Hand tingling, I looked at the gold letters tracing along my forearm.
Balance
Was that the book or Poseidon writing through to me? Gold was his color. Huh.
I woke on Sadie’s couch and scanned the room. If Glenna or Chelsea searched for the journal during the night, there was no evidence. Everything, including the straps of my pack and the position of the book I read yesterday were unmoved. Hmm. Okay.
My nose registered coffee’s siren’s song so I moved, pulling my light jacket from my backpack and wriggling toes into my flip-flops. Sadie hummed, long hair swinging as she moved, grabbing mugs, the sugar bowl, and a carton of half-and-half from the fridge.
“Good morning! You look rested, better than yesterday.”
“A ton better, Sadie. I’ve missed a lot of sleep this week.”
I held out my arm, and her eyebrows raised.
“New tat?”
“Brand new. Showed up this morning.”
She held out her hand and I passed my ring, watching her spin it between slim fingertips.
“The path forward solidified, Patra, and so far, you’ve made correct choices. One decision remains.”
“Leap of faith?”
“This must be genuine, formed by your choice. It’s not my place to reveal more.”
With a nod, I grabbed a coffee, slugged in the half-and-half and took a swallow.
“I’ll be in the courtyard.”
Sadie nodded as steps creaked upstairs. “We’ll join you in a moment.”
I settled into one of the big chairs with my cup and took stock. Every magical was against me; I needed alliances, so I had to trust. Sadie and I against the magical world wouldn’t fly. I must get to the line, and I couldn’t drive up and park. If I tried, I’d be dead before my toes touched the sand.
Wasn’t love the ultimate trust? To accomplish this, success relied on being… human? Granted, I had an impressive resume for homo sapiens’ fallibility. Y’all picked yourselves a winner.
Chelsea limped down the steps. Her hands and feet were swollen from the trauma but showed continued healing. Considering the crispy critter she arrived as, the change was remarkable. My arm tingling, I reached for her hand.
“You look amazing. Last night was scary as shit.”
“I’ve never seen our magical world like this. Down is up. They’re losing their damn minds.”
I blew out a sigh. Now or never, Patra.
“When a dark secret hits the light, people do weird things, Chelsea.”
“Secret? What do you know?”
“The Vapors aren’t evil warriors threatening the balance.”
She leaned back, new eyebrows knitting. “How so?”
“The journal’s entries explained what Zeus did, the true reason for the space between the worlds.”
“No, that’s not in there.”
“Not for magical eyes. That information was only for Keepers.”
“Hell, I’ve fought Vapors, Patra. I know what they are.”
My arm burned, and I looked down, stunned, then held my forearm toward her. “Read for yourself.”
Ezekial’s words flowed across my arm. Burning tickling is not a combo I recommend, but I worked on remaining still and drank coffee one-handed while she read, face sliding from knowing, to shock, then dread.
“They fabricated everything I believe?”
“Yes.”
“Lies? All of it?”
“Manipulation on a grand scale.”
“Dammit!”
“Your choice is what to do with this information,” I held her gaze, calm radiating. This was the right query. Not to ask for help, but to bring her to this fork so she could craft her next steps.
Chelsea leaned back, sliding down into her Adirondack chair and cradling her coffee. I took another swig, waiting.
“They’re gods. GODS. This is insanity, I can’t; that’s against the order of everything! How could this be? Such gross deception. Damn them! I’m so fucking angry.”
“Choose how to use that anger, Chelsea. I did.”
“What are you planning to do?”
I shook my head, a gentle no.
Glenna’s step on the porch broke the moment.
“What’s going on, you two?”
Ouch. I scrooched to the edge of my seat and stretched out my prickling forearm. She read and drank half her coffee before nodding.
“That gels with several observations of my own.”
“Why didn’t you mention it, Mama?”
“Because paths are unique. I received the information pertinent to me. You walk with me, but separate. Your choices must reflect your knowledge.”
“And heart,” I interrupted. “That’s the turning point.”
“Perhaps.”
