Waking slowly, Etani squinted down at the stone beneath her feet and tried to figure out what had happened. It was fuzzy at first, but getting clearer with each passing second. She finally looked up, finding Daemon sitting across from her on the floor, his face sad and eyes focused on the ceiling above him.
Catching the movement, he looked at her and flinched at her glare, but he didn't try to explain himself, instead he stood and knocked twice on the door before he approached her.
She had been bound to the chair almost entirely from neck to ankle in an overzealous attempt to keep her trapped using the gold chain. It was overkill, but they seemed to be anxious to keep her contained.
The door opened and the Gods filed in, wary and unsure of her, and if she was actually contained properly. Hades was the last to enter, and she noticed they were missing one, but she wasn't about to ask where Anubis was.
"If you show any signs of doing that scream again, I will ram my fist down your throat," Hel snarled.
Etani smirked at her, amused at the threat. "Anubis not feeling up to the task?" she said snidely.
"Anubis has not returned yet," Poseidon said, and Etani's brows lifted in surprise at the news.
"How unfortunate." There was no hiding the sarcasm in her voice and Sobek growled, though it wasn't at her; instead it was at Hades who had started to reach for her.
"Do you really want to alienate her further?" Sobek said.
Hades shrugged. "She's not my problem. You're the ones who will have to live with her after this."
Etani snorted, disgusted with the lot of them. "What makes you think I'm going to allow any of you anywhere near me again?"
Daemon's face went white and Sobek's eyes widened, but she could only wonder at their fear. Did they really think she was just going to get over it?
"You don't mean that…" Daemon whispered.
Etani looked up at him. "You're dead to me, and if I get my hands on you, you'll simply be dead," she growled.
Daemon's eyes dropped and he bit his lower lip. She didn't care about his moral dilemma; she simply wanted out. "Where are the vampires?" she demanded.
"They are fine; we have no interest in any of your pets," Hel snapped.
Etani relaxed slightly, letting her head rest against the backrest of the chair. "Can we get this over with?" she asked.
"You said 'Jaia' when you were drugged; are you starting to remember?" Daemon asked hopefully.
But Etani only frowned, rolling her head just enough to the side that she could see him. "What about him?"
Daemon frowned in response, looking disappointed, but then he seemed to draw some conclusion and shook his head. "Let's just do this."
Looking up at the ceiling once more, Etani let out a slow breath and then frowned as Hades stepped into her line of sight.
"Has anyone told you, you're an overgrown freak who looks remarkably like a bat?" she muttered.
He scowled down at her, his hand going over her mouth.
Immediately she jerked her head up, but he stepped forward and pulled her head back into his stomach to trap her in place and silence her.
Daemon lifted an empty syringe and handed it to Hel, who moved first to Hades. Hades held out his free arm silently. The syringe was no longer empty when Hel moved away from him, having a trace amount of his blood in it.
Whimpering, Etani strained against the golden chains, but she knew better than to try to escape them. They were impossible to break, but she had to try.
Moving around the room, the Goddess silently drew a miniscule amount of blood from each of the Gods in the room and then from herself, the men stepping to stand close around her.
She flinched as each of them placed their hands on her arms or shoulders.
Hades tightened his grip on her until she was sure he was going to try to crush her skull, but it was soon clear why he had to keep her silent and still. He turned her head to the side and Hel bent forward, her fingers finding the thick blue vein at her throat, and slid the needle under the pale skin.
Etani flinched at the sting of the needle, and the plunger was pushed, Hel keeping a gentle touch on her throat.
It was pain like she had never experienced before as their magic seeped into her like a toxin, reaching through her and crushing her own, though the darkness seemed to be hunting down and crushing only certain parts of her. It was her Creator magic it was looking for, and her body trembled as every part of her screamed, trying to fight it; but there were too many points of attack, too many changing forms to beat. She suddenly understood what it must have been like to fight the hydra. Each time she crushed one attack, another formed and multiplied, working against her in an attempt to defeat her. It wasn't trying to remove it; instead, it was pushing it down into her, deeper; and she realised with horror that it was being crushed down into the one area where she would always be able to create.
