I placed my palm on the wood to give my brain a few minutes to catch up. It was still back in the foyer, trying to pick up the pieces of the Ming Vase and Peony petals. Plus, those auras inside were powerful. Strong. Vibrant. Insistent. Phew. I waved my hand in front of my face to fan myself. The energy added a level to my inebriation that twisted my head inside.
But I didn’t run. I didn’t scream.
I could do this.
I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing.
My equilibrium tipped. Whoops. Don’t close your eyes. Don’t close your eyes.
I opened my eyes.
I was fine.
Dandy.
I leaned in close and listened. Raised voices.
Arguing as usual. Would they ever learn?
I almost knocked when I caught the mention of my name.
“I’m not going to tell you again. Leave Roo out of this. The fact that you’re considering it makes me think you’re hiding something.”
It was Cash. Aww. My hand covered my heart. He was sticking up for me. Wait. Why was he sticking up for me?
“I get your insinuation. Believe me, the last thing I am is beholden to Urser. His planet all but destroyed mine in their early conquest to rule the Empire. If it wasn’t for the queen’s marriage to his brother, our home would have been obliterated. Their marriage brokered a peace that affected the entire known galactic civilization. I’m also acutely aware that after the king died, Urser tried to sway his people to dissolve the peace deal. If it weren’t for the queen’s Earth experiment, war would have erupted between the territories for sure.”
A few murmurs of approval. I zeroed in on the direction of each voice and tried to pair it with an aura I recognized.
“Then why are you willing to cater to his demands?”
“He’s right, Thurstan, dove. You’re sounding suspiciously like a traitor.” Jacine.
“There’s no love lost between the queen and I. I’ve made that abundantly clear when she banished my father and I to this planet without a fair trial. I wouldn’t be saying this if I didn’t think we had another option.” Thurstan.
“No.” Cash’s growly voice again. “We won’t bow to Urser’s demands.”
“You’re just saying that because you’re in love with her. Take your emotions out of it, man.”
“You’re willing to risk the safety of every life on this planet for that?”
Who said that? It wasn’t Thurstan this time. I pressed my ear against the door, palm on the wood.
“It’s not that bad yet, and you know it.”
“Not that bad?” A pause. “Take a look. What more do you want?”
What were they looking at?
“Jacine, what has Marc said about all this? Why isn’t he here?”
“He said that as long as the Simons—sorry, dove. I mean the humans—as long as the humans aren’t being hurt then he’s got no right or reason to interfere. He’s still following his original orders the queen gave before she… well, you know.”
“Not being harmed?” Someone scoffed. The voice was deep and slightly accented. Maybe Zebedee. “What do you call the destruction of all the Luduses, including the civilian casualties? And the village in the Amazon?”
“Shh. Something is happening. Turn it up, Jed. That last screen.”
I frowned. Screens?
Slowly, another voice became louder. But this one was not attached to an aura. It sounded female and hollow, and … yes, it must have come from a television.
“…until demands are met, and their queen shows her face, then I’m afraid we’re all at risk. After the display of force that left our town hall reduced to rubble, we’re at a loss. With disaster unfolding around the world, we’re not sure what support this little country town will get from state authorities. The black-eyed beings are everywhere, but they seem to have settled until the deadline for demands. There’s one on every street corner—in the town, all up the main street of Margaret River…”
What? My hand dropped from the door and I stepped back, in shock, then I quickly leaned closer to the door to keep listening. There was more: “Hmm. Yes. Thank you Jessica. If you’re just tuning in, the truth is out there… we thought Witches were the darkest thing we had to face, but it appears our worst nightmares have come true. Every myth, every bedtime story you’ve heard is real. Gods are real. And they’re not here to—”
The door opened and I jumped back.
Suddenly, Cash’s handsomely rugged face was all I could see. “What are you doing here, Roo? Is everything okay?”
“Hey you.” A smile expanded my cheeks and I flared my eyes excitedly. “I found you.” I swayed, and I think I even hiccuped because my hand was suddenly covering my mouth.
