Gods of Idols

Chapter 1

Lena

I’d never seen camp this full of people. With so many bodies and the gods’ tendencies to be a bit over dramatic, I had expected more drama. But so far, there was nothing.

Although we should have been deep in snow, we were just deep in falling leaves. It seemed that perpetual fall was as cold as the immortals were willing to let it get. The forest surrounding the cabin was lush, with vibrant oranges, yellows, and reds interrupted by the many evergreens. While the air should have been a crisp, cool, fall smell – and it was filled with pine – it was also strong with peach and rot.

The idols were coming.

Every time someone new arrived, there was another recharge of excitement that filled camp, not unlike when one of the archangels showed up. A buzz of nervous anticipation. But as the days continued with nothing new happening, no further sign that the idols had made it out of their tombs, the eagerness waned.

They were coming. There was no mistake. Because the one thing that remained was the continued intensifying scent of pine, peaches, and rot that filled camp. And every week, the scent was more and more prevalent.

There was a time when I first found myself in the immortal stream that I had wanted nothing more than to get out of it alive. Everything felt dangerous and dooming. It felt like I had no control over my life or what was going on around me. Every new person, every new creature was more frightening than the last.

Remember the chimera who tried to kill me? Oh, and the gryphons shortly after! Then there had been the fight with the dead things and the trip to the Underworld where there was one horrifying creature after another. My first year in the immortal stream and I was sure that everything in it was bad.

Now, I can’t help but look back and wonder what really happened. What had that really been about? As I’d seen since, everything was attracted to me. As the uhnupte, the entire immortal stream was drawn to me if for no other reason than just to see.

Deveus said that most of the events had been incidental. The sins knew I was something and so they did what they could to obtain me. Everything that followed was just happenstance. I don’t know if I believed that. It felt like a stretch but at least life had more or less calmed down. The most excitement I’d seen over the last two years was people coming and going, but mostly settling into camp. It didn’t mean there weren’t still weird things after me.

I mean, this whole idol business could be drawn back to me. It had been my ex-boyfriend in disguise that had disturbed the tomb of the imprisoned idols in the first place. And he’d only come around with some twisted notion that he could make me beg to get back together with him. All because I’d been caught up in trying to stay alive and drowning under Shant’s love spell my first year to remember that I should have broken up with him.

Yes, I ghosted Jake. But I’m pretty sure I’d asked Yndea to break up with him for me. I’m fairly certain that happened. But besides the whole life and death thing of those months, I remember very little that wasn’t a fogged over red haze from Shant’s spell.

Morey’s lips grazed my neck and I smiled, snuggling myself back into his arms. We were sitting in a hanging wicker chair that was probably only meant for one. It was shaped like an egg with the front open. It had a thick cushion for us to sit on and there was an abundance of pillows surrounding us. We’d been holed up in this chair for an hour now as I watched the camp filled with activity.

He still didn’t like touch for any extended periods of time. But since we finally got together for the first time a couple years ago while Deveus and Delete were hunting down the nine Orla books, he made a more concentrated effort to hold me. And I was in a sappy, cliché winter romance as far as I was concerned. I couldn’t get enough.

Soon, he’d need space. This would become too much. But I made every effort to enjoy it while it lasted.

I glanced up as the three sisters stepped out of the cabin. They were nearly ethereal. Al-Lat, god of wisdom and warfare; Al-‘Uzzá, god of love; Manāt, god of fate, fortune time, and destiny. The sisters of the Arabian pantheon. My understanding was that they were created somewhere around the time of Zeus. They’re that level of god.

The gods that I was around often referred to themselves as godlings. Children of the mighty gods. It wasn’t that they weren’t powerful in their own right. They were. And many of them were more powerful than their parents and parental generation.

But the sisters were part of the generations that were just gods. Not godlings.

Speaking of gods, we had some other old beings here from the Greek pantheon. The Titan god, Hyperion. You know of him. God light, wisdom, and watchfulness. Deveus had enjoyed his company so far. They’ve been exchanging knowledge in very long conversations since Hyperion got here.

Also, Hyperion was Morey’s and Solek’s father. And Maden’s but Maden was still missing. At least we hadn’t gotten word that he’d gone on a rampage and murdered a whole bunch of mortals. Or, if he has, no one has let me know that.

