Hera, Queen of Gods (Goddess Unbound)

by Thomas, T. D.

  Beth drew a line with the knife on the palm of her left hand. Blood began to well up. With her right hand, she began to draw symbols in blood on the door of the closet. Her fingers trembled. Her vision flicked constantly from the door to the book and back again.

  My skin crawled.

  I couldn’t read the symbols. The language wasn’t meant for gods. It was speaking to something else, something deeper, something more primal. But I could still feel the power. Even through a memory, those symbols sang and screamed to me.

  Beth closed the book and pushed it aside. Then she lay down to stare under the door.

  I saw Stella. She was chanting and gesturing frantically at the closet. Her head whirled toward the door just as it burst open.

  I couldn’t see what had come through. It was just a blur. Something was wrong. More magick--but not from the witches this time. Our enemy’s magick.

  Stella backed up until she was pressed against the closet. She was trying to shield it with her body, but it was no use. The blur snatched her from the door.

  There were sprays, then fountains of blood. It splashed across the floor and flooded under the door. Beth jerked away.

  Stella dropped to the floor, her head bouncing on the ground. She turned toward Beth in the closet. A single tear fell from her eye. She smiled.

  And then she was gone.

  The closet door shook with incredible force. Beth threw herself backward. She grabbed Sarah and cradled her.

  The closet door shook again.

  It should’ve shattered with the force of the blow, but it didn’t. Instead, it bent and rippled like it was made of rubber. But something far stronger than rubber or wood or even steel was holding the door together. Nothing was getting through that door. Nothing.

  But the door kept shaking.

  Beth’s vision was almost always blurry now. She opened the book again. Her fingers traced over the words. She began to rock.

  “Enough!” Justin shouted.

  When I looked at him, crimson was pouring into his eyes.

  The memory shattered. Beth vanished. Justin and I were alone in the Dreamlands.

  The yard began to fade, replaced by something far bleaker. We stood atop an incredibly tall, rocky spire in the middle of an endless black sea. Waves, the size of buildings, crashed against the spire, spilling water over our feet.

  “Justin, what’s going on?” I demanded. I tried my best to sound calm. I failed.

  “Stella’s dead!” he shouted, his voice thick with emotion. As I watched, the crimson devoured his eyes. There was almost no brown left.

  The waves around us seemed to smash with even greater force against the spire. I felt the ground shake. I almost fell.

  “Yes, she’s dead,” I said quietly.

  “Do you even care?” he yelled. I thought he might shake me.

  “Of course I care,” I snapped, “but this isn’t helping.”

  I gestured around us. Above us, thunder clouds were forming. I didn’t want to be here when that ugly storm broke.

  Justin glared at me, torn between grief and rage, a feeling I knew all too well. It was the anger that gave me hope. I could work with anger.

  “Something came for Stella and Sarah,” I said, “and it killed Stella. But Beth and Sarah are still alive. We can save them.”

  “You don’t know that,” he raged.

  “Yes, I do,” I said. “There was a protection spell on the closet. The strongest I’ve ever seen. They’re alive. But they won’t be for long if we don’t go help them.”

  Justin sank down to the ground, and I knelt beside him. “Why is this all happening?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “But we can stop this. Bring us back to the real world. We’ll save them. We’ll save your world.”

  The storm clouds began to thunder. Then the rain came. Curtains of water so heavy, we were drenched in a second.

  “We’ll find Apollo and Artemis,” I continued. “They must’ve figured out our enemy was going after Stella and Sarah, and left to save them.”

  I hoped fiercely that their keen instincts hadn’t cost them their lives.

  Lightning streaked across the sky in an almost constant blaze of glory. Several bolts struck the sea, inches from where we stood on the spire. We needed to leave. Now.

  “We will avenge Stella,” I promised.

  Justin smiled.

  I shuddered. I recognized that smile. I’d invented it. It was the smile of revenge.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  “So you didn’t see what it was?” Hermes pressed. All the blood had drained from his face when I told him about Beth’s memory.

