Alpha Goddess

by Amalie Howard

Sera told him what had happened in a few short sentences. His eyes were wide. “Did you see where they were?”

  “No, it was just a white room. Probably Azrath’s.”

  Kyle nodded his head. “Azrath is obsessed with white. What cooperation was Jude talking about?”

  “When Marcus came last night, Dad said that Azrath’s message was for him to stay away. Dad wouldn’t agree. He told Marcus that he’d taken a vow to stand against his brother if he went against the covenant of the Trimurtas in any way. So Marcus broke two of his ribs, and now they’ve taken Nate to keep Dad quiet.”

  “That’s weird. It must be something that Sam can somehow stop if Azrath’s so worried about him interfering,” Kyle offered.

  Sera’s eyes widened—Kyle was right! A crashing sound from downstairs had them both vaulting to their feet, and they almost collided on the stairs in their haste to get down them.

  “Mom!” Sera yelled, rounding the corner. “You OK?”

  “Yes, it’s just Maeve coming back with Micah,” Sophia said. “We’re fine.”

  They encountered a white-faced Maeve, who’d stumbled into a glass end table. “Actually, we’re not fine at all,” she gasped. Sera stared at Micah, whose face had the same ashen expression.

  “What’s wrong?” Sophia said, looking from one to the other.

  Maeve stared at Sera. “You said the Protector was back.”

  Sera frowned. “He is. I was with him last night.” She could feel Kyle’s eyes heavy on her back.

  Micah’s voice was tight. “You’re mistaken, Sera. He never returned to Illysia.”

  AGENDAS

  They drove in silence to Beth’s house on the other side of town. Kyle kept shooting Sera covert glances, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Maeve and her mother followed in the car behind. Micah had gone to Sam the minute Sera told them about Nate’s kidnapping, in case Azrath tried to contact him again. Due to the severity of her dad’s injuries, they’d decided that the Davenport residence would have to suffice for a meeting place. And when Kyle had volunteered to come along, Sera had allowed him to. She wanted to keep him close—whatever was going on with him, she didn’t want him anywhere near Azrath.

  Before they’d left, Sera had gone next door to Dev’s house, but no one had answered her knocking. So she used the backdoor key to enter the house, just to make sure it was empty. Now that she understood who Dev really was, she knew that he didn’t live with anyone—it had all been a part of the facade. But the house was deserted with no sign of him at all, and a sinister feeling of foreboding spread like a cancer in the pit of her stomach.

  She’d even gone to her world to look for him, but knew the second she’d arrived that Dev wasn’t there. Something was terribly wrong. She could feel it.

  “So … about the giant gorilla in the car,” Kyle’s voice was quiet, interrupting her thoughts. “Dev’s the Protector?”

  Sera glanced at him, recognizing the tightness of his mouth despite his attempt at humor. “Yes,” she said carefully.

  “Is that why you got so weird before? Are you with him?”

  “I don’t know. I’m bound to him, or Sita was to Rama, I mean,” Sera said. Kyle’s hands were white-knuckled against the steering wheel, his jaw clenched.

  “But you’re not her.”

  Sera’s voice was gentle. Her hand fluttered toward him as if she wanted to touch his arm, but then it drifted to her lap. “No, I’m not. I’m me, but all her feelings for him are still real, and they’re mine, too.”

  “And what you felt for me, was that real? You said you loved me. Or was it a lie?” Kyle said, his tone biting.

  “Don’t be cruel. You’re still my best friend regardless of what happened the other day.”

  “Just not your boyfriend,” Kyle said. He didn’t hide the pain in his voice this time. She glanced at him, but he wouldn’t look at her.

  “Dev’s not either,” she said quietly, staring out the window, and then angling her body back to face him. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I didn’t ask for any of this. I never believed in any of this stuff, you of all people know that. All I’m trying to do is be fair, to do the right thing.”

  “So choose me.”

  “It’s not about you or him, Kyle. Don’t you get it? I think I was, like, married to him three thousand years ago.” His face grew even redder and more pinched at her words. “What I feel for you won’t change either, and I can’t choose either of you because of what I feel for both of you. Does that make any sense?”

