The Gatekeeper (The Guardians of Tara Book 1)

by S. M. Schmitz

  “Stone of Fal?” Selena guessed.

  “Bait? Sacrifice to the pervy, heart stealing Aztec god?” Cameron pretend-guessed.

  Nemain laughed and gestured to the fire with her free hand. “Because we all know only you can kill Huitzilopochtli once we find him. And besides. You and Selena have changed the rules we live by. No more Games of the Gods. This is your world now.”

  Cameron shook his head slowly and gently squeezed Selena’s hand. “No. Not yet it isn’t. As long as Huitzilopochtli is alive, it’s still his Game.”

  Chapter Two

  Cameron’s apartment in Baton Rouge hadn’t changed in the two and a half months since he’d last been in it. The night Badb had shown up and insisted Selena and he needed to go with her back to the Basin in order to confront Quetzalcoatl had been the last time he’d even seen his apartment. He was pretty sure no one had been paying his rent for him while he’d been gone. Not surprisingly, the door had new locks, but Selena’s telekinesis opened it anyway.

  Cameron flipped a light switch and smiled at his familiar beige sofa. “They didn’t repo my stuff.”

  “Yet,” Selena pointed out. “Any chance you still have frozen pizzas in here?”

  Cameron opened his freezer and shook his head. “I think I gave you the last one, and they tossed everything else. We’ll order Chinese.”

  Selena collapsed onto the sofa and produced his laptop from their room in the Otherworld. “I think it may be time for you to start a new list, love. We should have known it wouldn’t be as easy as just tracking down one god and that others would want to kill us. Gods are always trying to kill us.”

  Cameron closed his refrigerator door and sat by his girlfriend. Or his fiancée. He wasn’t actually sure what he was supposed to call her anymore. The past few days had been such a blur of activity and it had been Aonghus, the Irish love god, who’d suggested they get married soon. He’d wanted them to return to the Otherworld and marry immediately, but Selena and he agreed stopping Huitzilopochtli from murdering more innocent people was far more important than their marriage. Or second marriage. Or maybe it would be a remarriage?

  Whatever it was, their souls already felt bound together as they had been for thousands of years. But Cameron and Selena, the young man and woman who used to be demigods, still existed as themselves, too, and it was Cameron who was more than a little disappointed that the idea had even been raised before he could properly propose to Selena.

  There wasn’t a diamond or gem in any world that would have been fitting to give her. He’d simply planned to take some of her favorite colorful stones from the stream in Murias to Goibniu, the smith of the Tuatha Dé, and ask him to forge them into a ring for the woman who had shared a piece of his soul for over two thousand years. He still had her favorite stones hidden in the Dagda’s palace.

  Selena put his laptop on the coffee table and laced her fingers through his. “Something’s bothering you. I try not to pry in your head unless you speak to me, but I can’t help feeling what you’re feeling.”

  “Sorry,” Cameron sighed. “You’re right. About a new list, I mean. I’ll add Enlil. Wikipedia that bastard. See if he has any more snake creatures he can throw at me.”

  Selena snorted and turned the screen toward him. “A list of all gods and mythological creatures from Mesopotamian legends. I’m sure he’ll be coming back with some sort of bizarre creature that tries to eat us.”

  Cameron nodded and reached for his computer, but a knock on his door interrupted him. He narrowed his eyes toward the sound and joked, “Just in case that’s Enlil, any chance you have a huge Irish snake I can throw at that asshole?”

  “That… sounds really pervy. Don’t ever say that again,” Selena joked back.

  Cameron snickered and picked up his laptop. “Let her wait outside for a while. I kinda want to see if we can make her turn into a crow or an old woman like Badb.”

  Selena laughed and shook her head at him. “Badb is cranky when she’s pretending to be old. I don’t suggest we start this trend with her sister now, too.”

  Selena unlocked the doors with her telekinesis again, and Nemain entered the apartment, falling grumpily into the armchair opposite the sofa. Cameron glanced up at her from his computer and asked, “Ran into Badb back home, didn’t you?”

