Selena looked up at her from beside Macha’s body where she’d already begun to heal her and where Nemain cradled her sister’s head in her lap, gently stroking her face as she cried for her and begged her to return. But Selena didn’t speak to her friend either. She watched Badb’s measured steps as she marched closer and closer to Tarhunt, who had picked himself up from the street and clutched yet another axe in his hands.
Badb had never bothered picking up her sword. She continued her march toward her sister’s killer without a weapon. Cameron could do nothing except follow her.
“Badb,” Cameron whispered. “Selena is bringing her home. She’ll be all right.”
The winds surrounding the war goddess shifted, and her fingers curled into fists at her side. “All right?” she repeated, her voice uncharacteristically cold and biting. “Selena brought her back from the dead…but he murdered my sister.”
“She may not have died,” Cameron argued, but the winds picked up again and he stumbled away from her as he tried to stay upright.
“I felt it!” Badb yelled. “I felt every moment of it, and I felt her spirit leave her! And I will rip him apart so he knows exactly how she felt.”
Cameron opened his mouth to tell her she didn’t even have a weapon with her, but Thor grabbed his arm and quickly shook his head. Surprisingly, even Loki kept his mouth shut as his wide, crazed eyes watched the war goddess’s steps resume, bringing her closer to the Hittite god who would never escape her vengeance.
Tarhunt lifted the handle of his axe and threw it toward Badb, but the war goddess reached out for it and caught it, throwing it to the ground behind her. Cameron gaped at her for a second then gaped at the axe on the street before lighting this one on fire, too.
“You ever seen her like this?” he whispered to Thor. Even with Midir’s fuzzy memories, he couldn’t recall ever seeing the goddess, known for her terrifying battle cry, so…well, terrifying.
“No,” Thor whispered back. “But no one’s ever killed one of her sisters before. Only Selena has been powerful enough to bring their spirits back once their bodies are healed. And you know how the Mórrígna are…they might as well be one goddess.”
“Yeah,” Cameron agreed. “Some myths claim they’re the same person. But she’s not a weather god. How is she channeling the power of the wind?”
Thor shook his head, causing his long red beard to scratch against his shirt. “She’s not. She has a mild telekinetic gift, and it’s just…exploded. She can’t even control it right now so that’s why you need to stay back. Let her get her revenge. She deserves it.”
Cameron swallowed and watched his friend march closer and closer to the thinning lines of Hittite gods, many of whom recognized Badb’s superior power at its full strength would leave them completely vulnerable, even though she was so vastly outnumbered. But Tarhunt stood his ground, his eyes narrowed at the war goddess as she closed the space between them.
“You,” Tarhunt hissed, “have been a pain in the ass for over three thousand years. And your healer is gone. Who will save you?”
“I’ll save myself, asshole,” she responded.
True to her word, Badb reached for the thunder god, gripping each arm in her hands, and ripped him in half, throwing each side of his body to opposite ends of the street.
“Holy shit,” Cameron murmured.
“You can say that again,” London murmured back.
“That…was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever witnessed,” Jasper admitted. “And the scariest. I think I’m ready to go home now.”
London nodded slowly but couldn’t look away from half of the bloody carcass that lay at the end of the street.
Badb turned toward Nergal who backed into the side of a building. He held up his hands and implored her, “I’m not the one who attacked your sister.”
“Only because you didn’t have the chance!” she screamed, those mystifying winds that surrounded her picking up again.
“Cameron,” Tyr said quietly, “do you think you can bring her back to Murias?”
“Yeah, but why shouldn’t we let her kill Nergal?”
Tyr nodded in the Sumerian god’s direction and predicted, “He’s going to ask for a temporary truce, but I’m not convinced she’ll honor it in this frame of mind. Same thing that happened with you.”
“With me?” Cameron repeated.
Tyr opened his mouth to explain, but his prediction began to play out. Nergal lifted his empty hands and begged the war goddess for a truce so they could fight under fair conditions.
