The Ascended: The Eight Wings Collection

by Akeroyd, Serena

  Trude’s words had Lars twisting around to face her. “A future without magic is a future I can handle,” he murmured calmly, then he cut us all a look. “You may stay as long as you need, but I have a feeling I’m not needed here now and my wife will be worrying.”

  “All is well, Lars,” Linford stated. “We’ll be leaving shortly. Won’t we, Riel?”

  Before Lars left the room, he tucked the stone into Seph’s limp hand, but even as I noticed that, I heard the tone of command in Linford’s words and stiffened at it on my mate’s behalf. “You have no say in what we do or which direction we take,” I snapped.

  “If anything, consider yourself nothing more than the damn driver to get us where we need to go,” Dan spat, distaste crossing his face as he eyed the older man. “You betrayed your granddaughter. You don’t get to issue commands.”

  “Betrayal is a harsh word for someone who has acted his role in Gaia’s play,” Trude chided.

  “Then loyalty isn’t something Gaia understands,” Riel rasped. “I’ve been fed lies since I was a child. My mother too. Guidance isn’t a dirty word.” She squeezed Daniel for a second before, sucking in a sharp breath, she forced herself upright. Licking her lips, she shot us a shaky smile then murmured, “It’s your time to act before the noise returns.”

  Daniel’s hands hesitated in front of her as he sought to reassure himself that she could stay upright without his help. “How bad is it, love? I mean—” He winced. “What if this doesn’t work?”

  As Trude murmured confidently, “It will,” Riel’s whisper was pained as she explained, “It’s a buzzing in my head. Like a thousand voices—”

  “Gaia’s voice cannot be heard without crushing the mind of any who are blessed enough to be spoken to.”

  I shot a dismissive glance at Trude. “Some blessing.”

  “She speaks a tongue we cannot translate. That is why she sends us images, visions.”

  Riel rubbed her temple. “Let’s get this over with, guys. The second Gaia leaves me alone, the better.”

  I couldn’t argue with that.

  Dan and I moved over to Seph, who was clutching the stone as though the relatively small rock was too heavy for him to handle. Whatever Trude was doing to him was decimating his strength, and that was no mean feat with a young Fae male. The second she was dead and Seph was back at full working order wouldn’t come soon enough.

  I cringed as I watched Seph try and fail to raise his hand, Dan grabbed it, then eying me with concern for our brother, whose eyes were closed and his skin gleaming with sweat, he tugged the stone into his clasp and turned his focus onto the stone. Already, his bizarre magic was at work. Four veins ran throughout the silver rock, each one glowing a vibrant red that would leave its mark on my eyes like it would if I’d been looking up into the sun itself.

  With those four lines glowing, merging until they sectioned the stone into four, I reached forward and pressed my finger to the shiny metal too. Within seconds, the light disappeared, and a cracking sound filled the room. Those four veins ceased to exist, as did the material they’d used as a conduit, and the ore was sliced into four, each surface cross-sectioned as though a laser had cut through it.

  Dan eyed the four chunks on his palm and murmured, “Phase one is complete.”

  “Seven more to go?” I volleyed at him.

  “Minimum,” he muttered gruffly.

  We turned to Trude. “What now?” I asked, my voice low, angry.

  “Now you must visit the other first families, and once you have those pieces, you must go to the places I detailed. The deepest part of the Amazon, the center of Suswa’s crater, the summit of Everest, and to the mouth of Heklugjá.

  “Once there, Riel, you must call on the corresponding element, and since they do your bidding, they will take the ore from you and your work will be done.” She released a tired sigh. “As is mine now. My task is complete, you are aware of what you must do, and I can return your Virgo to you. Go with Gaia, Riel, and she will not fail you.”

  I eyed the old woman warily, but it was too late. Her face grew slack, the deepest of crevices once more etched onto her skin, and just as Seph was gasping like he’d just been given CPR after almost drowning, she took her final breath.

  Within seconds, her body began to dry out, turning into a husk of its former self, and, in the blink of an eye, what had once been a woman was suddenly nothing more than dust.

