The Mother was the Mother. She was all-powerful and eternal. She wasn’t supposed to pack her bags and go. He didn’t believe it was physically possible. The entity that was the Mother was integrated into every part of the world. How could they still be alive in that world without Her?
He was not going to get those answers in this damn desolate chamber. Face hard, he cuddled Gia closer, heading for the entrance he could no longer see anymore.
Salvador took a step. With a dizzying flash, they were aboveground again.
The Mother’s cavern had disappeared. They were in a flat open space with nothing in sight for miles. Spinning around with Gia in his arms, he saw a carpet of stars behind a familiar desert skyline, the wind drying the tears on her face.
“We’re in Monument Valley,” he breathed in disbelief. But the shale and sandstone buttes were too distinctive to mistake.
Salvador closed his eyes, pressing his face into Gia’s hair “Why did She go?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
“She said She was tired. She said She was…done.” Pulling back, Gia gazed up at the sky. Slowly, she pushed away, and he set her on her feet.
Gia’s face began to lose that blank, shell-shocked expression. She pointed at the sky. “That’s where She is. She went back to the stars, back to where She came from.”
He frowned. “But wasn’t the Mother from here?”
Gia shook her head. “No… It’s all confused now. She was trying to tell me so many things. Staying here was Her penance. A self-inflicted punishment.”
Gia gasped, enlightenment and horror on her face. “I remember now. She showed me. There was a war here. A terrible war…” She broke off, clutching his arm. “The poison it wrought you can’t even imagine. The sheer destruction of it—the carnage and pain.”
Staggering, Gia sat, leaving the strange, mildly luminescent stone in his hand. The earth rose to make her a seat.
At least that hasn’t changed. But why hadn’t it?
“The poison threatened to spill over, and Her people came here to end it. When She and the others like Her were done, everyone on both sides of the conflict were dead. Her people left, calling it a day. Their job had been done, but She was devastated to have caused so much wholesale destruction. So, She stayed and remade the world, repopulating it by using bits of herself to start again.”
“Supes or human?” he asked.
“Supes I think… We were supposed to be made in Her image. But then, the humans followed soon after—they evolved naturally, almost exactly like the ones who were here before. The planet shaped them once. It did it again.”
“Really? Why did She allow that? Why have two kinds of people on one planet?”
Gia pursed her lip. “I don’t think She meant it to happen. When the humans came back on their own, She let them be, figuring it would all work out. Or perhaps She’d simply lost her taste for genocide. Regardless, this new world order was supposed to be a hierarchy with our kind on top, but the conditions here were such that humans proliferated more freely.”
“Well, if the Mother wanted to prevent war, that was not the way to go.”
Gia rubbed her temple. “In the normal course of things, the engine runs on its own and becomes self-sustaining. She meant to get it going and leave. At least, that was Her intention.”
“What happened?”
“She grew invested in Her creation.”
“Yay us,” he offered lamely.
Gia’s brow creased, and she studied her hands. “She never meant to stay so long.”
“Okay. So, the world engine got rebooted, then She watched over us for a few hundred millennia. Why would She leave after all this time? Was it John? Was he the straw that broke the camel’s back?”
He buried his hands in his hair. “But that doesn’t make sense. She’s faced so much worse than a trigger-happy human with a beef against Supernaturals.”
“I don’t think it was John.” Gia’s voice was hollow. “She’d already been setting things in motion. This had been planned for a long time.”
Light filled her eyes, and she twisted to gape at him in wonder. “I know why you’re here,” she whispered.
Salvador’s brows drew together “In like an existential sense?”
“No. I know why you’re all here.” Leaping up, she took the crystal stone from him. “And this. I am supposed to choose, to set the new cycle in motion.”
“A new cycle as in a whole new era?”
“Basically, yes.”
It made sense in a twisted kind of way. The crystal sphere was the key, and it was Gia’s to do with as she pleased. Who else could be trusted to decide the fate of the world?
