“Marc tells me there is nothing left of the queen’s blood. I want you to know that I’ll cooperate every way I can with Corvus House to bring your body back to Seraphim power.”
“I’m just happy you’re alive. I don’t care about the rest.”
“But I do. If we’re going to spend the rest of our life together, I want it to be a long one.”
The air caught in my throat. “What?”
He stopped dancing and lifted his mask to rest on top of his head. The action pushed his hair on end. Alone on the dance floor, all eyes were on us. Then he pulled a small box out of his pocket and got down on one knee. The music skipped to a halt. Then the only sound came from my breath, my beating heart and humming falling stars. He took a deep breath, paused, and opened the box to reveal a beautiful sparkling ring.
“Roo, La Roux, Sephie—” he cleared his throat and his ears went red. “We’ve been separated for thousands of years. We’ve disagreed, we’ve fought, I’ve died a thousand times over, but through it all, I found my way back to you. I love you and I don’t want to spend another minute apart. Will you do the honor of being my wife?”
My hand slapped over my mouth to stop the sob of happiness coming out. My throat closed up, and I had no words except… except… I frowned.
“Are you sure you don’t hate her?” Madly blinking tears from my eyes, holding my breath.
“We’re both new people. This is our chance to forge another path. Together. Say yes, Roo.”
Can a person really change that much?
The hope in his eyes and the butterflies in my stomach gave me my answer. I nodded. I nodded like my life depended on it. His mouth broke into a goofy grin that lit up his face. He pulled my hand to his and slipped the ring on. I didn’t even look at it. I was lost in his smile. When he stood, he slid my mask onto my forehead and lowered his lips to mine. I softened against him and he pulled me closer, deepening the kiss, not caring who was around us.
The room erupted with deafening cheers and the music played again.
People rushed the dance floor to congratulate us.
Marc and Jacine, Wren and Lincoln, Lena and Jesop, even Victoria the little goth girl came. Even that girl Maggie, and the other guy—Jamieson. Once again, all the names were so familiar.
Voices melded into one as did their potent auras. I blinked a few times, trying to keep the smile on my face as it dawned on me. The names on the list! We were all here. And then I noticed the look on Victoria’s face wasn’t happy as she tried to get my attention.
It was concern—urgent. Her body tried to break through the others.
I reached out to her. “What is it?”
“I saw something. Go.” Her eyes were wide and darted around the room, up in the air, to the double door entrance, to the single door back exit. “It will be everywhere.”
“What is?”
But then an unmistakable hissing sound came from the ceiling and a dark cloud oozed and sputtered out of the stars. The music faulted.
Victoria gasped. “It’s too late.”
We all looked up as a dark mist fell from the stars.
Cash’s nostrils flared, scenting. “It’s the serum.”
Adrenaline surged through me. “Everybody get out!” I screamed.
“It’s no use,” Victoria said. “It’s everywhere. In every pipe, in every emergency sprinkler through the entire Ludus.”
“Love, let’s go.” Marc materialized next to me and took my arm.
“No!” I yanked away, looking desperately at all the surrounding faces who, a minute ago, had congratulated me, were happy for me. When Marc announced they were going home, they’d turned to me like I was their savior. Now because of Bruce’s plans, they might never leave. “I can’t let him win.”
I threw up a shield of solid air above our heads and pumped all my energy into it. A clear wall pushed the blackness out in a puff, but I couldn’t reach further than the dance floor. Above us, the mist crawled along the hardened air, and dropped down the sides.
“I’m sorry,” I cried. “I can’t save everyone.”
People outside of my dome of protection grabbed their throats, frowning. Seconds later, the choking started, followed by rippling under their skin, something out of a horror movie. Like a possession with witches, their eyes bled to black. But it wasn’t witchcraft—or possession. It was something else. The same thing that happened to Val and Rus.
And then an epic rumble shook the Ludus foundations, and I almost dropped to my knees. Dust crumbled from the ceiling, hitting the shield.
Then someone touched my arm. Jacine. “Let me lend you my energy so you can protect us.”
Another hand touched me, and another. Soon, every piece of bare skin on my body was being touched. I almost burst into tears. They had faith in me.
Another explosion rocked the foundations of the Ludus and plaster crumbled from the ceiling. Pieces bounced off my shield and onto the struggling people outside of our reach. Those in my dome were safe and secure. I now had the energy to expand my shield, but those people outside… they were already monsters.
Cash glanced at the ceiling and cocked his head, focusing and frowning. A moment later his eyes widened. “It’s the Opera House above us.”
Another thunderous boom. More shaking. More plaster dust.
“They’re bringing it down,” Marc said, aghast.
“They wouldn’t do that with their new creations in here.” I indicated with my head to the people transforming around us. “Would they?”
The dark mist had faded and most had stopped struggling. Confused expressions washed over their faces, their dark eyes narrowed on themselves. Then, as though a whistle had been blown, some of them got up and headed to exit without a backward glance.
