Waking the Goddess

by Clara Hartley

  The chaos stopped, but tension grew heavy in the chambers.

  I held my breath and waited. In my attempts to use my powers, I’d closed my eyes, and now I didn’t dare open them again. What was I going to see? Devon’s dead body?

  Hmmm.

  The basilisk’s hum slithered through my mind. I took rein of my emotions and summoned courage. Carefully, I pried my eyes open, angling away from the basilisk and toward Devon.

  Devon lay on the ground, worse for wear. One of his arms was flung outward, while the other lay over his stomach. He was still awake. With a groan, he palmed his forehead and pushed himself to a seating position. “Damn it. I really thought I was going to die.”

  Devon had stepped in front of the basilisk for me. He’d sacrificed himself for me.

  “The basilisk’s eyes are closed, Cara,” Hansel said. “I’m not sure what you did, but it worked.”

  What is this… allegiance… I feel?

  “Toward?” Liam asked warily. “I’ll be damned if it’s me again.”

  The wolf.

  I bit my tongue. I’d magicked the basilisk to fall in love with Fenrir. Great.

  But the wolf doesn’t look at me like it does you, young man. Hmmm. This… this is pain.

  The basilisk slithered toward Fenrir and moved back and forth, hoping to seduce the wolf. Fenrir wanted nothing to do with the basilisk. It turned and moved toward Liam, tail swishing behind him. A disgruntled noise sounded from the basilisk as it tried to get Fenrir’s attention.

  A smile cracked Liam’s face. “Now you know how it feels like.”

  This emotion… Is it love? I don’t want it…

  I looked down at my hands, realizing that I didn’t need to use my wand anymore. Sending my love magic out like that felt more dangerous, however. The need to punch something swelled in me. I glanced at the wall next to me, and had no doubt that if I’d tried to punch a hole through it, I’d succeed.

  When had I gotten this violent? This unexplained anger scared me.

  It is fading.

  Fading? I blinked out of my sudden rage, studying the bestial snake. My love power wouldn’t have worked long on Agness because she was a potent goddess. Perhaps the same rule applied to the basilisk. We had to hurry and get out of its sight.

  “Where is the chiasma’s lake?” I asked, wasting no time.

  Another hissing noise. I don’t share that information with strangers.

  “You’d do it for Fenrir?”

  Hmmm. I would.

  “Liam, please,” I said. I knew that Fenrir would do anything for Liam. Love worked in the strangest ways.

  Liam sighed. I watched the weirdest love-triangle interaction as Liam ordered Fenrir to ask the basilisk for a favor. I wasn’t sure how they communicated. It sounded to me like a lot of grunting and animalistic noises. The snake rumbled at the wolf’s request. The lake is behind me, past the gate there. Be careful with the sisters of fate.

  “Who are they?” I asked.

  The basilisk continued musing to itself. This sensation. It is agony. I hope it wears off soon.

  The vassals and I shared concerned glances. Now that we had direction, we shouldn’t waste time. Briskly, we walked toward the gate the basilisk had directed us to. Fenrir followed us. The gate didn’t look big enough for him, so he shrank, returning to his state as a puppy.

  Are you leaving me, dear wolf? the basilisk asked. I cannot walk through that gate with you.

  Fenrir turned its nose up, ignoring the basilisk.

  A low, agonizing sound, like a cry, shook from the serpent. It craned its neck back and looked upward forlornly.

  Love is pain. Love is war. The basilisk hissed, then extended itself toward the ceiling. It crawled up the hole from which it came from, leaving me with a chilling, resonating thought. Where had I heard that before?

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Are you all right, Cara?” Theo asked with a look of concern on his face.

  “I’m in a daze,” I said with a light smile. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”

  I’d been slightly out of it ever since hearing those words from the basilisk. They sounded so familiar. Then again, it was a common enough saying, so it wasn’t that much of a stretch to think that I’d heard it before.

  Then why was I so concerned about it?

  It probably had something to do with my parents. According to legend, Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and Ares that of war. The answers lay in my mind. I just didn’t know which part and had to dig deeper.

