I watched him walk away with fear in my heart. Jumis was taking more liberties, advancing closer to me with each day. I didn’t want Aaron to fight in this war, but if he didn’t win me back, I would eventually have to give in to Jumis. I couldn’t keep him at bay forever.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A brilliant alarm shattered the silence in my room, waking me for the second time that night. At the same moment, the communicator under my skin vibrated violently.
A message from Perkons, and judging from the volume, it was urgent.
Velns has disrupted the earth’s mantle and volcanic eruptions are occurring across inhabited cities. You are needed.
I rolled out of bed, feeling silly as I changed my pajamas for my flowing orange gown.
“Dekla!”
I heard Jumis in the hallway. “I saw already,” I called.
“Do you need me?” He appeared in my doorway, and I was grateful I had finished dressing.
“How do I know where to go?” Last time there’d been a catastrophe, Laima had led me.
He cocked his head. “That is not something you ever told me.”
It didn’t matter. The scent of death called to me. I just had to follow the souls crying out to me, their lives on the brink of destruction because of an unfair fate that justice demanded I correct. I lifted my hands over my head and clapped them together, and a moment later I had transfigured into the orange bird. A feather drifted away from my body and fluttered to my bed. I’d have to get it later. Across the distance, orange spheres of life energy pulsed and vibrated, and I turned in the direction of the greatest mass. My heart pumped blood quickly through the tiny bird body, terrified I wouldn’t be able to save all of them in time.
I settled in a suburb miles away from the volcano. This was where the souls had led me. The lemon smell pervaded the air. The ground trembled beneath my feet as I took human form, and I saw several of the residents glance around as if uncertain what was happening. A woman walked by holding the hand of a child, and I focused on the child, summoning her to look at me so that I could have a vision.
In an instant I was the little girl, Leilani, holding my mother’s hand and walking down the sidewalk. The road in front of us cracked open, and from the slits, red hot lava oozed out. Mother let out a cry, and I stumbled backward with her, away from the boiling rock. Mother scooped me up and turned around, running with me, but within minutes, the lava surrounded us on every side, creeping up the road, swallowing us, melting us as we screamed.
I came out of the horrifying vision, my skin searing as if still on fire, waves of heat sucking the moisture from my lungs. I inhaled a choking gasp, and warm, humid air filled my chest. I shook it off, fighting to ground myself in reality. But how could I help them? I tried to find different paths, but every one of them ended in death by lava. The explosion was minutes away, and I couldn’t get any of these people somewhere safe in that short amount of time. Even the ocean, which surrounded this little island on all sides, would soon be boiling hot as the lava rushed into the waters.
A motion to my side attracted my attention, and I turned to see Beth taking human form beside me.
“Where is Laima?” I asked, hoping for someone to give us instructions.
“I don’t know. She wasn’t with me.”
“How did you get here?”
“Instinct, I guess. The call of the dying was strong enough for me to remember how to transform. What are we supposed to be doing here?” she asked.
I saw some of my own panic reflected in her brown eyes. “We’re supposed to be saving them from death. But I don’t see a different outcome and we only have minutes to spare! It’s not like we can fly them all to safety!”
“You have to think outside the box,” a third voice said, and Meredith dropped gracefully beside us. “The volcano’s erupting, and these people are all going to die unless you can figure out how to change their fate. What alternative destiny would you give them?”
My mind fluttered back to the vision I’d had of Leilani and her mother burning in agony in the hot lava. “Not death by magma, that’s for sure! But I can’t stop a volcano! And I can’t get them away from it!”
“You’re right on all accounts. What could save them from the volcano?”
I flailed my hands about, struggling to remember anything in my nervous energy. “I don’t know—snow, maybe? An earthquake that diverts the lava elsewhere?”
Meredith’s eyes held mine. “Which one do you want?”
“Snow,” Beth said, a sparkle returning to her eyes.
“An earthquake,” I said, catching on. “But quickly.”
Could Meredith really do this? I held my breath as I watched her. We were depending on her.
Meredith stretched out her arm and drew a rune across her skin. Catching my eye, she said, “I’ve graduated past the tuning fork.” The rune flashed green for a moment before darkening and embedding itself in her flesh. Then she crouched, placed both hands on the ground, and whispered.
The earth began to shake, just as it had in the vision I’d had of Leilani’s death. Was this the volcano preparing to spew its molten insides all over these people, or was this something else?
A fissure opened between us, and I leapt back to avoid falling within it. The crack widened, ten feet, twenty, until I knew the only way I would get across it was by flying. People screamed, but I didn’t focus on them. The fissure stretched onward for miles as the earth shook itself apart, straight out to the sea.
The volcano didn’t erupt so much as let out a great sigh. The diverting crack Meredith had created filled with lava, to the brink and overflowing in some places, but the fissure channeled the lava out to sea. Even as I watched, the distress signals from the energy life forces began to fade away, dropping off one by one as hundreds of people were spared a fiery death. I knew we had not saved everyone, as some people had died in the earthquake. I distanced myself from those deaths and allowed myself to feel triumphant in our victory for the majority.
