Equinox: Celestial Awakenings Book One

by Lux Miller

  I huff and march over to the wall opposite of him and start banging the fist of my uninjured arm on the wall, the impacts echoing loudly around us. After several futile attempts, I slam my open palm against the masonry and growl. “Ugh, fine… Drake…”

  The blond-headed man pauses what he’s doing to peer over his shoulder at me curiously, “Drake?”

  I nod, resting my forehead against my hand. “My name… is Drake…”

  Silence follows for several heartbeats as mine thunders in my chest. It reverberates in my ears in a way that increases my annoyance with the whole situation. “Drake of the what?”

  It’s such a simple question really, but it speaks volumes about this man. He may be an Outlander, but he’s knowledgeable about the other tribes. Most Outlanders wouldn’t bother to learn that the vast majority of the Nomads identify with a clan, and that I once did, as well. Until I abandoned them in the dark of night in order to protect them. It was hard enough to leave, so once I did, I never looked back. I know that at least some of them have survived because Nova obviously fell in with them. “Just Drake. I have no clan.”

  The blonde man turns to face me and holds a hand out, his differently-colored eyes narrowing at me curiously. “I’m Finn. Can’t say I’ve ever met a Nomad without a clan, but I guess there are stranger things afoot in this world than a lone tribesman. Though don’t think for a moment that I believe there isn’t a motive behind your defection. Whether by choice or force, there’s a reason, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”

  I nod as I glance at his face, then back down to his hand before clasping my own around his forearm. He does the same to me as our eyes meet. “I’d expect nothing less from an Outlander. Always keen to dig through everybody else’s secrets like you’re scavenging through their trash.”

  A breeze whistles through the corridor, blowing his Outlander braids across his face. Neither of us flinch as we continue to stare each other down. What finally breaks our staring contest is the distinct sound of a wolf howling that echoes off the walls around us. it's too loud to be imagined and too distinct to be anything else. Finn and I both scan the area in a brief panic, then make eye contact with each other quickly, a million words passing between us with the single look. His voice is gruff as he asks, “You heard that too, right?”

  I nod dumbly as I take several steps back from the wall and toward the open end of the hallway. “What time is it?”

  Finn shrugs his shoulders, but he doesn’t hesitate to follow me out of the shallow corridor and back out into the main hallway. “I don’t know, but it’s past dark, look.”

  He motions to the open-air windows above our heads, and I crane my head up to follow his gaze. Sure enough, there’s no light coming in through the windows. Earlier, the late evening sun beamed inside, casting light on the floor tiles in brilliant shades of yellow and orange. Now, the only illumination is coming from the torches that line the stone walls. Since neither Finn nor I have been back this way since before the sun set, it’s an uncomfortable feeling trying to figure out how they’re currently lit.

  Swallowing hard, I murmur, “And how exactly do you think those got started?”

  Finn shrugs his shoulders, but I can tell he’s spooked a bit. “The ancients were entombed here by those that trapped them and sank their city to the floor of the ocean. I’d say there’s a pretty good chance this place is haunted. And I don’t know about you, but the Outlanders have a myth about who haunts the ruins of Atlantis… and let me give you a hint, it isn’t a friend of ours…”

  I nod slowly, because the Nomads have the same tale. About the one god who vowed vengeance on the humans when they tricked the gods into a trap inside their city of technology and buried them in the ocean because they feared the gods were becoming reckless. A god who swore he’d find his way out of the watery prison and wreak havoc upon the descendants of the ones who betrayed him.

  Finn and I stumble through the hallway and jump to one side. We press our backs against the wall as another, more pronounced howl reverberates off the walls. The torches flicker as shadows dance on the stones, and I swallow hard because I’m getting all up in my head right now. I swear the shadows look like ravenous beasts, stalking their prey. I turn to Finn and see the fear that I feel reflected on his face as a huge gust of wind ricochets through the hallway, extinguishing all of the torches. Finn and I are left in total darkness. I swallow hard as my heart thunders in my chest so hard that I’m shaking in the silent stillness.

  Both of us stand there like we’ve been petrified, but we’re jerked out of our stupor as the sound of cackling echoes all around us, starting just above a whisper and getting louder. Finally, Finn and I both take off running, our boots pounding the stone floor heavily until we can’t run any more. I’ve no idea where we’ve ended up, but once we emerge into a room that’s still lit, we both turn to the other.I can see the pure terror etched all over Finn’s face. It’s the same exact look that I’m certain is written all over mine.

  I swallow hard as I try to catch my breath, hunching myself over as my muscles scream in protest, especially in my injured shoulder. As the adrenaline starts to wear off, the fatigue begins to set in, and the pain radiates out from the wound. I swallow down as much of the stale air as I can manage and shake my head at Finn as I drop to one knee. “Please tell me I’m not crazy and that you heard all of that…”

  Finn nods, but the look on his face is a mixture of panic, awe, and surprise. “I’m not going to go as far as to say you’re not crazy, but yeah man, I heard it.”