“Are you … drunk?” he hissed, as though he were trying to hide his voice from the rest of the room. He scrunched up his nose as though my smell offended his delicate sensibilities.
“Who me?” I looked behind me.
“Yes. You.”
I stood frozen, eyes wide, trying to decide what to do. Then I shouldered my way into the room. “What’s going on here?”
Deep down, even in my intoxicated state, my internal alarm sounded. I knew they were hiding something from me. More than what I’d heard on the television. It was a feeling that didn’t sit right and I couldn’t focus long enough to determine if it was guilt, because I was royally screwing things up, or if it was a feeling of being snubbed. Or perhaps it was something far deeper that sang to my insecurities.
“No, don’t.” Cash tried to pull me back outside, but it was too late. I saw the television screens plastered over a back wall. I saw what was on them and the floor swayed under me.
Hastily, so no one noticed my discomfort, or inebriation, I swept a glance around the room. It was quite large. A massive oblong table was at the left end which had a map of the world laid flat. Pensive Watchers gathered around the map quite like a group of Nazis plotting in an underground bunker. Except, they weren’t staring nefariously at the map with little soldier statues on it, they were staring at me. Jacine, Cato and Thurstan with their perfect Botox faces, and Zebedee with his long priest-like robe. A few other nameless faces watched me. Some with scorn. Some with curiosity. Then I saw Jed, arms folded, a frown creasing his brow. He’d been on the phone. He said something to the group and they returned to their debate over the map.
The table Jed was at had a group of people taking phone calls and recording messages. I didn’t recognize any of these people. Workers. When you took it all in, the screens on the walls, the people discussing, the note taking… it was like a newsroom, or a first response ground-zero intelligence room for a disaster. My stomach kept churning because my body knew what my brain struggled to comprehend. Urser had come out of hiding. There was too much activity, at least eight screens, all showed a different news channel around the world. My eyes were a little blurry and I had to squint to focus. Some had reporters standing in front of different disasters. A fire. A building collapsed. A terrorist attack at a football stadium—people running everywhere. Then… I noticed a scene that I recognized—the one that matched the TV news presenter. Margaret River.
My heart pumped. Once. Twice.
I stepped closer to the wall of screens and focused.
A woman spoke into her microphone, but it was the text scrolling along the bottom that grabbed my attention.
Armageddon unless demands are met.
I whipped my gaze around to Cash so fast that I almost lost my balance.
“What the hell is happening?”
He pinched the bridge between his eyes, then met my eyes. “You’re not supposed to be here yet and you’re not in a state to see this.”
“What are you keeping from me?”
Cash picked up a remote and turned off the screens. One by one the video images winked out of existence.
Jacine stepped up, chin jutting out. “She deserves to know.”
“Know what?” I insisted with a cra
zy laugh lighting my eyes up. “Because it looks to me like Urser’s threatening to end the world. But that can’t be true. You’d tell me something that important, right?”
“Calm down. He’s not threatening the end of the world, he’s threatening the people in it.” Zebedee shot me a patronizing look and shifted a chair out from the planning table. “Sit down before you hurt yourself.”
While my face showed a frozen image of calm, inside I seethed. How dare he try to mansplain this to me. I knew we were in dire straits if Urser revealed our identities to the world.
I folded my arms and turned back to Cash. “What are the demands?”
“Nothing we can’t handle.”
“Urser wants your blood. Literally,” Thurstan blurted.
His father gave him a look of disdain, but it was nothing compared to the pure, lethal warning that bubbled behind the surface of Cash’s eyes.
“What?” Thurstan shrugged, unfazed. “She needed to know.”
“He wants my blood? I’m assuming for the gate I’m yet to see and we’re yet to take control of?” I asked.
“Correct,” Cash said on a sigh.
