The Seasons

Chapter 49

When Slaine moved away from Chaos, he turned to stare at the man who had been clinging to the deity’s arm. He wore a long white robe, bigger than him, so the sleeves fell past his hands. His bright blue eyes were swollen slightly and rimmed in red, so he assumed the man had been crying. His soft creamy skin stretched thin against his bones. The more Slaine looked at him, the more he realised this man looked ill. And he could smell the blood. It clung to his clothes; his blood seeped out of his pores as his heart pumped it beat by beat. And the feeling of familiarity; he had seen this man somewhere.

“Who is he?” Slaine asked, eyes narrowed.

“Sion.” Slaine stared at Chaos, who had no further intention to expand. “Slaine, you should call Blue and the rest.”

He scowled but nodded, he didn’t want to leave the two of them alone, considering he had no clue who the man clinging to the deity was, but he had no choice, so he slipped past them. His eyes landed on the paused movie on the screen, turned it off and walked away.

The entire Warren household and company rocked up on his doorstep in less than half an hour, and as he watched them from his space in the kitchen, he didn’t like how crowded his home felt. And he could hear Jem asking one million questions about Sion, and Chaos refused to reply.

Blue walked over to him, and he stared at them. They wore a brown sweater with some white jeans and ankle boots, their blonde hair tied up neatly. Slaine peeled his eyes away from them to stare at Chaos and Sion, who were the main attraction. Blue opened their mouth to say something, but Slaine cut them off. “Mind your own business.”

“We’re here!” Jasper yelled as he threw open the door, which slammed on the wall behind him, and he winced. “Sorry, we’re late; we got distracted. We brought this rat bastard with us too.” He pointed to Levi, standing awkwardly to the side of the room.

“Where are Summer and Winter?” Rosalyn asked, frowning as she crossed her arms over her chest.

All eyes landed on Autumn, who looked up from his phone to see all eyes on him. “What?”

“Where’s Summer?”

“I don’t know, said he had a family thing. He’s been gone since last night.”

“And Winter?” Blue asked; all eyes snapped over to Aether, who, despite how the weather was beginning to cool down, still wore a cropped sage green sweater with white jeans and boots.

“Probably doing another hiding away thing,” Autumn grumbled, waving his hand. “He’ll be fine; why are we here?”

Blue cleared their throat as they turned to look at Chaos and Sion. The two made an odd duo; Chaos towered over Sion, their dark skin contrasting his pale one, but one thing he noticed was the pair's robes. They were the same, albeit different colours; they had that intricate knot on the front that led to the side. And under the white light of the lounge room, Slaine saw a chain around Sion’s neck.

He grabbed his own, and he stared at the two. Chaos had mentioned they had blessed someone else. But that had been hundreds of years ago, and they would have to be dead. It couldn’t be. But he had seen the dead come back to life. Hell, he had helped the dead come back to life and, in fact, kept in contact with Clementine.

“He’s your blessing,” Slaine said as he blankly stared at the deity. “The first one. The one you said was dead.”

“Oh, they’re in trouble,” Jem sang, and a second later, an ‘oomph’ was heard.

“You are correct,” Chaos said, locking eyes with him. “Sion is the first person I ever blessed. I felt him for the first time in over two hundred years, and he was praying. So I went.”

Slaine didn’t say anything, but he felt a distance in the way Chaos spoke. Maybe he was projecting, but it felt like Chaos was so far from him when, in reality, they were only a couple of feet away from him, with Sion by their side. He swallowed the overwhelming panic he felt.

Micah groaned as he whacked his head on Alexander’s shoulder, Keros still in his arms. “Fuck.”

“What?”

“Keep talking; where were you, Sion?”

“I was locked away. I escaped; someone opened the door, broke the curse and let me escape. The second the door opened, I began praying, and before I knew it, Chaos had appeared before me, and they helped me get away.”

“s**t, f**k, f**k,” Wing hissed as his eyes widened, staring at everyone in the room.

Slaine stared at him blankly. “What?”

“The first secret shall escape.”

Ah, s**t.

~*~