by Unknown
“Azrael!” I smacked his chest.
“It was a joke,” Az laughed but then went serious. “I want you to know that I understand that this isn't my child. I'll be okay with it, I just need to work through my issues. But they're my issues, I know that now.”
“Don't worry about it, man,” Trevor called over to him. “You're gonna have twin boys.”
“What?” Azrael pulled back to gape at me. “What's been going on here while I've been in Hell?”
“Not here precisely,” Odin chuckled and I turned to give him a big smile. He was once more speaking like himself, no modern slang like Griffin was prone to use.
“Go on,” Azrael narrowed his eyes on me.
So I did. I went on and on and on. I told him everything and the other men had to sit through it a second time but they didn't seem to care. I think they enjoyed hearing about our future and how wonderful our children were going to be.
Halfway through the conversation, I realized that there was a silver lining to all of this. We now had a glimpse into what was coming, a glimpse which helped my men accept the fact that Arach's child would be born first but he wouldn't be the last. This knowledge was going to go a long way toward easing things between us.
Too bad I was still unsettled about so many things. Words which people hadn't spoken to me yet and hopefully never would, had still been heard. Deeds that would never be done had still left their mark on me. Murder, betrayal, insanity... and love.
Chapter Thirty-Four
It had been awhile since I'd visited Blue's home. Blue, aka Huitzilopotchli, the Aztec God of War and the Sun. Oh, and the Father of Vampires. He was kind of a bad ass.
Blue had a prodigious palace held within the arms of a lush jungle, which I'd been unfortunate enough to run through on one occasion. I guess chased through would be a more apt description but that was back before I'd freed Blue from the crippling chaos of his mind.
Now his eyes were jade green instead of blood red and he was a fairly nice guy. I say fairly only because there are moments when his old self, the manipulative mastermind who was trying to get the world to go to war, would pop up and say hello. Mostly though, he was well-behaved and always well-mannered.
However, when I told him about his ex-girlfriend kidnapping me to drink my baby's blood, all his decorum disappeared. As luck would have it, we were in what I refer to as the stone room, which was basically Blue's tracing chamber.
It was a room with stone floors, stone furniture (yep, the long table and its massive matching chairs were both solid stone), and stone walls. Except for the wall which faced the jungle. That one was made out of glass unfortunately. Would that make it a giant window or was it still considered a wall?
The room was empty other than those heavy pieces of furniture, so Blue didn't have a lot of smashing options available for his little temper tantrum. In the end, he'd chosen one of the chairs and had lifted it above his head to throw it through the wall of glass. It had crashed into the jungle, crushing trees and startling birds into flight.
My men and I just stood back and let Blue get it out of his system. When a god gets angry, it's best to just get out of the way. Plus, a little part of me was enjoying the show. Blue was normally the perfect gentleman; poised, eloquent, and charming. To see him raging like a madman was like watching Dr. Jekyll turn into Mr. Hyde. Or perhaps more like Bruce Banner turning into the Incredible Hulk. All that was missing was the popcorn.
“Tell me where to find her,” Blue growled as he stood there panting in the wake of his chair throwing exercise.
“You're sure you don't want to throw another chair first?” I asked with a hopeful expression.
“Vervain,” Blue growled.
“Okay, look” I glanced at my guys but they just shrugged. “I'll tell you where I think she is but I need you to hear me out before you go running off after her. I'm not even sure if the kidnapping still happened, and if it didn't, then she may not even be there.”
“Why do you say that?” Blue took a deep breath and sat in one of the remaining stone chairs, calm and refined once more.
We all followed suit, coming forward from where we'd been pressed against the wall, out of the way of Blue's flying chairs of destruction. We settled into the stone seats as if nothing had happened. Just another day in the God Realm.
“I think Rebecca brought Eztli in after she kidnapped me,” I explained. “So if I've somehow circumvented the ring's rules of not changing the past, then I will never have been there and Rebecca would never have called Eztli.”
