by Gaja J. Kos
There was a voice of reason somewhere deep inside her, trying to worm its way to the surface. She knew what it was saying but had no desire to acknowledge it.
Because she didn’t care what information the warlock could provide her. The sole thing that mattered was watching him burn from the inside out.
Icy winds blew at her face. They curled around her, obliterating the black mist as smoothly as they soothed her temper. The warlock was whimpering beneath her, the pain too grave for him to even release a cry.
The fog recoiled, and a different kind of recognition hit her when the last strand of darkness pulled back, revealing a beautiful female figure standing only a short distance away.
Keeping the warlock pinned with her magic as well as her hands, Rose dipped her chin at the newcomer. “Morana.”
Chapter 30
They were on a field. They were on a field, surrounded by low hills and thick woods. The smell of freshly-cut grass caressed Rose’s senses, mixed with that beautiful fragrance of not being stuck in the middle of civilization. She found no human scents in the immediate vicinity, though traces of an elder couple lingered in the air, almost half-forgotten.
She released a breath.
No people. No Vedmaks, either.
Slightly dampening her senses, she looked back up.
Despite the changed scenery, Morana stood in the exact same spot, at the same distance as when she had first appeared. The goddess’ ethereal presence, riddled with hushed voices of winter, looked more than a little out of place among the green tones of nature. Her deep red velvet dress clung to her thin form, black-embellished sleeves trailing almost to the ground.
If it weren’t for the otherworldly chill emanating from Morana’s body, Rose might have believed she had run into someone on their way to a renaissance fair. As it was, her energy recognized the ethereal imprint with perfect clarity.
She let the realization sink in.
She and Morana belonged to the same circle.
She was in league with the goddess of death. One who had been cast out from this world, condemned to spend her long-lived life in the confines of perpetual winter. The same deity that was now standing barely a few steps away, feeling the sun on her pale skin.
Hysterical chatter bubbled in Rose’s mind; but as her gaze brushed over Morana’s eyes, there was something there that made her pause.
The silent outburst died as quickly as the black mist, and Rose couldn’t stop staring at the beauty of what she saw.
Happiness. Pure, untainted happiness.
Observing it calmed down the remnants of Rose’s wrath, and she decided the goddess was far more worthy of her attention than the piece of shit Vedmak she had pinned to the ground with the tips of her claws.
Rose’s energy was still hovering just above the warlock’s chest, but she had stopped feeding power into it. The asshole seemed to have passed out from the strain of his own magic tearing him apart and now lay limp, unresponsive beneath her. She would have preferred him to suffer, but at least he wasn’t going anywhere.
“How are you here?” she said once she found her breath.
Morana stepped closer, her white hair almost blindingly bright as it tangled with the rays of sunshine. Contrary to how her power saturated the air, the goddess seemed dainty. Frail.
Being pack mates with Evelin had taught Rose the depths of how very deceiving looks could be, yet watching Morana, she couldn’t help but wonder just how weak the goddess’ corporeal form was. Yet despite it all, there was life within her—vivid, mesmerizing life that only intensified as Morana let out a laugh of disbelief.
“I don’t know.”
The sound was enchanting, Morana’s voice weaving through the air like a melody. Rose shifted her stance on top of the Vedmak, keeping the warlock secured while making herself just slightly more comfortable.
“Veles told me you were banished centuries ago,” Rose said gently, almost as if the goddess’ presence was an illusion she didn’t want to shatter.
But a smile stretched across Morana’s face, softening her features into a display of pure beauty. “You’ve found your way back to each other?”
Despite the absurdity of the situation, despite the black pit inside her that still called for the Vedmak’s blood, Rose laughed.
Seeing the sincere excitement in the goddess’ eyes, that spark of joy that centuries of imprisonment hadn’t snuffed out, unlocked something within her. She felt the tension seep from her body, her posture gradually relaxing. Even the coiling, opulent energy seemed to be alert but substantially calmer.
“Yes, we’re together.”
“That’s good.” Morana smiled. “The way Vee spoke about you… I think his self-absorbed nature prevented him from seeing it sooner. You are two entities, meant to stand side by side.”
Rose snickered at the moniker, filing it away for future use. She was aware of Veles’ fling with Morana—it was part of the tales every individual of Mokoš’ bloodline had heard—but regardless of whether the name came from their carnal association or not, it was hilarious.
She shook her head, returning her attention to the goddess. “He told me the story of Perun and Mokoš.”
Morana opened her mouth to speak, but something passed through her gaze, making her press her delicately shaped lips back together instead.
Rose exhaled, her next words coming out quieter than she had intended them to be. “I know now that I’m a goddess. I’ve accepted it.”
“When?” Morana breathed.
Rose huffed and dropped her gaze. “I’ve felt it for a while. But I only spoke to Veles about it last night. I think it was the first time I truly admitted it to myself.”
Hearing her own words, she shrugged. She tried not to think about how odd it was to speak of herself as a deity. Especially to the goddess of death in the middle of absolutely bloody nowhere.
She didn’t think she could hold back the laughter if she did.