  But did I want to?

  We walked through the gate the basilisk had pointed us to. The air around us grew chillier. Fog surrounded this enclosure. I swatted it from my face and attempted to adjust to the ashen scent that permeated this place.

  “Can you guys see anything?” I asked.

  As soon as the question left my lips, the fog disappeared, revealing a crystalline lake. Above the lake, onyx gems, the same color as the chiasma, sparkled. They reflected off the shimmering surface of the lake.

  My throat dried from thirst. I sensed a sudden desire to bend toward the water, scoop up a handful, and pour it down my throat. Drinking it, I’d become a goddess, and I wouldn’t be at risk of dying like those girls in the morgue.

  “Welcome,” a woman said.

  We all turned toward her. She’d appeared out of nowhere, misting into existence from nothing at all. The woman was translucent, with white eyelashes that fluttered prettily. Her hair was white and long, stretching and piling onto the ground. Hanging from her torso was the most beautiful dress I’d ever seen. It sparkled with a million colors, and was adorned with elaborate, intricate detail. Feathers fanned from the hips of the dress, protruding in all directions. Such beauty couldn’t be real, and yet I witnessed it standing before me with my own eyes.

  Her appearance had stunned all five of us into silence.

  The woman laughed, the sound floating toward us like a lighthearted lullaby. “Caramel, is it? And her vassals. You’re not supposed to be here. I’m sure the goddesses would be very mad if they knew of your intrusion.”

  “Who are you?” Liam asked.

  The ethereal lady smiled. She raised her dainty fingers, hooked them around a soft, glittery strand of hair, and tucked it behind her ear. “I am Clotho,” she replied. “The oldest of the sisters of fate, and life is weaved from my hands. You, my dears, are my children. So are the goddesses. So are the beings in Haven and all of mankind.”

  Yikes. So she was just, like, really powerful.

  “If you’re that awesome,” I said, scrunching my nose up, “why are you hiding here in this dingy cave?”

  Clotho blinked, stunned by my insolence. She lowered her slender hand and placed it over the other. “Nobody has ever asked me that before.”

  “You need to meet more people, then,” I said. “Either that, or more honest people. I’m sure they’ve thought about it.”

  “I don’t spend all my time here,” Clotho replied. “Merely to check on the chiasma every so often. It’s not doing well, and requires more of my care should I wish my creations to continue thriving. But finding out how I spend my time is not why you are here.” She pinned her gaze on me, and in that moment, I felt like glass she could see through.

  I bit my inner cheek, attempting to calm the coiling of my stomach. “No.”

  “You want the answers to the murders.”

  “Can you, like, um, see everything?”

  “My sisters and I see through all possibilities, all future, all pasts.”

  “Good memory,” I said.

  “We have tools to aid in our seeing.” Clotho smiled warmly at me. Despite my rudeness, she treated me with the patience of a good teacher. “I will give you some answers.”

  “Just some?” I asked. “Can’t you spill everything? Teach me how to fix this?”

  “There is no need for me to give you all the solutions, for there are greater forces at play. The rest, you have to find out on your own. The tra
vel through your own destiny is unenjoyable if you know exactly what happens.”

  “Gods.” I clicked my teeth. “They just want to make life hard.”

  Clotho chuckled. “Complexities are a joy to create. So, where shall I start?”

  Immediately, questions shot through my mind, and it was tempting to throw every one I could think of at her. Still, it was important to focus, so I asked the most pressing one. “The deaths. Why are they happening?”

  Clotho glanced at the lake. “She is angry.”

  “Who?”

  “The chiasma.”

  “The chiasma’s a female?” I asked. I couldn’t wrap my head around that thought. It looked like a giant-ass ball to me.

  “We call her the mother,” Clotho said. “She came before all things. Before the old gods. Before us. Before Helena. Do you notice the color of the chiasma?”

  “Uh, it’s black.” Not the most inviting color, even though there was a shine to it. “I’m not blind.”

  Clotho nodded. “Yes. But she was not like that before. The chiasma used to glow with an effervescent green. The color of life. But now, she wants death, and the goddesses are doing everything they can to appease her and stop her from ruining all life forms.”