Gia put her head in her hands.
“Are you all right?” he asked, leaning over her.
“I just can’t believe I lost Her. It happened on my watch.”
“No…” Salvador leaned down to clutch her cold hands in his. “You can’t think of it that way. She left now because She trusted you. She chose you to make the right decision—whatever that is.”
The last words nearly ripped him in two. He wanted to tell her not to go, to stay with him, but he knew he couldn’t be that selfish. The best he could do was memorize the lines of her face. He never wanted to forget what she looked like right now.
Gia put her hands around her stomach, staring at him dubiously.
“Does this era reboot require some sort of big cataclysm to initiate?” he asked, sucking in a breath through his teeth. “Like an extinction-level event?”
Sweat broke out on his brow when she didn’t answer. “What were your choices?” he asked.
“I abstained, at least for the moment,” she confessed, taking a shaky breath. “I can’t make this decision alone. It has to be all four of us. We have to find my sisters.”
When he stepped back, he staggered a bit. He waved at the ground. “Then you’re not supposed to go back down there again?”
Her brow creased, but it wasn’t from pain. It was confusion. “Why would I do that? She’s not there. I received Her message and the catalyst.”
Salvador regarded her helplessly. “I assumed you would have to take Her place.”
“Oh.” Gia blinked, then shook her head. “No, I…I don’t think anyone could. No single being could encompass all that She was. Not if they weren’t of her kind.”
“Good. Good.” He surreptitiously wiped his eyes. “Can I ask you something else?”
“What is it?”
“Are we going to live through whatever that crystal does?”
Gia stared into the stone’s depths. In the few minutes since they’d surfaced, the muted luminescence had changed. A light inside had kindled, and it got brighter by the second.
“I wish I knew.”
34
The rocky hill Gia had designated as the meeting place was savagely steep. Salvador felt the burn in his thighs on the way up, but it had been worth it when they reached the top.
It was as if the Mother herself had designed it. The rocky outcropping rose from a forest of pines that stretched as far as the eye could see. The top appeared as if it had been sheared off by a giant blade. Stones lined the edge like jagged teeth.
It was a fitting place for what was coming. If only he knew what that was…
It hadn’t taken them long to track down Gia’s sisters. Alec and Diana had been consulting the texts in Talos, the vampire council’s library. Gia remembered Serin and Daniel had been recalled from the Gulf while the Air Elemental and her mate had come down from somewhere up North, but Logan had sent the wolf ahead alone.
The news the Mother had left Earth to its own devices had been a shock to all the Elementals, but it was their mate’s reaction he was having an issue with. He much preferred Alec’s flabbergasted silence and Daniel’s calm wait-and-see attitude.
The wolf, on the other hand, had been pacing and muttering nonstop since he got here. Salvador wanted to nail Connell’s tail to the floor. Unfortunately, the wolf was in hi
s bipedal form, so he didn’t have that option.
“I can’t believe She’s gone,” he kept saying.
Daniel caught his eye, and they exchanged a commiserating look. Who would have thought the human would be the steady one? Because if vampires could sweat, he’d be standing in a puddle right now. And forget about the shifter…
“Where is your mate?” Salvador asked with a grimace when the wolf’s pacing kicked a stone into his ankle.
“She’s coming,” Connell growled, checking his watch.
“You okay?” Salvador asked, giving Alec his attention. The vampire appeared paler than usual.
“I’m fine,” Alec rasped. “There are just a lot of changes in the works.”
Oh, yeah. He’d almost forgotten. This news on top of his concern for his mate made this a double whammy.
A pregnant Elemental. The biological implications alone were troubling. “Yeah, I heard. How is that going?”
“Uh, fine. Fine. At least, I think it’s fine. Still early days.”
“Is Diana still in control of her talent?”
Alec whirred to face him, a question in his eyes.