“So, we need you to go back to where you were kidnapped and see if she strikes again,” Blue declared. “Then we can follow you to her.”
“You want me to try and get kidnapped again?” I waved a placating hand at my men, who had instant negative reactions to the possibility of using me as bait.
“She didn't hurt you before, did she?” Blue asked reasonably.
“No,” I admitted.
“And if you haven't changed the past, then Eztli will be waiting at the human's abode,” he continued.
“You vant a pregnant voman to put herself in danger?” Kirill narrowed his eyes on Blue.
“Eztli will not stop pursuing Vervain,” Blue set his gaze on each of my men. “It would be prudent for you to help me find her.”
“He's got a point,” I sighed. “And Alaric did imply that we needed this dealt with. But what if you lose me?”
“I remember how to get to Rebecca's home,” Blue waved his hand airily.
“So do we, Minn Elska,” Trevor laid his hand on mine. “We will find you.”
“And how will I get out of the circle this time?” I know I was searching for salvation in a hopeless situation but I really didn't want to go through all of that again.
“If we have to, we'll torture the woman once more,” Blue shrugged.
“Um,” I tensed and looked over at Azrael.
“That is not happening,” Azrael said in a deadly tone.
“This woman has threatened your existence and now she threatens that of your woman and her unborn child,” Blue leaned forward, across the stone table towards Azrael with a scathing look. “What kind of man are you that you would let anyone get away with that?”
The room went utterly silent except for the wind whistling past the jagged debris of the glass wall. Azrael's face shifted briefly, bones flaring beneath his skin and eyes flashing diamond, but then he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. His eyes dropped to the table as his jaw clenched, then his tormented gaze slid over to me. He searched my eyes and then looked to my rounded stomach.
“You're right,” he finally whispered to Blue. “I've served humanity for too long. The compassion magic has clouded my judgment. That woman has to pay and the price must be her blood.”
“Az,” I whispered as my eyes went wide. “No, you don't have to go to that extreme.”
“I think he does,” Blue shrugged. “Any man would. Even humans know to protect their women and young.”
“Da,” Kirill ground out. “I agree.”
“And I,” Trevor nodded and bared his teeth.
“She's already dead,” Odin sealed her fate.
“Oh, Rebecca,” I sighed. “All you wanted was life but all you've found is death.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
I hadn't merely visited my little house in Kaneohe the day I was captured, I'd gone to lunch first. And I wasn't sure where Rebecca had tracked me from. She could have been waiting at my house the entire time or she could have found me somewhere along the way. I just didn't know. So it was decided that I'd trace home with all of the men and they'd wait in the house while I drove to Bella Bistro and retraced my steps.
There was just one little problem. As soon as I traced out of the Aether, I was pulled back into the circle of blood in Rebecca's basement. I gave a gasp as I surged into my body and blinked violently as the room came into focus. Rebecca was placing a bowl of oatmeal, I mean casserole, on the ground and slidi
ng it across the line of blood once more.
That's when it hit me. I hadn't circumvented the rules at all. What had happened in the Human Realm remained unchanged, despite my return to the God Realm before the moment of my departure. All of this had already occurred for me and there was no preventing it. It had still been playing out, the entire time I was off saving Odin. I had been here exchanging witty repartee with Rebecca and Eztli at the same time that I was informing my men of the future I'd changed. I was probably napping and dreaming of Morpheus when I'd been simultaneously dodging stone chairs at Blue's palace.
So when I stepped back into the Human Realm, the ring did what it was made to do; it joined me with the body which was already there and let me experience the scene all over again. I was just a little further along due to all those pit stops I'd made. I don't know why I didn't realize that this would happen. It was the exact same thing as being in Faerie at the same time as I was in the God Realm... which I did all the time. I even used the ring to go on simultaneous dates with my men in the God Realm and the Human Realm occasionally. The only thing I can say in my defense is that time jumping into the future had really thrown me.
