by Ella Summers
This was starting to get really annoying.
“Ok, why free Zane from the Guardians’ Sanctuary then?” I asked her.
“He was in danger there. He could not stay. If he were to die, everything would go wrong. You need him.”
“I need his help, you mean? Does he play a part in your plans for me?” I asked.
“He plays a part in your life, Leda Pandora. In the journey to come, you will need his help. And you will need him. He’s your brother. If he were to die, you would be distraught.”
“And I’m supposed to believe that you care about my feelings?”
I’d meant it to be a snide, sarcastic remark. I hadn’t expected a response.
River surprised me when she actually answered. “You are driven by your feelings. They make you who you are. They motivate everything you do. Were your brother dead, you would act most unfortunately.”
I wasn’t sure how to take that, but it sounded like River was manipulating me every bit as much as Faris and Grace were. And she was definitely hiding something from me. Ok, a lot of things.
I looked around at this floating island. “Are there more places like this?”
“Yes. And no.”
I thought she wasn’t going to elaborate, but she surprised me again by continuing.
“There are secret stashes all over the world. Each one holds different treasures, different powers, different secrets. Some of the vaults are smaller than this one. And some are quite a bit larger.”
“But they all share something in common, don’t they? None of these stashes have monsters. There is no Magitech wall to keep them out, but the monsters do not cross the threshold.”
Surprise briefly flashed across her eyes, like she hadn’t expected me to make this conclusion, but she quickly recovered her cool composure.
“Indeed. The magic used to create the stashes repels the monsters.”
“Like here.” I thought back to my recent adventure in the Black Forest. “And at the Silver Shore.”
“Correct. The Silver Shore is also a secret stash.”
“And what lies inside the Silver Shore’s stash?”
Her aloof smile was back. “I cannot say.”
It had to be something important. Something big. The Silver Shore was enormous.
We’d found our way inside this Vault by essentially picking the lock. I wondered if the same could be done with the world’s other secret stashes. But could it truly be that easy? The visions I’d been sent basically told me how to get inside the Vault. I didn’t have any visions that revolved around the other stashes. Finding my way into those places would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
“What is the purpose of the stashes?” I asked River.
“Isn’t it obvious? It’s the same purpose of any stash: to hide things safely until they are needed.”
“Needed? For what?”
“I can’t say.”
Getting answers out of River was definitely a hit-or-miss endeavor.
“Did you make the stashes?” I asked her.
“No. I am merely using this one and a few others.”
“Who made them then?”
“I can’t say.”
“Can’t you say anything?” I demanded.
“I have said a lot.”
She had. I really had learned a lot of things from her, but they all felt like partial answers, truths with the good, juicy bits withheld, teasers meant to draw me in and make me want more. There was that manipulation again. I truly was growing tired of having everyone pull my strings.
“So you’ve brought me my brother.” I folded my arms over my chest. “Now what?”
“Now you will all leave this place. After that, it’s up to you.”
River made it sound like I had free will. I liked to think that I did. So why did it feel like I was dancing to someone else’s drum?
“Goodbye,” River said to Zane. Then she looked at me—or, more specifically, at my belly. “Protect the child.”
What kind of statement was that? Of course I’d protect my child. I’d protect her with everything I had.
“What do you know of my child?” I asked her.
She spoke with inhuman calmness. “I know that the universe will go to war over her.”
Just like in the vision Grace had sent to Nero.
“Even now, forces plot to exploit her.” She glanced at Faris and Grace.
Yeah, tell me something I didn’t know.
“A lot of people want to use her as a weapon,” I said.
River nodded.
“Someone with the powers of the gods, demons, and Immortals isn’t easy to come by,” I said.
“That is so, though it’s not the full reason they wish to control her,” she told me.
“There’s something else? What?”
“Ask your mother.” She looked at Grace.
So did I. “What does she mean?”
“She is referring to the magic that the child absorbed from the telepath Faith,” Grace sighed, like she wasn’t happy to go into this. “Faith’s powers were extraordinary, far beyond that of any other telepath I have ever encountered. She possessed the ability of future sight, a powerful kind of magic.”
“You have it too,” I remembered.
“Not like Faith did,” said Grace. “I sometimes catch fleeting glimpses of the future, but Faith could see so much more. And she had some control over what she saw.”
“Apparently, not enough control, or she never would have been defeated,” I said. “She would have foreseen what was going to happen to her and avoided it.”
“There are, of course, limitations to magic, Leda. And Faith was only mortal. Your daughter is not. She is, in fact, very, very powerful. Those limitations will hinder her less.”
“Or not at all?”
“Perhaps. We shall see.”
So my daughter was going to be even more powerful than I’d thought. That only meant even more people would be after her.
“There is something else,” Grace said. “Your daughter would have absorbed Faith’s powers of past sight as well.”
The past…and now I was having more visions.
“I believe your unborn child’s abilities of sight allowed someone to use this place to send you very vivid, very frequent visions over great distances,” Grace told me.