She had fallen silent at some point, and they had released her; but she couldn't move or even see. Her body screamed silently, her head slumped forward and her eyes shut. Her body had shut down, focused on trying to undo what they had done to her.
They had formed an intricate web around her magic that constantly moved and shifted so that every time she managed to pick apart one knot, the net changed and new knots were formed to replace the one she had only just cleared.
There was movement around her, quiet talking, and gentle touches on her face but she ignored them, instead she contemplated the puzzle that they had formed. She felt terribly empty without magic, and she had to wonder how it was they planned to control her. Was it simply that they were containing her, or was it that if they needed her magic, they would release the net for a small amount of time? She didn't know, but she had plenty of time to think about it and ponder her life up until that point.
A new thought trickled into her racing brain, and she focused on it while a part of her picked again at a new knot in the hopes of unravelling the net they had created, but again the net shifted.
Looking back at her time in the darkness, she had been so completely alone, and yet someone had been able to reach her using death magic and a part of her. Would it be possible for her to do the same to others? Would she be able to find Uzo?
The thought filled her with hope, and her fingers twitched as she shoved herself back into her limbs, itching to try it. She was already picturing herself with Uzo again, smiling at him and laughing with him. This time she would not be such a terrible niece. This time she would make sure he knew everything about her and her love for him. She would not let him down.
The room had gone silent as her nails scraped the wood of the chair and she frowned as she tried to get her body to respond to her commands, but it felt as though she had gone into shock. She didn't know what they had done to her outside of the binding, but she had a goal in mind, and she was going to deal with that first. Then she was going to systematically kill the Gods one by one, starting with those that had bound her.
The thought made her feel a little better about her situation, and her eyes opened slowly, looking down at her arms. They were no longer bound to the chair, instead they were sitting at her sides on the seat, and the only thing holding her to the chair was a single gold chain around her chest that kept her from falling forward.
Lifting her head slowly, Etani looked up to find them all standing frozen and all eyes on her.
Keeping her face neutral, her attention flicked between the faces before finally settling on Daemon and locking there, her stare boring into his hopeful eyes.
"Etani?" he asked and stepped forward, anxious but hoping she didn't hate him.
She didn't really know what to think about him right then. He had taken their side against her, had betrayed her, and yet she still loved him. He was still her Daemon, but he was also their Eros.
She didn't move or flinch as he took her hand and lifted it slowly to his cheek, pressing his lips hard against her palm, but still, she could only look at him, unsure.
"Untie her," Sobek said, and Hades moved.
She watched him out of the corner of her eye until he disappeared behind her and she stood the moment the chain released her. Clutching her hand as though afraid she might run away, she considered him for a long moment and then exhaled. Her free hand curled into a fist and she drove it into his chest, throwing him backwards into the others.
Sidestepping Hades, she lifted her hand to her lips and bit hard on the finger, smiling faintly as the God of Death stalked forward, but she backed through the doorway and into someone's back.
Jaia yelped and spun on her, his eyes wild with alarm but then he gave a cry of relief and even as her need to push him away struck her, his arms were going around her. Repulsed, she wriggled; but he refused to let go of her, hugging her so tightly she felt her head might pop off. "You're okay…" he breathed.
The sound of running boots announced Versalis and Kai as they came in from the balcony where they had been trying to replace the glass doors.
They hit Etani hard enough to nearly knock her over, and she clutched them both to her tightly, resisting her urge to attack Jaia as much as possible, though it was getting harder by the second.
"What did they do? Where did they take you?" Kai demanded, his lips soft on her forehead as he kissed her again and again.
"They bound my magic, and one of them has my gem," she said softly, realising she should have tried to see who was holding it but there was no need.
It was only a matter of seconds before Daemon burst through realities and it hurt her not to be able to feel it anymore. He was wearing the gem and Versalis growled, jumping on the demon before anyone knew what was happening.
The demon and vampire hit the floor, rolling as they fought over the stone and she stepped forward to help, driving her foot into Daemon's side. He howled and grabbed her, dragging her down with them. She yelped as she landed on top of both of them.
Kai and Jaia rushed over to help contain the demon and Versalis cried out in triumph as he ripped the gem from Daemon's neck and danced back, hurriedly placing it back over his head and tucking it safely under his shirt.