“I mean, her heat isn’t a problem for the fetus, is it?” The doctor in Salvador couldn’t help but be concerned.
“I don’t think that’s an issue. She’s only a little above the normal human range.”
“Really?” He hadn’t known that. Salvador would have expected a Fire Elemental to be much higher. If she was on par with a werewolf, that would probably work out, especially if the child had inherited some of his parent’s magic. It was all in the blood, wasn’t it? That was something he’d been hearing his entire life.
The curiosity was eating him alive. “So, if there’s still a fight, is Diana going to partake?”
Alec blinked. “Of course. Why wouldn’t she?”
How the hell was he supposed to answer that? “You’re not worried about the baby?”
Alec ran a fang over his lip. “I’m worried about all of us.”
Exchanging another quick glance with the silent Daniel, Salvador nodded. “Yes, that’s…fair.”
“I don’t understand why we’re waiting.” Alec frowned, gesturing to the trio of Elementals at the center of the summit. “It’s not like Logan can join them. Only three can congregate at one time. Even then, it’s uncomfortable for them. Diana says it’s like chewing tinfoil.”
Salvador had forgotten about that. “Good question,” he acknowledged, scanning the trio. A whiplash of wind passed over his head, then Logan was there, standing next to Connell.
She gazed at him the way Salvador wished Gia would look at him. They exchanged a few murmured words, and she handed him something. He slipped it into his pocket, slinging a casual arm around her.
The Air Elemental settled in his arms as if she were going to wait there, but Gia turned and beckoned her.
Diana stepped back as if she were going to trade off so Logan could take her place, but Gia stopped her with a hand to the arm. He didn’t hear her telling Diana to stay, but he could see the bewilderment in the Fire Elemental’s expression.
The same confusion was all over Logan’s face as she approached her sisters. And then she was next to them.
Salvador smacked Alec on the arm. “Hey, isn’t there supposed to be some sort of built-in self-destruct to prevent them from getting together at the same time—something to do with keeping them from insurrection or stopping them from taking over the world?”
Alec’s wide and startled eyes were all the answer Salvador got.
Connell snorted. “Not anymore, I guess. New game. New rules.”
35
The wind whipped Diana’s red hair. She picked a stray lock out of her face. “Are we sure about this?” she asked, her face grave.
Di had shared her special news with their other sister. Serin was surprised, but it didn’t shock her. Not compared to Gia’s report.
The Water Elemental’s expression was carefully composed. “Is it possible the Mother has simply moved?” Serin asked. “The empty cavern could be a ruse. Perhaps She fears insurrection again?”
“I wish that were the case, but I don’t think so.” Gia stroked the crystal sphere. Its inner fire had taken on a mystical glow, an indescribable gold-and-purple medley.
“The disconnect we’ve been feeling in recent years… It’s not because She was falling into one of her long slumbers. And it’s not because of John, or at least not just about him. Her time here was always going to be limited. She has been divesting…”
Gia had told them about the images she’d seen while locked in the chamber’s aether—the war from before time and the empty desolation of the land afterward. Then the repopulation and surprise return of the humans.
“Do you feel, I don’t know, a little weirded out?” Diana scowled. “Like She was just messing around, and the planet is her fiendish laboratory? Otherwise, She would have just brought the humans back and not added something of herself in the Supernaturals.”
“C’mon, Di, I’m sure it wasn’t like that,” Serin said. “Whoever and whatever She was, I believe She was trying to make amends for those terrible things that happened. Her long period here alone speaks to how deeply that weighed on Her conscience.”
Diana scowled. “But now She’s gone, and we’re left holding the bag. This world is a hot mess.”
There was more than a small ring of truth to that, but there was more to it. “This world is what we make it,” Gia whispered before raising her head to meet Diana’s eyes. “The truth has unsettled me as well. But let’s wait for Logan. We can hash this out once she’s here.”
Serin twisted to scan the sky behind them. “Here she is now,” she said as their sister landed next to her mate at the edge of the summit. Gia waved Logan over.
