The Return of the Gods (Children of the Sun Book 1)

Nira had imagined this moment many times, and none of her hypothetical scenarios ever ended well. The best she could imagine was that Nef would calmly accept it and then break up with her. So far, it seemed it was going that way, although Nef hadn’t gotten to the second part yet. He had just said okay several times, mostly to himself, while staring out the window.

“But the King and Queen don’t have kids, right?” Nef asked, finally turning to Nira again. He looked like he didn’t understand the world he lived in anymore and was trying to find something to hold on to. It was disturbing to see him that way. Nef was a bit of a know-it-all, and even if he encountered something he didn’t understand at all, he pretended he knew everything about it.

“They do, in fact, have a daughter,” said Kaleth, and Nira flinched. She had completely forgotten that he was there and could hear them. She didn’t mind that he was explaining this instead of her, though. “To avoid the possibility of assassination, the Queen decided not to tell the public.”

“But back in Irithara, you knew who I really was. How?” At least now Nira could ask these questions in front of Nef.

“You knew him before today?” Nef asked incredulously, and she nodded.

“I met him five years ago. I didn’t know who he was. I still don’t know who he is, but apparently, he helped me get here.” Nira looked at Nef apologetically, but he refused to meet her gaze, so instead, she focused back on the laptop screen. The landscape there had changed into a forest.

“Well, I suppose you deserve to know,” said Kaleth, sighing. “You see, I wasn’t ordered to help you move to Enoria. I was ordered to get rid of you.”

Nira could swear her heart stopped for a second. Next to her, Nira could see Nef clench his fists and glare at the laptop. Despite not liking seeing Nef angry, Nira felt a bit more hopeful now. It took a certain level of caring to even get angry over a thing like this in the first place. She cautiously put her hand over his, and to her relief, Nef wrapped his fingers around it.

“Who gave you the order?” Nef said coldly. Nira wasn’t used to seeing him react like this.

“The Director of Luxarx. I’m not sure who she received the assignment from, she never told me. It also didn’t specify what I was actually supposed to do.”

“Didn’t you just say that no one knows who Nira is so no one would try and kill her?” Nef asked, still sounding angry but not as much as before.

“What the Queen isn’t aware of is that Enoria has a spy or two inside the Iritharian government,” Kaleth said, and Nira’s eyes widened. How had they not been exposed yet? Her mother trusted no one but herself, after all—not even the king—and was suspicious of everyone. “The monarchy is failing and removing the princess from the picture would fracture it further. At least that was the plan—as you can see, it didn’t quite work out.”

“There’s nothing wrong with the monarchy,” Nira objected, ignoring Nef’s laugh.

“If your people didn’t fear your mother’s army so much, there would have been a revolution already,” Kaleth told her, and Nira shook her head in denial. That wasn’t possible—she had lived in Irithara most of her life. She would have noticed if the people were unhappy, right? She had to admit that she could have paid more attention to the political situation, but she would have noticed if there had been something big going on.

“Wait,” Nef said, scowling in though. “You said you met Kaleth five years ago. I’ve known you for five years, which means I met you right after you got here. Y’know what else has been going on for five years?”

Nira gasped a bit. Of course, she knew what he was referring to—the cold war. But Nira had never connected it with her leaving her home country. There had been a terrorist attack just a few days after she’d left, and Nira had always thought that was the reason.

“If you’re blaming Nira for starting a cold war—” Kaleth started before Nef cut him off.

“Oh, no, I’m blaming you,” he corrected the older man, pointing a finger at the laptop screen. Nira frowned but said nothing. She didn’t really agree with what Nef had said, but she wanted to avoid arguing with him at all costs right now.

“Hm, fair enough,” Kaleth said, his voice flat. “Now, if you could start paying attention, I’m almost at the coordinates.”

The man sounded snarky somehow, without using the tone of voice. It seemed Nef’s judgments had an effect on Kaleth. Starting a war would probably be a sore spot for anyone, although Nira didn’t think it was fair to blame him when Kaleth had been ordered to do what he had done.

