Free Armageddon by Jasper T. Scott Page A

believe we’ll go to when we die?”
    Ceyla sat up and turned to him with a sharp look. “Where is all of this coming from, Darin?”
    The truth sat on the tip of his tongue like a drop of acid, burning a hole. He was desperate to just spit it out, to tell her, and to the Netherworld with the consequences—except that he was living in the Netherworld, and he’d have to live with those consequences.
    “Don’t tell me you’re actually one of them and you just came down here to get some excitement.”
    The look of wary judgement on her face gave Atton pause. He snorted and shook his head. “No.”
    “Because I fell in love with you knowing that you were different, that unlike half of the Nulls living down here, you’re actually real .”
    “Of course I am!”
    “Then don’t throw that away. You can’t get your soul back once it’s gone.”
    Atton sighed, defeated. Not even Ceyla’s love for him would be enough to overcome her prejudice against a man-made eternity ruled by an equally man-made god. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just that with all the terrible things I see on the job, it’s hard to imagine anything like that ever happening to you, or to one of our children someday.”
    Ceyla nodded, and some of the angry fire left her eyes. She rubbed his chest reassuringly. “I understand, but the solution isn’t to run away and hide in the Uppers. That’s what Omnius wants. We’d be falling right into his trap. Better to grow old and die than to live trapped inside a lie forever.”
    Atton felt those words stab through him like knives. Ceyla didn’t realize she was talking about him. Except that I won’t have to live trapped inside my lies forever. Ceyla talked about growing old together, but he was an immortal ; he would never grow old and die, and someday Ceyla would wake up and realize that she had aged, but he still looked just as young as the day she’d met him. Atton’s brow furrowed, and pressure began building inside of his head.
    “What’s wrong?” Ceyla asked, noticing the look on his face.
    “Oh… I was just thinking about introducing you to my mother,” he lied without thinking.
    “Do you think she would come down to the Null Zone to see me?”
    Atton’s eyes drifted out of focus as he stared at the wall at the foot of the bed. “She won’t have to. She lives on level 45 of Thardris Tower.”
    “She’s a Null? I thought you said your parents were Etherians?”
    Prickles of adrenaline stabbed Atton’s fingertips as he got caught in his first lie. The irony was, with the exception of Ethan, his parents really were Etherians, but he could never introduce Ceyla to any of them without her realizing who he really was. She’d already met Ethan and Hoff, and she knew they were Atton’s parents.
    Thinking quickly, he turned to Ceyla. “My parents are Etherians. Valari is like a second mother to me, but she’s actually my aunt. She took me in when I chose to become a Null.”
    Ceyla began nodding as if all of that made perfect sense. She lay her head back on his chest, her suspicions assuaged. “That was nice of her.”
    “Yes.” Atton’s smile tightened. “I’ll talk to her. We’ll have dinner sometime.”
    Ceyla covered a yawn with one hand. “Sounds great.”
    Atton’s smile turned to a frown. Now he had to bring Valari Thardris into his lies. He supposed that was only fair, since she had brought him into her and Omnius’s lies. But the problem was he didn’t trust Valari, and now he needed her cooperation. That would only give her more leverage over him. Although, Atton supposed that didn’t change anything. Valari already had all the leverage over him and anyone else that she would ever need—she was Omnius’s creator—his mother, if that made any sense—and because of that, Atton suspected there was nothing she couldn’t do, have done, or get away with. Whatever Valari wanted, she got.
    He just hoped she didn’t start wanting something that he couldn’t