“And you all think I should give it to him? Fine. Sh-s…f—” I bit my lip to give myself a moment to concentrate on the words my drunk mouth was trying to form. Heat flushed my cheeks and I had a moment of deprecation. I shouldn’t have drunk the Ambrosia. I cleared my throat. “I’ll give it to him.”
“Roo,” Cash said. “He wants you as well.”
Power swelled in my body. My fingers sparked and, chagrinned, I had to drop my hands to my sides to avoid burning holes in my clothes. I mistakenly thought that part of me would be controlled once I converted. A tightness coiled in my stomach at the thought of my friends back home. Shit. Shit. Holy mother of… “Turn the screens back on. Show me.”
“No. You aren’t ready for this,” Cash said.
“Give it to me!” I snatched the remote from his hands and turned the screens back on. I walked up to each screen and soaked it up. I studied the unfolding doom. Darklings swarmed into streets, usually with a Seraphim or Nephilim guiding them. Humans were being pushed around, corralled into cordoned off areas like cattle. “Where is that? What are they doing to those people?”
“Nothing yet,” Cash said.
“You call that nothing?”
“Thus far, no human has been harmed. Urser is smart. He knows if he does, he’ll break the rules of the Game and trigger the wrath of the Empire,” Cato said grimly. “Only property has been destroyed at this point in time.”
My gaze locked on the screens again. There it was, in full color, the disaster Cash kept from me. Why? Was I really that weak, that stupid?
Take a look at yourself. You can’t even stand straight, came a bitter voice from deep in my mind. For a moment, I feared The Others were back but it was just me. Just my subconscious mocking me.
“Roo,” Cash said softly. “It’s a spectacle. He’s doing it on purpose.”
“I don’t think so. Look!” I waved at the wall of destruction. “It’s Margaret River. My home! How long have you been keeping this from me?”
Everybody avoided my eyes and no one said a word.
“Cash?” I urged. “How long?”
His jaw clenched, teeth ground. “He’s been trying to smoke you out since the Amazon.”
All the blood drained from my face. I waved at the blank screens. “And was it always like that?”
“He started with one country, then expanded. Margaret River happened earlier today.”
“I have to call Kitty.” I pulled my phone out of my jeans pocket and dialed. It was close to midnight here, which meant it should be mid-morning there. She’ll pick up. She had to.
No answer.
Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe, the room swayed and I bent over with my hands on my knees. My stomach rolled and I wished away the effects of the alcohol. “Oh God, oh God. We have to go there. We have to stop him. This is my fault. I’ll hand myself over!”
“You’re not thinking straight. This is all an elaborate show. He knows once he starts publicly harming humans that Marc—and any of us—can kill any of them without hesitation or repercussions,” Cash said, placing a hand on my shoulder and guiding me back up. “Giving yourself up would mean he’s got access to the other worlds. We can’t allow that.”
“He’s right,” Zebedee’s eyebrow arched condescendingly. “There’s more at stake here than one little country town.”
“Kitty is pregnant!” I put all of my emotion into those three words. A baby. A new, innnocent life coming into the world. My voice trembled. “I can’t let this suffering happen because of me.”
“Roo, you’re tired and drunk.” Cash tried to usher me out of the room. “Go to bed and sleep it off. We can talk about this in the morning.”
I couldn’t believe it. In front of everyone, he was saying these things to me, treating me like a naughty child. I surveyed the room. All those faces were looking at me with judgment. Scorn. Embarrassment. Disdain. I finally saw things clearly. They all thought I was useless.
“You lied to me!” I palmed Cash’s chest. The damned immovable mountain didn’t budge and that made my heart pump even faster.
“That’s not true. I didn’t lie to you.”
“You told me to stay in my room and focus on my therapy. You said everything was fine.”
“It is fine, we have it under control.”
The searing pain in the middle of my chest grew. “You don’t believe I’m capable of helping. You’re just like them.” I pointed at the others. “You think I’m a joke. A baby. I thought we were soulmates.” His earlier words of encouragement—Baby steps, Roo—had a different meaning. “You think I can’t handle Urser. You think I can’t even handle myself, well guess what, buddy!” I pointed at my neck. “It’s gone! I did it.”