  “Stop pretending like you don’t love her,” Nemain answered. “And I did see her, but I didn’t have time to talk to her since I had to hurry because the rest of us can’t choose what time we’d like to return to on Earth.”

  Cameron shrugged and returned his attention to his laptop. “Why are you in such a bad mood then? You really are becoming your sister.”

  “You think it’s us?” Selena asked. “Maybe we have that effect on people.”

  Cameron nodded seriously. “Probably, although we’ve made it three whole days without anyone asking what’s wrong with us. That might be a new record.”

  “I have a feeling that’s only because Badb is stuck in the Otherworld,” Selena told him.

  “And Ukko,” Cameron pointed out.

  “And Doug went home,” Selena added.

  “And Jasper is in Houston now,” Cameron continued. “At this rate, we’ll run out of gods and demigods to annoy.”

  “True,” Selena pretended to agree. “Although some of them bring it on themselves. Ukko may not be the villain I once thought he was, but he’s no saint either.”

  Cameron snorted again and smiled at her. “Baby, none of us are saints except for you. If that’s the criteria we have to fill, no wonder we’re dying out.”

  Nemain sighed and exclaimed, “What is wrong with you two?”

  “Goddamn it,” Cameron muttered. “There goes our record.”

  “Which god?” Selena asked.

  Cameron pointed to Nemain. “That one.”

  “Are you about to damn us?” Selena asked the Irish war goddess.

  Nemain narrowed her eyes at the Goddess of Healing and retorted, “You’re both making me wish I could.”

  “So why are you in such a bad mood?” Cameron asked. “It’s not like Badb is here. Or any snakes.”

  “Why did you have to say that?” Selena groaned.

  “About Badb or the snakes?”

  “The snakes. Badb can’t leave the Otherworld for twenty-seven more days. Binding agreement between gods and all that.”

  “I don’t think you actually have a binding agreement,” Cameron argued. “You just told her to stay in Murias with your aunt. When she agreed, she bought herself an out by claiming it would be conditional on what’s going on with us here.”

  “And you know she’s going to insist we need her help whether it’s true or not,” Selena added.

  “Badb is in serious need of help,” Cameron responded.

  “Would you two shut up?” Nemain snapped.

  “That’s it,” Cameron pretend-threatened. “You’re on my to-be-smited list.”

  “Smote,” Selena corrected.

  “Enlil is trying to kill us with creatures from his own legends, and the Dagda didn’t think Bašmu would be the last beast we have to fight,” Nemain explained. “The more Enlil distracts us, the longer it will take to find Huitzilopochtli.”

  Cameron folded his arms and squinted at the war goddess. “This is about some bet, isn’t it? You bet your sister she’d never have the chance to become one of the Guardians of Tara because you’d find Huitzilopochtli first.”

  Nemain crossed her arms and squinted back at him. “If I weren’t having to deal with monstrous serpents, I probably could. There’s a reason the Tuatha Dé call me the Gatekeeper.”

  “We call you the Gatekeeper?” Selena asked.

  Nemain waved her off. “Well, not you. The older gods.”

  Cameron glanced at Selena and flashed her a mischievous grin. Apparently, Nemain was every bit as easy to annoy as her sister. “We have gates?”

  Selena nodded in complete smartass agreement. “Keeps the cattle from roaming off to the Egyptians b
etween cattle raids.”

  “You guys seriously need to get Netflix,” Cameron told Nemain.

  Nemain sighed and rolled her eyes. “A metaphorical gatekeeper. When the veil between worlds becomes permeable, all sorts of mortals and gods alike used to try to cross over to the Otherworld. And it was my job to keep out those who weren’t welcomed. Sometimes, once the veil closed again, we would have gods that stayed behind when they weren’t supposed to because they thought they could take the Otherworld from us, and it was my job to track them down so we could kick them out. I’m good at tracking, and I can find Huitzilopochtli if I had enough time.”

  “Question,” Cameron said.

  Nemain sighed impatiently but waited.

  “You knew Ninurta was planning to invade. Why didn’t you track him down and stop him before he could abduct Selena and lead the invasion into the Otherworld?”

