The Gatekeeper (The Guardians of Tara Book 1)

by S. M. Schmitz

  Badb took a deep breath and glanced at her sister again. “What if you were right? About us, I mean. About what we were always meant to do here and failed at so terribly?”

  “The Guardians of Tara,” Selena breathed. “Gods were meant to protect those who are weaker.”

  “Holy shit,” Cameron mumbled.

  “Yeah,” Badb agreed. “And what if there’s someone out there who’s destined to become the next rightful heir of the Stone of Fal? To become the next Guardian of Tara?”

  “But…” Selena stammered, “Falias belonged mostly to Midir, and he never had children. How could he have a descendant?”

  Badb’s gray eyes shifted to Cameron as she responded. “But the Stone of Fal never belonged to Midir. That’s the problem, Selena. We never knew who it belonged to. As far back as anyone can remember, the Stone was in Falias, and when we brought it to Tara, it proclaimed their kings. It is the oldest of our Treasures and the one we know least about. And it may be the key to discovering that the new Games of the Gods you and Cameron have created are the right games after all.”

  Chapter Three

  That night, Cameron lay next to Selena and tried to pretend like the news Badb had delivered hadn’t upset him, but he could no longer hide his emotions from her. While they were each learning how to prevent inadvertently overhearing one another’s thoughts, their emotions were too closely bound together and she knew he was troubled by the possibility that there was yet another descendant they’d have to find and what it could mean for Earth.

  Selena wrapped her arm around him and nestled her face against his chest. There were few things in either world he loved more than when she pressed against him like this, so close that he could smell the floral scent of her shampoo and feel the heat from her body against his. He immediately put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head and begged her not to worry, which he already knew would be pointless.

  “This wouldn’t be so impossible if we knew whose heir we were supposed to be tracking down,” Selena murmured.

  “I’m getting tired of tracking people down anyway,” Cameron claimed. “Any chance we can bring Ukko out of retirement?”

  Selena snorted, but she didn’t think the former head of the New Pantheon would be leaving Findias anytime soon. “We can ask Jasper to help us,” she suggested coyly.

  Cameron groaned and shook his head. “Never mind. I’d rather do it on my own.”

  Selena propped herself up on an elbow and arched an eyebrow at him. “On your own? I seem to remember you having a lot of help finding the Unbreakable Sword and Nuada’s heir.”

  Cameron smiled at her and reached up to her face, tucking some of her blonde hair behind an ear. “Selena… when Aonghus brought up our wedding…”

  “Cold feet already?” Selena teased.

  “Never. I married you once and I’d marry you a million times more.”

  “Is this what was bothering you earlier?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” Cameron sighed. “At some point, don’t we get to start controlling our own lives? I know Aonghus means well. He’s happy for us. He’s excited we’ve finally returned. But as Cameron and Selena, these lives are still ours. And maybe I want to do things just a bit differently.”

  “Oh,” Selena breathed. “You wanted to propose.”

  “Of course I did,” Cameron answered, smiling at her again, and when she smiled back at him, his heart beat faster from the excitement he always felt when he’d made her happy.

  “Then nothing will happen until you do. When you’re ready, love.”

  “I’m still not sure what I ever did to deserve you. In either life. Did Aonghus put a spell on you or something?”

  Selena laughed and Cameron’s smile widened. Every concern he carried with him lifted when she laughed like that, and for a brief moment, he could forget there were still gods in this world who wanted them dead or heirs that needed to be found or a Treasure that remained lost to the Tuatha Dé.

  “No, Cameron,” she said. “No spell was ever needed. I knew from the moment I saw you in my father’s palace that Fate had designed us for one another. I believed then and I still do that we are meant to gift wonderful things to this world. Not the Otherworld, but this one. And I think that’s why we’ve been given so many chances.”

  “I believe that about you. I’m just along for the ride. You know, so you don’t get lonely, or if you need a bodyguard against an asshole Mesopotamian or Aztec god who tries to kidnap you and kill you.”

  Selena snickered and reclaimed her spot in the crook of his shoulder. “The Stone of Fal was already in Falias,” she said quietly.