I raised an eyebrow and Glenna held my gaze for a long beat before looking away.
“It’s hard to release old concepts of power,” she murmured. “They become a knowing.”
“If you’re fighting, I’m in,” Chelsea announced. “It’s a suicide mission, but what the hell. I’d rather be right and dead than trapped in misery’s construct for hundreds of years.”
“Good girl,” Glenna said. “You have me as well, Keeper.”
“And me,” Sadie called from the steps. “Although I may be a liability.”
“Remember, you saw yourself with me from the beginning, Sadie. There’s a reason.”
I rose, grabbing my cup. “I need to write a record. Thank you for making this stand with me.”
Chelsea’s face remained serene. Good.
I raised my mug. “To peace.”
“To peace.”
Chapter 29
We landed at Glenna’s, reeling with vertigo. With a grin, Glenna passed a potion vial to each of us.
“One sip should fix you up. Keep the rest in your pockets.”
Damn. Why didn’t I have this in my box of tricks? Nevermind, I knew the answer.
Chelsea’s fingers wiggled in a complicated spell. “That should mask your signatures.”
“Human?”
“Oh, you registered as something else, Keeper, and you always have. To find you was easy.”
Made sense, but ugh. In my next life, being a hermit, with no magical snooping, sounded perfect.
“The sun sets at 6:56 and the new rises at 7:13. That’s our window. Once the new rises, the magicals have an army,” Chelsea continued. “But, when the line releases, we will too.”
“Will we? I can’t say that,” my voice was firm. “We unleash peace. If we assume they’ll choose war, that might be a stretch.”
“Then we’re dead,” Chelsea snapped back, “The Vapors must stand with us.”
“No, this is about having faith we’re doing the right thing, Chelsea; expectations and demands aren’t realistic.”
She flushed, angered, and I touched her arm. “It’s okay to change your mind and not help us, but please don’t betray us.”
“No, I’m in.” Her shoulders squared.
“It’s 6:54,” Glenna called. “Are we ready?”
In the small of my back, the journal rode between my jean’s waistband and my skin. The vials of puke-away and blood nestled in my front pockets. “I’m ready.”
“Ready,” echoed Sadie.
Chelsea gripped me, and Glenna reached for Sadie. In the quiet, the last of our seconds ticked.
Snap.
We landed without a sound on the roof of The Boogey. Sadie and I cowered, slugging vertigo potion. It’s 6:55. My recovered side-eye to Chelsea netted a shrug.
“I thought this was the one spot they wouldn’t cover. It looks like I was right.”
We’re on top of the line. Magical power covered the beach, many packed into The Boogey below. The sheer number of signatures surrounding us crushed into my skin, and I was losing myself, rocking on all fours. Within my chest, a low keening sound whined, and I struggled for air. Sadie sat next to me and wrapped her arms around my upper body, breathing with
slow intention.
“Mimic my air, Patra. Breathe with me.”
I sat back on my heels, slowed in her embrace, feeling the love of an old friendship push the magic off my heart and release the pressure.
Two pelicans dived, crash landing onto the roof, and stretching their necks forward, hissing.
“Pook, Bingo, you’ve been lied to! Please listen.”
“She’s telling the truth,” Chelsea leaned in, voice low. “If you’re foolish enough to sound the alarm, we all die, leaving the balance forever altered.”
The two exchanged a glance and scrambled for the roof’s edge, wings flapping.
“No!” I hissed.
Glenna’s spell hit them square on the tail feathers. Pook flopped left, and Bingo fell on his right side. Glenna snapped another spell and the two birds floated to her.
“Nighty night.” She tapped each head, and their eyes closed.
“I can’t believe they’d rat me out.”
“I told you, Keeper, every one of them believes you’ve betrayed them,” Chelsea muttered. “You have no friends here.”
7:00
The western hues of the setting sun back lit the parking lot, but the four of us hunkered, eyeing the greenish low light on the eastern horizon. A new moon cast no light, but the tinge was a call to the Magicals. Soon the sea, boiling with crosshatched waves and mini rip currents, would disgorge thousands. The waves twisted, and I saw the merpeople teeming. Ready, no doubt, to avenge their dead maid.