“They’re leaving!” Jacine exclaimed, pointing.
They took no notice of us under the dome and moved as though being called by the Pied Piper.
Victoria gripped my arm, sheer panic enlarging her pupils. “He’s coming.”
“Who?” Cash asked, although, I knew who she meant. My stomach cramped at the thought.
“Urser. He’s coming.”
“We have to go.” Cash gripped my arm. “Now.”
“But where?” I asked.
“There,” Victoria pointed. “The back entrance. He’s coming from the front.”
The mist had dispersed. The air was clean.
“Hold your breath and run for the exit,” I yelled and dropped the shield.
With so many of us bolting for that exit, it was almost a stampede. At least thirty of us were under the dome. Thirty people, maybe more, maybe less. That was all that was left of the Australian Ludus.
Chapter 40
Four Weeks Later
“Yes, bring him to the med-bay,” I called down to Cash at the bottom of the majestic stone steps beneath me. He had a refugee with him.
I stood at the top of the front of a castle (seriously, a castle) Jacine had offered as refuge for Nephilim and Seraphim. The cold Hungarian wind whipped hair around my face and I pulled my jacket around me.
From my vantage point on top of the steps, the refugee seemed safe enough. He looked rather like a lumberjack with a beard and flannelette shirt. Probably no signs of infection. But then again, we’d recently had a Player walk in without a trace of ink in his eyes only to have the darkness present later at a routine physical from Lena. Something about the light shining in his eyes triggered the metamorphosis. He attacked one of our medical volunteers who narrowly escaped with his life. If I hadn’t been close by, ready to purge the darkness from his blood, they’d have been toast for sure. The darkness was contagious through blood, saliva and sweat. Just like a virus, but I knew how to get rid of it.
Jesop had given the infected the term darklings due to the dark residue in their eyes, similar to that of witches. But they weren’t witches. Sure, they had the same dark roots, but they were mindless, with their stunted souls fused to their bodies. They only resp
onded to their programed mission—to kill as many of us as they could.
I shivered again. First, my father had attacked the Sydney Ludus. Then, he’d destroyed the landmark that resided on top of it. After we’d escaped, we received word that the African, Asian and the South American Ludus’s had fallen, as had the historical landmarks covering them. The human world was in chaos. They thought the destruction was a concerted and well timed terrorist attack, but when no terrorist group came forward to claim the responsibility, they naturally accused witches. Of course the public face of witches everywhere, Eve and her cronies, vehemently denied it. It may have been true, perhaps she hadn’t been working with Bruce, but Marc had his doubts. His time with her in London recently hadn’t convinced him she was sincere. Seeing as Petra had invested in Bruce’s cause, we agreed.
During those dark moments, Marc had whizzed me around to the American and European Luduses in an attempt to extricate survivors and block anyone from being infected by the serum mist. Cash had been furious when I left without him, but in the end, he saw the sanity of it. I had the skills to block—even purge—the darkness, and travel through the in-between with Marc. He hated being helpless to assist.
Marc and I saved who we could and then joined Jacine and the rest of the Australian survivors here at her medieval castle. It had mildew in some walls, but it housed many of us. And refugees kept flooding in.
“Roo!” Cash called, snapping me out of my thoughts. He bounded up the steps to stand next to me, a pink flush on his nose and ears. “He’s probably fine.”
“Who?”
“The refugee.” He waved down the steps at the bearded man. “I picked him up in town picking a fight with a bartender old enough to be my grandfather.” He narrowed his eyes on me. “You look tired. Maybe you should see him tomorrow.”
“No, we had an incident the other day. I think I should check for traces of the serum, just to be sure.”
“An incident?” The concern lacing his eyes morphed into protective instinct. A shift happened before my eyes and the light mood he wore disappeared. He flexed his fists. “What happened?”
Since he’d become Seraphim, he slipped into that dark place more frequently than ever before. Something primal looked out from his eyes, ready to unleash.
I shrugged. “We handled it, but it made us realize we need to check everyone who enters the refuge, every time. Aura and blood scans. That includes you and Jed.”
He raised an indignant eyebrow until I explained what had happened. Then that fury came back. His gaze darted between my eyes as he struggled with a thought, then the fury left. He drew me in close with a smirk. “You can examine me any time, you know that, right? You don’t need to invent a reason.”
I snorted. “If only.”
His humor dropped. “Really?”
“Uh-huh. It happened. Ask Lena.”
He dipped his head to my shoulder. “When is it going to end?”
“We could run away, escape to some isolated island in the Pacific. Wait this all out.”
“When do we ever run from your father? Besides”—he flicked my nose with his finger—“I still want you to convert to Seraphim.”