  Cameron recognized that tone. She was puzzling through a problem and speaking aloud, more to herself than to him. While he’d spent a lot of time studying mythology as well, he’d never spent much time studying Irish mythology, and Selena’s expert knowledge on the subject was matched only by the old gods themselves. And maybe the wise men who guided each of the island cities.

  “Unlike your Spear or the Sword or the Cauldron, the Tuatha Dé didn’t make this one. They found it and claimed it as their own. So who could have left it there?”

  “Um…” Cameron answered. “David? You know, that slingshot did kill a giant and all.”

  “A giant…” she repeated. Selena sat up and turned on a lamp. Cameron squinted against the light and sighed. Battling a huge giant dragon snake had been pretty exhausting, but it didn’t seem like she would be letting him sleep anytime soon.

  “The Book of Invasions,” Selena excitedly exclaimed.

  “Is a really old book,” Cameron yawned. “A really old book that doesn’t even make a lot of sense.”

  Selena waved him off. “Whose mythology does make sense?”

  “Conceded,” Cameron agreed.

  “Who are the Tuatha Dé descended from?” Selena pressed.

  “Danu, which is why everyone keeps calling us the Children of Danu,” Cameron answered.

  “No, before that,” Selena insisted.

  Cameron sighed again and rubbed his eyes. “Selena, you’ve exhausted my knowledge of Irish mythology.”

  “I’ve exhausted Cameron’s. Come on. You know this.”

  “Fine,” he muttered. It wasn’t exactly easy trying to draw on knowledge he’d once possessed in a former life. Memories came far easier because attached to memories were the strong emotions that helped to create them. Knowledge was simply learned information, and so much time had passed and had been mixed with the life he now led. But as he thought back to the memories of a life he’d once lived, he finally grasped pieces of the story Selena wanted him to remember.

  “Supposedly, we’re descendants of the Nemedians,” Cameron said between another yawn. He glanced at the lamp, hoping Selena would take pity on him and turn it back off.

  Selena didn’t take pity on him, and she didn’t turn it off.

  “Exactly!” she exclaimed. “And according to myths, when the Nemedians were forced out of Ireland, some settled in Greece and eventually returned as the Fir Bolg while others moved north to become the Tuatha Dé. But what if those descendants really managed to cross the veil and move to the Otherworld for the first time? Our ancestors didn’t move north, they just moved to another world!”

  Cameron blinked at her then yawned again. “And the Otherworld was just sitting there empty?”

  Selena shrugged. “If it originally belonged to Nemed, then yeah, maybe it was mostly empty.”

  “If Nemed had the Otherworld, why did he leave? Why go to Ireland?”

  “I don’t know,” Selena admitted, lying beside him again. “That’s where Christianity butchered our legends because the monks who recorded these stories about Nemed and his wife and their followers claimed he was a direct descendant of Noah.”

  “Seems legit,” Cameron pretended to agree. “Noah and his wife had nothing to do on that ark anyway. They were stuck there with a million animals. Probably had like a hundred kids before the flood was over.” />
  “Cameron,” Selena scolded.

  “What?” Cameron laughed. “Dude lived to be over nine hundred years old! That’s plenty of time to father a hundred kids!”

  “Nemed,” Selena responded. “Focus.”

  “I’m focused,” Cameron lied.

  “What if there are descendants of Nemed’s on Earth? Demigods like we used to be and one of them is supposed to inherit the Stone and become the next Guardian of Tara?”

  Suddenly excited again, Selena sat up and smiled at him. “Maybe that’s why the Nemedians left the Otherworld! They were the original Guardians of Tara!”

  “Um,” Cameron said, “can I just kill Huitzilopochtli and let Nemain and her sisters take care of the rest? I totally wasn’t joking. I’m tired of tracking down heirs.”

  “I know you weren’t joking, and no. We can’t abandon them. Even if Huitzilopochtli were dead, someone else is always trying to kill us, and we can’t just go home and leave them here to die.”