  Demeter was crying. It seemed like she’d cried more in the past few weeks than in all her life before that. At least one of us could give in to the grief.

  I shook my head as I watched the scenery pass by. We were barreling down the highway in Beth’s van. Justin drove like a maniac, weaving in and out of traffic, honking his horn.

  “Stella sensed what was coming,” he said through gritted teeth, swerving wildly as he spoke. “I remember she closed her eyes and said something.”

  “She sensed the magick around it,” Demeter said.

  “Sloppy,” Hermes remarked. “There are ways to mask magick, at least if you’re any good at it. Sounds like amateur hour to me. Someone new to magick.”

  “Using the Fates to cast their spells,” I added. “Because they wouldn’t have the power otherwise.”

  “A mortal,” Demeter finished.

  “A mortal,” I agreed.

  I hadn’t wanted to believe it was impossible, but I couldn’t argue with the evidence. No monster would be so inept, not when it'd already managed something as complex and difficult as kidnapping and hiding the Fates.

  “Good,” Justin growled. “Mortals can die.”

  “This isn’t an ordinary mortal,” Demeter argued. “This mortal’s smart enough to spy on us with magick. He knows just what to summon to take advantage of our weaknesses. He knew about the Fates and how to capture them. It’s like he knows everything.”

  “So this mortal’s getting a little inside help,” Hermes said. “From a god.”

  “A traitor,” I murmured.

  I couldn’t deny it any longer, even though it broke my heart.

  “A traitor willing to kill other gods and threaten the balance between Order and Chaos,” I continued.

  I’d been so blind. But there was no denying it now. We’d been betrayed. All of us.

  “If this reaches the Heavens, it’ll be anarchy,” I warned. “The others would lose all trust in each other. There could be all-out war. Who’d be stupid enough to risk that?”

  No one said anything.

  “How are we going to fight a god?” Justin asked.

  “We can’t,” Hermes said. “But luckily, we don’t have to. Whoever the traitor is, they can’t do anything to us from the Heavens. The cloud blocking this town from the Heavens protects his mortal buddy from the other gods, but it also protects us from him.”

  “And if he does try to do anything, the other gods in the Heavens will know,” Demeter added.

  “Which is why he’s using a mortal pet to do his dirty work,” I said.

  “At least we can fight mortals,” Hermes replied. “They can’t be everywhere and they can’t know everything. They have limits.”

  “But if a god is behind this, it changes everything,” Demeter pointed out. “We thought a mortal took the Fates to gain power, but why would a god take the Fates? How much more power does a god need?”

  Goosebumps rippled along my skin. A mortal with the power of the Fates was chaos. A god with that power?

  “He wants to remake the worlds,” I realized suddenly. The thought struck me out of nowhere.

  “What do you mean?” Demeter asked.

  “Of course,” I said, talking more to myself than to the others. “I should’ve seen it before. Think about it. Anyone can rule the worlds. Titans. Gods. All it takes is powe
r. You don’t need the Fates for that. We didn’t need the Fates to take power from the Titans. But to reshape everything, to wipe the slate and begin again, entirely fresh, with a new creation . . .”

  “New planets, stars, physics, chemistry--” Demeter murmured.

  “New everything,” I finished. “An entirely new existence. New worlds where even gods may not exist.”

  Everyone froze, even me. I knew it in the depths of my being. It was so clear all of a sudden.

  “This isn’t a war. It’s genocide.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  We drove in silence for a long time. We’d always known we were fighting for the balance of the worlds, to prevent existence from being thrown into chaos. But we’d never suspected that we were fighting for existence itself. For every mortal, every plant, every mountain, every galaxy, every god --except one.

  I ran through the list endlessly in my mind. Ares? Aphrodite? Dionysus? Hecate? Hephaestus? Hestia? It could be anyone. It didn’t even have to be one of the most powerful. Asclepius? Eros? Hebe? Helios? Heracles? Pan? Persephone? Selene?

  There were too many of us. There was just no way to know.