I pursed my lips. “Yeah, about that. I just don’t think spending the time on my… how can I say this… elective surgery? Yeah, that’s what it is. It’s not appropriate considering Lena has her hands full with people who are suffering. It’s not only the infected, but the wounded. A man came in missing an arm the other day. His advanced healing twisted things inside and it was horrible.”
“Fine. Examine me.”
I patted his arm. “I promise I’ll be gentle.”
He grinned at me from the side. “I hope not.”
There went my heart, leaping into my throat, trying to kick-start my stalled brain. That smile. Every damned time.
He growled and nuzzled into my neck. “I love it when you smell like that.”
Aroused, he meant. I took a moment to calm the heat in my cheeks.
“To be continued,” he said with a smirk as we noticed Jed waving up at us, teeth chattering from the cold.
I supposed they were ready to get into the warmth and eat after traveling from town. It was cold out here, frosty to be precise. The air hung heavy with the promise of snow.
“Coming.” I waved down and then linked my arm through Cash’s. “And to your other question, this won’t end until we end my father.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do.”
The Game of Gods series concludes with a novel told from the point of view of Roo in Game Over
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Glossary
Curse:
When a witch casts a hex that cannot be reversed.
Darklings:
Beings (either human or Nephilim) who have been infected with a poison similar to Original Sin and have become rabid beasts.
The Empire:
The intergalactic group of constellations ruled over by the Queen.
Familiar:
A witch who hasn’t advanced to possessing human bodies yet, only animals
The Game:
Gods from another planet download their souls into half-human, half-god bodies (Nephilim or demi-gods) and race to see who can make the most positive change in the world, without revealing their abilities to humans before they die. When they die, their souls are returned to their godly bodies and the mysterious laws of the universe govern whether they’ve played the game well and receive a boost in evolution (new powers) or devolve (lose powers).
Gamekeeper:
A.k.a. Marc. True name is Egnatius. As the Gamekeeper he is responsible for keeping all Players and Watchers in line. Also known as the God of the In-between.
Hex:
When a witch uses her own DNA which has been loaded with a directive to alter the DNA of a victim. A hex can only be transferred by biological means. Usually sliver, blood or other body fluid.
House, Ursa:
The constellation where Bruce Urser originates. Also the Constellation where the king came from. This house has been known as a brutal war planet. It’s motto is: Victoria Aut Mors (Victory or Death). The bear is its emblem.
House, Epsilon:
Octavia and Pontius are the heads of House Epsilon. Their motto is: Non Loqui Sed Facere (No talk but action.)
House, Eridanus:
Led by Thurstan & Cato Eridanus. They have water powers and Cato has been likened to the god Poseidon. Their motto is: Semper Virilis (Always Virile.) Their emblem is flowing water.
House, Aldebaran:
The meat heads of the Ludus. Their motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, higher, stronger). Their emblem is the bull. Most of this house have super strength.
House, Corvus:
Led by the blind healer Lena. Her progeny is Jesop, the alchemist. Their motto is Corvus Oculum Corvi Non Eruit (A crow will not pull out the eye of another crow). Their emblem is the crow. This house is dedicated to healing.
House, Cetus:
Mathieson is the head of Cetus. The motto is Scientia Potentia Est (Knowledge is Power). Their emblem is the Kraken. Most members of this house usually are very clever or have a way of knowing how things work.
House, Draco:
A little known House. Motto unknown. Leader is Zebedee. Emblem is a dragon. Most of this house has some sort of fire ability.
House, Lyra:
Lyra House has the motto: Astra Inclinant Sed Non Obligant (The stars incline us, they do not bind us). Most of Lyra house are Sirens.
House, Vernalis:
Leader of this House is Jacine (other wise known as Aphrodite). Their motto is: Amor Vincit Omnia (Love conquers all). Their emblem is two fish entwining.
In-Between:
&
nbsp; The term used for the void Marc travels through when he teleports to another place. Sometimes time moves differently here and he can emerge having lost hours or days.
The Ludus:
The underground education facilities the gods use to educate trainees. It is also neutral territory so the Game isn’t actually played on site
Nephilim:
Half-human, half-god body for the sole purpose of inhabitation of a godly soul to play the Game on Earth.
Player:
An intergalactic god/Seraphim who has downloaded their soul into a Nephilim body for the purposes of playing the game on Earth. Players have no memory of their life beyond this planet, but they retain the memories of their time on Earth once they have returned to the Empire.
Star-Map:
The tattoo like marking present on all Player bodies that points to their godly soul’s point of origin in the cosmos.
Seraphim:
An immortal being from the other side of the galaxy.
Witch:
An evil, twisted spirit who can possess the body of a human, and pilot the body as they wish until they burn through the host and have to seek out another. Witches can manipulate cosmic energy, including understanding the frequencies the human body works with, making it easy for them to control the human body consciously the way our body works subconsciously. Witches can only possess female bodies.
The Game of Gods: Series Box Set Page 72