“Fair?” Badb scoffed. “There is no fairness in taking my sister from me, in taking a part of me forever.”
“Okay, we should go,” Cameron agreed. He let his Spear return to his room in the Otherworld and ran to Badb’s side then attempted to reason with the war goddess, but she was beyond reason.
“Badb,” he tried again, “I will force you to come with me if I have to. Selena can’t heal an injury of the soul, and if you don’t leave now, that’s exactly what you’ll incur.”
Badb shook her head and insisted, “He’ll come back. He could endanger her again. I have to kill him now.”
“Let him leave,” Cameron begged. “You’re holding him here. Everyone else has fled.”
“Why didn’t you stop them?” Badb demanded.
Cameron sighed and reached for her hand, her anger still creating a tsunami of violence around her. But Cameron found her fingers and pulled her closer, speaking softly to the friend he’d known and loved for thousands of years. “I just brought Lugh home to you. Don’t lose him now. If you’re unable to step foot in Findias again, it will devastate him. He died to save you, Badb. Believe me: I understand that kind of love.”
Badb blinked at Nergal then finally looked away from him, staring up into the eyes of the young god who refused to let her soul become tarnished, just as she had done for him. “Cameron,” she whispered.
“Let’s go see him,” Cameron suggested.
The winds swirling around her began to quiet, and Cameron took a deep breath, casting a quick glance in Thor’s direction who seemed to understand his concern: Someone needed to stay in Houston to make sure Nergal’s army didn’t immediately return. Thor waved a large hand at him, a silent gesture of “Get out of here already,” and Cameron smiled.
“I have the funniest story to tell you about escaping Hel with your boyfriend,” he told her. “Turns out, his greatest fear is crows.”
“Wait…” Badb shook her head and tried again. “What?”
Cameron shrugged and flashed her a mischievous grin. “Now I know why.”
As Badb put her free hand on her hip, that signal she was about to either scold him or tease him, he pulled her with him into Findias, where the old sun god waited anxiously for them both.
Chapter Fifteen
Lugh exhaled as if he’d been holding his breath while waiting to see if Cameron could rescue Badb. Having been dead once, Cameron knew it was entirely possible that he was holding his breath that long: While gods’ spirits had physical bodies as long as they were in Findias, they didn’t have the same essential needs, like food and even air. Most spirits just chose to continue those activities because they were natural after so many years of breathing and eating.
Badb leapt into his open arms and cried against his neck, and Lugh murmured to her in an old language Cameron recognized but could no longer translate. Selena put her arms around him and sighed. “Macha knew you’d bring her here so she insisted on waiting in Findias to make sure Badb would be all right.”
“The way Badb was talking…are they the same person?” Cameron asked her quietly so none of the Mórrígna would overhear him.
“Not exactly,” Selena answered just as quietly. “I suppose in some ways, it’s not that different than us. You once gave up a piece of your soul so I could have another chance at life. None of them ever had to make that sacrifice, but when they were born, they were born with a shared spirit. Losing Macha wouldn’t have
only been a loss as her sister, but Badb and Nemain would have lost a piece of themselves.”
“I’m guessing Macha just told you all this.”
Selena nodded and sighed again. “They were so distraught when we arrived here. Both sisters wanted to return to Houston immediately to save her. I had to convince them to let you handle it, to remind them you not only could help her but would never allow Badb to become as corrupt as the gods we’ve been fighting.”
“You can’t blame them for wanting to go back,” Cameron said. “If it were you…”
“I know, love,” Selena interrupted, tipping her face toward him so she could kiss his cheek. “Meanwhile, Lugh was frantically trying to figure out if there was any way he could actually possess someone so he could return to Earth, too.”
Cameron laughed and kissed her again, but his laughter had gotten the attention of the relieved god and goddesses. Lugh looked up at him and waved them over.