  It could be Hades. It could definitely be Hades. He loved death, and he loved power. But enough to risk oblivion?

  Poseidon. He could remake the worlds as nothing but seas. It could be him. But this wasn’t passionate enough for him. It was too careful, too precise.

  Whoever this was had to be cold, calculating, ruthless.

  Like me.

  I pushed the thought away, but it came back again. And again.

  It was me. I was the most likely culprit. If any god would sweep away everything, no matter the risk, it would be me. I had the ambition, the dreadful determination, the complete confidence in my singular vision.

  Me.

  I was the one with the heart and soul of a mass murderer.

  “It’s impossible!” Demeter finally burst out. “The Fates wouldn’t just let someone remake the worlds!”

  “Just like they wouldn’t let themselves get kidnapped?” I replied evenly. Demeter looked away. “The Fates obey only the Necessity. At any cost. Extinction, annihilation, it means nothing to them. All that matters is the Necessity.”

  “How can the Necessity want everything to be destroyed?” Demeter demanded. “That’s not what the Necessity is for.”

  “The Necessity doesn’t want anything. And it isn’t for anything either,” Hermes reminded her. “It just is. Like the Fates.”

  “But we’ve always obeyed the Necessity,” Demeter insisted.

  “We’ve never had a choice. We obey because we have to. Everything does,” I replied. “But Necessity or not, we’ll do what we can to save the world. That’s why we exist. That’s our duty. And if the Necessity requires something else, well, then it’ll just have to go through me first.”

  “We’re here,” Justin announced.

  “Be careful,” Hermes warned, as I opened the door. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with.”

  I smiled. I knew exactly what we were dealing with. One very pissed off Queen of Gods.

  Demeter and Hermes walked on either side of me as we headed into Sarah’s apartment building. Hermes’s hand hovered at his hip, where he kept the blade that Justin had brought back from the Dreamlands. Demeter had her lasso in one hand and her whip tied around her waist.

  Hermes and Demeter shook with terrible eagerness. We were at war. Fighting for our very lives. They knew that. And they were ready to do whatever it took to win. Under the right circumstances, perhaps we all had the hearts and souls of murderers.

  Justin followed us, torque pulsing faintly. I’d never seen his face so hard, his eyes so unfeeling. I pitied anything that tried to attack us.

  I was almost disappointed that nothing happened by the time we reached the apartment door. I was full of inconsolable rage. I’d lost Athena, almost lost Zeus, and watched Stella die. I ached for someone or something to take all that rage out on. But I’d have to wait.

  Sarah’s apartment door was ajar. Not broken down. Whatever had killed Stella had left as little trace as possible. Not a giant, then. They were too stupid to be careful.

  Two sets of claw marks went right through the door, one by the upper lock and one by the door handle.

  “Harpy?” Demeter asked quietly.

  Hermes shook his head. “They wouldn’t attack indoors. No room to fly.”

  Spotting a stain on the ground, Hermes knelt and touched it, bringing his fingers to his nose and then turning his face away in disgust. “Sewage.”

  I nodded grimly. “A python.”

  “A snake?” Justin asked.

  “Half snake, half human,” I corrected. “Stay close.”

  “I’ll go first,” Hermes offered.

  “No,” I said. “I will. You and Justin have the strongest powers in a fight. We can’t risk losing you in an ambush.”

  “My queen--” Hermes started.

  I silenced him with a look. Hermes bowed his head, and as I turned back to the door, he slipped his dagger into my hand. He must have another blade somewhere.

  I pushed the door open slowly with my foot. It was dark inside. There was a closet to the right of the doorway. Its doors were shut.

  I inched forward, straining to see as far as I could out of the corner of my eye while still facing the closet. The hallway ahead revealed nothing--just shadows.

  As Hermes followed behind me, I gestured at the closet. He nodded. He got ready to slide open the door at my signal. If there was anything inside, it was about to die.

  I counted on the fingers of my free hand. One. Two. Three. Hermes flung open the closet. I plunged my dagger inside.

