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

They got to Imbera at six in the morning. Nef wished the trip had taken longer than that because only getting three hours of sleep couldn’t be good for him. He had trouble sleeping while traveling.

None of them had said much since flying away from Enbrant, except for his brother telling him and Nira what they were going to do. Nef sighed as he looked at his girlfriend, who was sitting next to him. She seemed content with them just holding hands the entire time. Nef couldn’t blame her for not wanting to talk, especially after the destruction of the Flare, and he wasn’t sure he even wanted her to. Still, there was only that much silence he could take.

“Quick question,” Nef said, sticking his head between the front seats and looking at Alor, “how in the hell are we gonna meet anyone in Terenth if two million people live there?”

“Well, we have phones.”

Nef frowned. Why hadn’t he thought of that? He must have been really tired. His brother, on the other hand, sounded way too alert after so long behind the wheel. Er, joystick. And that was still strange because Nef hadn’t known Alor’s car could be driven manually. There just hadn’t been anything to drive with before. Where had the joystick come from?

Nef had a feeling this wasn’t Alor’s first all-nighter. Not like he himself had never done that, but he usually regretted it afterward. Sitting through boring lectures with no sleep was a recipe for disaster.

“Right,” said Nef with a nod, yawning into his hand and groaning as he stretched. Damn, his back hurt. He was starting to remember why he never went on any road trips. Or trips in general.

Forty minutes and some talking on the phone while driving later, they finally arrived just outside of Terenth. Because Nef was eager to leave the car and stretch his legs, he quickly got out and almost immediately yelped in shock.

“Why is it so cold?” he complained, hugging his chest. “Damn this island!”

“It could be raining, you know,” Nira told him, apparently unbothered by the temperature. All three of them looked at the white sky above them, expecting the rain to start at just that moment. Thankfully, the weather stayed as it was. Cloudy and depressing.

“Yeah, great,” Nef grumbled and looked around. They were on the outskirts of the city, or so Nef assumed. The only thing he knew about Terenth was that it was in Imbera, and it was pretty big, and it seemed he was right about both. The city did seem large from where he was standing. Not as big as he was used to, living in the largest city in Enoria, but still quite big.

“Finally, you guys got here,” said Rayni as she walked towards them from the side, waving her hand at them. Next to her, Kara seemed to be trying very hard not to roll her eyes. Rayni looked like she was back to her usual self, though she still seemed a bit off.

“And who’s the—” Rayni started, looking at Nira and stopping. “Oh.”

“Oh? What does oh mean?” Nef asked, immediately irritated. He wasn’t even sure why—Rayni hadn’t insulted her. It had to be the lack of sleep. Definitely.

“Nothing. You just don’t meet a princess that often, ya know?” Rayni explained with a smile. “It’s nice to meet you.” Nef glared at her when she winked.

“How does everyone know who you are except for me?” Nef grumbled to Nira, who looked about as surprised as he felt.

“Kaleth told us,” Rayni explained easily.

“Where is he anyway?” Alor asked, obviously trying to change the subject. It was a good question though. The Imberan made them fly across a good chunk of the Federation—the least he could do was be here as well.

“He told me he’d find us, and then he hung up,” Kara said, folding her arms. “I’ve tried calling him, but there was no answer. I suppose we’ll have to wait for—”

A rather loud whooshing sound interrupted her, and all five of them automatically looked up to find out what had made the noise. It wasn’t too hard to find the dark spot in the sky, but it was a tad harder to figure out what they were looking at.

Nef squinted at it. He would have thought it was a car, but it hadn’t sounded like one. And parts of it were moving, which was also unusual. And…wait, were those wings? Nef’s eyes widened when he realized how fast the thing was moving, but he barely took a step back before it landed in front of Alor’s car.

There was a stunned silence as everyone gaped at the dragon in front of them. Nef got over the shock first because he had already seen it. It didn’t make the creature any less impressive, but at least he didn’t have to question his sanity—he’d had hours to wrap his head around it, after all.