*~*
We spent the day chasing down volcanic activity across the globe and saving mortals.
Our success rate diminished with each new eruption, as they occurred nearly spontaneously, and we could not be everywhere at once.
“I kind of understand now why the goddesses split themselves up,” Meredith said.
We sat at the kitchen table in Laima’s house, nursing our wounds as we rehashed the day’s events.
“Yeah, I get it too,” Beth said. She held a fork in her hand and kept moving the tines backward and forward. “If there were more of us, we could’ve been in multiple places at once.”
“But we wouldn’t be as powerful as we are now,” I said. “We couldn’t see all the souls, we wouldn’t remember everything, we couldn’t fly, we’d have to rely on Laima to do a lot of it for us—”
“Where was Laima today?” Beth interrupted.
“Doing the same as us, I’m sure,” I said, even though I wished she would have at least dropped us a note. “She left us in charge of ourselves. She trusts us.”
Trey’s voice came from the living room. “Not all of you are immortal. It’s pretty easy to take life for granted.” Frustration punctuated his words.
I hadn’t heard him come into the house. I turned around as he stalked into the kitchen and dropped a deer carcass on the counter as if it were a chicken. Blood pooled beneath it and dripped onto the floor. Laima blew in behind him and gave us a knowing look before taking a seat beside me.
“Where were you?” I asked Trey. “Aren’t you supposed to be there to protect us?”
“Oh, so you still need protecting?” he said snarkily. “Seems like you three have it pretty under control.” He pulled his dagger from his belt and sliced the deer open. I winced.
“Anger management, maybe?” I said.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to gut it in the house,” Meredith said.
Trey’s eyes met mine across the room, and a brief, unspoken co
nversation passed between us where we both acknowledged his presence in my dreams last night. Then his gaze swept to Meredith.
“Did you take any thought for your well-being?” he demanded. “The gods can be stripped of their powers, they can be captured, they can be transformed and reduced to almost nothing. And you’re not even a god. You’re just a witch. You can be killed. And did you think about the fact that Samantha needs a ragana to gather the rest of the souls? If she figures out where you are, she’ll try to capture you.”
Meredith’s cheeks pinkened. “There was no time to worry about such things. People were dying.”
“They will always be dying and you will always be saving them. I told you to wait for Laima.”
Meredith shifted in her seat, the only sign that she was uncomfortable. “Jayne and Beth had already left. You weren’t there to protect them. I had a job to do.”
“I was tracking down Laima! We were supposed to leave together. Or did you tune out that conversation?”
“Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t wait for you, since you never showed up.”
Trey’s nostrils flared, and I figured he would breathe fire next. “Because I was tracking you!”
“Fine job you did! Better stick to tracking deer.”
“At least they are where I expect them to be!”
“For the love of cucumbers,” Beth mumbled. “And I thought they’d be nicer to each other once they started dating.”
Meredith took a deep breath. “You need to calm down. I know you’re used to being the protector, but you’re not my protector. I can’t—”
“I am your protector!” he interrupted. “Just because—” He cut himself off and shook his head, then stomped out of the house. He didn’t even have to slam the door to make the floorboards and wood frame quake.
“Well.” Meredith stood up and walked to the sink. She tried to shove the deer carcass off and grunted. “This thing must weight five hundred pounds! How did Trey carry it?”
“He has powers also,” Laima said. “Strength is one of his.”
“Cheater,” Meredith grumbled, and then she traced a rune on her arm and whispered something. The carcass clattered to the floor, and I winced as blood splashed on the cabinets. Meredith opened a cupboard. “His reaction was a little weird. Anyone care for a cup of water?”
Like I could take a drink when blood was gathering all over the floor. “I think he was worried about you,” I said.
“I’ll take water,” Beth said.
Meredith leaned against the counter and crossed her arms over her chest, taking small sips from the glass in her hand. “His worries are unfounded. I’ve never had a protector, I don’t need one.”
“He’s just concerned, Meredith. You should be flattered he cares so much.”
“What I want is for him to stop seeing me as a fragile human and start seeing me as a powerful witch. Because that’s what I am.”
Beth cleared her throat. “Any chance on that water?”
“His fears are not unfounded,” Laima said. “Samantha wants a witch. But if she can’t capture you, Velns would rather kill you than leave you to help Jayne.”
“Should I just give up on that water?” Beth asked.
Meredith pushed away from the counter and returned to the table. She set her cup down in front of Beth and collapsed into the seat beside me.
“Velns’ end game is always the same,” Laima said. “It gets pretty predictable after awhile. He wants to tip the balance by removing most of mortality from the earth. Jods wants to boot Deivs and Meness and everyone else out of Slitere so he and Samantha can rule.”
“How does killing off humans help Velns?” Meredith asked. “Most of the world’s population throughout the ages is dead already anyway.”
“The balance must be maintained on earth, in the mortal realm,” Laima answered. “That’s why for each life we extend, someone else’s is shortened. But Velns is upsetting that balance. This causes all kinds of havoc.”
“Like what?” I asked. “I mean, besides people dying that shouldn’t.”