  “What made her change?” I asked, still getting used to referring to the giant thing as a she.

  “She was stolen from,” Clotho said. “By your mother.”

  “Aphrodite?” She was the cause of all this?

  “And Ares.” Clotho sighed. As she did, a puff of misty smoke floated from her translucent lips. “To rule Haven and be together, Aphrodite and Ares tried to win the Vassal War by stealing a large portion of the chiasma’s energy for themselves. They hid that energy and went missing after, and relative peace fell over Haven once they were gone. We thought that chaos might end after their disappearance, but years later, the chiasma turned black and began demanding power back.”

  “Nobody knows where they are?” I asked. I’d thought getting the answers would help solve everything, but it only raised more questions, and the truth seemed farther away than before. “So, they’re not dead?”

  “They’ve been missing for centuries.”

  There was one thing worse than having no parents—having shitty parents. And apparently, I had the shittiest ones, considering they’d triggered the end of the world and all. Devon must have sensed my confusion and unease. He wrapped an arm around my waist and drew me closer to his hard body.

  Clotho released another breath of pretty smoke. “There is emptiness and rage coming from the chiasma. It wants the goddesses to abate its anger, although most of it is directed at Aphrodite. If we don’t give it the sacrifices it wants, the chiasma will destroy both worlds, Haven and Earth.”

  Talk about a bad temper.

  Clotho continued, “Initially, some goddesses selflessly sacrificed themselves to the chiasma. Goddesses are what the chiasma craves the most. But not all who drink from the lake turn into goddesses. In fact, very few do, and the lake has a limited number of people it will allow to drink from it every year.”

  “Wait,” I said, “don’t the top ten percent of the Sanctuary turn into goddesses?”

  Clotho shook her head. “That is how they increase the odds of finding a goddess. There are many at the top who are culled anyway.”

  Everything was a lie, then.

  I really was beginning to hate the council.

  “They realized that there were too few goddesses to sacrifice to the chiasma indefinitely,” Clotho said, “so they began opting for the next best thing. Half-bloods. They, too, have essences of the chiasma, although in much smaller quantities. Sacrifice enough half-bloods, however, and the essence returned is sufficient enough to make the chiasma happy.”

  “That’s horrible,” I said, growing cold.

  “It’s what keeps us alive.” Clotho looked up at the ceiling. “Rest assured, the goddesses are doing their best to solve this. We have to find Aphrodite and your father. They are the answer to all this.”

  “Is this why Agness hates me?” I asked. “Because of what my parents represent?” Death. Destruction. Rebellion.

  Clotho pursed her lips. “She is afraid of what you can be or will become. So am I. Your fate is blurred to me, and your past is hard to see. That makes you problematic to us sisters of fate. Perhaps your heritage holds too much power.”

  Devon’s grip around my waist tightened. I needed a drink. Maybe two. But the Sanctuary didn’t have alcohol, so I was fucked in that department.

  “And Moping Miley?” I asked. “Jeanine? Why are they dying prematurely?”

  Clotho paused. I saw thoughts running through her mind, as if she was wondering whether to divulge the next bit of information to me. “The chiasma is a living entity, and like all living entities, it has… tastes. Cravings.”

  I lifted a brow, trying to follow.

  Clotho delicately wrung her fingers together. “Some days you’d rather eat bread, I assume, and another day, you might crave fruits. Yes? The chiasma is the same way. We feed it as many souls as we can, but there are times when it longs for a particular one. We used to reject all its requests for goddesses. It needs the help of Hel, goddess of death, to harvest the souls effectively, and Hel refuses to use her powers on her sisters.”

  “So she uses it on little girls instead.” Revulsion thrummed through me.

  “The chiasma has given up on requesting goddesses, and so it turns to half-bloods. Miley and Jeanine were recently called for.”

  “Is there another in line?” I asked. With this knowledge, I realized that each passing day in the Sanctuary was a significant risk to our lives.

