First Lie || Deception Book I ||

The Dream Pt. 1

A/N: Before you start reading, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your patience in the delay. The weeks before exams are always so busy. :) Since I was late last week, I updated two chapters, and I will do the same this week; one today and one tomorrow (though I might do it today as well). Thank you guys so much for reading my story, and I hope you've enjoyed it so far! 

- Aeryndyl

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Glowing red eyes met mine, as serrated fangs dripped saliva on my face.

I stared up at the hybrid, fear pulsing through me. Was this really how I was going to die? On the ground, by the teeth of an unknown monster?

Suddenly, the shadowy woods evaporated into a large cavern dimly illuminated by reddish light. Fire, or lava, I thought. Somewhere, there's flame.

"That's enough, Vgaltis," a deep voice rumbled from behind me. "I told you to bring her to me, and what did you do? Whatever. She's here now, even if it's in the dreamscape. Go, before I decide to eat you for dinner."

The hellhound hybrid thing whimpered and slunk off into a tunnel, it's tail between its legs.

I launched myself to my feet, willing my necklace into a sword since my ring was nowhere to be found. Sure enough, there was a flaming river that cut through the side of the cavern. "Where am I?" I said quietly, but not weakly, steel lacing my voice. "What did you do?"

The thing behind me chuckled. "You've got spirit, I'll give you that." Footsteps sounded, coming closer and closer to me. I fought off a shiver. This was a dream. I'd be okay.

I tried to reach out with my shadows to get a feel of this place or shadow-walk myself out of here, but something was pushing against my power, rendering it useless.

"Ah, ah," the voice said, amused. "I can't have any of that. Forgive me, but I wasn't going to take any chances when I sent Vgaltis up for you."

So he was the one who numbed my powers. Interesting. "Who are you?" I bit out, "and what do you want?"

A blast of cold air whistled through the cave, bringing a flurry of ice, which coated the floor in a layer of frost. And then he emerged.

A ten-foot-tall man (monster? deity?) materialized in front of me, wearing intricately stylized Stygian iron armour with a glowing diamond in the centre of his breastplate. He had blue-white hair cut in military style, and a beard topped off with a bear-shaped helmet. Despite the multiple scars scoring his face, he wasn't bad-looking. Then again, no god (for I was sure he was a god) was bad-looking.

I froze, every molecule in my body screaming run, but I couldn't move. It wasn't the giant sword, the size of a surfboard, that he was carrying, that made me want to run and hide under a rock, but his eyes, which were as blue as ice and as cold as the moon. Cold radiated from him, freezing my blood until I felt like I was turning into a literal icicle.

I glared at him. "I-it's n-not p-polite t-to t-turn someone i-into a p-pops-sicle d-during a c-convers-sation," I chattered. "C-could y-you p-please i-increase t-the t-temperature?"

Ok, fine, call me stupid. But I'd grown up among thirteen of the most powerful beings on Earth, and my mother, so immortals didn't scare me as much as they should have.

The god stared at me. For a sickening moment, I thought I would be left as a frozen statue and a chew toy for that hellhound hybrid, and fear swamped me again.

The immortal twitched his fingers. "Very well. I cannot have you turning into an icicle." As fast as it came, the cold dispersed, welcoming the heat that emanated from the river. "Rianna Claire, daughter of the Titaness of Magic and the Mist. I've been waiting a long time to talk to you."

Great. Fantastic. An immortal who had a dig with me. "What do you want?" I snapped.

"Who said I wanted something? Maybe I just wanted to see you." He smiled, and I was hit with so much déjà vu that my head spun. Where had I seen that smile before? I was fairly certain that I'd never met him before, but his presence seemed so . . . familiar.

"Talk? So you sent your pet hybrid to kill me?"

He snorted. "Kill you. That's too dramatic. Vgaltis was only supposed to numb your powers and bring you here, but you killed him. Do you know how much energy I had to spend to regenerate him instantly?"

What? Regenerate a monster sent to Tartarus? Which immortal was this powerful? I gripped my sword tighter. "What do you really want? Your words, no matter how eloquent, won't fool me. Tell me the real reason you brought me here today."

"Hmm," the god said. "I see you don't beat around the bush. Very well. I was sent by my brother. He's very generous and knew that I've wanted to talk to you for a long time, so he assigned me this task."

My mouth went dry. "And your brother is . . .?"

He smiled coldly. "Why, my brother is Kronos, Titan of titans and controller of time, of course."

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