Then we have one of the gods of the older generations, Phobos. The original (or one of the originals) god of fear. Also, father to Ardy. And Shant… Did it bother Phobos that Shant was currently being tortured in the Underworld? No. It took several attempts to even get him to remember who Shant was. And when he finally did, he laughed about it.

That’s the kind of parents we’re dealing with in the immortal stream.

And then there was the god, Eos, god of the dawn. Also, daughter of Hyperion, making her Morey and Solek’s sister.

And lastly there was the primordial god Eris, god of chaos and discord. The personification of strife. And she was constantly smiling.

I was mostly curious as to the ever-expanding family tree of Morey’s that was here. Morey went on oblivious to them, as if they weren’t anyone special. I hadn’t talked to either Hyperion or Eris much because I wasn’t sure how Morey would feel about it. And neither of them seemed to pay Morey any attention.

He wasn’t a particularly powerful god and since he remained meek and uninteresting, they didn’t look his way. However, they were both fascinated with Solek. And that Solek was wholly obsessed with Brett, that made the little mortal Brett likewise intriguing.

Whether or not Solek was actually interested in Brett or not was still up in the air for me. I know Delete said it was all a lie, but I wasn’t sure how Brett could keep up such a good front. And they were absolutely convincing. I spent a lot of time just studying them, trying to find even the littlest thing that might solidify my opinion one way or another.

Morey sighed and I glanced at him. I could tell by the way his expression was blanking that he was ready to be done with touch for a while.

“You okay?” I asked.

He turned his dull blue eyes to me and smiled. “Yea.” He kissed my nose before licking my face, making me squirm and giggle. He’d gotten a whole lot more playful when we were together, too. I adored it. He was so damn sweet.

It made thinking of what he had been through all the more enraging. So, I tried not to.

“I think I’m going to go in for a while. There’s a lot of people out here,” he said, his gaze flickering back to the deck.

I nodded. “Want some company?”

He grinned again, tightening his embrace around me. “I’m fine, Lena. Just want some quiet for a bit. No big deal.”

I nodded again. Most of the time, he meant it. But sometimes he could say the same thing and there was something going on that upset him. And occasionally that upset would trigger a panic attack. Usually, he wasn’t quite sure what it was. A smell. A sound. Someone else’s conversation that he wasn’t involved in and only might have heard a couple words in passing. Because he couldn’t remember all the years he’d lost, the years he was kept a prisoner of fear and tortured, he didn’t always know what it was that set him off.

I was beginning to think it wasn’t a panic issue. There were a lot of similarities to PTSD. Especially when it was a sound or a smell.

We’d surmised that some of the spells carved into Morey had a lot to do with emotion. Forcing him to feel a certain way. This was why some things set him right into a panic while others eased in, as if his damaged memory needed time to remember the horrors that particular experience linked to.

I shifted to look at him, resting my forehead against his. He grinned, his eyelids hooded as he looked at me. It was this that made me think that he really did just need a break from all the noise and people. Nothing in particular was bothering him. He just wasn’t a peopley person.

“Love you,” I said.

His smile ticked up. That beautiful, innocent boy next door look. “Love you, Lena,” he whispered. He brought his lips to mine and I closed my eyes.

Morey was quiet and meek in everyday everything. But when it was the two of us, when he kissed me, I could feel the god deep inside him. Figuratively. I couldn’t actually feel his god. He said his god was missing. I hadn’t tried to dig into that yet.

But his kiss… that was magic. Strong, confident, deep. He was everything in that moment.

Then he pulled away, his smile lingering. Before I could climb out of his lap, he slipped from the chair with me in his arms. He cradled me to him, watching me as he walked through the tiers of decking. He paused close to the top and set me in Hevn’s lap. He kissed my forehead before turning to head inside, ignoring everyone else in the sitting area.

I wasn’t surprised as I shifted in Hevn’s lap. He was sitting next to Crevan, with Rhett and Ardy across from them. Hevn watched Morey go inside before looking at me with his multi-colored eyes. Have I mentioned how dreamy my demon is? Short messy hair surrounding four-inch twisted horns. His left eye was a lapis lazuli blue and his right a royal purple. And his tongue, like much of the rest of his body, had ridges in it. Which made kissing him an erotic experience. Hell, anything with him was an erotic experience.

I’d suspected for a while that I was drawn to the darker species of immortals. As a middle-class demon of wrath of Norse ancestry, he was a little bit of everything to me. The darkness within him, the playfulness, the Norse gorgeousness.