They believed her murder was at the hand of a Vapor. Every single merperson would cut me dead without a thought. In comparison, it’d be the quicker death. I sucked in air and eyed Chelsea.
“Stay low. They can’t leave the sea, not yet.”
7:03
The scrabble of claws grabbed my gut. Wolf or bear? Does it matter? Chelsea and Glenna placed themselves between Sadie and me and the ladder to the roof.
Spells flew, dropping the wolves and bears before they got their heads over the edge of the roof. With a tap to her lips, Glenna bellowed in a deep, menacing voice. “This is our spot, begone!”
Slobbery roars greeted her warning. Minutes ticked to the ascending sounds of claws and teeth as spells rained in tandem fire.
7:07
Sadie wept, every human instinct to flee this furry assault on high alert, and I hugged her. “They will protect us. Be brave, Sadie.”
She wiped her face on her tee shirt and tapped her big watch.
7:09
Another fur ball flew off the ladder. Crouched and ready, Chelsea’s eyes turned toward me.
“Now, Keeper!” Her cry rose above the raging wind.
Against my backbone the journal hummed. Gold letters etched the skin on my forearm, copying the entry I made for this moment. It’s 7:10. Time to live or die.
Knees on the shingles, I got a foot under me and held out my burning arm, ready to speak. The wind roared, beating me in a test of will. Sucking air, I rose, shouting with everything I had, projecting over the relentless sound of the sea.
“I, Cleopatra, Keeper of the sacred boundary that marks the space between human and magical worlds, in the dark of a new beginning, release the line.”
The script on my arm faded. I stared at the others, perplexed, then shrugged.
“That’s it?” Chelsea’s face was interesting.
“I expected more flash,” Glenna agreed. “Whatever comes next is for you three. One of each. I will hold the roof.”
“Mama?”
“I know I’m right, daughter. Do what you must.”
Sadie’s head swiveled in the darkness. “Ferocity is everywhere. Something is not happy.”
A grey mist rose, surrounding The Boogey and whirling in a clockwise and counterclockwise motion, a giant twelfth tides, tightening around the three of us. On instinct, I grabbed Chelsea’s and Sadie’s hands just before a force snatched us forty feet into the sky, the swirling mists continuing to surround us. Sadie looked at the beach, hair whipping in long ropes, then wide-eyed at me. Her interlaced grip on my hand was iron.
Lighting cracked across the heavens. Ozone filled my mouth with metallic fury. Zeus. Was. Pissed.
The next bolt, a death knell, shot into the arms of the mist.
Why was I not dead? A sense of blinding light burned the hair on my arms as the roar pressed into my skin; god rage ripped the atmosphere, a slicing bloodlust.
“Keeper!” Zeus’s wrath shook our dangling bodies as the mists floated me forward to face him, still gripping Sadie and Chelsea. “You released the line and committed many to death. In this choice, you endangered the magical and human worlds and forsook the sacred space between. A wretched, torturous, unending dying is your fate.”
A roar rose from the willing beach.
It was? Well, then. Guess this wasn’t the time for reticence. “Stop drinking your own kool-aid! You created this entire narrative to hide the fact you broke your bargain!”
“Silence!”
“I won’t be quiet in the face of your monstrosity! Zeus, you made a deal with the Vapors to create harmony between the magical and the human worlds, promising their freedom for establishing this peace. The Vapors delivered, but when they returned, it was you who fractured the trust and confined them. To hide this betrayal, you created a story of a warmongering, formless enemy, and marketed the hell out of your tale, intent on fooling the magical world.”
Blue jagged lightning hurtled toward my heart, passing through the surrounding protective mist without harm.