  “Because you weren’t a god yet,” Nemain answered. “And we’re not the pantheon we used to be. I may have been able to find him in time, but how would we combat him on Earth when our numbers are so much smaller? Until you took the Spear, we were often outmanned against these alliances.”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore,” Selena interrupted. “Put your tracking skills to use and find Enlil. You two take care of him, and we can get back to finding the Aztec god who wants to steal my heart.”

  “What do you think he does with those hearts?” Cameron asked. “Do you really think he eats them?”

  Selena nodded. “The real question is, does he cook them first?”

  “No way,” Cameron responded. “That probably causes a chemical transformation that destroys the inherent power. Has to be raw. And fresh.”

  “God,” Nemain groaned, “no wonder Badb warned me to buy ear plugs.”

  “First of all,” Cameron said, “which god? Us? Or Badb?”

  Nemain opened her mouth to answer him, but a knock on the door distracted them all from bantering about which gods she’d invoked or what Huitzilopochtli did with the hearts he extracted from the demigods and gods he murdered. Selena folded her arms over her chest and scowled at the door, hissing, “What the hell is Badb doing here? You did invoke her, didn’t you?”

  Nemain shook her head and opened her mouth again but before she could respond, Badb knocked, louder and more impatiently this time. She called out, “Open the damn door!”

  Cameron shouted back, “Wrong apartment!”

  He thought he could hear her sighing through the closed door.

  “I’m opening it because I want to know why she’s here,” Selena told him. “And she’d better have a good reason, like the Otherworld is being invaded again.”

  Selena opened the door using her telekinesis for the third time and Badb entered, slamming it closed behind her. She put her hands on her hips and glared at Cameron, who threw his hands in the air, protesting, “What did I do?”

  “Wrong apartment,” she muttered.

  “Badb,” Selena said, “what the hell are you doing here?”

  “Yeah,” Nemain added, “I have twenty-seven more days. Don’t even think of trying to take my place early.”

  Badb waved her off. “Basically only twenty-six now. And I know you’re pissed off at me for coming, Selena, because for some reason, you seem to think it takes two of the Mórrígna to guard your aunt…”

  “I asked you and Macha to guard her in case there is another invasion! Just because some gods have agreed to put our past differences behind us doesn’t mean all will!”

  Badb tossed her hair over her shoulder and lifted her chin in the air. “Still wouldn’t take two of us.”

  Nemain groaned and rolled her eyes. “Would you put your ego aside for a moment and tell us why you’re really here then?”

  Badb narrowed her eyes at her sister, but Cameron couldn’t not say something. “Asking Badb to put aside her ego is like asking me to put aside my sarcasm. You might as well just ask Huitzilopochtli to materialize in this apartment so I can kill him and we can all go home.”

  Badb flipped him off then squinted at her sister again. “He’s a bad influence on you.”

  “Why does everyone accuse me of being a bad influence?” Cameron asked.

  “Because you are,” Badb teased.

  “I will send you to look for my reindeer,” Cameron warned.

  Badb pointed a finger at him and warned back, “Send me to Ellesmere Island again and I’ll never tell you why I showed up here in the first place.”

  “She’s not disguised as an old woman or a crow,” Selena said. “She’s probably just here to get laid.”

  Cameron pretended to grimace and shook his head. “I was right then. Wrong apartment. Actually, wrong state. And country. Although I know where there’s a god bound in a cave. He’s probably pretty desperate after two thousand years.”

  Badb flipped him off again and added a few colorful epithets, but truthfully, they were only messing with each other. Cameron really hadn’t liked her when he was still a demigod and hadn’t trusted her as a god either, not until the memories of his past life had been awakened. But now that he could remember an old friendship that had endured for millennia, he knew the famous war goddess may not be perfect, but she loved her family and would willingly die for any of them. And in that past life, when he’d needed to ensure the only woman he’d ever loved would be protected, Badb had been the first goddess he’d gone to and she’d immediately agreed to help him.

