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To End the War of the Gods

Blurb:

Argus dies in a war started by an angry god, whose partner was stolen by another god. The gods choose sides and conscript the humans to fight in their wars. He worries his death would destroy his partner, Valerie, and makes a deal with a minor death god, turns out to be one of the ancient and powerful ones in disguise. He comes back to life, reunites with Valerie, but vows never to tell her what happened. She’s a devout priestess of the god who was wronged and would never accept that he received help from a god on the side of the one who stole the partner of her god. The secret wears on their relationship and as Valerie and Argus grow apart he starts to have feelings for the Valkyrie that saved him, Thorne. Thorne notices the changes in Argus and helps him to understand what’s happening to him. That was no minor god he swore himself to. Eventually it all comes to a head and Argus has to use his new found powers to end the war of the gods.

Excerpt:

The last thing Argus heard was screaming, but he couldn’t tell if it was his own or the other soldiers around him. A pain burst through his gut, worse than anything else he had ever felt. He looked up in a blur of blood, sweat, and were those tears?, to see a large dark figure looming over him. A sickening squelching sound came from somewhere below his chest and he felt himself fall to the ground. The dark figure hefted the large weapon that had run the soldier through before it moved on to claim another life. Argus lay with his face in the mud, the clanging of metal and the cries of the battle around him. He attempted to get onto his side but something had stopped the feeling in his arms, and his legs for that matter. He had two thoughts before darkness took him: he cursed the gods that called for this war, and a prayer that Valerie would never find him. He couldn’t stomach the image that came to him, his precious Valerie down in the muck clutching his pierced body and wailing to the blood red sky, cursing the gods to bring him back. Argus opened his eyes to red. Not the red of the sky on the battlefield but of an entire world cloaked in the red of the inside of your eyelid when the sun hits it. He felt hot all over, and gasped trying to rip the gorget off his neck. It clattered to the ground as he tossed it and patted himself to find the hole the dark figure had put in his gut. It was there and Argus had to stop himself from reaching in to see how far it went. He noted the distinct lack of pain and bleeding…something wasn’t right. He looked around and saw nothing, casting his gaze back and forth. He couldn’t even tell where the sky stopped and the ground ended. Suddenly a figure caught his eye, something dark off in the distance. Argus scrambled to his feet not taking his eyes off the figure. He looked for as long as he could, his hand reaching for his sword and finding none. He looked down to confirm nothing was there and when he looked up the dark figure was only a few meters away from him. He jumped back but did not cry out, he didn’t want this thing to see his fear. It was hooded, and the hood went back so deeply that there wasn't a face to be seen. It almost looked like it was just a giant cloak being held up by the wind, but Argus knew better. Something was under there, and it brought him here instead of letting him die on the battlefield like he had intended. His mind flashed again to Valerie kneeled over in the blood soaked mud, keening over his impaled body. Her long dark hair would drape over him one last time as she would press her forehead to his in a final goodbye. He could feel her hot wet tears and a pain started to grow in his gut. "Wait...please," he fell to his knees in front of the figure. "I cannot leave her alone. I have to go back." The figure paused and raised a hand towards him. Argus felt the hole in his stomach supremely and he cried out in agony. His hands instinctively flew to the spot of the pain and were instantly covered in blood. A voice rumbled in his head, "A covenant?" The sound was so base that it rattled the teeth inside Argus's head. "Will you be my threshold?" Argus didn't know what exactly being a threshold meant but it probably wasn't anything good. Demons and monsters needed thresholds to get to the mortal plane. Then again, so did gods but they usually called them more glamorous things like avatars or apostles. "Who are you?" he whispered. "A god," the voice answered like the sound of an avalanche off the side of a mountain.