  “They could come home with us,” Cameron argued. “Selena, it’s been thousands of years. What makes you think humans even want our help anymore?”

  “They need our help now more than ever,” Selena countered.

  “Maybe,” Cameron agreed, “but that doesn’t mean they want it. And it doesn’t mean they’ll accept it.”

  “We have to try,” Selena insisted. “What’s the worst that can happen? They nuke us?”

  “That’s… not funny. And probably accurate.”

  Selena shrugged and lay beside him again. “There’s a new belief system now, one no one really knows anything about. We’ll just have to hope humans can accept us if they realize our existence doesn’t have to replace their faith in a god no one knows.”

  “Or maybe,” Cameron said slowly, “we figure out how to help this planet without people knowing about us at all. We’re not superheroes. We don’t need to become The Avengers and have our images plastered on the news anyway.”

  “Hey!” Selena laughed. “Referencing Marvel comics is my thing!”

  “Yeah, and you made me watch that movie the other night. I’ve just been waiting to use it. Think Thor knows how he’s being portrayed in movies now?”

  “He should. They did him a huge favor.”

  “I’m going to pretend like you’re talking about how they changed his personality and not the actor they hired.”

  Selena laughed again and kissed him. “He still has nothing on you, love.”

  Cameron smiled and reached over to the lamp to turn it off. “Nemain’s sleeping on the couch. Want to see if we can make her leave?”

  Selena snickered and teased, “Should I be a little concerned that talking about Thor put you in the mood to have sex?”

  “And… you just killed it.”

  “Aw,” Selena giggled. “I’m pretty sure I can fix this.”

  Cameron smiled and a memory, an old one from a different lifetime, reminded him of a different room in a different world on a different night. But in many ways, so much was still the same because despite the new lives they’d each been given, neither of them had really changed. Selena was, at times, a bit more assertive than Étain had been, and he was pretty sure he wasn’t quite as much a smartass before, but in the end, they were still the same.

  And for the first time since Étain was murdered while they lay sleeping in their own bed, he finally felt confident that they’d eventually be able to have the lives they’d always wanted.

  Nemain wrinkled her nose and pushed the soggy bacon on her plate to the side. Cameron reached across the table and speared it with his fork.

  “Seriously, you keep being picky like this and you’ll keep losing your food,” he warned.

  Nemain pushed her plate toward him. “Why do we have to keep coming here? Is there seriously nowhere else in Baton Rouge to eat breakfast other than IHOP?”

  Cameron ignored her and glanced at Selena’s plate. “You’re about to lose your bacon, too.”

  Selena put her arm around her plate protectively then asked Nemain for the second time, “So what do you think of my theory with the Nemedians?”

  “Technically, it’s not a theory,” Cameron pointed out. “A theory would have to be tested first. It’s more like a hypothesis.”

  Selena gave him a sly smile and retorted, “I’m hypothesizing that you’re not getting any bacon from me for a while.”

  “I have no idea if you’re talking about food or if this is some weird metaphor for sex.”

  “Ew,” Nemain interrupted. “She’d better be talking about food.”

  Cameron nodded. “That’s what I was thinking, too.”

  “I’m going to guess she implied more than one meaning,” a familiar voice added.

  Cameron didn’t bother turning around. He immediately recognized both her voice and her presence so he just nodded again and pointed his fork toward Nemain’s plate. “If you’re hoping to scavenge from our plates, you’re sitting next to Nemain.” He remembered he was addressing the goddess that was supposed to be his queen so quickly added, “Your Highness.”

  Bridget laughed and slid into the booth next to the war goddess. The new queen of the Tuatha Dé eyed Cameron’s plate playfully, but she leaned back and said, “Badb told me about the Stone of Fal and her assumption that it’s tied to yet another heir. Are you planning on hunting this person down, too?”

  Cameron shrugged and handed her a wedge of toast as a half-assed peace offering. Or maybe it was a smartass peace offering. Probably a bit of both. “Are you going to make us hunt this person down?”

  “Of course not,” Bridget replied. She took the toast from him regardless of his intentions. “But I wanted to know if you planned on it because if you’re not going to, I will once you and Selena return.”