Clearing her throat, she looked back up at Morana. Perhaps she should have figured it out sooner, but it was the surprise lingering on the goddess’ face that hit her full force. And so did the realization that followed.
Rose had no idea how the pieces all flew together, but the energy inside her rumbled in agreement, leaving no room for doubt.
“Did—Did I bring you back?” she stammered, her heart pumping in her ears.
The look she received told her enough.
Morana knelt down on the soft grass next to Rose, ignoring the unconscious Vedmak. She ripped a single green blade from the ground and ran her bony fingers down its length—something she hadn’t been able to do in centuries.
“Death always comes in threes,” the goddess said. She twirled the grass before locking it in her grip, and lowered her fisted hand into her lap. “Velin, Psoglav, and I were the original trinity. One for souls, one for bodies, and one that was created to keep everything on track. Velin reigned in the underworld, Psoglav on Earth, and I had my own realm, distant enough to be the grand overseer of the actual passing of a being. The same realm in which I then became a prisoner, with only the essence of my power remaining among you, doing what was needed, but nothing more.
“Our work was inseparable. We were action and aftercare thrown together, forming a whole that is death. After Velin and Psoglav destroyed each other, Veles took his father’s position, but Psoglav’s role was vacant. In a way, it had become redundant.”
Rose remembered Veles telling her about the burials, how the people themselves undertook the role of giving the bodies a final resting place. There was no need for a deity to look after tasks the people were already fulfilling.
She nodded at Morana.
“Of course you know,” the goddess breathed, shaking her head as if presuming Rose hadn’t been aware of Psoglav’s history was a foolish thing to do. “The balance of death was broken. I feared the consequences, but believed that much like Psoglav’s role, the changes within the structure of the world had affected e
verything.” She shuddered. “And I wasn’t mistaken. Only my prognosis had been far more optimistic than reality had proven to be. Though many strive to uphold it, stasis is unnatural. Even so, I never thought the change would be quite as destructive, either. There are always some elements we lose that are then replaced by new means of achieving balance. But never, in all my existence, have we lost so much.
“My waning was slow. The warning signs accompanied me every single day, yet I was powerless, caught in the winds of change that would continue to brush against the structure of our reality until they reshaped it. And when the Realm of Kolovrat began to fall, my own was torn from your world, detached completely save for a single tether.
“You are a fragment of that long-lost realm, Rose. The daughter of a Vedmak, the daughter of a descendant of Mokoš herself. Two essences that were woven into the very structure of what Kolovrat was. But you are also a friend of someone that still holds, in her core, the very last fragment of that land.”
“Serafina,” Rose breathed. “The sacred circle is what’s left, isn’t it?”
Morana nodded and released the blade of grass from her palm, sending it tumbling to the ground.
“You are a goddess, linked to death yet rooted in life. You are a goddess that comes from the Realm of Kolovrat, even when that land has been gone for centuries.” Morana fell silent, her eyes glistening with tears. “Your existence reestablished the trinity. And you brought me back.”
They regarded each other in silence, each second teeming with emotions no words could hold.
“I’m so fucked,” Rose finally exhaled. She meant it, too, yet found herself unable to hold back the laughter as tears of joy streamed down Morana’s beautiful face.
Chapter 31
Veles stood a few steps away, the blunt look of disbelief so unusual on his face that Rose nearly snorted. His gaze drifted from her to Morana, occasionally slipping down to the still unconscious Vedmak with Rose’s golden shield resting on top of his chest and her claws firmly dug into his skin.
Rose had envisioned that the first time she would release Veles’ name into the air after last night would carry the satisfying weight of progress and the promise of intimacy. Though there was certainly no shortage of the former, it wasn’t quite what she had in mind.
But with Morana’s disorientation and Rose’s own difficulty of pinpointing just where they truly were, she hadn’t been left with much of a choice.
True to his word, Veles had appeared mere seconds after his name had left Rose’s lips. The silence that overtook him, however, lasted for minutes.
Monitoring the Vedmak, Rose gave the god time to process what he was seeing. Beside her, Morana seemed to be doing her best to fight her excitement and hide the fact that she was soaking up the sun, loving every moment of it. Involuntarily, Rose’s head swung from side to side.
She suspected some never before needed self-defense mechanism had sprung to life inside her, tainting her reality with dark but contagious humor.
She wasn’t sure which was worse—that the absurdity of the situation had gotten to her so strongly she could hardly keep a straight face, or that all this joy bubbled within her because the trinity of death was once more as it should have always been. The sensation gnawed at her, an odd feeling of rightness—or that, for once, things appeared to be headed that way.
“How?” Veles said, snagging her attention.
Rose tipped her head, sending her unbound curls falling over her shoulder in a shimmering cascade. “The Vedmak or Morana?”
From where she sat in the grass, the white-haired goddess giggled.
Veles rolled his eyes. “You’re not helping, Em.”
But Morana only shrugged. “Forgive me for rejoicing the fact that I’m no longer trapped in the realm of ice. But I think your consort’s problem is of more importance right now than how I came to be here.” She nudged her chin in the direction of the unconscious Vedmak. “He ambushed her.”