The scope of my stupidity hit me and I would have started shaking with terror if my body had been under my own control. As it was, I found myself repeating the sassy lines I'd said to Rebecca about the quality of food and service in her “hotel”. I didn't really pay attention. I was too busy freaking out about almost destroying the future I had just saved.
Yes, destroy. Because if I'd returned to the Human Realm a little sooner, I could have jumped in at a point before Samara had come for me. And if Blue had showed up with my men during that episode, they might have altered my past, saving me too soon and preventing my journey into the future. Who knows what would have happened. Perhaps the future would have been safe because it was technically my past and technically didn't exist anymore. Or, I could have unraveled all of existence. Time travel was a tricky thing.
But instead, I was undeservedly lucky. I didn't have to deal with those possibilities because I had come back to the perfect time; the moment just after I'd just returned from the future.
I heard myself asking my ring to take me home and suddenly the restriction I was under fell away. As soon as I was able to speak freely again, I jerked into action, negating my original request and asking the ring to keep me right where I was. I couldn't return to the God Realm. I'd end up in another memory and possibly find myself in a perpetual loop. That would be catastrophic.
I went cold with the thought of being stuck in my memories forever. My body had already begun to shift through the realms, I could feel the pull of time, and I silently begged the ring to help me. Please don't let me get stuck in this time loop with my unborn son forever. What would that do to the rest of time? Would that unmake everything? Had I just averted disaster to merely make matters worse? How typical of me.
The ring started to burn on my finger and hope flashed through me as I realized it was fighting itself to save me. Once magic is released, it's nearly impossible to stop. It has its own impetus, a force that can't be controlled. But the ring was magic and sentient, both caster and spell, and I felt its magic coalesce around my shifting body. It pulled me back along with its spell, reforming my body with breathtaking power. I gave a deep, grateful gasp.
“Thank you,” I whispered as I clutched the ring to my chest.
It pulsed and continued to burn, hotter and hotter. I held out my hand and stared at in in shock. The ring had gone too far, exhausted its energy, and now it was paying the price. A crack appeared in the clear stone, spreading through the cabochon like a spiderweb.
“No,” I whispered as I pulled the ring off and cradled it in my palm. “I won't let you go. I'm done letting things go.”
I pulled on the magical heat inside the ring, pulled and pulled until I was able to grasp it firmly. Then I breathed it in. I took the fire of its destruction into my body. But my faerie essence wasn't made to deal with this sort of fire. I could transform a true flame into energy and use that energy to sustain or heal, but I couldn't take a magical heat and make it my own.
My chest started to burn painfully. It had been so long since fire had been able to hurt me that the pain came as a shock. I gasped and reeled under the knowledge that I'd once more made a terrible mistake. But then something else started to expand around the inferno in my chest. My star.
My nine-pointed star came to life, combining my magics, my beasts, and my races into a potent force. A force that connected to the Nine Great Magics... and so much more. Light blinded me from the inside out and when my vision cleared, I was hurtling through space, traveling with the light of my star. Everything spread out before me; galaxies, realms, magic. I saw the source of magic, several of them. Massive, swirling vortexes of pulsing light in all the colors of existence.
There were more than two sources! More than Faerie and the Void. Much more. Layers of reality peeled away, revealing realm after realm, galaxy upon galaxy. All of them with their own source of magic. Because magic was just another name for life. Peace filled me with the knowledge. Magic wasn't some kind of elite ability reserved for faeries, witches, and gods. It was in everything and everyone. Breath was magic. The constant, unfailing beat of a heart was magic. Electricity traveling through a brain, granting thought and movement; that was magic. It was all around us. In every leaf and beast. Life was everywhere and there was so much more of it than I had realized. Peace filled me, a brief glimpse of understanding, and then I was rushing back into my body.
