Harvest of the Gods

by Sumida, Amy

  I sighed as I padded into the common room. There were only a few lions in there, huddled on a couch watching some kind of sports event, so I wandered over to the TV furthest away from them to watch my own show. Back in the corner, as I was, I could barely hear them, even when they shouted at some athletic achievement. We'd hung privacy panels around the room to section off areas with TVs just for this purpose. No sense in having a bunch of televisions if only one could be on comfortably at time.

  So I pulled the curtain closed and turned on the set, settling on Paranormal Witness, one of those ghost shows where they reenact “true events”. I loved them, they were one of my guilty pleasures. The one that was on was about a family who was being attacked by a demon.

  I smiled and nestled into the couch, pulling a blanket that had been thrown across the back of it, around me. Then I remembered something else that needed to be done right away. I swore, sighed, and left my comfy couch in search of my cell phone.

  I'd previously thought that phone calls were impossible in the God Realm but then I realized we had Internet. The connection that was kept open to allow for the web also allowed my phone calls to go through. Text worked better than actual voice calls though, which tended to get too much static and sometimes weird noises that I didn't want to think about, so I just sent Finn a text message and went back to my couch and television show.

  I got a reply almost immediately; WTF do U mean U found the woman who cursed me?!!!

  I sighed and was kind of glad I didn't have to relate this to Finn through a regular phone call. I sent back: She's an air sidhe, I met her in Faerie and Arach told me she once bragged to him about turning a man's children into swans. Said she was sleeping with their dad, the King. Yeah, so I never really got the hang of texting code. All my messages tended to be long.

  Kirill came into the enclosure with a tray of coffee and put it down on the coffee table in front of me. The aroma of coffee and coconut wafted up to me and I grinned, reaching already for one of the mugs.

  “Mmmm coconut coffee,” I poured the wonder brew into my cup and added cream. “You always know just what I need”

  “You best remember zat,” he sat next to me and gave me something else I needed, an intense kiss that left me feeling like a teenager making out on her parent's couch.

  I had just put my cup down so I could pursue the lovely feeling, when my phone beeped; TY TTUL

  I looked up at Kirill. “What the hell does TY TTUL mean?”

  “Vhy you zink I vould know?” Kirill looked down at the cell phone. “You're texting Finn? Vhy are you texting Finn instead of kissing me?”

  “Cute,” I laughed. “I wanted to text him before I forgot. I found out who cursed him, she's a faerie Arach used to... associate with.”

  “Arach vas sleeping vith faerie who cursed Finn?” Kirill's deep blue eyes went wide.

  “Yeah,” I huffed, “she's kind of annoying too.”

  “Vell she vould have to be kind of evil to turn children into swans.”

  “Yeah, there is that,” I sighed, “I'm not sure what Finn's going to do with the information. He'll probably want to confront her and that's going to be a problem.”

  “Vhy did you tell him zen?”

  “I couldn't keep something like that from him,” I shrugged. “He's my friend and this is pretty important.”

  “Da, I don't know vhy I even ask,” Kirill smiled and gestured to the TV, “Vat is zis your watching?”

  I gave him a quick summary and we watched intently until a commercial break came on.

  “I vonder who it vas,” Kirill mused.

  “Who what was?”

  “The demon zat vas plaguing family,” he looked over at me.

  “What do you mean?” I swallowed hard. “Demons really exist?”

  “Tima, one of your lovers is Angel of Death and you ask me if demons exist?”

  “Huh,” I sat back. “I've never really thought about it. Honestly, as a witch, the Christian religion kind of gives me the heebie jeebies. So I guess I don't pay that much attention to it.”

  “Christian gods are like all other gods,” Kirill observed. “No reason to get Jeeves.”

  “Jeebies,” I giggled, “and I know, it's just that whole bible verse about witches. Also, are the angels really considered gods? I mean isn't there technically only one god in Christianity? It's kind of their thing, you know, monotheism?”

  “You're arguing vat is and isn't a god,” he laughed at me. “You, the Godhunter, who knows zat all of zem vere only Atlanteans?”