“Hey,” he said when he’d returned his eyes to mine. The corners of his lips ticked up in that mischievous smile of his. “He need me to move?”

Hevn was always very mindful of the fact that Morey didn’t want to be around the five gods of his past that he doesn’t remember. And though Hevn had some strange thing with Crevan in which they ‘tamed each other’s storms,’ they both took care not to get in Morey’s line of sight very often when they were around each other.

“No,” I said, resting my head on his shoulder as I looked at the other three. Three more sets of eyes watched me. “There’s a lot of people at camp these days. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but Morey’s not very social.”

Rhett snorted, a smile that I always attributed to fond memories crossed his lips as he looked away. For maybe the hundredth time this month alone, I wondered what was in their past. What had created such loyalty in five old gods that they’d follow Morey around for more than 300 years while Morey insisted that he didn't know them?

Sighing, I looked beyond them, my attention snagging on Travesty. He spent more time at camp than he did on his island. After his initial run in with Delete when Havok had brought a small group of vampires to meet us, he’d been… cautiously arrogant. With the influx of immortals, the number of mortals inflated as well. It meant that the vampires visited often for snacks, but they weren’t opposed to traveling to nearby towns either.

Except Travesty. He was always hanging over a mortal. I was pretty sure that the mortals were flattered at first. But now I think they thought of him as a leech. A glutton. He acted as if he were on the tipsy side a few times. As if he’d had too much alcohol. I was under the impression vampires could react the same way when they’ve consumed too much blood.

And like any drunk, their behavior could go any way. So far, Travesty was an obnoxious drunk. I’d had him taken out of camp a few times over the past year. I wasn’t surprised to learn that he was a pain in the ass for the vampires as well.

I yawned and snuggled into Hevn’s lap. I felt him grin against me as he wrapped his arms more firmly around me, resting his chin on my shoulder. “So, what did I interrupt?” I asked.

“Crevan moaning over your best friend,” Rhett said.

I glanced his way as Crevan rolled his eyes. “You’re the one with a hardon for her.”

Rhett shrugged. “I’ve got a hardon 90% of the day.”

Honestly, I tried not to grin. Gods were like perpetual teenagers. It made their banter amusing for entirely different reasons.

“I’m not sure either of you have a chance with her,” I said. “She really loves Sam and I’m under the impression Sam’s never shared his wives with anyone.”

“Hence his high divorce rate,” Ardy said.

“Is that why?” I asked.

She shrugged, smiling. “I have no idea. But since his wives have all been immortal demons of some nature, and immortals have an incredibly hard time being monogamous, I’m willing to bet that it at least contributed to their failed relationships.”

“Hmm,” I said, looking at Hevn.

He smiled. “I’m more than happy to stay monogamous.”

I grinned. Of my men, he really was the only one in that position. Especially since Delete had insisted that Crevan was absolutely off limits, but that everyone else was, too. If Hevn was going to be a part of our family, he was going to be 1000% committed.

Hevn hasn't cared and hasn’t complained in the last two years. In fact, I haven’t heard him become disgruntled once about our situation. It made him an incredibly patient saint. Especially since the whole thing was rather unfair for him.

“For now,” I said. “But some day…” I trailed off because he shook his head.

“I’m weird,” he said, kissing my nose. “Really, I’m not even a little bothered by this arrangement. I have you and I’m happy.”

The way he said ‘happy’ was in one of those tones that made it sound like the word was foreign. Kind of like Yndea when she talked about having the family she did. A husband who loved her to an almost obsessive level. A son whom she doted on and spoiled and loved beyond anything else. Three demons who are her best friends, her children, and on some strange level, I’m sure they’ve got some attributes to being her lovers, too. Even if not physically. Then there was Zeb, who adored her and took care of her. Her father, who had written off the rest of their family for how they’d treated Yndea all her life.

It was a family she’d never thought she’d have. Her mother and siblings had always treated her like an orphan in her own home. She’d grown up thinking that the most she would ever have would be a child all her own but never a family to be a part of. Never truly loved.

And so, when she spoke of being loved by Sam and her demons, it was a very surreal word for her. Likewise, when Hevn spoke of being happy, I was under the same impression, though we haven’t talked about his past. He didn’t want to, and I didn’t push. But as was the case with Morey, I was dying to know every last detail. If for no other reason than to somehow commiserate with them, which was something Morey did not like.