  “That isn’t something you see every day,” Seph rasped, reaching up to scrub at his sweaty forehead.

  His words had Riel scurrying over to him. When they hugged, they both sighed, but their tension didn’t dissipate.

  How could it?

  Our work had barely begun.

  Thirteen

  Riel

  “You’ve ignored me all day, Riel, don’t you think it’s time you cut me some slack?”

  Twisting around and almost getting swatted in the face by a leafy stalk, I sent my grandmother a look and sneered at her. “The only reason I didn’t leave you behind is because Linford refused to travel without you. You lied to me. You’ve been lying to me all my life, and I don’t need that or you anywhere near me.”

  Before we’d even left Lars’ homestead, my Virgo had collected the Air stone from her. A sacrifice she’d made without uttering a peep of protest because she was so fucking giving all of a sudden. But as for me? I’d felt bitterness spread through me like poison as I’d watched. Seph had still been shaky on his feet thanks to a treachery she’d taken part in, and when I thought about how I’d almost lost him? Even now, hours later, I was unwilling to say anymore to her. She’d betrayed me. She’d thought more for Gaia’s plan than her own granddaughter’s welfare and sanity, and that was all I could see and hear and think where she was concerned.

  Turning my back on her, I sighed with relief when I saw a ranch-style house in the distance. We’d been walking through the corn fields for what felt like a lifetime, but then, this day had felt like one too. The sun beat down relentlessly on our heads, and the stalks of corn were irritating as fuck. They tickled and scratched simultaneously as we forged a path ahead of us, and the tight confines were enough to make anyone claustrophobic.

  As much as I sniped at my grandmother, I had to admit, without her, today would have been inordinately longer. Lars had registered who she was and what her presence and ours meant for him, and the previous head, the witch of the earth element, had granted us his powers with little fuss too.

  While Lars had only owned a small homestead, the earth family had been in charge of a rice paddy forty minutes outside of Bangkok, and here, in what Linford assured me was a province called Mpumalanga in South Africa, we were in a massive maize field.

  More than anything, I was hot, tired, and horny. Never the best combination at a good time, so to say that my temper was being stretched was an understatement. I felt like a tightrope that was on the verge of snapping in two.

  Seph had, thankfully, returned to normal, which eased the strain I was under somewhat, but he was definitely feeling the pinch of whatever the Sol Trude had done to him—his skin was pale and if I studied his fatigued features, looked deeply into his eyes, something he didn’t allow too often without glancing away, I felt certain he was faintly feverish.

  I felt like we were all keeping things contained as best as we could, and because I felt sure my men were hot, tired, and horny too, our best wasn’t that far a stretch.

  When I really thought about it, I could feel their cocks sliding into me. My pussy ached for them, and my mouth? I practically began drooling if I eyed them up for too long.

  Even now, just thinking about it, I broke out into a sweat that had nothing to do with the already simmering temperatures out here.

  The door to the homestead opened, breaking into my needy thoughts, and a woman stepped out in a kaftan that drifted down to black feet, which peeped out from under the hem, revealing a neon pink nail polish that I wanted to know the name of. She had a bouncy afro, a face
like Beyoncé, and a figure that would make any man drool. But her eyes were watchful. They contradicted her fun and relaxed outfit, as well as her stance—she was leaning against the doorjamb, waiting for us to trek over to her.

  “I felt the shift,” she remarked as a greeting. “Only one left to go. Should I be offended you kept me until last, old friend?”

  Gabriella snorted. “Less of the old, Casima.”

  “You’ve certainly had a makeover, Gabriella.” She eyed her up and down. “The last time I saw you, I didn’t think you had long for this realm, but of course, having the Redeemer for a grandchild comes with perks.” She tipped her head to the side. “It is time, I assume?”

  My grandmother sighed. “The time we’ve all been waiting for.”

  Casima pursed her lips. “Some more than others.”

  “You don’t approve?” Seph interrogated, leaping onto the topic with both hands. I understood why as well—everyone was so fucking happy to serve Gaia. It was irritating.

