Selena risked opening her eyes, expecting to be surrounded by the muddy river, but instead, she saw the wide path of obliteration the water had caused. She had just a moment to think that only a tornado could match water in its merciless destruction when she heard the unmistakable roaring of wind, the deep rumbling churning like a train.
She searched the horizon of the emptied Basin for the tornado and finally spotted not one but several of them, spiraling toward the gods who hadn’t moved from their circle. Selena glanced at the Dagda, whose eyes remained fixed on the funnels he had created. She noticed Chalchiuhtlicue watched the approaching tornadoes as well, beautiful but deadly in her anger over her failure to kill the gods she battled.
Quetzalcoatl appeared by Chalchiuhtlicue’s side and shouted something at her in Nahuatl and they both disappeared again. Cameron sighed, a frustrated and outraged breath. “How the hell are we supposed to fight someone who can keep vanishing on us?”
“Battles between evenly matched gods are battles of wits,” Badb explained. “One side will have to trick the other.”
“Well, I’m useless here then,” Cameron snapped.
Selena laughed at him even though her fear had reached an unprecedented level. Even Cameron had to know he was actually quite smart; after all, he had made his own mask with lenses that allowed him to see in both the dark and light. But now wasn’t a good time to be admiring his self-deprecating humor. Just because they couldn’t see the five Aztec gods trying to kill them didn’t mean they weren’t around.
The Dagda paused his tornadoes and they spun in place, eerily beautiful in their power and potential. Selena waited for instructions, orders, suggestions, anything to give her some clue as to how she could help those who were trying to protect her. She didn’t care if they each had their own selfish reasons for wanting her to survive; they were fighting for her because they wanted her to survive. Only Cameron was here with no agenda. He wanted her to live simply because he wanted her to live.
Athena touched Badb’s arm and nodded toward Cameron. “Don’t you have his spear? Give it to him.”
“No,” Selena said automatically. “There has to be another way we can win.”
“But…” Athena started to protest, but Selena wouldn’t let her.
“You won’t take his will from him! Think of something else!” she shouted.
Athena’s face registered her surprise, but she licked her lips and turned to her brother. Selena assumed they conversed with each other in ancient Greek.
“Selena,” Cameron said, “if it’s the only way…”
“No,” Selena argued again. “It’s not what you want.”
Ares stepped closer to them and held out a spear to Cameron who looked at it like he were trying to hand him a miniature version of Quetzalcoatl in his animal form.
Ares sighed and rolled his eyes. “It’s not Lugh’s spear, obviously. I wouldn’t even have access to that. We reason that if it’s in your blood though, you stand the best chance of success with this particular weapon.”
“I don’t even know what to do with a spear,” Cameron insisted. “Do I just… stab someone with it?”
“Is he serious?” Athena asked Badb.
Badb shrugged. “Probably.”
“Can you all hurry up?” the Dagda asked. “Do you have any idea how difficult it is to keep three tornadoes lassoed in place?”
Cameron reached for the spear in Ares’ hand and Selena held her breath again. She trusted Badb, but she didn’t know the Greeks; she wasn’t one of them. Part of her expected some sort of deception, even though this spear did look different than the one Macha had brought to him in the palace. She waited for something to happen, for the spear to light up, to burst into brilliant flames. The sharp metal point reflected the sunlight as it exchanged hands but that was all.
Cameron looked around the Basin, his jaw set and his eyes blazing. “Quetzalcoatl,” he yelled, “who’s the coward now? Hiding like a snake in the grass.”
The Dagda nodded approvingly. “Fitting.”
The roar of more tornadoes forming on the opposite horizon told Selena that Cameron’s taunting had struck a nerve. Quetzalcoatl materialized near the bank of the river where the water had mostly retreated. The other Aztec gods followed him, careful not to stand too close to him, to keep their line spread out so that the Greeks and Tuatha Dé couldn’t target them all at once.
But Cameron’s eyes were only on one god. “You wanted her. Come get her,” he called out to him.
Selena couldn’t be sure, but she thought even Athena and Ares looked shocked by his sudden hubris.
