“Don’t you eat people?” Cameron asked.
“Seriously,” Selena hissed, “what the hell is wrong with you?”
“People, yes. I’m trying to decide if demigods are worth the trouble,” Quetzalcoatl said.
“No,” Cameron and Selena answered.
“I’ll be honest,” Cameron added. “I’d probably give you indigestion.”
“Heartburn,” Selena snickered.
“You are no longer allowed to tell me to shut up.”
“Oh, come on,” Selena protested. “I’m still funnier than you.”
“Nobody thought that was funny. Did anyone think that was funny?” Cameron asked.
Selena couldn’t see anyone’s reaction but she suspected they were all gaping at them, perhaps wondering if she was worth this much trouble after all.
“If you’re not kidnapping her, then why are you holding her?” the blonde man asked.
“Uh… I may have blinded her.”
The blonde man laughed and Selena would have rolled her eyes at him if she could see him. “Is that what she told you? She’s faking it. Put her down.”
“Hey!” Selena shouted indignantly. She wasn’t sure what was worse: being accused of faking her loss of sight or that Cameron actually set her down.
Her feet touched the firmer ground of the forest floor and she stumbled and held out her hands to grab onto anything that would keep her from falling. She expected Cameron to catch her, but he didn’t.
Bastard let her fall.
Selena tumbled onto what felt like a blanket of dry twigs and leaves and grimaced as the sharp edges of a stick broke the skin on her palm. She heard Cameron grunting behind her.
“There. You happy now? She’s blind and bleeding.”
“You let me fall!” she yelled.
“I was trying to prove a point!”
“Do they always talk this much?” Quetzalcoatl asked.
Everyone seemed to ignore him. Selena didn’t think the serpent god would like that very much.
“Just heal yourself, Selena,” the blonde man cooed. “Show our Aztec friend why this young man is trying to steal you.”
“A healer?” Quetzalcoatl repeated.
“I can’t,” Selena insisted.
“Bullshit,” the blonde man said. “You brought Alan back from death and I watched you do it.”
“I can’t heal myself!” Selena yelled. She sat up and rubbed her fingers gently over her bleeding palm to move the pieces of twigs and leaves and dirt away.
“Weak pantheon,” Quetzalcoatl observed.
“I’ve had enough of you, Lizard Man. Not even you can bring someone back from death and I’ve seen her do it. You want to become extinct like the rest of your gods?” the blonde man snapped.
“This… is going to end badly,” Cameron murmured.
Selena felt the leather of his gloves wrapping around her arm again and he pulled her back to her feet. The winds picked up around her as Quetzalcoatl summoned them and Cameron whispered in her ear, “We should run. Again.”
Selena shook her head to remind him she couldn’t, but he slipped his arm underneath her legs and lifted her again just as the ground began to shake. Cameron stumbled and had to steady himself against a tree, but the increasing winds ripped it from the ground.
Another gust of wind hit them and Cameron fell as the Earth shook again. Selena had the strangest sensation of being lifted from the ground, of floating through the air, and she thought she heard Cameron screaming her name before the world around her disappeared.
Chapter Five
Selena groaned and rolled over, but she was surrounded by blackness. She blinked and flexed her hand and tried to remember why it hurt so badly. It felt like something had been wrapped around it. She held it closer to her face, hoping some light would eventually filter into this room so she could see what was wrong before she remembered: she couldn’t see.
“God,” she groaned.
“Yes?” a man’s voice answered.
Selena screamed and sat up. “Who the hell are you?”
“You’ve already met me. And I let you live.”
“Quetzalcoatl,” she breathed.
“Is it true? Did you bring a man back from death?”
Selena shook her head slowly. “I don’t know if he was dead or not. He was badly injured.”
“Was his heart beating?”
Selena swallowed and thought about lying; if she were brave, she would lie. She would let him kill her. But the Serpent God terrified her.
“No,” she whispered.
She heard him moving and flinched when he lifted her hand. “And yet… you can’t heal a cut on yourself.”