“I think we should land. It’s too damned cramped in here,” Nef said and made the car do so. It seemed they were now in the middle of a field, and Nira wondered where exactly they were, as she got out and had to grab onto the car door so she wouldn’t fall, her legs feeling like jelly. She hadn’t noticed how shaken up she was from Nef’s finding out the truth until then.

Nira looked up when she heard Nef walk up to her and blinked in surprise when she saw him offering her his hand. She took it, muttering thanks as he helped her sit down under a nearby tree. It was unnecessary, but she appreciated the gesture, anyway. Nira didn’t know what to make of Nef’s behavior, but she took the fact that he hadn’t told her to leave him alone yet as a good thing.

Nira watched wordlessly as Nef put the laptop on the ground in front of him, noticing that there was something else under where the laptop had been in the briefcase. When Nef took it out, Nira realized that it was a tablet, though she couldn’t think of what that could be used for. Her boyfriend seemed to have some idea, though, because he turned it on and quickly found an image that turned out to be a blueprint of some building. Nira guessed it would be wherever Kaleth was going.

Speaking of him, Nira turned her gaze to the laptop screen. The man was walking swiftly and noiselessly through a forest while hiding behind as many trees as possible with the rifle in hand as he made his way to a large but plain, concrete structure. Judging by its size, Nira had a feeling that most of the building was underground, given how many pictures of the blueprints Nef had scrolled through already. She couldn’t see any guards, though.

That didn’t exactly help her relax.

“Are you wearing a suit right now?” Nef commented with disbelief and scoffed at Kaleth. Nira almost facepalmed.

The words I didn’t exactly have the time to change appeared on the screen just like before. Nira wanted to know how Kaleth was doing that.

“How the hell did you do that?” Nef voiced Nira’s thoughts, and she smiled a little to herself, despite the situation.

Lip reading, was the answer. Nira didn’t get it, but Nef seemed to have understood perfectly.

“Oh, cool, so the goggles scan your face and it writes what you’re saying?” Nef asked with fascination, his previous annoyance all but forgotten.

It’s useful for stealth missions, Kaleth replied and after taking a long look at a tree he started to climb it. Nira raised her eyebrows at how quickly and effortlessly he managed it. She also didn’t see the point. There didn’t seem to be anyone around from what she could see.

In just a moment, Kaleth was several meters above the ground, crouching on a thick branch as he searched the forest through the scope of the rifle. At least, Nira assumed that was what he was doing. The perspective of the scope wasn’t visible on the screen. All Nira could see was the front half of the rifle. Kaleth kept moving it from one side to the other. Nira was just about to ask what he was doing when the shooting started.

Her hand flew to her mouth as she watched Kaleth pull the trigger five times, pointing the rifle in five different directions, all in just several seconds. Despite the silencer, the shots were still loud to Nira. So terribly loud. It was obvious what she had just witnessed—five people had been killed.

“Whoa, what the hell, man?!” Nef yelped, sounding as freaked out as Nira felt. He looked at Nira with a disturbed expression, which she mimicked. She knew that Kaleth hadn’t put the sniper rifle together just for the fun of it, but it hadn’t occurred to her that he’d commit mass murder with it.

“They’re just soldiers, aren’t they?” Nira asked, the anger in her voice surprising even her.

“I didn’t have time to take tranquilizer with me, and I can’t afford to let them live because they’d shoot me as soon as they saw me,” Kaleth replied, this time verbally and rather passively. Was it that he didn’t care or that he was pretending he didn’t care?

“How is it a stealth mission if you just shoot everyone?” Nef grumbled, but his voice still shook a little.

“I need to see them first,” Kaleth replied, as he jumped off the tree and continued making his way to the structure. “Where is the entrance?”

Nef didn’t look like he wanted to help anymore, but he looked at the blueprints, anyway. “Uh, north, I think.”