  “Yeah,” I grimaced. “Good point. I guess it's just semantics at this point. So anyway, back to demons.”

  “The gods are as ve made zem,” Kirill shrugged. “People believed in demons and so demons vere made.”

  “How?”

  “Vat mean, how? Zey vere made.”

  “But Atlanteans set themselves up as gods,” I tried to work it out. “I can't see them choosing to be demons.”

  “I don't zink zey choose,” Kirill frowned. “Newer gods don't get choice. Zey are born and zey take power given to zem.”

  “So demons were probably children of angels?”

  “Or children of Christian God,” Kirill shrugged. “You should ask Azrael, he vould know more zan I.”

  “Hmm, I think I will,” I frowned, utterly fascinated by the new information. “So these people, they really were being harassed?”

  “Most likely,” Kirill nodded.

  “Well that takes the fun out of this show,” I grumbled. “Is that why a lot of times its Christian families being assaulted? I've always wondered why it was those who were supposedly under the protection of God who were often targeted. I figured it was just stories told to make people behave.”

  “Demons are gods,” Kirill reasoned, “zey follow god rules of magic, so I assume zey get power from sacrifice but demons are not just in Christian religion. Other pantheons have zem too.”

  “You said sacrifice. Where is the sacrifice here?” I waved at the screen, where two little girls cowered in front of a big black mist.

  “Sacrifice is mutable,” Kirill frowned at the imagery. “It can take many forms, you know zis. Demons, per human belief, feed on fear.”

  “So fear is probably their sacrifice,” my mouth hung open. Why had I never thought of that? Not only did humans create their own Heavens and Hells, they created their own sacrifices. It wasn't the Atlanteans who had told humans to sacrifice food or animals or even other humans, it was us. We determined what should be given to gods and we had set them on the path of our own destruction. So that begged the question, who was really at fault for this God War I was fighting? Was it the gods who wanted to keep receiving sacrifices? Or was it the humans who had decided what was to be a sacrifice in the first place? Thor had once told me that the best sacrifices for gods were humans, that there was power in the blood, but if demons could live on fear, then was what Thor said really accurate? Maybe gods had found the most power in our blood because we had believed it was the most powerful offering. “Holy shit. We really do make ourselves miserable.”

  “Da,” Kirill nodded, “vithout human belief, human faith, demons vouldn't exist. Humans are obsessed vith concept of good and evil. Zey can't believe in a good god vithout a bad, can't have angels vithout demons.”

  “It's about balance,” I sighed. “It makes sense to us that you must have opposites to create equality, that you can't appreciate the good without the evil. Where there is light, there must be darkness.”

  Darkness. Had we created the monster that was killing faeries? Was it our fault that once more, fey were dying. The last time the way between the Human Realm and the Faerie Realm was open, the dragon-sidhe were hunted almost to the point of extinction. Now the way is open again and again the fey are being hunted. It didn't seem like a coincidence.

  “Zat is vitch answer,” Kirill brought me out of my musings. “I zink it's more simple zan zat. I zink people need someone to blame. Humans are capable of gr
eat evil but zey don't vant to believe zat, so zey blame devils and demons. It's somezing else zat makes zem bad. Ven zings go vell, zey zank god, ven zings go bad, zey blame devil, everything is out of zeir hands. Good or bad, it's not zeir fault.”

  “Maybe you're right,” I sighed, letting go of thoughts of blame. Did it really matter whose fault the God War was? Or who created the Darkness that was after the fey? No, all that mattered was protecting humans against gods who would manipulate them into their deaths, and stopping the evil that was killing faeries. The end is what mattered, not the beginning, because the end was the only thing I had any control over. “We love our delusions, it makes life easier to bear sometimes.”

  “Not ven delusions create zis,” he waved a hand at the screen and I nodded. There went my guilty pleasure.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Trevor found me and Kirill a little while later, curled up on the couch watching Mary Poppins. I had to turn Paranormal Witness off, it was freaking me out too much now that I knew the stories were probably true.