  Cameron groaned and put his fork down. “That’s some sort of emotional blackmail, isn’t it?”

  Bridget dropped the toast on a napkin and folded her arms indignantly. “Hey, what is that supposed to mean? You think I’m incapable of roaming the Earth looking for powerful descendants and fighting off crazy, homicidal gods?”

  “No,” Cameron told her, “but as our queen, aren’t we supposed to be protecting you? Isn’t that in our rulebook somewhere?”

  “We have a rulebook?” Nemain asked.

  Cameron nodded smartly. “Fifth Treasure of the Tuatha Dé. I’m willing to bet Badb traded it to the Norse and that’s how she really got Lugh’s Spear back.”

  Nemain narrowed her eyes at him and hissed, “Not funny, Sun God.”

  “Not sure the Norse would have taken that trade anyway,” Bridget teased. “Even without knowing the prophecy yet about you or Selena, they knew the Spear itself carried a great deal of power.”

  “Please don’t encourage him,” Nemain muttered.

  “And besides,” Bridget added. “Didn’t I demonstrate at the Battle of the Gods that I don’t need to be protected? I’m not helpless, Cameron.”

  Selena grunted at her and said, “Hey! They’re always having to protect me! Are you saying I’m helpless?”

  “Of course not,” Bridget assured her. “But as we keep pointing out, you’re a goddess of healing, and it’s not in your nature to fight anyone. From what I understand, Étain had a similar nature even though she wasn’t a healing goddess. Some people, like you, are just too good to be warriors.”

  Selena stopped pretend-pouting and smiled at their new queen. “You know I was just joking. But hearing that from you still makes me feel incredibly honored.”

  Bridget shrugged and picked up her piece of toast again as she looked around for the waitress. “I want my own bacon,” she mumbled.

  Cameron groaned again but pushed his plate toward her.

  “Normally, I wouldn’t steal your breakfast,” Bridget said, “but I’m starving.”

  “You’re living in the Dagda’s palace with a magic chef, and you couldn’t eat before coming to Baton Rouge, Louisiana?” Cameron asked. “This is some sort of punishment f
or something I don’t even know I did, right?”

  Bridget blinked at him then grabbed a slice of bacon off his plate. “I don’t think it’s in my job description to punish gods, is it?”

  “You really need a copy of that rulebook,” Cameron told her.

  Bridget nodded as she took a bite of the bacon then decided, “I’m not sure that’s in your best interest, Sun God. Probably best it stays lost.”

  “Conceded,” Cameron agreed.

  Nemain pushed her plate toward their new queen as well and told her to spare the young god’s breakfast. He was enough of a pain in the ass when he wasn’t hungry. Bridget laughed, but Selena shot Nemain a look that made Cameron think maybe they’d all been wrong. Maybe she could be violent if she were pissed off enough, although he had no idea why that comment would have pissed her off.

  It sounded like something he would have said about himself. And for all the grief he gave Nemain, he didn’t mind receiving a few jabs back. After all, if she didn’t play along, he wouldn’t tease her the way he did. He wasn’t really an asshole.

  Being a powerful psychic like Badb, Bridget seemed to notice the change in Selena’s attitude as well so she thanked Nemain and assured the gods she’d be returning to the Otherworld after breakfast and would let the Dagda know who would be looking for the potential heir of the Stone of Fal.

  “About that,” Selena said, and Cameron felt an odd sense of relief when her voice and demeanor indicated she was simply the goddess he’d always known and loved. Whatever had angered her must have been a fluke. Maybe he’d kept her up too late. Yep. He was definitely going with her unusual mood being a result of him keeping her up too late.

  “Last night,” she continued, although she returned his mischievous smile, “I had an idea about who the original owner of the Stone of Fal might have been and who the descendant of its power might be now.”

  Nemain arched an eyebrow at her and snickered. “That did not sound like you were brainstorming in there.”

  “Brainstorming,” Cameron repeated. “Brain…storming… Nope. Not even I can figure out how to make that weird. You’ve got to give me something to work with here.”