  “She doesn’t approve of the aftermath. Casima, Gaia love her, can be a selfish beast when she wants to be,” Gabriella said wryly.

  Dan sniffed. “Takes one to know one.”

  Casima smiled and pointed at Dan. “This one, I like.” She beckoned us forward. “I prefer to do this inside. I don’t want to perish in front of my staff. Bad for morale, you know?”

  “There’s no perishing,” I murmured uneasily, staring around the entryway to take in a very nice open-planned house. It wasn’t what I’d expected. I’d thought it would be bright and colorful with comfortable furnishings—her kaftan said a lot, after all. Except it was anything but. There were pieces of furniture that belonged on a spaceship, and the only thing that was halfway decent was the navy on the walls, because it made things naturally cooler in here thanks to the darkness it brought with it.

  “No? That’s a relief,” Casima said dryly. “Then I’m sure there’ll be some other payment. Gaia always gets her own way and it’s never totally painless.”

  Considering she was the first witch we’d approached to ever speak negatively about Gaia, I’d admit to liking Casima more and more.

  Before I could say a word, my abuela murmured, “Your magic is taken. As we suspected.”

  Casima rolled her eyes. “Well, living without it won’t be fun, but at least I’ll be alive.”

  That had been the attitude of Chaow, the Thai earth head too.

  It came as a surprise, honestly. These people were powerful enough to reap change on a global scale with their sacrifice, with their offering. Yet they’d live without it just to carry on walking this Earth.

  Maybe that part shouldn’t have come as a surprise—death was death, after all. But magic was integral to these people. Even my mother, who did without, wouldn’t be parted from it completely. That was why she’d kept the Gaian candlestick on her mantel. She’d done away with tradition by not having a Sol salutation on the wall, but the Gaian candelabra was both a connection to her magic as well as an heirloom.

  There were people who’d prefer to lose an arm than lose their magic, just as there was, I felt sure, someone out there who’d rather die than live without it.

  I guessed we should be grateful that we’d encountered only the former during our trek across the globe and not the latter.

  The proceedings took place quickly. There was little to be done, after all. Casima created a ball of fire that reminded me of the flame emoji, except it had a ball as a base and the spitting tongue of the fire leaped two to three feet high. Parts of her afro were caught in the blaze, but instead of sizzling and catching afire, if anything, it made the black strands of thick hair glow with heat and then gleam like silk as though her fire had conditioned it.

  “Who first?” Casima inquired casually, surprising me with both her candor and her lack of fear. Chaow had been a little more hesitant, and Lars had shown the most discontent, but Casima appeared bored. Like she had things to do and we were interrupting.

  Seph cleared his throat as he stepped deeper into the foyer. There was a large square rug in the center. It was made of a kind of straw that squeaked slightly beneath his feet. In the center, there was a large vase filled with dried stalks. The type of stuff you found in a fancy decor store, but never knew where the original flowers came from.

  “It hurts a little,” Seph mumbled, his eyes on Casima’s.

  “The good stuff always does, honey.” She winked at him, and despite the tension coming off of Seph, I had to stifle a laugh.

  Seph’s smile was more of a grimace, but he raised his hand and pressed a finger to the fire. This was the only one that could have potentially injured him. Wasn’t like you could get a blister or burn your finger from earth, was it? But he didn’t even wince as his finger connected with the flame, and as he did, Casima hissed out a long, low breath, and murmured, “You weren’t wrong about the pain.”

  I bit my lip, hoping she wasn’t suffering too much as her inner fire was extinguished and replaced with a chunk of silvery ore that had my other Virgo mates traipsing over to do the deed.

  With Casima’s fire collected, that was it. Done. Before we’d left Lars’, we’d harvested the wind from my grandmother, so we were technically ready for me to do my part.

  Whatever that bit entailed.

  It was all well and good being told to ‘bloat’ a fucking river, but how exactly did one go about doing that?