“Ukko and I have been talking to everyone who knew Midir and Étain,” he explained. “And I think we’re getting closer to unraveling this mystery.”
“Um,” Cameron responded. “You know I don’t have a clue what mystery we’re supposed to be uncovering other than I lost my temper, again, blamed my dad, and threatened to throw him out of the Otherworld.”
“Midir made some sort of binding promise, which could be something quite easy to fulfill as all promises between gods are binding. As soon as you became a god, it became your responsibility to uphold it though, which is why you’ve had these episodes with your anger overpowering you. And the last time…Cameron, you were gone. Trapped within a prison in your own mind. And even Midir wasn’t himself. The god we knew and loved was nothing like the god who showed up at my door.”
“And you still let me in?” Cameron teased. “Dude…you really are a saint.”
“Well, yeah,” Lugh teased back, “but I was also hoping you’d just fulfill this promise and break the geis.”
Cameron threw his hands up and exclaimed, “How am I supposed to do that when I don’t even remember this promise or to whom I made it?”
Selena tilted her head at him, her eyebrows pulling together, and Cameron could sense puzzle pieces falling together for her, much like they had when she figured out his ancestry what felt like a lifetime ago.
“Cameron should remember something this important though,” she claimed. “If I make him concentrate on something we knew, like the stories Midir and Étain grew up hearing, he can pull up that information. And I have no memory of this either. Midir never kept anything from me.”
Lugh ran his fingers through his hair, much the same way Cameron often did, and bit his lip. “You should both come with me. Badb, you should go to Murias for now…just to be safe.”
Badb kicked at a patch of grass and kept her eyes on the ground. “I’ll wait here. I just won’t go with you, although I really know very little and most likely nothing that would be helpful right now anyway.”
Lugh lifted her hand and brought it to his lips, promising her he’d return as soon as possible. But Cameron couldn’t help it. He had to say it. “Ew. Are we this gross?”
Selena pretended to think about it. “Possibly, but only when you’re not being a complete smartass.”
“Oh, so never then?”
Badb snickered and reminded them, “Five hundred years.”
“You really think you can compete with us?” Cameron retorted. “Come on, I waited almost two hundred years for her to be reborn then was murdered the same day I found her, then after a millennia of living here, was reincarnated and had to find her again.”
“Conceded,” Badb agreed.
Ukko waved to them from the path leading to his house, and Cameron fake-grimaced. “I can’t believe we have to be friends with Ukko now.”
“Pretty sure we had to become friends the moment he married Anita,” Selena teased.
Ukko nodded and glanced over his shoulder toward his house. “And apparently, we even have to be nice to each other now,” he teased back.
“Well, it is easier now that you’re not trying to kidnap people all the time,” Cameron said smartly.
Ukko sighed and pointed toward a small gray palace at the top of a hill. “Any chance you remember who lives there?”
Cameron folded his arms over his chest and focused on the palace atop the hill. “Yeah,” he finally said. “Bodb Derg, one of the Dagda’s sons.” He glanced at Ukko and quickly added, “Whom I did not lead a civil war against. Just getting that out there right away.”
“You…” Ukko rubbed his eyes and sighed again. “Cameron, what?”
Cameron shrugged and told him, “At some point, the writers who began to put our stories on paper or clay tablets or whatever decided that the Dagda stepped down and handed power over to his son, but I refused to accept this new king. Never happened. I mean, none of that ever happened. Obviously.”
“Probably not clay tablets,” Selena pointed out. “These stories were written down in the Middle Ages, and we’d kinda progressed beyond clay tablets by that point.”
“I don’t care,” Ukko sighed. “About the writing materials or the war.”
“Again: there was no war. Midir and Bodb Derg were friends, although I think he was killed in a battle,” Selena clarified.
“He was,” Cameron said. “But not mine. Again: Never waged war against him or anyone else. Not in Midir’s lifetime, anyway.”
Ukko glanced at Lugh and gestured toward his heir. “Can you make him stop doing that?”