“I told you, and you didn’t believe me!” Nef exclaimed triumphantly, pointing at his brother, who couldn’t even manage to look irritated right now.

“You can put the guns away. He won’t hurt you.” Only after hearing Kaleth’s voice did Nef realize he was also there. It was easy not to notice when there was a mythological being standing in front of him.

The man dusted off his suit jacket and straightened his tie and collar as if that was the most natural thing one could do after jumping off a dragon. Nef noticed the goggles, which were now hanging from around Kaleth’s neck. They were square—black and silver with orange lenses and round parts over the ears that were probably headphones. He immediately wanted a pair for himself, but he pushed away that thought quickly. They had more important things to discuss right now.

“And who is he?” Kara asked, suspicion clear in her voice. She didn’t let go of the gun in her hand, but she at least lowered it. Nef studied the dragon again, noticing that it—he—seemed nervous. And that sounded ridiculous even in Nef’s head.

“This is Mel, although not in the form you’re used to. He helped me escape from Carcer,” Kaleth said, gesturing to the dragon, whose eyes almost comically widened.

“I just helped a little,” the creature argued timidly, and Nef felt his eyebrows reach his hairline. He hadn’t expected such a fragile voice to come out of that body. Or any voice at all, actually. This was the deserter he’d been told about? Nef couldn’t say this was how he’d imagined him.

“Oh my gods!” Rayni yelled out in shock, but she calmed down a second later. “I kind of want to pet him.”

“Rayni, he isn’t a dog!” Kaleth snapped at her. Nef looked over at his girlfriend, wondering what she was thinking about this whole situation. She was keeping her expression blank and guarded though.

“It’s okay, I don’t mind,” Mel said, somehow looking like he was smiling, even though his mouth was full of sharp fangs. It wasn’t even all that creepy despite that, but Nef would be lying if he said he was completely comfortable seeing that smile.

Rayni strolled towards the dragon, ignoring Kaleth’s disapproving scowl, almost touching Mel’s snout, but stopped a few centimeters in front of the shiny black scales.

“You won’t bite me, right?”

“Why would I bite you?” the dragon asked, sounding completely baffled, before Rayni shrugged and finally touched the dragon.

“This is so cool!”

Next to him, Kaleth ran a hand over his face and walked to Alor, Kara, Nef, and Nira.

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Princess Niraderia,” he said to Nira with the trademark Imberan way, which always somehow managed to sound sarcastic instead. But Nef didn’t focus on that. He just watched the scene with a deep frown. Nirade-what? “I wish it were under better circumstances.”

“W-wait, wait, what did you just call her?” Nef asked him, and the older man turned his gaze to him. It was Nira who answered the question, though.

“My full name. It’s Niraderia. But no one here calls me that here.” She frowned at Kaleth as she said this.

“Excuse me, I’ll call you Nira if you prefer,” he said. Once again, Kaleth sounded a little sarcastic, but not enough for Nef to be sure he wasn’t just hearing things.

“Okay, great. Now, since that is out of the way,” started Kara, and pointed at the dragon who was currently enjoying a thorough scratching under his chin, “mind explaining what the hell that is?”

“Exactly what you think he is. We’ve been lied to about pretty much everything. The Umbra can shift forms, as can myself and Rayni, supposedly. Relioth claims that we used to be viewed as gods, which, I assume, is why Mel had taken this form. I’ll explain more later.”

“Are you saying that Enorian gods actually exist?” Nira said slowly. She didn’t seem to believe at all what she was saying. Honestly, Nef didn’t either, and Nira didn’t even know that Kaleth and Rayni had powers, so this must have been even more confusing to her.

And also, dragons and gods were the same thing? Nef had always assumed they were two separate things. How did Nira know his own culture better than him, anyway? He wasn’t that ignorant, right? Nef shrugged internally. If he was, it was probably his mother’s fault.

“And that Rayni and you are—” Nira started to say but was interrupted by Kaleth.