Selena shook her head again. “Maybe it doesn’t work that way. Maybe it only works on others.”
“It’s a strange power that a god can’t use for his own benefit.”
Selena thought about pointing out that if she weren’t part human, she would be a goddess, but she was already scared enough. She didn’t think angering him would help.
“I had to teach myself how to use this power,” Selena said instead, trying to pull her hand free from his grasp, but she couldn’t. “There’s probably a way to do it. I just don’t know how.”
“Interesting,” Quetzalcoatl murmured. “Then perhaps now would be a good time for you to focus this power on yourself. Restore your sight.”
Selena shuddered and tried to pull her hand away from his grip again, but he still refused to let go of her.
“What are you the god of?” she asked weakly.
“I can’t heal you. Why do you think I brought you here?”
“Where are we?”
“My home. What should be my permanent home. Focus, girl. A blind healer does me little good. You can’t accompany me into the outside world if you can’t see the dangers around you.”
“And you expect me to serve you? I wouldn’t serve the New Pantheon. Why should you be any different?”
“The New Pantheon?” Quetzalcoatl scoffed. “They’re mostly demigods. Mortals. Weaklings. I could crush them.”
“That blonde man isn’t a demigod, is he?” Selena asked softly. Gods could sense each other in a way demigods couldn’t. Quetzalcoatl may even know the name of her primary pursuer since he’d had to use his powers in front of him.
“No,” Quetzalcoatl hissed. “He is Ukko.”
Selena sighed. More gods she’d never heard of. “Wait. Is that Japanese?”
Quetzalcoatl dropped her hand and made a grunting sound. If Selena had her sight, she suspected she’d be able to see him giving her that are-you-really-this-stupid? look.
“He’s a Finnish god. Does he look Japanese to you?” Quetzalcoatl finally said.
Wonderful. So Cameron was right about this, too.
Selena crossed her arms defiantly and said, “If I ever get out of here and figure out how to see again, I’ll look you both up. Not my fault there are too many damn religions in this world.”
“There are too many,” Quetzalcoatl agreed. “There should only be one. Mine. Now heal. I’ll check your progress later.”
Selena exhaled slowly as she listened to a door close. She ran her fingers along the bed she was sitting on and the soft silky fabric of the sheets. She turned around and felt the wall behind her, smooth and cool. No cheap paneling for this god.
Selena sighed again and wondered how he ate people, if he’d transform back into a snake first or if he had some stone altar where he’d sacrifice her to… himself?
A brief flashback to a picture in some textbook of a priest holding a human heart up to his god made her shiver and put her hands over her chest.
Neither option seemed like a good way to die.
Concentrate, she thought. Just… imagine being able to see again.
She blinked but the room was just as dark as before. She put her hands over her eyes and tried to open the same pathway that allowed her to heal others, but she didn’t feel anything. She moved her hands and s
tared into the blackness.
“This is ridiculous,” she mumbled.
“Agreed,” he whispered, and she jumped and felt his gloved hand cover her mouth so she wouldn’t scream.
“Sh,” Cameron whispered again. “He’ll be back soon. And we’ve kinda got another problem to deal with now.”
“God,” Selena groaned.
“Yes?” another familiar voice answered, only this one scared her for an entirely different reason.
“Yeah,” Cameron retorted, “you should probably stop saying that.”
“What is he doing here?” Selena hissed. And Cameron had promised her he wasn’t one of them; that he’d rather die than work for the New Pantheon.
“I needed their help to find you,” Cameron replied. He pulled on her hand but she wasn’t sure what was worse: staying here with Quetzalcoatl or leaving with Cameron and Ukko. She hesitated and listened as footsteps approached her. She shuddered again.
Ukko leaned down and spoke quietly in her ear, “Don’t be stupid, Selena. If you can’t prove to Quetzalcoatl that you’re a powerful healer then he will kill you. At least you’ll live with us. And give us a chance: you may discover we’re not as bad as you think.”