“Our power is to shorten or lengthen the lifespan of man. When Velns undermines our power, he weakens us. We could cease to be just like the Greeks of old.”
“Wait a minute. What do you mean?” I had visions in my mind of Zeus and Hades throwing lightning bolts at each other. “They ceased to exist?”
“Haven’t you wondered where they are?” Laima asked.
Meredith shrugged. “I hadn’t thought about it too much. I just figured they were living on a cloud somewhere on the other side of the world.”
“Me too,” I said.
“You mean those guys are real too?” Beth asked.
“Were real. They became nothing several millennia ago when man ceased to exercise faith in them.”
“They don’t exist anymore?” I said, fixating on that. “And the same thing could happen to us?” Suddenly Trey’s reaction didn’t seem quite so overkill.
Laima rolled her eyes. “Of course they still exist. They just have no more power. They are simply immortal beings living among mankind for all eternity.”
I relaxed a little. At least they weren’t dead. “So it is the faith of the people that gives us power?”
“No. Their faith gives us the ability to access the power. It’s always there. We just can’t use it to help men if mankind doesn’t believe.”
My wrist buzzed. I glanced down to see a forest green message. Jumis. My stomach tightened.
Where are you?
“Jumis?” Laima asked.
I nodded. “How do I answer him?” There were no buttons on the phone that I could tell.
“Speak to it. Address who you wish to speak to first. It will transcribe your message.”
“Okay,” I said. “Jumis, I’m with my sisters,” I said to my arm, feeling silly. “At Laima’s house.” The words transcribed across my wrist and vanished.
“He will come here for you,” Laima said.
“Yeah, I don’t get a lot of privacy these days.”
Beth narrowed her eyes. “Anyway. You were saying. So if that happened, and we couldn’t use our powers, we would still be alive and see all kinds of trouble but not be able to help anyone?”
Laima nodded, turning her attention from me to Beth. “If Velns and Jods tip the power that much in their favor, there won’t be much left of humankind anyway.”
“But we can stop him,” Meredith said. “Like we did today.”
“Today we merely stalled him. If we had been able to stop him, the volcanoes never would have erupted. Only our chosen hero will be able to stop him. If he fails, then we must figure out another plan.”
All of this planning and talking of moves and counter-moves made my head spin. “I’m going outside for fresh air.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I stepped outside only to find Trey standing on the front porch, as if waiting to go back inside.
“Velns’ forces have been seen heading for the shores of the island,” he said without preamble.
My wrist buzzed again, but I ignored it, focusing on Trey. “They can breach us that way? Without using the passage from Cape Kolka?”
“Velns can create pathways to any destination except Slitere. He would have to breach the arch to take the meadow.”
“Then the war has come to us.”
“The heroes have already been funneled there. We expect Velns to take a stand.”
Aaron was there. At the battlefield. “Are we all fighting?”
My wrist buzzed again, and this time I looked at the words scrolling across my skin.
Need you at the island, Jumis said.
“We have to fight,” Trey said. “Velns unleashed the demons, and they are trying to penetrate the meadow. The island is our last defense.”
I grabbed his arm as he started to walk into the house. “About last night—”
He smirked at me. “We really should stop meeting that way.”
I lowered my
voice. “You think this will work?”
He laid his hand over the top of mine. “You think this is what you were destined for?” His steely gray eyes met mine. “If you can’t re-write your own destiny, you are a weak and helpless god after all.”
His words stung, and I shrank back. He let go of my arm and went inside, but I remained, nursing my wounds and trying to put his words into context. How could I change my own fate?
My arm band chimed shrilly. At the same moment, Perkons’ message appeared, calling for all of us to gather at the island. A moment later, my sister emerged from the house, followed by Laima and Meredith.
Jumis texted again. Are you coming?
I lifted my wrist to my mouth and hissed, “To Jumis. On my way.” If only the words could convey my annoyance.
Trey came out last, dressed in armor decorated with runes and carrying an array of weapons on his belt and a staff in his hands.
I gave him a once over. “You look mighty useful.”
“I’ve got three goddesses, a witch, and a mortal to protect. How would you expect me to look?” he growled.
I hardly heard his question because I picked up on the last person he included under his umbrella. My chest warmed. Team Jayne was watching out for Aaron.
*~*
The pathway opened for us next to the archway portal, overlooking the sandy shore of the island. The guards stood at attention, protecting the passage to the meadow. We stepped out beside Jumis and a few of the other gods. The mortals waited several yards in front of us, weapons at the ready, decked out from head to toe in armor. They faced the raging waters and waited for the enemy to arrive.
Jumis reached for me, grasping me by the forearm and tugging me closer. Trey darted from my side, joining the ranks of the heroes. My eyes searched the mortals for Aaron. I spotted Ursins and Mara at the front line beside the humans. Ursins wore the same armor as the humans, but with a red feather in his helmet. He held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. There would be no horses or bees to come to his aid this time.
“Stay back,” Jumis warned me, as if he sensed my desire to dive into the battle. “This is not for us to fight. We picked our champions; now they fight on our behalf.”
Destined (Goddess of Fate Book 4) Page 10