  “What happened?” Trevor looked me over in concern. “You only watch Mary Poppins when you're upset.”

  “Tima found out about demons,” Kirill answered for me.

  “I thought you knew about those guys,” Trevor frowned. “They really don't bother us, just leave them alone and they'll leave you alone.”

  “I don't know how I feel about that statement,” I frowned at him.

  “Talk to the angel then,” Trevor shrugged.

  “That's what Kirill said,” I laughed.

  “Well, you want to know about demons,” Trevor huffed, “who else better to ask than an angel.”

  “Okay, okay,” I held up my hands in surrender. “Let's move on. What was the emergency with the Froekn? Has Fenrir changed his mind about hating me?”

  “No, of course not,” Trevor got serious. “How about your visit to Faerie, any good news?”

  “No,” I looked away with a frown. “I got a lead on a fey traitor but that's it.”

  “Okay,” Trevor rubbed at his forehead. “Well I got called away right after you left because there was another attack on the Froekn.”

  “What?” I jumped up. “Damn Demeter! Why didn't you lead with that?”

  “We're not sure it was her,” he said quietly. “In fact, we're not sure about anything. There was no scent trail left. Nothing. I need you to come and take a look. We've been at it for hours and can't find a thing. Fenrir told me to fetch you and see if maybe those dragon senses can pick up anything we missed.”

  “Of course,” I looked down at my dress. “Just give me a second to change.”

  “Go ahead,” he nodded, “Kirill and I will wait for you at the tracing wall.”

  “Okay,” I raced to the bedroom and pulled off the dress, throwing it to the floor before pulling open a drawer inside the large closet the Intare had installed for me.

  Inside the drawer sat the all-seeing goggles I'd used to see through Gruach's glamor. They were thick, round pieces of glass with a slightly bluish tint, held in hard brown leather. I picked them up and pulled them over my head, leaving them to hang around my neck. They'd been helpful on the stake-out and they might be helpful at the crime scene but I'd wait to put them on. The goggles revealed everything hidden and sometimes it was a little hard to handle.

  They had shown me Pan's true Atlantean form and that Kirill was born royal, the son of Peter the Great(the Russian Tzar not the Pegasus in Hades' Underworld). I could see the Inter Realm with them on and I could focus my gaze on something miles away to see it like it was right next to me. It was an amazing tool but it made me feel too powerful. I knew it would drive me as insane as Tlaloc had been if I wore them too long. So I limited their use to necessity.

  I pulled on some jeans and a V necked shirt before topping it off with a leather jacket. At the last second, I grabbed my kodachi, strapping the Japanese short sword to my side as I ran back down the hallway towards the tracing point. You never knew when a sword would come in handy and it had been a long time since I'd used one. The weight of it felt good on my hip, like a favorite old blanket, comforting even if it was outdated.

  “Hey,” Roarke screeched as I barreled past him.

  “What?” I came to a sliding halt.

  “You said you were going to take me with you next time,” he rose a brow. “Is this next time?”

  “Yeah, I guess it is,” I waved him over. “Come on, we gotta go right now.”

  Kirill and Trevor were standing there waiting for us and they both stretched out their hands as we ran forward. I grabbed Trevor and Kirill got Roarke. Trevor led us in and the line of us was pulled into the Aether after him. A gasp left me with the sudden transformation of my physical body into thought but in seconds we were through, stepping out into an open stretch of land that bordered a thick forest.

  Fenrir and a whole lot of Froekn stood there, in front of a pile of bodies. No, not a pile exactly. The dead wolves were huddled together, arms around each other, and eyes tightly shut. They looked terrified.

  Fenrir looked up at me as we approached and for a split second I was worried that he blamed me for Samantha's infertility, for the possible infertility of the rest of the Froekn, and then I saw his expression. He didn't blame me, of course he didn't. He wasn't even thinking about things as minor as pregnancy issues at the moment. He was focused on the dead and on me helping him find whoever had made them that way.