“I don’t know what I am, but it seems Rayni used to be an Umbra.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Alor protested as he watched Rayni with slight apprehension.

“We’ll figure it out later,” Kaleth said, but Kara protested.

“Prove to me you’re not insane.”

Kaleth sighed and turned around and shook his head. Probably at the image of Mel nuzzling Rayni’s hand. Nef had a hard time not laughing at the image, despite the insanity of the situation he’d found himself in.

“Mel, would you mind changing again?” Kaleth asked the dragon who beamed at him.

“Sure!”

There was a sudden blinding blue light everywhere, and Nef quickly shielded his eyes with his arm. Thankfully, the light was gone as quickly as it came, or he was sure he’d now have even worse eyesight than he already did.

Once he could see again, Nef focused on Mel, blinking a few times to make sure it was real. In the dragon’s place, there was now a weirdly young-looking guy in worn-down clothes.

Okay, so shapeshifting was a thing. Nef wished he understood biology because he wanted to know how this worked. It made him wonder if Mel could change into anything he wanted. And if not—how come?

“Should I feel awkward now?” asked Rayni, aiming the question at no one in particular. “’Cause I do.”

Mel looked like he was about to ask why any of this was awkward when Kaleth spoke.

“We really should move.”

Nef frowned at Mel, studying his confused expression. So far, Nef was getting the impression that Mel was a bit oblivious. Or maybe just dense. In any case, he seemed like he would be fun to mess with. But not just yet. Even though Mel looked harmless enough, Nef wasn’t one hundred percent sure the dragon wouldn’t kill him for it. Sure, Mel didn’t look threatening, especially now, but Nef still wasn’t going to risk it. Better safe than mauled.

“About that—move where exactly?” Kara asked, voicing what Nef, and probably everyone else, was thinking as she followed Kaleth, everyone else slowly doing so as well.

“There is a building about three kilometers away from here where we can regroup and figure out what to do next,” the man answered, sounding slightly angry. Suddenly, Nef’s eyes widened in realization. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t connected the facts.

Before they had arrived, he had looked up what was in Terenth. He hadn’t found anything useful, but he did read something he had forgotten about until now: a bit away from the city was a mansion owned by Ramien Garen, an aristocrat whose surname started with a G.

Oh.

“Your last name’s Garen, isn’t it?” Nef asked, too surprised by what he had just put together to feel smug. His only reply was a rather scary look thrown in his direction, which Alor answered with a glare before Nef could manage to react. Nef was starting to wonder if Kaleth and his brother disliked each other only because Nef had been involved in this—whatever this was—or if there was more to it than that.

“He doesn’t like being called that,” Mel informed him, looking at Nef with his big amber eyes. He had never met anyone with eyes like that before Rayni. Then again, he hadn’t met that many people who could shapeshift into dragons either, so what did he know? He wondered if this was a common trait for them, but it probably wasn’t. After all, Kaleth’s eyes were green.

“Yeah, I got that, thanks,” Nef muttered back, looking at Nira with a raised eyebrow. She didn’t look at him though. She just kept watching Kaleth, as he, Kara, and Rayni got farther and farther away.

“Are you okay?” Nef continued when she didn’t react at all.

“What?” Nira blinked a few times. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. We should follow them.”

With that, she started walking, sticking her hands in the pockets of her jeans. Well, it didn’t take a genius to figure out something was bothering her. The question was what because right now there were a lot of things that could be bothering her.

Noticing his brother’s worried look, Nef huffed in annoyance and went after Nira, hurrying to catch up with her. He wasn’t even really irritated that his brother was so concerned about him. Well, no, that was a lie, but still, reacting differently would make Alor worry more, and there was just so much over-protectiveness Nef could take. Besides, they had bigger problems right now. Like a megalomaniac in charge of the government, a blown-up skyscraper, and actual dragons-slash-gods.

Not much was said during the half-hour hike through a forest, which was surprising because Nef would have thought figuring out Kaleth’s real name would provoke a bigger reaction.

