by Heloise Hull
“The basilica.”
I didn’t bother with the Vespa. In full panic mode, my feet pounding the cobblestones, I flew much faster than any motorized vehicle.
Aurick followed, keeping stride with his long legs.
“It might not be the basilica.”
“It is. Don’t patronize me.”
Aurick fell silent.
“I’m sorry. I just...” I huffed through the chest pains. My lungs didn’t feel as if they could sustain this frenetic pace much longer.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m nervous too.” He took the lead, rounding the corner into town and down the side alley to the basilica.
It was as dark and cold as always. The ancient, lingering scent of incense assaulted us as we entered, but I didn’t see my boys. Yet… “I can feel them. They’re here somewhere.”
Aurick plunged forward, his body rippling with power as his magic activated. We split up, calling their names and searching the aisles.
Near the transept, I heard a noise. Something had stumbled. My eyes were saucers as I practically forced them to adjust to the lack of light. I ducked under a velvet rope and crept up the steps to the altar. Two figures suddenly stood up straight.
“Boys!” I gasped.
Their eyes were fish belly white, and their mouths tight lines with a little O shape at the center. They didn’t act as if they’d heard me or even knew where they were. They were barefoot and rumpled, still wearing their pajamas, a t-shirt and white underwear. I almost sent out a blast of magic at the sight of them like this. Whatever this was.
“Don’t startle them,” Aurick cautioned under his breath.
My hysteria had reached new levels. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Merely guide them down the aisle and outside.”
“Right. Okay. Guide them.” I felt like a sheep dog herding fainting goats as I led them past the last row of pews and into the sun. Their eyes were still milky. Jo could’ve danced naked in the middle of the church and they wouldn’t have blinked.
“Did they go to the crypt?” I whispered.
Aurick shrugged, which did nothing to undo the knot wringing out my stomach.
“Watch them,” I told him.
Without another glance, I turned and sprinted to the crypt, the pathway becoming as familiar to me as the dirt one to Villa Venus. The damp corridor slid downwards, and I took the fork at sprinter speeds, my fear pushing me faster. Sooner than expected, I reached the door—and paused.
It looked untouched. I put my hand on the handle. Ice cold. It didn’t feel as if a warm, human hand had recently gripped it.
Perhaps they hadn’t breached the room. Perhaps it was all fine. I pressed my ear to the wood of the door and listened, holding my breath for what felt like hours. Everything was still and calm on the other side. Cautiously, I pulled open the hatch, just to make sure.
Thoth looked the same as always, unconscious, inhumane, deadly. Not a rise or fall of his chest. Did gods even need to breathe?
I waited a few more minutes before shutting the door and creeping back out.
Aurick was waiting with the boys, who still looked slightly spelled, but were coming around in the warm sunshine.
“What the hell just happened?” I asked.
He gave me a slight smile. “Sleepwalking. It’s a funny business. Right boys?”
“But we’ve never done that in our lives,” Jacob said, every blink slowly dissipating more of the whiteness.
“And you’re never going to do it again,” I said.
Aurick clapped them on the back. “What a fun mystery. Should we hotfoot it back to the villa? Unless you’d like to continue strutting around in your tightie-whities?”
The boys quickly followed Aurick, but I grabbed his elbow. “I’ll be right there. Don’t wait for me.”
“Because you’re clearly going to do something dangerous and rash.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m going to pay Luca a visit.”
Chapter Twelve
I was so done with subtlety. My mother magic riled up my veins and sparked off my skin. Plants both grew and frizzled as I stormed past the tangled vines of wisteria. I felt vengeful. While it was true that, lately, Luca seemed like a neutered puppy, his past was hard to deny and I wasn’t buying it. Not yet.
He’d kept his distance and hadn’t overstepped his reintegration. Apparently, I was the island’s official rehabilitator for demons, necromancers, and general ne’er-do-wells. If Luca was innocent, I’d get business cards. But if he led my boys to the crypt for some weird sort of revenge…
Without knocking, I banged open his door with a surge of magic and demanded, “Luca, where are you?”
I whipped my head over at the sound of movement. Luca was sitting on the couch, holding a photo. He put it down and stood slowly, his eyes wary. From a glance, the photo was of his wife, and it was always strange to see her resemblance to myself.
“Ava. How lovely to see you. Is there a reason for the intrusion?”
“Did you have anything to do with it?”
“With what exactly?”
I tapped my foot, my own magic still smoking off of me. Every green thing in Luca’s house had died by this point from my anger, including the fern I had brought back to life on our first and only date. I stared at it and pointed, forcing it to twist and grow to double its previous size.
“Answer me.”
“Since I have no idea what you’re talking about, probably not.” Luca sighed and dropped his arms. “Ava, what’s wrong? Do you need help?”
“I need you to be honest.”