I looked at River for confirmation, but her face was perfectly neutral, not giving a thing away.
“Well?” I demanded.
“Your daughter did indeed absorb all of Faith’s telepathic powers, but there is something else Grace has not told you,” River said. “A power Grace is hoping the child possesses.”
I looked at Grace.
The demon shot River a withering look, then quickly composed her face as she gazed upon me. “Visions of past events can be quite sporadic and incomplete, as you yourself have witnessed, Leda. It is a problem that was well-recognized by the Immortals. Long ago, in their studies of magic, they tried to remedy that.”
“How?”
“The Immortals analyzed magic by separating their ‘complete magic’ into individual strands,” Grace explained. “That’s how they made vampires, witches, fairies, and all of the other original supernaturals. It is also how gods and demons came to be. We were a result of their experiments on light and dark magic.”
Faris frowned, like he didn’t like the idea of being the result of an experiment. Well, join the club, Pops.
“The Immortals were unhappy with the vagueness and imprecision of their past-gazing powers, particularly their historians who desired a complete picture of their entire history,” Grace continued. “So they created two supernatural classes. Firstly, the ghosts, those people with the power of telepathy. And secondly, the unicorns, people with the power of magic-tracking, but also the power to read into a soul, into the fabric of their magic, the history of their magic, the events that created them and their magic. That too was a window into the past. Then, after studying both powers
in isolation, after learning how to boost them, the Immortals worked toward combining those boosted powers into a single being.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“Nothing, as far as I can tell,” said Grace. “The Immortals were so focused on what had already happened that they didn’t see what was coming: the end of their civilization.”
“Because of the Guardians.”’
“Because of the Guardians,” Grace confirmed. “They destroyed the Immortals before those past-gazing experiments could bear any fruit.”
“You’re trying to continue those experiments,” I realized. “That’s why you really performed those rituals on me when you were pregnant with me. And that’s why you wanted me to absorb Faith’s magic.”
“I wanted your daughter to absorb it, yes,” she said. “Magic gained before birth is so much more potent. It mixes with the child as it develops. I’m sure that’s the key to channeling the kind of power to truly master the gift of past vision. That’s the idea the Immortals were missing in their experiments. That’s why I arranged for your unborn child to absorb all of Faith’s powers. And that’s why I performed rituals on you before you were born. There is a chance your child will have the power to tap into the complete memories of anyone she meets. The unicorn’s power to see all that came before to create someone—magnified, focused, and extended by the power of telepathy.”
My demon mother certainly didn’t dream small. She was trying to accomplish something that had eluded even the original Immortals.
“Why are you telling me all of this?” I asked Grace. “Why reveal your secrets?”
“River knows it all already. She would tell you everything if I did not.”
My gaze flickered briefly to Faris, then back to Grace. “Aren’t you worried about revealing your secrets to Faris?”
“It cannot be helped.” Grace frowned. “He knows most of this already. And as for what he doesn’t know…well, Faris can’t do much with it anyway.”
“That’s what you think,” Faris said with a smug upward tilt of his nose.
“Going to proposition Ava or…” Grace laughed. “…Sonja to help you create another living weapon? Good luck with that. My sisters despise you even more than I do. And there isn’t another demon who possesses as powerful telepathic magic as I do. Truth is, honey, you needed me far more than I needed you.”
Faris scowled at her.
“Good,” River said.
Good? What did that mean? Was she just trying to get us all fighting? If she really was still with the Guardians, that would certainly be their way: to make us fight each other so we’re less of a threat.
River started walking away.
Faris stepped into her path, blocking her. “You may not pass.”
River looked at him, totally unconcerned. “You can’t stop me.”
Amusement flashed in his eyes. “Of course I can.”
River kept walking. Faris made a move to grab her, but the tornado swooped in and pushed him aside with such force that he flew across the platform. He immediately jumped up and launched a barrage of spells at River.
But the tornado surged forward and swallowed his magic. None of his spells ever hit River. Faris tried more spells, but none of them worked either. His wings burst out of his back, and he flew at her. The tornado reached out to swallow him, pinning him in place. He couldn’t move a muscle. The mysterious swirling magic tornado had completely immobilized the King of the Gods.
“How are you controlling the tornado?” I asked River.
“I’m not. I merely understand it,” she told me. “I know the rules of the Vault, something the god would do well to remember.” She slid a reproachful glance at Faris. “No magic can be used to attack another within these peaceful walls, else the Vault will be angered.”
A piece of the tornado swirled out and reshaped itself to form a platform beneath her feet. The platform boosted her up slowly, like an elevator, high into the sky.
It was so weird. The Guardians didn’t have magic; they neutralized it. So even if River knew the Vault’s secret ways, how was magic working with her in here too? Why did the tornado seem to be acting at her command rather than recoiling from her touch?
Before I could even begin to make a guess at those mysteries, she was gone. At that same moment, the tornado released Faris.