“On second thought,” Quetzalcoatl responded, “I’m glad you didn’t want to compromise. Killing you will be the most fun I’ve had in years.”
“You need to get out more,” Cameron said.
Selena noticed none of the Aztec gods were empty handed now. Each held their own spear or bow, and she glanced at the deities around her in the circle. They were armed as well. Apparently, the showing-off of cool supernatural powers part of this battle was over.
Quetzalcoatl tilted his head at Cameron and sneered, “Step out of your enchanted ring then and fight me. I’m waiting.”
Cameron stepped forward, and the four gods stepped with him. Selena wanted to stop him, she wanted to pull him back into the white mist that somehow protected them, but he wouldn’t have listened to her and she would have only humiliated him. He was the descendant of the magnificent warrior Cú Chulainn, the unparalleled-in-all-gifts Lugh.
And she was the inheritor of Dian Cécht’s great healing power. Despite what Cameron had once told her, she had every intention of healing him if she could.
Her heart seemed to stop beating as she watched Quetzalcoatl’s arm retract then his spear flew through the air. She tried to redirect it, but the god’s strength was still stronger than her own. Its course wasn’t even altered. It sailed toward Cameron’s chest and she thought she screamed again. Her legs became weak and she fell to her knees as she watched Cameron lift his own spear and knock Quetzalcoatl’s away. It fell to the ground by his feet, transforming into a long black and green snake that hissed at him and bared its fangs.
“Dude, that is messed up!” Cameron complained.
Quetzalcoatl looked far less concerned about Cameron’s hatred of snakes than his ability to deflect his spear. His dark eyes transformed to their reptilian crimson shade and his nostrils flared as another spear appeared in his hand. With Quetzalcoatl distracted, Selena used her own gift to quickly kill the snake on the ground by Cameron’s feet before it could bite him.
She was vaguely aware of the sounds of the other gods fighting beside her and Cameron but she couldn’t take her eyes off of the man she had fallen in love with, the man who had been willing to accept a fate he’d never wanted just to protect her. He didn’t have the ability to make spears continually appear in his hand; he would have one chance to kill Quetzalcoatl and one only, while Quetzalcoatl could tirelessly throw his own spears at the demigod standing in his way of immortality.
The serpent god’s arm bent back and threw another spear, this one faster and lower, and Selena held her breath again but watched as Cameron batted it away. Just like the last spear, it instantly transformed into a snake as soon as it hit the ground and Selena immediately killed it.
In his frustration, Quetzalcoatl took several steps closer to Cameron and threw another spear. When this one ended up on the ground like his others, Quetzalcoatl screamed at him in Nahuatl and stepped closer again. Selena watched Cameron’s fingers twitch around the shaft of his spear as he waited.
He needs a distraction, she realized. Quetzalcoatl could make new spears appear instantaneously. Cameron needed something to happen to buy him a few seconds to lift his own weapon and aim. As it was, by the time he knocked Quetzalcoatl’s spear from the air, the god was already preparing to throw another one. But if she did anything to distract Quetzalcoatl, it would likely distract Cameron, too.
She was still helpless, kneeling inside the circle of white mist, her only contribution to the battle being waged on her behalf her ability to kill the snakes that sprang forth from Quetzalcoatl’s spears. A memory, so aged it seemed to filter through her mind in black and white like the images from a newspaper or old television show, of Aunt Tara and her sitting at the kitchen table, their heads bowed, their hands clasped together, tiptoed through her mind. She must have been four or five. She certainly couldn’t have been older.
She had no idea what her aunt was doing and had tried to ask her but her aunt had shushed her and kept her eyes closed. Her lips moved slightly as if she were talking to herself and Selena watched her, confused and spellbound. She mimicked her aunt and moved her lips just slightly, too, although she wasn’t making words. She didn’t know what words to make.
Finally, Aunt Tara lifted her head and patted her niece’s little hand and smiled at her. “Hungry?” she asked her.
Selena looked at the ham and baked sweet potatoes on the table and nodded, but she wanted to know what Aunt Tara had been doing. Her aunt had smiled at her again and lifted her small, still chubby hand and brought it to her lips. “We had our chance, my darling. That’s all.”