  Their relationship now, though, was based on the teasing he’d started over two months ago when he hadn’t known her or trusted her and had wanted nothing to do with her. It was as much a foundation of their friendship as the faith he now had that she would always place her family first.

  Selena sighed again, louder and angrier this time, and asked Badb, “Just tell us why you’re here so you can get back to Murias!”

  “Tara is in Findias right now anyway,” Badb responded. “She spends most of her time there hanging out with your mom.”

  “Badb!” Selena shouted. “I’m about to let Cameron smite you!”

  “Finally!” Cameron exclaimed.

  Badb grunted at them but sat on the arm of the chair where her sister also waited impatiently to discover why she’d shown up in Baton Rouge.

  “Macha went to Findias with Tara,” Badb explained. “And it’s Findias. That place has never been invaded. No god or number of gods could expel the spirits that live there, and who wants to live on an island filled with spiteful spirits that hate you for invading their resting place?”

  Cameron nudged Selena and whispered, “Bet you she doesn’t have a reason for being here. She’s just bored.”

  Selena nodded and continued to scowl at the war goddess.

  “I do have a reason for being here, smartass,” Badb snapped. She drummed her fingers on her thigh then added, “It is a bit boring though.”

  “Badb,” Nemain groaned.

  “I’m getting to it!” Badb insisted. “So I was hanging out with Semias since he’s all excited about two of our Treasures having been returned and the third being hunted. Did you know we have extensive legends about each of the Treasures that weren’t recorded?”

  “No,” Selena answered. “How could I have known that if it was never recorded?”

  “I didn’t even know all of these legends,” Badb said. “But as the wise man of Murias, it’s kind of Semias’s job to know them, right?”

  “Ok,” Selena said slowly. “And do any of these legends have to do with one of the Mórrígna not listening to her friend and annoying the hell out of her?”

  “Obviously,” Cameron interjected. “Because she does that all the time.”

  “I’m not associated with any of the Treasures,” Badb corrected. “They can’t involve me. But as he was reciting one of the poems about the Stone of Fal, we both realized something.”

  “That you’re really bad at telling stories?” Cameron guessed.

  “That you’re really bad at getting to the point?�
� Selena guessed.

  “From now on, I’m ignoring you both,” Badb retorted. “Selena already knows Irish myth says the Lia Fáil in Ireland is our Treasure from Falias, but we obviously took the Stone with us when we were forced to live in the Otherworld permanently. We returned it to Falias, and even though the fighting in the First Battle of the Gods took place in Murias, the Slavs went after the Stone and stole it from its home.”

  “Still waiting on your point,” Selena interrupted.

  “Still ignoring you,” Badb responded.

  “Obviously not,” Cameron pointed out. “You keep answering her.”

  Badb shook her head at him then looked down at her sister. “You know what? I’ll just tell you.”

  Nemain snorted and smiled at Badb. “Yeah, that’ll go over well if this requires us to do anything. You know none of us can compete with them, right?”

  “Why would you want to?” Cameron teased. “Selena and I have an impeccable track record, unlike some other goddesses we know.”

  “This is impossible,” Badb complained. “I should have just sent an email.”

  Cameron nodded smartly. “That is my preferred method for communicating with you. How do I update my preferences?”

  “Cameron,” Selena sighed, “just stop talking so she can finish.”

  Cameron crossed his arms and waited for Badb to finish. Selena should have known by now that her requests for him to shut up never worked. He tried, but his mouth always betrayed him.

  Badb eyed him suspiciously but continued her story. “We’d always assumed the Stone proclaimed the rightful king, meaning a political ruler, and that’s all it did. We kept it at Tara and allowed humans to use it as long as we were on good terms with them. We never thought it might proclaim other kinds of rulers.”

  Selena sat up straighter and stopped glaring at the war goddess. Cameron bit his lip to remind himself not to speak. “What other kind of ruler?” Selena asked cautiously.

  “Do you remember what you told us in Anita’s house before Ukko showed up?” Badb asked.

  Selena nodded. “Of course. But I said a lot of things. You’re going to have to be more specific.”