She thought about telling him the New Pantheon was far worse than she’d once thought, but Ukko was right about one thing: she didn’t want to stick around Quetzalcoatl’s house and wait to get eaten.
“May I carry you again?” Cameron asked quietly. “Otherwise, you’ll be walking into walls and shit and that’ll blow our wicked cool escape plan.”
“We have a wicked cool escape plan?” Selena whispered back.
“Yeah, turns out you have to be a full-fledged god to get from Earth to… where are we?”
Ukko sighed and she felt him grip her wrist as Cameron lifted her from the bed. She waited for those strong wind gusts to blow past her again, to sweep her into some sort of vortex that would transport her back to Earth, but they were apparently just going to walk out of Quetzalcoatl’s house.
They paused as Ukko opened a door and when a cooler, crisper air hit her skin, she shivered. Cameron wrapped his arms tighter around her. “It won’t be long now.”
“Ukko!” Quetzalcoatl shouted.
“In fact, now would be a good time to get us out of here,” Cameron added.
“This is going to be loud,” Ukko warned. Selena was pretty sure he was warning her since Cameron had presumably traveled here with him.
A low rumbling thunder sounded in the distance and Selena wrapped her arms tighter around Cameron’s neck. She was suddenly aware just how badly she smelled after escaping two fires and falling in a swamp, and why did he have to smell so good?
The low rumble transformed into sharper crackles as the lightning approached them. Quetzalcoatl shouted again, but she couldn’t make out his words over the winds that had begun to pick up and the lightning that was apparently moving closer and closer to them. She felt like they’d walked into a hurricane.
“Damn,” Cameron yelled over the noise around them. “This is so much cooler when you can see what’s about to happen.”
Selena thought it was a good thing he was holding her because otherwise, she would have kicked him.
Something warm washed over her and the winds fell still; all around her, the world had grown quiet. Peaceful. She wished she could see why. Sounds suddenly inundated her again and the warmth vanished. Horns, traffic, conversations. They were in a city.
Selena lifted her head and took a deep breath then wrinkled her nose. “Are we in New Orleans?”
“Uh… Bourbon Street,” Cameron answered. “Dude, is your GPS broken?”
“It was the first city that came to mind, ok?” Ukko snapped.
“I don’t care,” Selena said. “Think you can check us into a hotel though? I smell almost as bad as this street. And you can put me down now, Cameron.”
“I’m thinking you’ve got Bourbon Street beat,” Cameron agreed, setting her carefully on the sidewalk.
“Start walking, Selena,” Ukko ordered. “I’ll give you twelve hours to rest.”
She felt his hand grip her arm so she couldn’t run away from him, but even if she tried, she wouldn’t get far. Outrunning them was difficult enough when she had her sight; it would have been impossible now.
“I hope you’re putting us up somewhere swanky. You’re like the Zeus of Finland. I don’t want to be in some Motel 6,” Cameron said.
“I don’t think there are any Motel 6s in the French Quarter,” Selena pointed out.
“It’s twelve hours. Does it matter?” Ukko asked. “Turn left.”
Selena followed his directions even though he still gripped her arm. He had rescued her from Quetzalcoatl and he wouldn’t eat her, but he wasn’t exactly the most trustworthy of gods either. And she had long suspected he was psychic as well, so she was pretty much screwed.
“Any chance I’m from a Finnish pantheon?” Selena asked.
Ukko slowed down and she pictured him giving her that what-the-actual-hell-is-wrong-with-you? look.
“No. You’re not Finnish,” he finally said.
“Do you know what I am then?” she asked.
“No. You’re a demigoddess. You don’t have a strong enough presence for me to pick up something like that.”
“Hey,” Cameron interrupted. “According to Wikipedia, you’re supposed to be some old guy. And you caused thunder by doing it with your wife. That’s some pretty mad skills, to be honest.”
Selena shook her head in the direction of his voice. “That’s what you get for trusting Wikipedia.”