“All right, why don’t I take a powder? I need to cool off anyway,” Diana offered, backing away. But Gia shook her head, then reached for her. She needed all four of her sisters close.
“No. Stay.”
“But—”
“Listen,” Gia said.
“I don’t hear anything,” Diana said.
“And you don’t feel it either.” Gia gestured at her sister. “I don’t either.”
The Mother’s failsafe—the unpleasant ringing sensation in her ears, the one Gia felt down to her bones whenever she was this close to her sisters—it was gone.
Gia witnessed the moment of epiphany. It washed over Serin first. Her sister blinked and grabbed Diana’s arm, linking them. Logan became aware when she was halfway to them. Her expression nearly brought Gia to tears.
Slowly, Logan closed the distance. “Where is it?” she asked, gesturing to her ear.
“It’s not needed anymore.” Gian held out her hand to her sister. The Air Elemental took her hand, sending a shooting thrill down her spine like electricity.
For the first time in her life, Gia was with all of her sisters at once, touching them, breathing the same air.
Diana broke the circle first, shielding her face to hide the fact she was crying, unlike Logan, whose eyes were openly streaming. Gia pulled her sister back into an embrace, reconnecting them.
Even the mates seemed affected. Connell seemed slightly dazed. Daniel was stoic. Alec, like his mate, was also teary, the effect slightly ruined by the fact his tears were blood, but it was still sweet. Alec knew better than anyone what this meant to Diana.
Salvador flashed her a bracing smile before giving her a thumbs-up. He has to stop doing that…It warmed her too much, almost making her believe everything would be okay. She of all people knew better.
What she had to tell her sisters was difficult. The beginning, at least, she had to tell them in private. “I’m sorry, but this first part is for their ears alone.”
With a wave, she crafted a circle. It was large enough to encompass her and her sisters, but not the men on the periphery. She and her sisters could converse inside it without being heard.
She faced the women, st
aring at each in turn. “My brave and beautiful sisters. I have served Her for many years, and I knew all of your predecessors. They, too, were brave and strong warriors, but when I met each of you, I knew you would outshine them.”
Diana flushed and blinked rapidly while Logan bit her lip. Serin threw an arm around their youngest sister, pulling her in tight as Gia continued. “Each of you inherited the mantle from a worthy predecessor, but your potential to excel beyond them was there from day one. It was boundless, and not one of you have ever disappointed me. Not once.”
Diana wasn’t the only one who cried now. Gia wiped her eyes.
“I know it’s difficult to accept the Mother is gone, but She did not leave us completely alone. We have each other.” She opened her hand to indicate the men. “And we have them…”
Serin’s lips parted. “Are you suggesting She orchestrated Daniel and me and the others—that our meeting our mates—was no accident? It was by Her design?”
Diana schooled her expression, but Gia could feel her sister’s anger by the spike of heat coming from her direction. “I don’t buy that. Nothing about us was by design. Do you have any idea how close I came to setting Alec’s ass on fire those first few weeks?”
“I don’t think She handpicked him for you,” Gia said. “I don’t believe She was all that cognizant of what She was doing at the end. But I do think she set things in motion so what was destined to happen was accelerated. Elementals have never found their mates so quickly for a reason. She abhorred change. But it was there in the images flooding my brain in Her chamber. The message was muddled, but these precipitous meetings were meant to be a gift, some solace in the face of Her abandonment. She knew we would feel betrayed. And She never wanted us to feel alone.”
Logan nudged her. “Does that mean what I think it means?” she asked with a waggle of her eyebrows.
Diana frowned, then wrinkled her nose as she caught on. “Really? A Delavordo?”
Gia sighed. “The Mother works in mysterious ways. It doesn’t mean we have to take what is offered but as odd as it sounds, I’m glad the opportunity is there—even if it doesn’t work out.” She shrugged. “Does that even make sense?”
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