If Nef were an optimist he’d say that at least the activity warmed him up a bit. However, he wasn’t one, so he spent most of the time internally complaining. He would have complained out loud, but he felt the atmosphere wasn’t right for it. Mostly because he had a nice view of Kaleth’s sniper rifle, and the thing was making him nervous.

Speaking of nervous, Mel had been throwing some odd looks in Nira’s direction. Nef couldn’t pin down what emotion they conveyed though. Concern? Worry? Something along those lines.

Nef was just about to call the dragon out on it, but as he opened his mouth, he noticed the huge building a bit away from them that had been obscured from sight by trees just a few moments ago.

When Nef had read about the mansion he’d imagined one of those old, classy ones built in a style Nef barely knew the name of, with a lot of windows and huge balconies, and way too many floors—not this.

Well, it was kind of like that, but it looked like someone redesigned it to look modern and stopped halfway through. The small square windows were replaced with large chunks of glass that were clearly only there to show off the expensive stuff inside, and the whole mansion was weirdly round. A pointlessly big swimming pool stretched around most of the structure in a giant crescent, absent only in the front so that people could go in and out without having to swim. Around the whole building was a tall metal fence—significantly taller than a person—that looked like it would be pretty hard to climb, what with the thin, but strong-looking, metal bars and basically nothing to brace a foot on.

“We’re hiding out here?” Rayni asked with excitement. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Don’t you hate your dad? And more importantly—will there be caviar?”

Kaleth just let out an aggravated sigh.

Well, that was an interesting piece of information. Nef supposed that explained why Kaleth’s last name wasn’t Garen.

“She does have a point, Kaleth,” said Kara, sounding annoyed. She probably disliked that she had to admit that. “Why here?”

“It might not look like it, but it’s quite difficult to get inside without triggering an alarm,” the Imberan started to explain as he turned right and started walking along the line of trees, away from the mansion. “If triggered, the alarm will summon the EFP immediately, and that could be problematic.”

Nef snorted a bit at the understatement. Enoria’s federal police were competent, but also very morally grey. Every time he had done something less than legal in the past, he had always made sure to cover his tracks well.

“And inside there are no alarms, are there?” Kara asked, nodding.

“Precisely. Once we are inside, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll be followed.”

“And I’m assuming you know how to do that?” Alor asked, his voice neutral. Nef couldn’t tell if he really wasn’t angry anymore, or just pretending he wasn’t.

“Those alarms are there only because my father is…very cautious, but that also means that he had taken other precautions—including an alternative way of leaving the mansion.”

As Kaleth said this, he stopped in front of a seemingly random tree, tracing a finger over its bark. It looked perfectly ordinary to Nef, but at this point, he couldn’t even think to say something skeptical. He watched as the other man walked four steps to the left and crouched down, pulling away grass and whatever else was there with it.

Nef frowned, but before he could question what the hell Kaleth was doing he saw a faint glint of metal. It only took a minute or so to uncover the entire thing, which turned out to be a metal hatch painted brown, making it almost invisible even without the grass. It looked just like one of those that led to old bomb shelters.

“Your dad’s one paranoid bastard,” commented Rayni and whistled.

“Mel,” said Kaleth, ignoring her. The Umbra immediately perked up and walked closer to the other man. “This is only meant to be an exit, but do you think you can open it, anyway?”

“Course!” Mel said happily and put his hand on the hatch. A few seconds later, there was a clicking sound, and the thing opened by itself. Well, not by itself, of course, but it had looked like that. And while telekinesis was undoubtedly awesome, Nef couldn’t wrap his head around it.

That feeling was getting annoying.

“Are you all right?” Kaleth asked Mel, who on closer inspection seemed to waver a bit where he stood.

“Uh-huh, of course,” the dragon replied, his eyes wide as they kept flicking from one person to the other. Kaleth narrowed his eyes at the Umbra, looking concerned, but he said nothing.

“So,” said Rayni, clasping her hands together, “do we commit a home invasion now or what?”