“It’s all here on my phone,” Cameron continued. “Want a different source?”
“Do you ever shut up?” Ukko sighed.
“You don’t look over forty. Explain that to me first then I’ll answer your question,” Cameron said.
Ukko muttered something in a language she couldn’t understand and she smiled. Maybe he’d let Cameron go just to get rid of him without the hassle of trying to kill a powerful demigod.
“I met Odin before he died. He didn’t look like an old man either,” Ukko explained. “Humans record myths, and before Christianity wiped out our pantheon, I never appeared to humans looking like myself.”
“Yeah, that’s in here, too,” Cameron said. “So that’s a no on the wild sex causing thunder then?”
This time, Ukko actually stopped walking. Selena wasn’t prepared and it jerked her back and she stumbled into Cameron. The leather of his gloves grazed her arm as he helped her upright again and she forced the memory of his beautiful face out of her mind.
“You know,” Ukko said, “that W hotel will work. We’re crossing the street, Selena. Cameron, hold her other arm and… watch for horse shit.”
“That could also explain the smell,” Selena said.
“Seriously,” Cameron added, “New Orleans needs an industrial size can of Lysol.”
“Well, if five angry gods hadn’t been chasing me through the city, I’m sure I would have had a chance to enjoy the scenery more,” Selena said.
“Only in New Orleans could we have this conversation and not a single person stop and look at us like we’re crazy,” Cameron observed.
“What time is it? Maybe they’re not sober,” Selena guessed.
“It’s New Orleans. Does it matter?”
“How should I know? I’m not from here, remember?”
“Would you two please shut up?” Ukko groaned.
She felt a cold blast of air as he opened the door to the hotel and she was almost glad she couldn’t see herself; she probably looked almost as bad as she smelled.
“I’m going to get us three rooms,” Ukko said. “But my accomplices are already on their way to help me watch your rooms at all times, so don’t even think of trying to escape.”
“What exactly is the penalty for a failed escape attempt?” Cameron asked.
“Cameron,” Selena groaned.
“What? I just want to have all the info
rmation. Good to know these things beforehand.”
“A slow and painful death,” Ukko warned. “Some slower and more painful than others.”
“I think he means me,” Cameron told Selena.
“I can’t imagine why,” Selena responded.
“I miss the days mortals knew how to cast spells on people,” Ukko muttered.
She was pulled up to the registration counter and Ukko’s voice changed, switching instantly into a warmer, professional tone. He asked for their rooms, two side by side and one across, and she listened as the desk clerk processed his credit card and gave him papers to sign.
She leaned closer to Cameron and whispered, “Is he staring at me funny? I probably don’t look like I belong here.”
“You don’t,” Cameron agreed. “But our rich Finnish friend just forked over almost a thousand bucks. They aren’t going to complain.”
“You really know how to soften the blow when delivering bad news, don’t you?”
“I thought you appreciated honesty,” Cameron retorted.
“Walk,” Ukko ordered. “At least I don’t have to listen to either of you once you’re in your own rooms.”
“Question,” Cameron said.
Ukko exhaled heavily.
“If I’m just going to talk to her, will I be allowed to go to her room? I don’t watch TV and twelve hours in a hotel room seems awfully boring.”
“Who says I want you in my room?” Selena asked.
Truthfully, she did. Preferably with her sight back. And then she blushed when she remembered she’d long suspected Ukko was psychic.
“Fine,” he mumbled. “The windows are sealed shut and we’re on the third floor. Seems fairly harmless unless you want to risk breaking a bone you can’t heal, Selena.”
Selena shook her head and let her Finnish overlord lead her to her hotel room. She listened to the click of the deadbolt sliding out of place as he removed the cardkey then he pushed the door open for her.
“Stick to a bath,” he advised her. “I don’t want you falling and splitting your head open. I’ll send… Prince Charming in to check on you in an hour.”
Shadows of the Gods (The Unbreakable Sword Series Book 1) Page 4