Somehow, that was enough information for Kaleth to find it. Nira had no idea where north was since she couldn’t see the sun through the trees at all. That wasn’t overly surprising, though, since it would soon be sunset. Kaleth probably had a compass on those goggles or something like that.

There were two guards by the entrance. Seeing Kaleth pull out a handgun, Nira knew exactly what was going to happen. And she knew she didn’t want to see it. Nira quickly got up and walked in a random direction away from the laptop. She heard Nef call after her, but she just kept walking, only taking a moment to turn around to let him know she heard him. He seemed to understand, not looking too comfortable with the situation either but it didn’t seem to be enough for him to leave.

Nira breathed in the fresh air and closed her eyes. While the air pollution wasn’t that bad in Enbrant, the air there couldn’t compare to the cleanliness here. It was a shame she and Nef didn’t get away that much.

Nira slowed down, putting her hands into the pockets of her jeans, but she kept walking. She had to be careful not to go too far, otherwise she might not find Nef later, and being stranded in the Enorian countryside without her contact lenses wasn’t something she wanted to try.

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, glaring at the dark brown color. She should have told Nef sooner. Much, much sooner. Or maybe she shouldn’t have run from Irithara at all. Although, from what she had heard in the past hour, it seemed like going to university in Enoria was about the best thing that could have happened to her. She might have been dead already if she hadn’t told Kaleth that she wanted to be an astronomer. He might have just shot her. He certainly didn’t seem to have a problem with murder.

And what he had said about the Empire falling…. Nira still had trouble believing that. Kaleth might have been lying of course, but she couldn’t think of a reason why he would do that. And if he was telling the truth, then why hadn’t she known about it? Were Iritharians so afraid of her mother that they didn’t dare say anything against her in public? Nira was sure she’d have noticed if there had been protests.

She sat down on the grass and ran her fingers through it absently. She tried to think of nothing but failed miserably. Her mind was full of the terrible scenarios that might happen soon, most of them involving Nef. The way he had looked at her after she had told him who she was….

And what would she do if Nef decided he didn’t want to be with her anymore? The thought of finishing her studies with basically everything reminding her of him didn’t sound very appealing. It wouldn’t just be the university—Nira had known Nef since she had moved to Enoria, being here without him just seemed wrong to her.

And going back home sounded even worse. Nira didn’t want to face her mother after hiding away from her for five years. And if the thing about the people hating the monarchy was true, then she doubted she’d feel safe in Irithara, even if the public didn’t know who she was.

She didn’t realize she had been ripping out grass until that moment.

“Nira,” someone said from behind her, and Nira jumped, immediately springing to her feet and whirling around. Alor was standing there, a few steps away from her, looking at her guiltily. How had he found them?

“Alor,” she replied, folding her hands over her chest. She narrowed her eyes and frowned at him. He was still wearing his usual jeans and t-shirt, yet somehow, he looked much less casual. “Did you do something to Nef?”

Alor looked horrified for a moment before speaking. “W-what? No, of course not. He’s in my car. I just came here to ask you to come with us. ’Course, I’m not forcing you or anything.”

“What about Nef? Are you forcing him?”

A part of her enjoyed that Alor winced at that, and her frown turned into a glare that only deepened the longer Alor stayed silent.

“Nef has no idea what he’s doing,” Alor told her. “I can’t believe you’re on his side in this.”

“Don’t even try to drag me into this. Nef can make his own damned decisions,” Nira almost yelled. She rarely swore, but it felt good to put her anger into words. She kind of understood why Nef used profanity so often.

“Even if they’re the wrong ones?” Alor asked. Nira just glared at him instead of giving him an answer. And he glared back.

They stayed like that for a moment, before Alor closed his eyes and sighed. “I’m not going to explain myself to you, Nira. Are you coming or not?”

Alor’s voice was so cold. It sounded so unlike him that it scared Nira a little, but she stood her ground and nodded, still glaring.

Wherever Nef went, she went. As long as Nef would have her.