  Coughing, I push myself upright even as my back screams in protest and shake my head again. “That’s impossible. What we heard… it can’t be real… because I swear to the gods… that sounded like…”

  Finn stares at me, his bi-colored eyes wide as he finishes my sentence, “Loki…”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Nova

  As we rush to follow the screaming, we find Finn and Drake huddled in the middle of the room. Both of them look like they’re about to pass out at any given moment. Seconds after Kira and I spill into the room we’re alerted to why. Drake coughs and forcibly pushes himself into a standing position from where he was hunched on the floor. He stares at Finn in shock, sputtering, “That’s impossible. What we heard… it can’t be real… because I swear to the gods… that sounded like…”

  Finn nods, staring at Drake with his mouth hanging open like he’s trying to catch flies as he adds, “Loki…”

  Kira glances over at me and I shrug my shoulders. “They both look like they’ve seen a ghost.”

  The bird on her shoulder caws and pecks at her. She looks at it with a somewhat cross look, then to my surprise, scolds it! “That wasn’t very nice! I’m sure it was a very convincing illusion…”

  Raising an eyebrow as Finn and Drake realize that we’re there, I elbow her. “Why’re you talking to the bird?”

  She giggles softly and brushes it off her shoulder. The bird squawks and pecks at her hand, then flies up into the rafters of the room, staring down at the two of us like it’s thinking about going after our eyes. She shrugs her shoulders and wags her finger up at the bird, “You behave!”

  The bird makes an ugly noise and turns its back to us, wiggling its tail feathers in a way that if I could speak bird, I’d most definitely translate to ‘fuck you.’

  Kira shakes her head and looks at me to answer, her eyes twinkling in the firelight. “She’s gotten cranky in her old age. But she’s still a sassy bird and uses language that’s not appropriate for a lady of her station. It’s probably what made Odin fall in love with her to begin with…”

  Now I’m the one staring at Kira like she’s lost a few marbles. “Odin? As in the Ancient One, Lord of the Earth, God Protector Odin?”

  Kira laughs. “Yeah, the one-eyed god with a penchant for war.”

  I chew on my bottom lip slowly as the two men seem to gather their wits about them and turn their interest to our conversation. “Didn’t
Odin marry Freya? Or was it Frigga? I can’t ever remember which one was his wife and which one was his mistress. Seems none of the gods could keep it in their pants. And they say romance died in the twentieth century. Ha! I say the gods killed it long before humans had a chance. The legends are so twisted and convoluted by time that I can’t even keep their trysts straight.”

  All three of them stare at me in deathly silence as the raven pokes its head out of the rafters and caws down at me. Whatever it’s squawking in its little birdie language, it isn’t pleasant.

  Kira gasps and looks up at the bird, “Language!”

  Finn chuckles nervously, trying to play off the fact that he was just scared shitless. “What’s she saying?”

  Kira frowns. “First and foremost, she says that Loki isn’t here. He’s been gone for quite some time, so you don’t have to worry about running into the trickster.”

  Finn and Drake both audibly breathe a sigh of relief, but Kira shakes her head quickly, continuing, “I don’t think that’s a good thing. He’s not here at all. As in, he’s escaped and nobody’s been able to capture him to return him to his watery prison. Meaning…”

  Finn doesn’t look impressed as he groans. “He’s free to wreak havoc on humanity…”

  The bird caws nastily, then glares at Finn, its little beak opening and closing rapidly as it stares him down with its beady, little eyes. Kira shakes her head. “No, not exactly. She says he doesn’t have a corporeal form. She also says, with a good dose of attitude I might add, that Freya and Frigga are one in the same. At least she was until the time of the Great Purge when the humans betrayed the gods to the elements and returned Atlantis to the sea. No! I’m not translating that! Let’s just say that due to… some issues with Odin, her essence was split into two beings and now she’s trapped in that form.”

  Blinking at her like my eyes weigh a hundred pounds each, I point up at the bird, “You mean to tell me… that is the great goddess of lore that was Queen of the Valkyries?”

  Kira nods. “For most of the year, anyway. Apparently, she’s only able to return to human form once a year to give birth. At least, I think that’s what she said. She has to reunite all of the daughters that she hid in the world to be released from the enchantment or something like that. My ancient Norse is rusty, and the raven dialect she’s using is obscure. And I sound freaking crazy… anyway, it’s way more complicated than that, but that’s the Cliff’s Notes.”

  My mind is reeling with the new information, but I’m too flabbergasted to really process it all. Freya hid human babies, but she’s a bird… no, wait… two birds? I guess that gives a whole new meaning to the term split personality!