“You imprisoned Peace, our third equal partner,” I spat as I hung, suspended in the sky before his ginormous enraged face. “And, did it to profit by manipulating magicals and abusing humans, sidetracking each from their purpose. Humans are here to create, find, and manifest love. Magicals are bound to thrive, push limits and build knowledge. Your corruption of the muse, the curators of art and beauty, into warped jailers and executioners destroyed them for your silly vanity, and that is just one example. Shifters lead vapid lives without direction, witches rely on the wits of their covens to interact with learning instead of a robust learning from all worlds, and much, much more. You’ve damaged everyone.”
Below, the beach teemed, radiating anger.
Zeus’s enraged roar accompanied a hundred sizzling bolts into the sea, adding the shrieking of emerging merpeople to the maelstrom.
“Chaos reigns because you cheated on a bargain and refused to admit it. Millions suffered because your pride was more important. The chance for hundreds of years of peaceful coexistence wasted… that’s on your shoulders. You are omnipotent, carry on as you please. But, your shallow and petty behavior grows clear to our worlds.”
I inhaled hard and screamed, “Your time of respect is behind you.”
Zeus’s roar pinned my ears back. I was hitting sore spots. Good.
“Bellow away, God of Thunder. But, fix this! Accept truth and free the Vapors forever, within the gaze of the Universe. I freed them from the space, but only into a potential war that serves no one, not even you. We petition you, a Human, a Magical, and me, entertwined with a Vapor, to listen.”
The roar stopped. Huge blue eyes, lightning snapping in their depths, stared at me.
“Please, Zeus. Only you can lead the three bodies of love, wisdom, and peace from the cusp of war into a better time of prosperity and purpose. I released the line to help you, not to hurt the world.”
The Vapor mists swarmed between us and the god. My hands remained locked with Chelsea and Sadie, face wide-eyed and freaked out, but damned if she wasn’t holding her own.
Then, the mist parted. Below, on the dark beach, the faint outline of thousands of upturned magical faces glowed in Zeus’s light.
Could they hear me? Was our history shared, truth given to all?
“The Vapors have their freedom.” His voice rumbled across the sky.
Freed, the mist swirled in joy, then dissipated. A blinding bolt cracked through the night and whatever god-for
ce held us, vanished. Air whistled as we fell, separating in the increasing speed, and hurtling toward the beach.
A foot from annihilation, Chelsea’s fingers touched hair, and she pulled Sadie from death with a snap.
My body plowed into the beach, tumbling in a broken, flopping finale.
Chapter 30
I lay, one eye staring at the surf, overwhelmed with exhaustion and pain. The scream of a thousand disconnected nerves sang in my skin. Each roar of the waves dragged my brain, one slow roll chasing another, into next. Just for a moment. Eyelid heavier with each wave, I drifted away.
It’s beautiful here, the sea an incredible blue, punctuated by stacks of white buildings clinging to the sides of the mountains that wound down to the bustling, teeming sea. Fishing vessels dotted the protected bay, a riotous palette of color and industry.
Greece. This place is Greece.
My bare feet stepped along the paths and stairs, and I watched my toes grip and release the stones, seeking the level where the sea lapped the land, the eternal kiss of the moon. Along the dock, I reached an empty section of worn boards, away from the bustle of the boats and sat, swinging my legs. Bubbles dotted the water below and a young girl, perhaps nine, broke the surface.
“Hello.”
“Hi,” I smiled at her impish face. “You are an excellent swimmer.”
“Yes,” There was no guile or gloating. She bobbed to a piling and gripped the boards that formed a crude ladder, climbing with quick agility to the dock. Her bikini was light blue, she seemed of sea and sky.
“What’s your name?” Her little salty butt plunked down next to mine and she grinned, shaking out waist length blonde hair, darkened from the soaking in the ocean.
“I’m Patra. My full name is Cleopatra, but that’s such a famous name I don’t use it much. What’s your name?”
“Aegeus.”
“Like this sea?” I waved at the bay.
“Yes. This is my home, and I love her.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Aegeus.”
“Oh, I’m happy to finally meet you, too.”
Finally?
“Where are your parents?”
Giggles filled the air, and I’m surrounded by a love mojo of a different sort. “Oh, they are never far,” the supreme confidence of nine leaked through. “Do you swim?”
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