  And killed a winter jacket. There was nothing inside. Just hanging coats and shoes on the ground. Damn.

  I crept ahead. The opening to the kitchen was on my right, just past the closet. Ahead of that, a hallway to the left, leading to the two bedrooms. In front of me, I could see the main room.

  I took a deep breath and darted into the kitchen, ready to drive my dagger into anything that moved.

  Nothing again. Pantry. Fridge. All undisturbed. Nothing big enough to conceal a python--except the storage closet.

  Hermes slipped past me to the storage closet. He glided over the tiles silently, like he was floating above them. Crouching low, but raising his blade high, he quickly pulled open the door, thrusting upward as he did so.

  But his knife found only air. He mouthed an impressive string of profanities.

  Demeter and Justin had scouted ahead into the main room, but returned, shaking their heads.

  The bedrooms, then.

  I headed toward them. Justin tried to go first, but I gave him a ferocious look, which he returned with one of his own. Demeter stepped between us, and I left before Justin could stop me.

  I turned to the door on the right. The bathroom. Carefully, I opened the door with one hand. Nothing but darkness.

  I turned to the bedroom on the right. Its door was completely destroyed. I turned away. There was no python inside. Just Stella. Dead. And Beth and Sarah in the closet. They were safer there until we made sure there was nothing else in the apartment.

  Hermes crouched near me, dagger ready. He pulled me down beside him and then pointed to the left bedroom. I pushed the door, and it swung open to darkness.

  Hermes inched forward. Demeter and Justin kept scanning around us. We couldn’t afford any surprises.

  But none of us bothered to look up.

  It dropped on me like a ton of bricks. I was flattened to the ground. I could barely breathe, let alone scream. Before I could react, I was being lifted up. I looked at the horrified faces of Demeter, Hermes, and Justin. But I couldn’t turn. I couldn’t move. I was held in a crushing grip. I looked down. Scales.

  “Queen of godsss,” I heard the python hiss into my ear, its rank breath washing over me.

  Its coils flexed, and I cried out.

  “Let her go!” Just
in demanded.

  He had a butcher knife in each hand. Apparently he’d done some exploring in the kitchen.

  “Come any clossser and ssshe diesss!” the python warned, squeezing me again for emphasis.

  My cry was weaker now. It had me so tightly wrapped, I could barely breathe.

  “Kill her and you die.”

  The cold certainty in Demeter’s voice reminded me how similar we were. She had a vindictive streak that rivaled my own where her family was concerned.

  “And you won’t die slowly,” Justin promised. I’d never seen or heard such hatred. For a second, he actually scared me.

  “Sssilence!” the python snapped. But it was clearly shaken.

  “Look, maybe we can make a deal,” Hermes suggested smoothly.

  “A deal?” the python asked suspiciously.

  But it sounded hopeful. It was outnumbered. And plainly terrified of both Demeter and Justin. Their eyes screamed murder.

  “Take the queen as your prisoner,” Hermes offered. “Use her to barter with Zeus. He’ll give you anything you ask for. Anything.”

  The python laughed, a hideous, hissing sound.

  “Zeusss isssn’t in charge anymore, you fool. None of you are. You didn’t actually think I’d buy that, did you?” it sneered.

  “No,” Hermes admitted. “I just needed some time for Justin to pass me this.”

  Hermes hurled a butcher knife at one of the python’s coils. It sunk deep between its scales, and the python shrieked in pain and surprise. Then Hermes flung another knife.

  There was a sickening, squishing sound, and the coils around me relaxed. I gratefully gulped down air. Justin and Demeter pried the coils away until Justin could finally lift me out. I heard a series of wet noises behind me--Hermes was making sure the python was thoroughly dead.

  “Check the ceilings,” I ordered.

  Demeter and Hermes roamed the rest of the apartment, scanning the ceilings. Justin pulled out the knives lodged in the python--the one he’d slipped to Hermes was embedded in its coils, the other was buried in its eye socket.