words of solace from him.

“Greetings, Erebos.” Kronos’ voice altered as he spoke, the resonance reminding her of their first encounter on the street where she lived. It was less of the lover who’d punished and pleasured her and more of the conqueror who’d come to claim her. “Excuse our intrusion.”

A growl reverberated around them, its vibration seemingly upsetting the scrabbling hands, which clawed harder at the sound.

“You have no business here, Titan.”

The disapproving tone rang out in all directions until Kris was sure she couldn’t take another breath. Whoever he was, wherever they were, it was all more horrifying than anything her master had contrived for her.

“You’re right.” Kronos’ fingers tightened in her hair. “I have no desire to upset you, Erebos. Accept my apologies. I must merely prove to my mortal that there is more to this world than that which she has gained from her experiments and books.”

“Mortal?” the voice boomed in reply. “You have brought a human here with you?”

The tone echoing around them had shifted from outrage to intrigue, yet somehow, the change did little to assuage Kris’ apprehension. Whoever Erebos was, his voice sounded foreign and alarming. She was certain she didn’t want anything to do with its owner.

“I did.” Kronos’ hand shifted, his fingers compelling her chin to rise. “And she’s a beauty.”

Her panicked expression met his calm one, and she hoped he could garner just how terrified she was by the encounter. Kronos always seemed able to know how she was feeling, even sensing her heart rate in the past. He would realize she was petrified.

Grasping at him, she recalled his words in the tub. He’d asked what it would take for her to believe he had superhuman power, and she hadn’t had an answer for him. Holding onto him in the mists, though, there was little doubt in her mind that his point had been made. Wherever they were, the sinister place was real. Kronos hadn’t drugged her to get her there. She’d been awake and with him the entire time.

As if the atmosphere sought to respond to the thought, dark, insidious laughter broke out, the jarring sound vibrating around them.