He glowered at the spot where River had disappeared. “I’m not done with you,” he said, making his voice boom and echo off the tornado walls.
Then he ranted at her for a good minute. Honestly, I was pretty impressed by his eloquent curses. He swore pretty well—for a god, anyway.
“Watch your mouth in front of the baby,” I scolded him. I couldn’t help myself. The idea of telling Faris how to behave was just too funny to pass up.
“The child will need to endure far more than unfriendly language,” he replied coolly.
Yeah, my daughter would have to endure much from him. I didn’t like the speculative look in his eyes. Likely, he was already dreaming up ways to torture my child with new and inhuman training methods. And she wasn’t even born yet.
I looked at Faris’s feathers, which were black with gold highlights. “Nice wings.”
His nose inched a little higher in the air. “I know.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Don’t feed his ego,” Grace told me. “It’s too big already.”
“I was being sarcastic,” I said, even though Faris’s wings were beautiful, unlike his dark soul.
“Don’t even bother. Sarcasm goes right over Faris’s head,” said Grace. “Trust me. I’ve tried.”
“Trust her at your own risk,” Faris warned me.
Then he turned around to blast the tornado. It blasted back.
He cursed River’s name again.
“She’s long gone. I don’t think she can hear you,” I told him.
Ignoring me, he tried hitting the tornado with more magic. It hit him back even harder. Grace pulled out her phone and used it to gleefully capture videos of Faris’s battle with the tornado.
“To show the other demons later,” she whispered to me with a wink.
“Stop throwing a temper tantrum,” I told Faris, then I turned to Grace. “And, as for you, stop egging him on. You’re both acting like children, not immortal deities. And to be honest, I am downright embarrassed to call myself your daughter.” I brushed the concrete dust off my shirt, a souvenir from our earlier battle with the rats. “Besides, if you two hadn’t been goofing off, you would have realized that the tornado is just using your own magic against you. It can only spit back at you what you give it.”
“Of course we noticed,” Grace said, looking offended.
“We aren’t imbeciles,” Faris added.
“Then why do you keep blasting the tornado?” I demanded.
“Because I am annoyed.”
“When you have as much magic as we do, if you don’t release it regularly, it tends to explode rather horribly,” Grace explained.
“Especially, when we’re aggravated,” Faris said.
“Or otherwise worked up or incensed.”
“Honestly, the nerve of that girl River.”
“Popping in and out.”
“Uninvited.”
“Unannounced.”
“Unwanted.”
“Like she owns the place.”
“It’s intolerable.”
I wondered if they realized how ironic their words were, coming from people who popped in and out all the time, uninvited, unannounced, and unwanted.
“It’s bitter, isn’t it?” I said.
“What is?” Faris asked.
I smirked. “The taste of your own medicine.”
He scowled at me. He looked like he was seriously considering smiting me.
Grace slanted a warning glance at him. “Do not smite our daughter.”
So I hadn’t imagined that look in Faris’s eyes.
“Why should I not punish her disobedience?” If he’d pumped
any more scorn into his words, he might have exploded.
“You know why,” Grace said.
“The child she carries is immortal. It will survive. And surviving a good smiting now and again builds character.”
“Your parents smote you all the time, Faris,” said Grace. “So if it were true that a good smiting builds character, your character would be the universe’s gold standard.”
A smile lifted his lips. “It is.”
Grace rolled her eyes.
Faris looked at me expectantly, as though I was supposed to speak up for him and declare his character to be beyond reproach.
“You’re the perfect god,” I told him.
He began to nod, then stopped. His eyes narrowed. “You are being insincere.”
“Of course I wasn’t sincere. Sorry, Pops, you’re a grade A ass.” I flashed him a grin. “Even River thought so, and she’d only just met you.”
“River, the impudent wretch,” he said in a low snarl. “How dare she lay a finger on the Lord of Heaven’s Army and King of the Gods.”
“Actually, she didn’t lay a finger on you. A cute little funnel of wind did,” Grace pointed out. “Apparently, you aren’t as powerful as you think you are.”
Chuckling, Grace showed me a picture of Faris that she’d snapped while he’d been stuck to the tornado. The photo was indeed funny, but I didn’t laugh. I didn’t want her to think things were ok between us. She’d manipulated me and Nero. Things were definitely not ok between us.
“Just wait until I share this little gem at the next meeting of the demons’ council,” Grace said lightly. “I trust you’ll hear the laughter all the way back at that distant, barren, miserable rock of a world you call home, Faris.”
“I am in no mood for your snark, Grace,” Faris said coolly.
She tucked her hair behind her ears. “You’re never in the mood for anything but world domination.”
“If only you could set your sights so high,” he shot back.
Grace took a forceful step forward. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“But instead, you let your sisters do all the fighting and scheming and ruling.” A sardonic smile curled his lips. “While you hide behind their skirts.”
Grace drew her trident, and red flames shot across the black metal. She swung her very large, very long weapon at him. He dodged.