“Pretty sure only Selena can make him do anything,” Lugh answered.
“Totally true,” Cameron agreed.
“I forgot how much of a headache I get trying to talk to you,” Ukko muttered.
“Totally believe that,” Cameron agreed again.
“You know what? I changed my mind,” Ukko said. “Lugh, you’re on your own.”
“Now that sounds like the Ukko we all know and…well, know,” Cameron joked.
“Cameron,” Lugh groaned. “Please stop. He was really helpful while you were snake-hunting around Houston.”
“And escaping from the Seventh Heaven,” Cameron added. “Don’t forget the being abducted and almost sacrificed to a pervy heart-stealing Aztec god.”
“You…” Lugh rubbed his eyes and sighed. “Cameron, what?”
“Dude, pay attention! Huitzilopochtli has been…”
Lugh held up a hand and stopped him. “Just tell me how you ended up there and escaped later. But if we don’t go see Bodb Derg now, we’ll still be standing here when Ragnarok breaks out.”
“Considering it’s not that far off, you can’t really blame me for that,” Cameron claimed.
Ukko shook his head and began walking toward the palace on the hill. “Believe me: We can and we will.”
“I hate you,” Cameron called after him.
“Let’s not walk,” Selena suggested. “Fewer opportunities for…interruptions.”
“Oh,” Cameron said. “So you meant we were all going now.”
Selena just smiled at him as Lugh knocked on Bodb Derg’s door, which was promptly answered by a god that seemed strangely familiar.
“Midir?” he asked, his round face and pink cheeks, so much like his father’s, lighting up as he opened his arms.
“Um…oh, what the hell,” Cameron decided, hugging the large god whose embrace swallowed him.
“Étain!” Bodb Derg exclaimed, loosening one arm so he could pull Selena into his embrace as well.
“I guess it has been a while, hasn’t it?” Selena laughed.
Bodb Derg nodded and released the young gods from his giant hug so he could usher them inside. “Come in! I keep all sorts of drinks here, mostly for my father, but I’ll admit: I’m still partial to the wine Dionysus gives us.”
He winked at Cameron and an old memory, hazy like he was watching it through frosted glass, reminded him of sitting at Bodb Derg’s table with Étain as he and the Dagda’s son played fi
dchell and drank wine and Étain recited the stories Badb had brought her from Tara.
“I actually don’t drink anymore,” Cameron admitted, “and Selena’s pregnant so…”
Bodb Derg’s face lit up even more and he nodded. “I heard. Finally—you both have everything you’ve deserved for so long.”
“Bodb Derg,” Lugh said. “When we came earlier, one story in particular gave Ukko and me hope that if you tell Cameron the same story, it might trigger some memory.”
“Of course,” the good god’s son immediately agreed. “Whatever I can do to help.”
“Can you tell him about the night you stopped by their house to tell them goodbye? Their last night in Findias before returning to Earth?”
Bodb Derg’s rusty red eyebrows bunched together, but he nodded. “I brought you a bottle of my best wine so we could drink it together and toast your good fortune, but you already had company.”
Selena shuffled her feet nervously and protested, “I don’t remember anyone being there. I remember you came by and gave us a bottle of wine as a farewell gift then left.”
“Étain,” Bodb Derg said, “I left because Ailill had come to say his farewells.”
“No,” Selena gasped.
“Oh my God,” Cameron whispered.
Lugh put a hand on Cameron’s shoulder and took a deep breath. “A descendant of our great queen Macha, the quest for the Lia Fáil…”
“What could I possibly have promised him though?” Cameron asked.
“We don’t know,” Lugh admitted. “But when you find him, you’ll have two psychics with you to find out.”
“Two?” Cameron repeated.
“Turns out,” Ukko said, “Anita is rather forgiving of my promise never to leave her or Findias again when it comes to helping both of you.”
The Phantom Queen (The Guardians of Tara Book 3) Page 14