I suddenly knew exactly what to do. I cradled the burn inside me and poured starlight into it, straight from my heart. I didn't try to control the destructive energy, didn't force it into another form, I simply accepted it. I welcomed it into me, knowing that destruction was already a part of me. Just as creation was. Two sides of the power of transmutation. They were a spoke in my star. A spoke funneling magic directly from one of the sources.
Destruction settled into its star-point and began to glow. Then, one by one, the other points began to brighten; Protection, Love, Abundance, Beauty, Health, Power, Hate, and finally, Acceptance. A bright flash of the whole and then the light condensed into one point. Health. Healing magic poured out of that point, down my arms, and into my hands. Pure starlight enveloped the ring, growing brighter and brighter until I had to close my eyes against the glare. When I opened them, the Ring of Remembrance was whole again.
I slid it back on my finger and smiled. A happy pulse, like a heartbeat, emanated from it before it went silent.
“What the hell was that?!” Rebecca screeched. “What was that light and how do you have your jewelry back? What did you do?!”
“Um,” I blinked at her consideringly. I still felt so peaceful and content. “Nope, I don't think it's worth the effort of explaining.”
“Excuse me?” She huffed.
“What is all the screaming about?” Eztli sashayed down the stairs, her hips swinging sensually.
“She has her jewelry back on and I don't know how she did it,” Rebecca pointed an accusing finger at me.
“Her jewelry?” Eztli looked me over skeptically. “You're upset about jewelry?”
“It was on the table over there the last time I checked,” Rebecca waved towards the work table. “She'd have to breach the circle to reach them. And-”
“If she could breach the circle, then why is she still in it?” Eztli finished for Rebecca.
“Exactly,” Rebecca huffed.
“What have you done, Godhunter?” Eztli narrowed her eyes on me.
“I wouldn't even know where to begin,” I shrugged. I felt almost drunk with happiness. It was amazing. Freeing. Eztli and her issues seemed so trivial after all I'd just seen.
“Did you contact Huitzilopotchli?” A perfectly plucked brow lifted.
“Um, yeah actually,” I giggled. I had contacted him, just not in the moment she was referring to.
“Good,” Eztli smirked. “M
y plan is unfolding. When he arrives, I will kill him and take his territory.”
“My plan is unfolding,” I mimicked under my breath dramatically before I giggled again.
“Kill me? I don't think so,” Blue strode down the stairs with my men.
“Oh, bravo on the timing,” I applauded.
Eztli jerked around to stare at her creator in shock while Rebecca screamed and backed away to the other side of the room. She stumbled and fell, sprawling across the rug. I admit, I enjoyed their reactions thoroughly. I couldn't suppress my smirk.
“Huitzilopochtli,” Eztli whispered and I wasn't sure if she was excited or scared.
“How will you defeat me, Eztli? When all of your minions are dead?” Blue stalked closer as my guys headed for Rebecca.
“You killed them all?” Her eyes flew to the stairs. “How dare you?”
“I am their god, not you,” Blue snapped. “I simply cut them off from the magic that sustains them.”
I blinked in surprise. I hadn't known that Blue could do that. I did know what he referred to, it was the same with the Intare. I was their link to immortality, the goddess who held their magic. I gave them their power and without me, or another to take my place, they would die. However, I didn't know that we could pick and choose who to dole the power out to, that we could cut off one person while sustaining the rest. It was a horrible thought for me, since I loved all of my lions, but for Blue, whose vampires could in turn create more of their kind without ever consulting him, it seemed to be quite useful.
I thought of Lesya then and remembered that my lioness magic could be passed down to my daughter. The Intare would survive without me if I planned for it. As much as I didn't want to die, the thought was comforting. The weight of the Pride had always laid heavy upon my shoulders. Every time I fought, every time I risked my life, I had to consider the others who were connected to me, whose lives I was risking along with mine. Like Trevor. At least after Lesya was born, I could stop worrying about my werelions.