  “No. You’re either with me or you’re with him.”

  Sera sighed. Explaining a love triangle was turning out to be more complicated than being in one. “Look, I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “It’s a little too late for that,” Kyle muttered, turning onto Beth’s street.

  Sera pretended that she didn’t hear him and took her jacket off underneath the seatbelt. The air in the car felt stifling. “Can you just try to understand?”

  “Understand what? That you need my help to find your boyfriend?”

  They stared at each other in silence. Sera felt sweat drip down her cheek. She glanced at the dashboard and cracked open her window so that some cold air rushed in. “Do you have the heat on in here? It’s boiling,” she snapped.

  “I don’t think it’s the car,” Kyle said. His voice sounded strained. Sera looked at him more closely and gasped. His skin was red, and she could almost see the steam rising from where the cold air brushed against his skin. She touched a cautious finger to his arm.

  “Kyle, you’re burning up.”

  “Great. I turn seventeen and all hell breaks loose.” Sera’s gaze snapped to him, and he laughed thinly. “I meant that figuratively, of course.”

  But Sera was worried about him. Too many things had clouded the obvious, and despite them skirting around what was happening, he was changing. First, the way he’d treated her, his blood at her house, the tattoos, and now this—his body heat could practically melt ice. Was he really some kind of demon as Maeve said? Sera chewed her lip, feeling uneasy, but didn’t say anything. Kyle had given her the benefit of the doubt even when she’d gone all vile after her trip to Xibalba. She should be the last person to jump to conclusions and judge anyone.

  “Are you with me, Kyle?” she asked, watching him take heaving gulps of cold air into his lungs.

  “Yes,” he gasped. He took several more deep breaths, and his skin lost some of the ruddiness just as they pulled up to Beth’s house. Sera shot him another troubled look. “I’m fine. I think it was because I was upset. Again.”

  “OK,” Sera said softly, stepping out of the car just before her mother and Maeve joined them. “Just get it together before we go in there.”

  One of the men who’d been at Sera’s house earlier now stood outside the Davenport’s house. He had his arm in a sling. He didn’t look at Kyle, even when Kyle threw an apologetic glance in his direction.

  Eleanor opened the door, her face darkening as she eyed Kyle. “You’re not invited.”

  “He’s not a vampire, Eleanor. And he’s with me,” Sera said flatly. She stared Eleanor full in the face. “If he’s not welcome, then I’m not either.”

  “Sera, I really don’t think it’s a good idea. Beth said—”

  “Eleanor,” Sophia said, coming up behind them. “It’s fine.”

  Eleanor looked confused, but she let Sera and Kyle walk past her. Beth was at the bottom of the stairs in her foyer. She wore a guarded look.

  “Hey,” Kyle said in a small voice. “I’m sorry about before, Beth. I never would have hurt you, I hope you know that.” Beth nodded but Sera noticed that she slid away from him to stand near her brother.

  “Hey, Ryan,” Sera said. He stood off to the side. He wasn’t quite eighteen, so not officially Ne’feri, but with what Azrath was planning, she guessed that their parents didn’t think it was too early to include him in the meeting.

  There were about twenty people in the room now, inclu
ding her father, Micah, and a few other faces she didn’t recognize. Several of them stared at Kyle with blatant hostility, and Sera bristled. She recognized Uri from school and two of the men who’d been at her house. Beth’s father was also there—a tall heavily bearded man. Two dark-haired, slim men standing at the far end of the room exchanged heavy looks with Maeve. Yoddha, she guessed.

  With the exception of those two, Sera guessed that the majority of those gathered were Ne’feri, with Micah and her mother acting as the voice of the Trimurtas.

  Micah cleared his throat and spoke, not bothering with niceties. “We have convened here because Illysia is mobilizing at the will of the Trimurtas. The Ne’feri across the Mortal Realm are guarding the portals. But for a few, they have all been closed.” He glanced at Sam. “Azrath has already contacted Sam and has taken Sam’s son to the Dark Realms where he will remain unless Sam cooperates with him.” There were several loud gasps in the room.

  “Did Azrath say that?” Sera gasped, looking to her father. “That Nate’s in Xi … there?” He nodded mutely.