“Stop overreacting, Roo.” Cash dipped his head to try and keep his words for my ears only. “You need to go to bed and sleep it off.”
“Stop saying that! I don’t need to sleep any-tfshing off.” I lost balance trying to swat him away.
He caught a whiff of my breath. “You drank our wine? The one we’re saving for the wedding? And… is that Ambrosia I smell on your breath?” Then his face truly twisted into something that made shame well from the deepest part of my heart.
Emotions slammed into me, and I couldn’t breathe. I had to get out of there.
He gripped my shoulder. “I know that look in your eye. Do I need to send Jed with you to make sure you go back to your room?”
I tried to yank out of his grip but couldn’t disengage. I had a vision of myself throwing a tantrum like a toddler trying to wrench free from his mother in a mall. The notion sent a wave of fury hurtling through me and I glared at Cash. “You think you can lock me up like a prisoner?”
He stared back with an unreadable expression.
“Let her go, dove,” Jacine said. “Where will she run to? She’s safe on the grounds.”
“Yes, let her go. She’s embarrassing herself. Let the grownups clean up her mess.”
“You shut your mouth.” Cash let go of me to turn the full force of his scorn at whoever spoke—Cato, Thurstan… who cared?
It was enough of a distraction that I ran.
Chapter 25
I ran through the castle, out and into the night. My eyes burned. I was a child among gods. A tempestuous, temper tantrum-throwing toddler. The overwhelming sense of failure crashed over me. I wasn’t this queen that led them all to peace. I never would be! Cash knew that. The look in his eyes when he found out I’d drunk our wine said everything. It was something I couldn’t hide from anymore. I didn’t know what was worse, Cash not following me, or the fact I was glad.
I crashed to a stop in the snow-covered courtyard, panting and breathing hard. The quiet, calming ambiance of the area was a stark contrast to my heavy breath and thumping heart. Running water poured from the mouth of a dolphin in a fountain at the center of th
e round gravel driveway. Someone had scraped snow from the floor, leaving the walkway to the garden clear. I knew I should be cold, but I was too drunk to care. I walked around the fountain, gulping in fresh night air. The cold stones beneath my feet cut, but the sensation gave me something to anchor to. The Ambrosia made me queasy and I needed that link, that tiny pulse of stabbing pain waking me up, taking my mind off what I’d left behind.
I kept walking, mindless of the stones until my feet landed on the soft, fluffy snow that separated the castle driveway from the forest. The sliver of pain slicing my feet turned into a torrent. Agony shot up my legs, through my bones and straight to my spine. I made a soundless scream, seized and collapsed, hands splayed in the soggy snow. Electricity ripped through me. What the hell was happening?
Nature.
Being cooped up inside the stone walls, I’d forgotten about its anguish. I may have mastered sensing auras of people, but not of the world. My muscles froze and locked. The sensation had been so strong, so sudden, that all I could do was breathe through it. But I didn’t fight it. I let it in because, unlike before, this time I recognized the pain. It matched what I felt deep inside my soul. We were sorrowful and used. Chewed up and spit out.
All those times I tried to help, to be a better person—to create a better world—ache twisted my heart—had I really been making a fool of myself?
My mind melded with the earth’s and I had trouble distinguishing our thoughts apart. Urser used me. Humans used me. Our whole life was to the beat of their drum. The Inquisitor had me running away from him, hiding my true nature and flinching every time I heard the flick of a cigarette lighter strike. People lit fires, burning me for fun. Then I met Cash and walked to his beat while he trained me. They said they loved me, tended to me, nurtured me, but now they pillage me, poison me. Sure, he helped me get away from Urser and control my powers, but he was always the one making decisions and the simple fact was, I was never in control.
Let the grownups clean her mess.
The Game of Gods Box Set Page 90