“Okay then. I have done nothing untold since arriving home. I did not join you for the boys’ birthday celebration because I didn’t want to make it awkward. I have finally decided to give away the last piece of my wife’s jewelry. A gold bracelet. I was considering asking you to have it, unless that would be weird.”
“It would be freaking weird, Luca.”
“Okay. Rosemary it is, then, to thank her for her kindness.”
“Stop dodging the question.”
“I’m not dodging anything. I answered it to the best of my abilities. If you would like more information, please provide a little more context.”
“Did you do anything to my sons?”
Luca’s look of confusion was enough for me. It was only for a moment, but it was honest. I could see it with my eyes and feel it with my magic.
“No. Nothing. And I would protect them with all of my heart. I cannot bear the thought of children in trouble.”
His pain-filled eyes took me back to the look on his face when he spoke of his daughter. Despite the fact he’d tried to silence my soul in order to cram his dead wife in there, it was still touching how much emotion he allowed himself to feel.
I dropped my boxer’s stance. “Fine. I believe you.”
“Thank you. Now can I help? What happened?”
“I found them a few minutes ago in the basilica. Their eyes were milky white as if they’d been spelled. They woke up with no idea what had happened. Thoth is still asleep, so I don’t think they got as far as the crypt, but someone was trying to trigger his rebirth.”
Luca’s cheek twitched as he listened. “Have you considered that Aradia didn’t just let me slip through ten years ago? That perhaps there were others?”
“Only abstractly. I mean, Aurick was clearly let in the year before I got here. Why, is there someone else that gives you bad vibes?”
“I’m… not sure. Perhaps the island itself has its own reasons. In any case, there’s no point in spreading rumors in case they are not true.”
“Don’t be noble.”
Luca gave me a wry look. “No one has accused me of that before.”
“Don’t joke, either.”
“Yes, I can tell you’re not in the mood for a laugh. I will keep watch over the entrance of the basilica until your boys are safely home. Would that help?”
I nodded slowly. “Yes. Thank you. I’m going t
o send them off shortly, but I give you permission to tackle them like a linebacker if they so much as step foot in that alley way.”
Luca went to hold the door for me. “Good luck, Ava.”
My mind swirled as I left. Who else had the island let in? Were they hiding in plain sight or just plain hiding?
By the time I got back to Villa Venus, I had no answers and only more suspicions. I didn’t want to eyeball every supernatural that came to the bakery in the morning, but I knew I would. I was one incident away from requesting fingerprints and background checks before giving them their espresso.
I swung open the front door and found the kitchen a hive of activity. Aurick had one twin in a bear hug, while Thessaly was awkwardly patting the other on the head. Nonna pulled out a last loaf of rosemary focaccia and wrapped it in a warm towel to tuck into the boys’ carry-on. If this was a real international flight, they’d be sniffed out in a heartbeat.
“Come, give your mamma a proper goodbye,” she said.
The boys hugged me one at a time. They were big enough to lift me off the ground if they chose, but they still felt small and vulnerable to me. I took in their scent and held back the tears.
“Goodbye, Josh. Goodbye, Jacob. Study hard. Stay safe. Look out for one another. No matter what, you’ll always have your twin. Never forget that.”
“Okay, Mom.”
“We’ll call when we land.”
I held back a real sob at that. “Thank you. I won’t sleep until you do.”
They rolled their eyes. “It’s just a plane. Way safer than a car, statistically speaking.”
“Right,” I sniffled. I wondered how much safer an astral plane was compared to an actual plane. Statically speaking. “Of course.”
Nonna gave a subtle wink as Tiberius placed his paws on their shoulders—and they were gone.
Two hours later, I got a call from them. They were both groggy and disoriented like Nonna had promised.
“Were we really in Italy?” Josh asked, sleep in his voice. “It felt like a dream.”
“You were. I’m glad you’re home safe now,” I said. “I miss you already. Maybe I’ll come home for your spring break.” I couldn’t imagine letting them come here again. Not with Thoth looming.
I only heard a snore in response. Smiling, I hung up the phone and went to give Nonna a thank you hug.
“Why don’t you get some sleep, Mamma?” she said. “I’ve seen raccoons with fewer black circles around their eyes.”
“I probably should,” I admitted with a yawn. Finally catching up on sleep sounded like the perfect thing before I went monster hunting.
But the moment I hit my bed, I realized I was way too jittery. I half-heartedly counted a few sheep prancing through a blank, white room and then gave up.
I put on a pair of stretchy yoga pants, twisted my hair in a knot, and poked my head into the nest of towels Tiberius kept by the hearth oven.
“Hey, Tiberius?”
He blinked groggily at me.
“Want to help me figure out how to defeat a god?”