Instantly, the god was by Rose’s side, kneeling on the soft ground. The scent of his energy, of him, rolled over her, caring and wild at the same time. “Are you all right, srček?”
“I would have killed him if Morana hadn’t shown up…” Rose blurted out, frowning.
Olive eyes gazed back at her. “And that would be a problem because…?”
Rose dropped her gaze and observed the passed out warlock. His features were burned into the back of her eyelids. The broad nose and low eyebrows, the cruel, thin lips… He was older now, but with the warped way time passed for the Vedmaks, the changes were next to nonexistent.
“He’s one of the men that killed my father,” she seethed, pushing her claws just a little deeper into his flesh. “When he ambushed me, all I wanted was to rip into his flesh, see his eyes turn soulless. But not before he suffered to the extent that I found pleasing. I wanted to break him, Veles, to fracture his body and mind until there was only a tiny fragment left inside him that still knew what was happening. That a small part of him would linger there, weak, pathetic, and powerless to change my will—and his fate. His pain was the sole goal burning in my thoughts. I wanted it so badly that I didn’t give a fuck if he was our only lead to finding the rest of his brethren.”
Veles tentatively placed a hand on her back, drawing soft circles down the length of her spine. “We would have figured out another way to get to them.”
Pursing her lips, she peered at the god and saw that he had meant every word. He would never chide her for doing what felt right—even if it meant ending the fucker.
She released a long breath. “Thank you.”
“Not to interrupt,” Morana said from the side, twisting her legs beneath her body and leaning on one hand, “but there was never any other viable option. The Vedmak would have transported you to his brethren even as he died if his final breath had been postponed for much longer.”
Brow furrowed, Rose took in the field again. The scent that weaved through the air told her they were still in her homeland, but they definitely weren’t anywhere near Ljubljana.
“That’s what the black fog was? How?”
The goddess nodded, fingers brushing against the vivid grass. “Not all those who wield dark magic possess the ability of transportation from one point to another, but those that do…” She cocked her head to the side, observing the unconscious man. “It’s not like Veles’ power. He performs perfect teleportation. Rather than you moving from one end to another, the world repositions itself around you.”
Likely noticing the dismay in Rose’s eyes, Morana added with an apologetic shrug. “It’s complicated.”
Rose snorted. “You don’t say.”
“The world continues to move at its own pace, yet it manifests around Veles at the same time,” the goddess continued and turned her gaze to the lord of the underworld. “I don’t know if anything has changed in the past few centuries, but he always kept that part of his power well guarded. I know you and your pack are privy to it; he has told me as much himself…”
“Nothing has changed, Em,” Veles replied, and Rose nodded by his side. “It’s just them and the few that have their absolute trust.”
“It makes more sense now”—Rose perked up, her mind regaining some clarity—“why you kept it hidden from our enemies—and, well, anybody who wasn’t close enough for you to believe they wouldn’t pass on the word. I always thought it was just a strategic advantage, but this…”
“The world would not take the knowledge well,” Morana finished for her. “You know better than anybody else they can be quite touchy when someone possesses the strength to alter their reality. Even when it’s used for purposes that are far from harmful.”
Rose met the icy blue color of the goddess’ eyes and saw that Morana understood. She understood it all.
“We were young deities once, too,” she added, brushing out a strand of black and white hair with her finger. “But the people were lesser in number. And those with magic strong enough to harm us should they
fear our strength… They were living in a different world. Their whole lives were tethered to the pantheon. Revealing a part of our power to them didn’t produce such devastating effects as it would among those that had dwelled in your world even then.
“We had all made mistakes. The learning curve to wield such power is never easy, nor straightforward. But we still had our safe haven, a whole realm where we could explore new depths without being in the clutches of fear the entire time… However, there were some of us whose role is fundamentally tied to human beings.” A sad smile lay on her lips. “I understand how much it can cost you to show who you truly are.”
At a loss for words, Rose only nodded. If her own energy had caused such an uproar, even when only the vampires were in any true danger, she didn’t dare imagine just what would happen if the wider population learned of Veles’ capability to affect their world, to shift it at his will. It didn’t matter if the maneuver didn’t change a thing for them. It was their world. Their reality. And they would rebel.
Rose closed her eyes. The energy that hovered over the Vedmak held, but inside her, it roared like a wild, golden ocean. She listened to those crushing waves, allowing them to thrash within her and release all those emotions she couldn’t let seep to the surface.
“So, the Vedmak…” Rose said, looking at Morana.
“The black mist was magic,” she replied, a shadow crossing her face. “Potent, opulent magic that wraps around a person and transports him across distances. It’s a very primal method of travel, one that the Vedmaks developed long before I was banished to live out my days in my realm. You are not visible for the duration of the process, but the essence of you remains tethered to the ground you cross.
“I do not know how I managed to appear in the mist since it hadn’t built itself around me as it did you. For me to enter should have been impossible… Where we are now, however, is not. When the Vedmak passed out, his magic faltered. This”—Morana motioned to the field—“is what our essences were tethered to at that moment. Your choice was the right one, Rose. It takes time for Vedmaks to move between different geographical points, but it’s still faster than any other mode of transportation known to man.”