  “But the boy, he’s mortal. He will not survive the Dark Realms!” Eleanor cried, and Sera felt the blood drain from her body.

  Micah shook his head grimly. “No, not for long, Eleanor, which is why we don’t have a lot of time. We do not know what Azrath is planning, but we do know that he has been infusing himself with deifyre, for what end we remain unsure. This boy,” he pointed at Kyle, “has been the one to provide most of what we know about Azrath thus far.” Kyle stared at the floor, discomfited by the sudden attention, most of it still hostile.

  “He shouldn’t be here,” one of the Ne’feri muttered. “He’s Azura.”

  Micah’s eyes held those of the one who’d spoken. “Do not judge him because you believe him to be Azura, Gaemus. You of all people should know that being Azura does not define who you are.” Gaemus’s gaze darted to Sam, and he flushed.

  Micah continued. “We do not know what Azrath intends to do, but he is in league with the Demon Lord Ra’al. Our guess is that he intends to open a portal, where and when we do not know. Since Sam can still detect Azrath’s presence in the Mortal Realm, Azrath has taken his boy as insurance. Once Azrath opens the portal, Sam will be able to find it and him.”

  “How do we know for sure that he has the boy, that it’s not some ruse?” one of the Ne’feri asked.

  Sophia’s voice rose. “Serjana, my daughter, found a portal in my son’s room leading to the nether-realm. She confronted the Ifrit there and they told her that Nate was taken to coerce Sam.” Sera felt every eye in the room settle on her, and she shifted uncomfortably. Despite her newfound powers, she was still uneasy with all the attention. “There’s something else you need to know,” Sophia said. Her eyes flitted to Sam, her voice wavering. “Sera … ”

  Sera stood and swallowed, drawing Sita’s consciousness forward. “Mom, it’s all right,” she said reassuringly to her mother. “I’ve got it.” Sera faced the group, noticing that Maeve and the other two warrior gods had moved to stand behind her. She cleared her throat. “Most of you know me as Sera Caelum, but there was a time when I was also known as Sita.” She heard the stifled gasps and saw the shocked looks on most of the faces in the room. Her father had half risen off the sofa, his face stricken.

  “As most of you know, Sita was a deity, an incarnation of the goddess Lakshmi, and the wife of Rama, who lived many years ago but who chose to return to the Mortal Realm in death. She decided to come back in this form as it was time for her to return to the world, and to Illysia. The world as we know it, all the realms, are on the brink of complete destruction. In Illysia, they called it the KaliYura, a time when mankind will face its darkest hour. Such has been written.”

  She took a breath. “What Azrath plans to do is anyone’s best guess. One thing we do know is that it will be far worse than summoning the Rakshasa demon as he did seventeen years ago, the one which my father gave his life and his immortality to subdue. I heard Azrath myself plotting with Ra’al in Xibalba—”

  Several of the people in the room shot to their feet in hostile disbelief.

  “But that’s not possible!” someone hissed.

  “You cannot survive the Dark Realms!” cried another.

  “What game is this?”

  The Yoddha behind her stiffened. Sera held up a hand, but the noise in the room rose to deafening proportions. Everyone seemed to be shouting at the same time.

  Sera took a deep breath. She knew what she had to do. She had to show them what she was … who she was.

  Deifyre blazed into the room, surrounding her with bright red light as her energy arced from her back and over her arms in a swirl of gold and copper flames. The sigils on each of her arms flared red and white, as Mehndi tendrils curled like vines along each arm, coiling up her neck and the sides of her face until they met and wound together at her forehead. A thin sword extended from each hand, one shrouded in silvery white flames, the other blood red.

  Dead silence ensued.

  Maybe the swords had been too much. Sera glanced at her father, then surveyed the stunned faces around her. She could feel her previous incarnations’ pride and power swirling inside of her. “I am Lakshmi incarnate, goddess of Illysia and servant to the Realms. Do you question me?”

  There wasn’t a single sound in the room. A small smile played about Micah’s lips. Even Kyle stared at her with wide eyes. Sera felt a hysterical giggle welling up at the look on his face, but quelled it immediately. She glanced over her shoulder. The three Yoddha behind her in full battle stance could have been chiseled from rock.