  My attention is snapped back to the present as Drake groans, his injured shoulder sagging, and I feel my feet walking toward him of their own accord. It’s like I’m being compelled to him, but he doesn’t complain when I approach, nor does he pull away when I push aside the leather tunic he’s chosen to wear. “You’re bloody, Drake. It’s seeped through the bandages. You’re exerting yourself too much. It’s not like you were stitched up properly. You’re going to have to take it easy to allow this to heal, or your shoulder is going to be lame.”

  Behind me, Finn quips, “Guess that means there won’t be a round two tonight, then?”

  Drake lifts his head and shoots daggers from his eyes at Finn, but Finn seems nonplussed as he shrugs and turns to Kira. “So, ghostly Loki is here, trying to spook us…?”

  Kira nods. “Sort of. She said it’s an apparition, more like a deterrent than anything else, to try to scare away intruders. A guard dog of sorts, if you will. Whatever the two of you were closing in on… it’s important. Without his body, his powers are very limited. He wouldn’t be able to set up more than half a dozen of those booby traps without depleting all his remaining magic. Loki wouldn’t do that, so there had to be a reason for his tricks. My guess is that something is in one of those flooded rooms that we have to find. That’s if the trap is Loki’s… because he wasn’t the only one who was fond of wolves.”

  The bird floats down from overhead, landing on Drake’s good shoulder and flapping its wings. Drake groans, popping his shoulder up to try to knock the bird off of him. The bird stays steady, digging its claws into the tunic as it squawks right in Drake’s face. He growls, a deep rumbling noise that rattles his chest, and the bird lets go, fluttering to the floor. It makes an indignant noise at him and turns its back on him, sticking its tail feathers in the air as it waddles away.

  Kira turns to me with a knowing smile, “She also said that if he’d keep his mouth shut, he’s handsome enough and well hung, so she approves.”

  Now I know that I’m blushing as I feel my cheeks grow hot. The damn bird was watching too? How embarrassing! It was bad enough that Finn probably saw me with Drake’s cock in my mouth, but to know the bird was watching it is just the icing on the cake. Wait, why should I care if the bird approves?

  One of my eyebrows crawls up my forehead slowly and Kira laughs musically, a soft tinkle to her voice, “Nova, the bird is…”

  Kira doesn’t get to finish her statement as the bird caws loudly and takes to flight off Drake’s shoulder, dive-bombing Finn. She circles back around, then drops a pile of bird poop on Finn’s shoulder. He groans as the greenish goo slides down his shoulder and complains loudly, “What? Why am I the one who gets shit on? I’ve followed every one of her insane orders and this is the thanks I get?

  “Ugh, I’m out of here before that bird decides to peck someone’s eyes out. She has attitude to spare, and I’m not itching to get on her bad side. Besides, this exploration has thoroughly sucked ass. I have an appointment with my good friend Thumbelina and her four sisters because unlike Drake, I don’t have somebody willing to clean my plumbing.”

  He stomps off, huffing as the bird bounces on its perch, making a noise that almost sounds like a cackle. As he storms out, Kira sighs and glares at the bird, then turns on her heel and follows him out, calling after him. Drake stands there in the middle of the room looking dumbfounded for a minute before he approaches me. “About earlier… I…”

  I shake my head, pressing the tips of my fingers against his lips with a smile. “Relax, Drake. I regret nothing. But listen, Kira wants to start repairs on the boat in the morning. She found some kind of nourishment bars in the stores, and they’re not half-bad. She said you’d probably need a couple of them to replenish your energy after the day we’ve had. I was just putting them into your room when we heard the two of you yelling like the place was on fire and came running. In a place like this, you can’t be too careful…”

  Drake nods, but he still looks like something is bothering him. I nudge him gently. “Does the shoulder hurt?”

  He nods again. “Yeah, the exertion of running like my life was in danger had some serious adrenaline pumping through my system. And now I’m feeling like I’ve got a hangover and never even got to enjoy a drink.”

  Smiling softly, I rest one hand on his side, then slip around behind him. I trail the fingers of the other hand up his back slowly until they’re just below the bloodied bandages covering the incision I made earlier to dig out the arrow. “You’ve bled through. We’re going to need to change the dressings. There’s a bathing tub in my room. If you can get a fire going, I can warm you a bath and give you some privacy to use it, then I’ll see what I can do to get you doctored up. I’m not really the healer type, so I can’t do anything fancy like Kira did, but I can get by. I might be able to secure it a bit more since I think the danger of the poison has passed. Maybe now we can focus on closing it.

  “Then we’ll get you fed, and it’s off to bed with you, mister. Apparently the squall was a doozy and did quite a bit of damage to the ship. But Kira says they think we can patch it up. If we’re gonna make it seaworthy and get away from this cursed place, though, we’re going to need you and Finn at your full strength. Kira and I aren’t weaklings, but we’re not trying to kid ourselves into thinking we can get into the wood
s and secure a tree big enough to replace the mast. Because the old one splintered when it almost knocked our heads off.”