Kalona's Fall (House of Night Novellas #4)(6)

She approached him first, though he was hardly aware of the other being kneeling beside him. She held out her hand to him and said the first words he ever heard: “I am the Goddess Nyx, and I welcome you with all of my heart.”

Her voice was sweet and musical and soothing. Kalona took her slender hand carefully within his own much larger one, noticing the unique beauty of their contrasting skins—his darker, burnished, rougher, while hers was soft and pale and utterly flawless.

Still, he couldn’t seem to speak. Her smile had his blood heating and his body feeling flushed.

“And what is your name?” she asked him.

“Kalona,” he blurted.

“Kalona. What a beautiful name! Your wings are the silver of a full moon. You must be the son of the moon,” she said.

“I am,” he said, without stopping to wonder at how he knew it. “And I was fashioned for you.”

Her smiled blazed, and Kalona could feel his heartbeat increase.

“Goddess Nyx, I am Erebus, son of the golden sun. Hence the reason my wings are not the color of moonlight. I, too, have been fashioned for you.” The other winged godling stood. “Excuse me, brother, but I cannot allow you to keep the Goddess to yourself,” he quipped as he stepped around Kalona, gently pulling Nyx’s hand from his before Erebus bowed with a flourish of golden wings.

Nyx turned her luminous smile to Erebus and her delighted laughter seemed to sparkle in the grove around them. “Erebus! I welcome the son of the sun with all of my heart as well.”

“Lovely Goddess, have a care for how much of your heart you give away. You give Kalona all—you give me all. Surely one of us will come up short?” Erebus’s golden eyes flashed as mischievously as his smile.

Kalona frowned at Erebus and found himself having to grit his teeth against a feral growl. He should not dare to speak to the Goddess thus! Kalona would have liked to knock that cocky smile from the godling’s face!

“I do not think you should begin this relationship by admonishing your Goddess, young Erebus, especially as I can see it incites your brother’s ire.” Kalona hadn’t even noticed the other being until she began to speak, moving forward so that she positioned herself between Nyx and himself and Erebus, almost as if she thought the Goddess needed protection against them. Kalona narrowed his eyes at this lesser woman, ready to correct her, to tell her that Nyx would never need protection against him! He would never—could never—hurt her! But the woman’s eyes caught his before he could speak, and a warning in their dark depths silenced him.

“Kalona, Erebus, please greet my friend, Mother Earth. You must thank her, as it is she who enabled your creation!” Nyx said breathlessly.

Erebus’s smile was charming, his voice deep and gentle, as he bowed to her saying, “Great Mother, I greet and thank you, and I ask that you forget my first, mistaken attempt at humor. I assure you that my intention was not to admonish my Goddess, though I admit to finding it amusing that I was able to so easily incite my brother’s ire.”

“Precocious, so precocious!” Mother Earth smiled at Erebus as she spoke, embracing him gently and making it obvious that she liked the sun godling’s precociousness.

Kalona stood and bowed deeply, respectfully. “I greet you, Mother Earth, and thank you for the role you played in my conception.”

“You are welcome, Kalona.” She embraced him as well, but Kalona thought it was with much less warmth than she had embraced his brother. Mother Earth stepped back and addressed the three of them. “So you each acknowledge that I do have a maternal responsibility here,” said Mother Earth.

“Indeed you do, my friend,” Nyx responded readily. “And I shall eternally thank you for it.”

“Eternity is such a long, long time,” Mother Earth said, studying Kalona and Erebus in turn. “I suppose you will want to take them back to the Otherworld with you?”

Kalona’s gaze locked with Nyx’s. He saw that her cheeks had pinked alluringly, and though her gaze did not leave his, her voice softened, seeming almost shy. “Yes, I will.”

“Today?”

“Today!” Nyx said, nodding her head, still not looking away from Kalona.

“The Otherworld,” Kalona said, finding his voice. “Even the name sounds magickal.”

Nyx rewarded him with an intimate smile. “It is beautiful, much like this planet, only it is filled with ancient, Divine magick and powers that are sometimes difficult for even me to wield. Such powers can be exhausting,” she finished, suddenly sounding older and tired.

“My Goddess, I will help you wield the powers that exhaust you,” Kalona said, taking an eager step toward her.

“And yet it is not your place to wield the Old Magick of Nyx’s Otherworld,” Mother Earth said, also taking a step closer.

Kalona felt the heat of Mother Earth’s power, and of her displeasure. Their gazes met, hers even more unflinching than his. She would be a mighty enemy … The knowledge echoed through his mind.

Kalona backed down and bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment of Mother Earth’s might.

Erebus seemed not to notice Mother Earth’s intense displeasure. His voice was as light as his smile. “What would we want with Nyx’s magick? There is magick aplenty in the Divine Ether that created us. Should we need power, we have but to call on it. It must answer us, as that is our blood right as sons of the Divine. Great Mother, our matriarch, I assure you, my brother and I have no desires other than to serve Nyx.”