  “This war that Azrath provokes now is but the tip of the iceberg, that I can promise you. We need to work together and gather all the help we can to stop this before it starts,” Sera said quietly. “I am here to fight, but I cannot do it alone.”

  Micah moved to stand beside her. His face was somber as he spoke. “The Trimurtas need your help because the Protector is missing. I have hope that he is still here in this realm, but we must find him quickly. Without the protection of all three, Illysia is at risk.”

  “How do you know the Protector has been here?” Gaemus asked.

  “I was with him,” Sera said. “Last night. I told him about Azrath and he promised to return to Illysia, but he never did. Something must have happened.” Sera rubbed her thumb across the sigil that Dev had told her was his, but she felt nothing. “He’s not here anymore.”

  “He came here to find her,” Micah said. “I know this because I told him who she was.” He paused, his voice drained of any emotion. Sera noticed the betrayed look on her mother’s face. “He was in mortal form and shaded, which is why none of us could sense him.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Sera saw Kyle frown in sharp concentration at Micah’s words and then his back snapped straight, as if something important occurred to him. He stared at her, his eyes bright. “I need to talk to you,” he mouthed.

  Sera raised an eyebrow. Couldn’t he have picked a less critical time?

  “Come over here,” she mouthed back. He frowned but started moving along the edge of the room to her. One of the Yoddha behind her moved to block him.

  “It’s all right,” Sera said. “Let him pass.” She could feel everyone staring at them even as Micah continued speaking about their next course of action. She gestured for Kyle to go into the den just off the room they were in.

  “What’s going on?” she asked him once they moved, her voice loud in the quiet room. Sera noticed that Maeve had come to stand closer to the den’s entrance, ever cautious.

  “Did Micah say that Dev was mortal and had been shading himself?” Kyle asked in a small voice. Sera nodded. Kyle looked uncomfortable. “You know when I went over to Knightsbrook that time? Well, Dev was saying all these weird things about me not knowing who I was, so I tried to read him, you know, to sense his energy to see what he was.”

  “And?” Sera said.

  “I didn’t get anything, nothing at a
ll. And everything has energy, right? Well, he didn’t, or if he did, he was hiding it really well. I mean, he was hiding all of it.”

  “So, what does this have to do with Dev? Micah said he was shaded.”

  Kyle studied his shoes. “He wasn’t shaded, Sera, because he’s the Protector in avatara form. He had no shade.”

  “So, what’s wrong?”

  “Well, I may have mentioned that to Jude,” he muttered, his face red. “At the time I couldn’t understand why Jude yelled at me to get out of the car, but I think now he must have realized then what Dev was. So that means—”

  “That Azrath knows … and so does Ra’al,” Sera finished slowly.

  “I’m so sorry, Sera,” Kyle said, his expression fraught between jealousy toward Dev and a keen sense of yet another betrayal to Sera. He wrung his hands. “I didn’t know who he was. I never would have said anything to Jude, but I was so mad that you’d been with him, and Jude just pushed all my buttons. I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”

  Sera squeezed his shoulder despite her sense of impending doom. “It’s OK. You couldn’t have known. None of us did. Thank you for telling me.”

  She walked to the doorway and motioned to Micah and her mother, who approached. “We have a problem. Kyle thinks that Jude may have guessed who Dev was. They were together when Kyle read Dev’s energy, and Jude must have put two and two together when Kyle couldn’t see anything.” Kyle shot her an absurdly grateful look at her concise explanation. Sophia and Micah stared at them in mute horror.

  “This is catastrophic,” Micah said. “The Protector is very vulnerable in mortal form. We can only assume the worst if he has been taken.”

  “I can find him,” Kyle said. Three pairs of eyes centered on him.

  “How do you propose to do that?” Sophia asked.

  “If someone did capture him, then we can assume that he won’t be blocking his true form, which means I’ll be able to find him. And we know that he’s not going to be in Illysia, so he’s either here or in Xibalba.”

  “But you said before you weren’t able to sense anything from him. How do you know what his energy will feel like?” This time her mother’s tone was dubious.