“I just meant in general,” I said. “I might play a good naïve character, but I’ve accepted what drives an immortal.”

Rhett smirked.

“While I appreciate that, and maybe you’re right for some time in the far future, I’m not worried about it right now,” Hevn countered.

“Let’s say, hypothetically, we’re a few years in the future.” I paused, narrowing my eyes and puckering my lips. “Okay, maybe a lot of years in the future,” I corrected, causing all three gods to chuckle at me while Hevn just watched me with that fond amusement that all my men do. “And we occasionally bed someone else. What’s your type?”

Hevn raised a brow as he looked at me. I grinned, waiting expectantly.

“Is he foxy?” I added.

This made them all laugh, Crevan shaking his head.

“It’s not like that,” Crevan said.

“I happen to know that you two were bedding until Delete laid down the law,” I said.

“As he does,” Ardy mumbled.

I nodded in agreement. Delete, my dark, sexy demon god was not one to cross. He was rumored to be one of the most powerful immortals in existence. I always thought this weird since back when I first learned about the Greek godlings, they explained the hierarchy of power. Though Delete would absolutely be towards the top, I didn’t miss that everyone bowed to his will.

I’d even recently seen Hyperion back off when Delete refused something. Hyperion! A Greek titan god!

I hadn’t seen him and Eris butt heads yet, but I had little doubt that even she would back down. Delete was known as a prodigy, even as a very young child. That was before he’d tamed the shadows. And now that they were completely in his control… I half wondered if he was stronger than the uhnupte.

“I didn’t ask your type,” I said, looking at Crevan. “I know your type is Yndea. I want to know if Hevn’s type is you.”

Crevan sighed in exasperation as he shifted his silvery blue eyes to look at Rhett.

I grinned, enjoying his frustration, and turned my attention back to Hevn. He found it amusing, too.

“I don’t know,” Hevn said. “I guess I haven’t given it much thought.”

I frowned, looking at Ardy. “What’s your type?”

Ardy tilted her head as she considered it. Ardy was an old god. Even older than Morey, who is something like 1100. Yes, you read that right. But Ardy is older. 1400, making her usually the oldest one here before the influx of immortals in recent months due to the impending confrontation with the idols. Unless we were counting Cassael. Archangels were ancient. Or, I guess, we couldn’t count Roakin, either. He was so old, he didn’t even have an age. He was just ancient.

But Ardy was fascinating. As the god of poison and compulsion, I was always intrigued with what she could do. A few years ago – I forget just how many – I watched her drown Mady in the lake by simply making eye contact! It was wild.

She sighed as her eyes focused on me again. “I like immortals whose talents are more mental.” A sensual smile curved her lips. “They can really let loose when they’re in the mood.”

I nodded, agreeing with that. Deveus was incredibly satisfying in bed. And he was a badass with a talent that was certainly heavy on the mental side.

I turned to Rhett, posing him the same question.

Rhett was a good-looking man. Okay, he was gorgeous. With blonde hair and green eyes, a body like Deveus’s because his talent was more mental than physical making him long and lithe and toned. Gorgeous. And he was usually sleeping when he wasn’t out and about. As the god of heavens and sleep, he was probably one of the few immortals who actually needed sleep.

He shrugged. “I like dark hair and dark eyes. Playful nature. I’m also really into hybrid forms.” Before I could ask, he elaborated with a wide grin. “Partially shifted from between their mortal looks and what makes them immortal. For a god, usually that consists of their gods in their eyes and strength. For someone else-” He looked around until he spotted the first non-god immortal in sight. A ghoul. “- A ghoul, say, they have a spot right between changing shapes, where they’re a little bit of everything. Undefined. That’s my thing.”

I looked at the ghouls he spotted. Do you know what a ghoul is? Well, let me tell you it wasn’t at all what I thought. They’re basically shape-shifting demons from the Arabian pantheon who lure people away so they can eat them. They prey on children, consume blood, steal coins (yea, that’s a little random), and then take on the form of the person they’d recently eaten.

Why were there so many ghouls around camp?

No one would be surprised to hear this… Lucy. Apparently, Havok had made a trade with her two years ago. For a taste of her blood, he’d tell her ways to attract demons. And now there was a whole array of different kinds of demons at camp.