  Clotho nodded. She led us forward, toward the lake. I continued staring at the waters, wanting a taste of it to ascend. I saw the same hunger in the vassals’ eyes. They might have a narrower chance of ascending, but if Ares managed it, then why not them? Power was a tempting drug, and with it, maybe I could do more good.

  Clotho must have read my mind. As she walked us forward, she said, “Don’t even think about it, Caramel. I will not allow it. I have formed a pact with the goddesses to block those who haven’t proven themselves from the lake, and should you decide to act against my will, I will whisk you away before you receive all your answers.”

  I sighed. Of course it wouldn’t be that simple.

  She led us to a small corner of the lake. Across us, a small waterfall gushed. I saw tiny fishes with finlike wings jumping at the base of it.

  “You might not want to look at this image,” Clotho said. “I’m reconsidering revealing this matter to you. But your need to protect has impressed me, and perhaps you deserve a warning of what is to come. Displayed in the lake’s reflection is the image of the next victim.”

  “The next victim?” I asked, tensing. “Is it me?”

  “No,” Clotho responded. Stepping away, she allowed me to look into the lake. “This girl will not survive the morn. Hel will take her life tonight.”

  My stomach twisted as I took a careful step forward. I almost didn’t want to look, but curiosity got the better of me. I was merely a half-blood. How could I fight against the orb that ruled both worlds? Still, I had to look.

  I peered over the edge of the lake and saw the victim’s face.

  My breath caught in my throat.

  My lungs tightened.

  Sweat turned my palms clammy, and my ears rang. I didn’t want to accept it. Clotho was right. I shouldn’t have looked, and ignoring the horrid truth of one’s fate was better than having to live life knowing what I had to confront eventually.

  The image of the girl in the lake blinked back at me. She smiled in her typical cheery fashion.

  It was Danna.

  Panic burned through my mind. Danna? But Danna couldn’t die. She was amazing. Top of the class. She had dreams, aspirations, more cheering to do.

  “Are there ever any mistakes from the lake?” I asked, taking a step back.

  Clotho dipped her head sole
mnly. “The lake only speaks the truth. Great beings like the chiasma are careful with their decisions.”

  “Tell me how to save her.” I fisted my hands at my sides, red bleeding into the corners of my eyes.

  “There is no saving Danna.”

  “Of course there is.” I refused to accept that I was going to lose my best friend. “There’s always a way. That’s how the universe works.” Rage shot through me, coupled with the need to protect. My teeth grounded together. Love. I loved Danna, and I wasn’t going to let those I cared about die.

  “Cara,” Hansel said, “it’s all right. You don’t have to—”

  “Tell me how to save her!” My demand roared from my mouth. I’d never heard myself like that before. I’d always laughed through life, joking about the craziest of things. It was easier to be careless about my thoughts. If I didn’t care, it was more difficult to be hurt.

  “There is no way—”

  “Tell me!”

  I leapt at Clotho like a crazed animal, hooking my legs around her.

  And then I slapped her face.

  “Cara!”

  I didn’t care about who was calling for me. The noises around me blurred.

  I slapped Clotho repeatedly until my palms hurt and kept myself latched to her with my legs. Clotho struggled to pry me away from her. “Stop, stop!” she screamed. But my resolve was hard as steel, fueled by this unexplained strength I always knew I had in me. “All right, all right, Caramel!”

  “Danna cannot die,” I said, seething. “She cannot.”

  Clotho finally managed to rip me off her torso. With wispy magic, she pushed me away from her. When I looked up at the goddess again, she bore no more of the calm elegance she’d exuded moments ago. Her beautiful dress was ripped, some of the feathers torn out. I’d scratched her face, although the shallow wound I’d inflicted on her had already begun to heal.

  “You…” she said. “You are not supposed to be able to touch me. How?”

  My legs tensed as I prepared to jump at her again. “Touch? I’ll bitch-slap you harder than I just did if you don’t tell me how to save Danna right this instant.” My own voice was unrecognizable. Foreign inflections coated it with musical sounds I’d never used before. Emotions clouded reason, and already I grieved the loss of my friend.