Aunt Tara never prayed in front of her again.
Selena closed her eyes and dug her fingers into the soft earth, still muddy from the tsunami Chalchiuhtlicue had caused. She didn’t know how to pray to a god she didn’t believe in. She didn’t know if her requests would only anger him, if he existed at all. The only thing she knew is that the followers of this god had driven the old gods into hiding, had murdered the priests of the old religions, had murdered the religions themselves. But that was hardly the god’s fault, and she was out of options.
Selena prayed. If you’re there, help us. Please. I know you owe us nothing, but don’t let Cameron die like this. If you’re as powerful as so many believe, then you know he doesn’t deserve it. Help him.
Selena opened her eyes as he batted away another spear and the serpent on the ground lunged toward him. Selena broke its spine and it fell limply to the Basin floor. Quetzalcoatl moved a few steps closer to Cameron and she panicked.
“Badb!” she screamed.
Badb thrust her sword into the side of Chalchiuhtlicue, but the goddess’s figure turned to water and fell to the Earth. She reformed a few feet behind the puddle.
Selena saw Badb’s fear and her own panic in the Irish goddess’s eyes but she was as helpless as Selena. She couldn’t get away from the water goddess to help Cameron, and Cameron couldn’t try to kill Quetzalcoatl until the god stopped throwing spear after spear at him. The Dagda, who had been battling Tonatiuh next to Badb, gave his war goddess one last, remorseful glance then hurried to Cameron’s side. He lifted his spear and threw it at the serpent god, who had to knock it down, but it was the distraction Cameron needed.
Cameron lifted his arm and threw his spear. Selena stopped breathing.
She watched it fly, straight and smooth, gliding through the air so precisely, so skillfully, as if he’d been wielding spears his entire life. And when it pierced Quetzalcoatl’s heart, she remembered to breathe.
The sounds of battle fell silent all around them as every deity in the Basin stared dumbfounded at Quetzalcoatl, the long shaft of the spear protruding from his copper chest, thick red blood pouring from the entry wound. His eyes, having returned to their normal dark color, looked down at the spear, something like confusion and surprise passing through them. His hands rose to the spear as his feet stumbled backwards toward the river, and he lifted his head, his eyes meeting Cameron’s one last time.
“Who…” he breathed, “are you?”
“Didn’t anybody ever warn you never to piss off a man in love?” Cameron answered.
Quetzalcoatl’s eyebrows furrowed then he tumbled back into the water, his dark red blood mixing with the brown water of the river. Selena sat back on her feet, staring at the body bobbing in the waves, disbelieving and numb. A shout to her right, a war cry maybe, or perhaps the cry of a vengeful and angry goddess, snapped her out of her detachment from the world around her. Chalchiuhtlicue charged Badb unexpectedly, piercing her through her stomach with her spear.
“No!” Selena shouted. She scrambled to her feet and ran to Badb’s side, the Dagda and Cameron quickly surrounding her to keep the other Aztecs away from her.
She heard the Dagda’s voice thundering around her but his words were so meaningless, so empty. He was accusing Chalchiuhtlicue of violating the rules of warfare since Quetzalcoatl’s death had constituted a temporary truce. But what difference did it make if Badb died? Selena had never healed a god before. She didn’t even know if she could. Gods had been pursuing her because they wanted her to heal for them, but she’d only healed demigods. She couldn’t even heal herself. Maybe they were all overestimating how powerful she was; they had all placed far too much faith in her and, now, she could lose the only god she had ever cared about.
She fell at Badb’s side and placed her hands over the wound in her stomach. Her white dress was stained with a large circle of sticky maroon blood, and Selena felt the tears falling from her cheeks but she didn’t wipe them away.
“You are not going to die on me,” she demanded.
Badb smiled weakly at her. “Even if I do, you were worth the sacrifice, Selena.”
“Don’t talk like that!” Selena insisted. Cameron was no longer with her. She sensed he was with the Dagda, fighting Chalchiuhtlicue, seeking revenge for Badb’s possible murder, but too much had happened too quickly. She couldn’t even process all of it right now. They needed an escape. They needed to get Badb out of here. They all needed out of this Basin.