We’d made it clear that the demons were not to eat anyone (I’m talking digestion and death… not the sexy kind), no murder, and if they were staying, they’d be fighting the idols. Both surprisingly and unsurprisingly, the rules never seemed to discourage the visitors who hadn’t signed up for the idols fight from staying.

“Hmm,” I said, considering this. But my imagination was like… a gargoyle as a person with wings and a rock dick. Before I could ask further questions, Lyra sat with us, and I turned the question to her. Lyra was the wiccan godling who’d followed us back to school from the games and then to camp after we graduated. I’d met her in the labyrinth the day I met Sam.

She laughed. “I like the cute ones. The adorably naïve mortals.” She winked at me and for the first time, I looked at her with wide eyes. And there it was. My naivety. Making the rest of them laugh. She grinned, her head tilting to the side as Ardy’s had. “Relax, Lena. I know you prefer cocks.”

I looked at Hevn as if he could give me guidance for this conversation. He just chuckled, kissing my jaw and nuzzling into my neck as Morey had earlier. “Yes. I do,” I answered. Before my entire body turned red, I turned to Crevan, asking him what his preference was. Hoping that turning the question to someone else would help me move on and the heat to leave my cheeks.

I actually agreed with Yndea. Crevan was adorable. He had this youthful look with his messy chestnut hair and smooth, young face. And there was something foxy about him, which made sense since he was the god of foxes, cunning, destructive time, and pain. That also meant we had a whole lot of foxes lounging around camp as if we were a fox sanctuary rescue.

“Believe it or not, it’s not typically little blond mortals,” he said, his eyes hooding. “I prefer tall leggy immortals. Or mortals, I suppose. Solek, for example. Or Tehvyn. He’s got some long, strong legs.”

“I appreciate that you offered an example from each gender,” I said.

As expected, they all looked at me a little confused for a second. Immortals don’t see gender. They are truly pansexual. Gender just doesn’t truly exist to them. That’s why there weren’t any gender specific words within the immortal stream. There weren’t gods or goddesses. No demons and demonesses. There were gods and demons and fae and shifters. All falling under one title. Period.

Crevan raised his brow at me again, looking at me like I was someone who should be pitied. Usually, no one made a comment on my observations of such things, but he said, “I wonder if you’ll ever lose your mortal way of thinking.”

I shrugged. “I hope not. I appreciate having morals and a conscience.”

He chuckled, shaking his head.

Now I turned my focus back to my demon. “Alright, love. Tell me your preference.”

“Is it too corny if I just say you?”

“Yes,” the four gods said in unison.

But I smiled, pressing my lips to his and kissing him deeply. Deep enough that I felt his fire in my chest. “That’s sweet,” I whispered. “But I’m just curious. I don’t care what your answer is. Delete used to let me pick his bed partners before we got together. I know he likes redheads best. They’re fiery and all that. I know Morey doesn’t like men with dark hair and blue eyes but women he doesn’t care. Dev’s only preference is that he likes dark hair. And though I love the big, rugged looks of the Norse, and the Roman perfection, I’m actually really attracted to dark immortals. It seems, the darker the better.”

It was a bit embarrassing, really. I found I basically drooled sometimes. Awful.

He cupped my cheek, sighing. “Lena, I don’t have a preference in the least. I don’t even have a prefer not list. I really don’t care. If it seems like a good fuck, then cool. If not, I’ll go somewhere else.”

I frowned. “You’re the definition of indifference.”

He chuckled. “Yes. Except now I have you and that’s all I want. I don’t care about bedding anyone else. I’m less than interested.”

“Crevan shouldn’t be insulted by that, right?”

Though the gods around us laughed, Crevan sighed in exasperation again. I fought against my smile. Hevn’s grew up his face.

“No, it’s nothing against Crevan. He’s rather good in bed.”

“Noted,” I said, glancing at him.

Crevan leveled me with his gaze. “And what will you do with that information, Lena?” he asked, frowning. My ‘noted’ was clearly meant as a tease. Of which he knew, which was why he asked. But I grinned further and was almost anticipating his reaction. In the corner of my eye, I could see Rhett grinning, too. He knew what I was going to say.

“Well, I tell Yndea everything. It might be something she’d find interesting to know.”

A whole array of emotions flitted through his eyes as he stared at me. Then he closed them away by dropping his lids to half conceal his gaze. “Great,” he deadpanned.

Okay, maybe Yndea was onto something. These gods are actually amusing to be around.