  Each of my Virgo carried the individual pieces of ore, and I had my grandmother’s in my pockets. The four pieces of rubble felt at home there, touching me, and that was undoubtedly because they were my element. I would, in time, become the head of the first family, after all.

  Maybe I already was, considering my mother appeared to have no interest in magic.

  “What are you going to do now?” Casima asked, her voice husky with discomfort as she eyed the ore. Her fingers rubbed against her palms, almost as though she was feeling the loss of her magic like a physical ache.

  “We have a quest,” I murmured softly, naming the challenge ahead of us in the only way I saw fit.

  Somehow, we had to achieve a miracle without a fucking clue how to do it…

  To be fair, it sounded about right with the shit show my life was turning into.

  “A quest? What type of quest?”

  Gabriella raised a hand. “The Redeemer must earn her stars.”

  My mouth tightened at that and, ignoring my grandmother, I turned to Linford and said, “Time to begin?”

  He dipped his chin. “I’d say it was a pleasure as always, Casima, but—”

  She smiled. “I know what you mean, Linford.”

  How well did the first families know one another? Casima was another who was on first name terms with not only my grandmother but my grandfather too! Lars was the new head of his line thanks to his father’s recent passing, but I had a feeling his dad and my abuela would have been friends. In time, maybe Lars would have come to know Gabriella too, if it hadn’t been for the fulfilling of his duty. Maybe, in time—depending on how long my grandmother lived after my magical plastic surgery, that is—I’d come to know his son, for he’d be the next head. It was something to ponder, something to hold on to in an everchanging future.

  “Do you mind if we travel from here?”

  “Of course not.” She hesitated. “Shall I leave?”

  “Might be for the best,” he told her kindly.

  She nodded, then stepped over to me. Reaching for my hand, I felt her soft palms and the callused tips of her fingers. “Go with Gaia, Redeemer. I’ve never known what you were supposed to do, and I doubt any of us were totally sure, but I know that my sacrifice won’t be in vain.”

  I stared deeply into her eyes and lied, “I’ll make certain of that.”

  Of course, I wanted to be certain, but how could I be? I had no idea what we were going to do. Trude had lived a half-life for centuries to pass on what was essentially a verbal treasure map. But Casima had just drained her magic for us to use,
so I couldn’t, wouldn’t, throw it in her face.

  Squeezing her fingers, I murmured, “My thanks.”

  Her smile was shaky in the aftermath of being purged, but she cast us all a look before retreating out of the foyer and going somewhere else in the house.

  “Seems a bit rude to toss her out of her own hallway,” Dan muttered, making my lips twitch.

  “Better that than the workers see us disappear. No one understands my gift. I’d prefer not to be stoned to death before I can fulfill my role.”

  The idea that, a hundred years ago, Linford was granted this ability just so that he could chauffeur us around the planet with ease put me on edge, but I said nothing, just turned and waited for him to take us to the first step of our quest.

  The Amazon.

  “How do you know where to take us? All you have is a place name—” And hadn’t sharing Trude’s vision with my grandparents been fun! “—that’s hardly enough, surely?” Matthew questioned, his tone harsh now that Casima was gone.

  My distrust for both my grandparents had spread to my Virgo. Who could blame them? They weren’t on our team, if anything, they were on the Redeemer’s team, and though I was she, I wasn’t. Not really. Sure, it might be a title that was being forced upon me, but the key word there was forced.

  “I’m going to will myself to each location, and the Goddess will guide me to where we need to be.”

  More kismet.

  I was getting really sick of the stuff.

  Sighing, I closed my eyes, and the second I opened them again, gone were the minimalist lines of Casima’s room. Gone was the rug, the artful floral display, and the simple paintings that were visible in the lounge. In their stead was a sea of trees, loam, and a bright jade green river. The noise was immense. The tide wasn’t, if rivers even had tides—sue me, I was a girl from Tampa and geography hadn’t been my strong suit at school—but the sheer mass of water created a counterpoint that was, truth be told, anything but restful.

  “Where are we?” Daniel questioned, eyes alight with interest as he peered around our new location.