Selena felt the gift she had spent her entire life hiding from the world flow through her and she watched Badb’s stomach, refusing to blink or even acknowledge the world outside of the goddess dying before her. It’s not working. It’s not working oh my god it’s not working she’s going to die and I can’t save her!
One of Badb’s bloody hands reached up to touch Selena’s cheek and her fingers brushed away the tears that still fell from her eyes. Selena concentrated harder.
“Cameron! Help me!” she cried.
Cameron dropped whatever he’d been fighting with by Badb’s feet and he fell to her other side, placing his hands next to Selena’s.
“Two healers?” Chalchiuhtlicue hissed. “Your pantheon cheats!”
“Don’t be stupid, Chalchiuhtlicue. You know we can’t control what gets passed down and to whom,” the Dagda snapped.
“They don’t cheat,” a familiar voice said, “but they do like to lie and hide things from their friends.”
Selena’s head snapped up and she looked over her shoulder to see Quinn and Avery watching them, a tall bearded man standing protectively next to them.
“You son of a bitch,” Cameron seethed, but Selena stopped him from getting up.
“It was working, Cameron. We have to finish. I need your help!”
Cameron glanced at her then turned his hard gaze back to Quinn but didn’t get up. He kept his hands on Badb’s stomach and Selena tried to ignore the Norse who had decided to join the battle against the Irish and Greeks. They only thought their odds sucked before.
“Go ahead, Cameron. Finish the job,” Quinn said. “And reconsider calling me any more names. The only reason you don’t have an army of Norse and Slavic gods here right now to kill you both is that I talked Thor into giving you a head start.”
“This is our war!” Chalchiuhtlicue yelled at the newcomers.
Thor’s booming voice carried over the dissension of the Aztec gods who wanted to avenge the death of one of their own. “I was watching and you did violate the truce. Don’t play dumb. We each know when all parties stop fighting, it’s an automatic truce, which means you stabbed her in the back. And I don’t like cowards who stab people in the back.”
“Put down your hammer and see if you’re still so brave,” Chalchiuhtlicue fumed.
&
nbsp; Selena moved her bloody hands and pushed the torn material of Badb’s dress aside to check for a wound. She realized her heart was still beating after all when she couldn’t find the gaping hole the spear had left and Badb’s shining gray eyes were watching her.
“Get up now, Children,” she said quietly. “We will need to leave soon.”
Cameron and Selena stood up and turned toward the Norse. Thor was no longer the only god here from his pantheon. Selena could only guess the other man must be Tyr because he was missing a hand. A beautiful woman, covered in brilliant, sparkling jewelry stepped out from behind Thor and waited by Avery’s side.
“Freyja,” Selena whispered.
“They can’t live in the Otherworld,” Athena whispered to Cameron and Selena. “They’ll all show up knowing that you’re here. Killing you is their chance to gain control of the world they want.”
The Dagda backed away from Chalchiuhtlicue and put an arm around Badb, checking her quickly to make sure she was really all right. Badb smiled but kept her eyes on the Norse gods. A fourth had just appeared. Selena had no idea who he was – there was nothing distinctive about him to give away his identity.
Ares leaned closer to her ear and whispered, “Dagr.”
“Day,” Selena breathed.
“Another sun god,” the Dagda said.
“What happened to our head start?” Cameron shouted at Quinn.
Quinn shrugged a large, round shoulder at him. “You’re not running.”
Selena put her hands, covered now in both mud and the blood of a goddess, on her hips and scowled at him. “The Tuatha Dé don’t run.”
A fifth Norse god appeared by Quinn’s broad figure and he grinned at her, mocking her.
“No,” Badb said, placing a hand on Selena’s shoulder. “We don’t. But don’t worry, Thor. You’ll be seeing us soon.”
A bright white light surrounded them and the Basin vanished as Selena and Cameron opened their eyes to the miracles of the Otherworld.
Shadows of the Gods (The Unbreakable Sword Series Book 1) Page 18