  Near his side stood Emma, the zoologist Demeter had imprisoned. I was glad Fenrir had brought her, it showed how important she already was to him, but at the same time, I was worried that this would be too much for her. She'd just been in Demeter's hands, I think she'd had enough trauma to last a lifetime.

  “Dad,” I took the hand that reached out to me and was shocked when he pulled me into a hug.

  “Little Frami,” he whispered his nickname for me. It meant courage and that seemed significant at the moment. “I need you to use those fey senses of yours, ours have fallen short. Can you tell us anything about what happened here?”

  “I'll try,” I whispered and he let me go. “Hey, Emma.”

  “Hi,” she gave me a sad smile. “It's good to see you again.”

  “You too,” I nodded and walked over to the huddled dead.

  I knelt down in the grass before them and opened myself up to the area. I could smell the grass I crushed beneath my knees, the sharp tang of pine, and the rot of leaf mold beneath the trees. I could tell which type of animals hid within the forest, even those who were further off, nearer the mountains. I knew where they'd stepped, how they'd avoided this place recently. Even the carrion critters that should have been attracted to the dead had given the area a wide berth. I could smell their fear, a layer on top of the older fear of the dead wolves.

  I could smell everything but the person who had killed my family.

  “What the hell?” I stood up and took a deeper breath. I noticed Roarke a little to the side, sniffing furiously as well.

  “Something smells familiar but it's over there,” Roarke pointed to the tree line. “Here, there's nothing.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I took another deep inhale.

  Wolf musk, lion, trees, animals, I even smelled the tiny baby birds that were nesting in a tree a hundred yards away, but nothing beyond what I already knew to be there. It was like a ghost had killed them. I shivered, thinking back to my earlier conversation with Kirill. Could this be the work of a demon? But surely even demons had a scent.

  “Do demons smell?” I turned to Trevor.

  “Yes,” Trevor at least knew why I was asking. “Each has a distinct odor. This was not a demon attack.”

  “Demons?” Fenrir frowned. “They wouldn't dare hurt a Froekn. Why do you ask?”

  “There are demons?” Emma's eyes got huge.

  “They're clowns,” Fenrir put a steadying hand on Emma's shoulder, “scaring people to feed off their fear. They won't bother you.”

  “Sorry,” I sho
ok my head, “just a recent conversation that was still fresh in my head. There's no trace of anything here, other than what we already know to be here.”

  “No,” Fenrir growled, “there must be something.”

  “I have one more option,” I lifted the goggles up over my head and then repositioned them over my eyes.

  Everything was suddenly darker, much darker, like night had fallen in a second. The woods on my right had become a frightening place, eyes staring at me from the shadows, monsters waiting. Yet despite the feeling that something waited beyond, the area around the dead Froekn felt empty, completely devoid of anything, no heat, no breath, no moisture, no life. I frowned and put my concentration firmly on the bodies, ignoring the feeling of unease that made me want to look away.

  The dead were coated in a black sludge, like tar on ducklings, and it dripped into their eyes, their mouths, their ears. I inhaled sharply, moving closer, trying to find some helpful detail. The sludge expanded, out and in, like it breathed, and then it swirled together, condensing into a vaguely humanoid form before it shot to the side, where it traced into the Aether.

  It didn't stop there though. With the goggles on, I could follow its progress through the Aether. I saw it fly home to roost but just like with Demeter, I was blocked by a spell stronger even than a warding. The magic seemed so familiar but I couldn't place it. It must have been because it seemed to be the same spell Demeter had used. The only thing was, I was fairly certain this wasn't Demeter.

  “Looks like Demeter's found another friend,” I said as I took the goggles off.

  “How does such a massive bitch find so many people to help her?” Trevor groaned.

  “What did you see exactly?” Fenrir interrupted his son's tirade.

  “I saw nothing and the nothing killed them,” I said and shivered, then something clicked and I knew what the cause of death was. “They were killed by their own fears. Scared to death by shadows. Are you sure demons couldn't have done this? Kirill said they feed on fear.”