He rubbed his paws together, completely awake now. “Let me get the whip.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Question.” I held up my finger, as we made our way out to the orchard. “Is a whip necessary? I promise to pay attention without the threat of physical punishment.”
Tiberius chittered. “Yes, you will pay attention or you’ll get trampled by astral projections. The whip is for them.” He skittered up my arm and settled into the hollow near my neck. “And a little fear never hurt anyone.”
“That is absolutely false.”
Of course, Nonna chose that moment to come outside. She took one look at my guilty face and rolled her eyes. “Not taking a nap, I see.”
“I can’t sleep. I thought I’d train my god magic. I feel one hundred percent confident in my mother magic. I live and breathe it. But my god magic only comes out to play under a full moon or when someone is trying to kill me with beetles. I want to have faith I can summon it on command if Thoth awakens.”
“And?” Nonna prompted.
“And what?”
“Come now. I can see it in your eyes. There’s something else bothering you.”
“Maybe,” I admitted. “I’m getting these weird surges when I’m upset. It happened at the florist and when the boys were fighting. I feel… out of control and then things do the opposite of grow and thrive.”
“What exactly do they do, Mamma?”
“They die.”
Nonna nodded slowly. “I see.” She walked in a tight circle around me. I could see how her face drooped with wrinkles and how she had more liver spots than only a few weeks ago. I was trying to prepare myself for the inevitable passage of time, but I didn’t want to. There were such creatures as immortal beings. Why couldn’t Nonna get a little more of that time?
Without warning, Nonna astral projected in my face with her gaping mouth and fierce incisors bared.
Apparently the training had begun.
I flung up my arms and shielded myself with a bubble of mother magic. It pulsed warm and comforting around me.
“Not bad,” Tiberius said. “Let’s take it up a notch.”
He pried open a crack and a fierce lion invaded my bubble. It snarled and flicked a serpent’s tail at my head.
“Don’t let the chimera touch you with its tail,” Tiberius advised. “It’s venomous.”
“It’s what,” I yelped, diving out of the way. I felt the coolness of the air as it passed inches from my nose. I caught a whiff, too. It smelled of an earthy wrongness that reminded me of snake holes.
“Go ahead,” Nonna called from the side. The only thing she was missing was a lawn chair and popcorn. Or maybe a visor and a bullhorn. “Get scared. Get mad. Get even.”
The chimera snapped its jaw at me, and I was pretty sure it could snap my arm, even in an astral state. I forwent the feelings of calm I usually tried to cultivate in these situations and looked for the rage. No mythical creature was bigger or badder than me. Instead, I reached for the wild god magic and let it surge within me like waves. I roared with it—and let loose a tiny cloud that pelted us with cold raindrops.
The chimera paused, which was great, but only because he was probably surprised I’d be so stupid. Two seconds later, he flung the water off of his snout and lunged at me while I yelped and slipped in a mud puddle. Instantly, the beast’s putrid snarls were in my face, but a crack! resounded through the orchard. The chimera wavered once, howling before it disappeared. Tiberius stood over me with the whip.
“That was some show, Mamma,” Nonna said, helping me to my feet. She watched me through slit-pupils that were slightly terrifying.
“Where did the water come from?” I asked, rubbing my backside which was wet and probably bruised like a delicate peach. I felt like a delicate, bruise-able fruit at the moment, anyway.
“No clue, Mamma, but the best thing is to focus on the feelings you use when the god magic consumes you.”
“Okay, well, the tattoo on my back usually burns when I feel it coming. What doesn’t usually happen is a rain shower.”
Tiberius leapt to my shoulder and sniffed my ear. “You’re just so fascinating.”
“Thanks,” I grumbled, not at all amused.
With even less warning than before, they spun another astral image at me. This one felt more real, though. As real as the moment I’d lived it.
Somehow, the yard in front of the villa shimmered like an oil slick. I was back in the basilica, under the crypt. My heart was pounding as I creaked open the door to where Thoth slumbered in his dying state. Except, he was sitting up. He was smiling.
That's all it took for my back to sear fire. When the god magic came, it felt like a bucking beast. I rode an animal I had no business being on. It was mayhem and upheaval, and its black center beat like a gaping maw that wanted to consume me. It would swallow me whole if I gave it the chance.
This time, no clouds or water gush
ed forth. No growing vines or warm feelings of safety. This was pure rage at the god who threatened our existence. Madness dripped from my arms and pooled in black clouds that I directed at his heart. I felt something tugging at my arm, but I roared and pushed forth more power. Thoth’s hieroglyphs glowed in response, but the madness swirled higher, enveloping the god.
A boom reverberated through the yard, and the closest walnut tree exploded, splintering like dried pasta.
I blinked away the madness and saw Tiberius panting as he closed up the cracks of his astral projections and curled the whip away. Nonna had her thin, painted-on eyebrows raised. Their eyes met, and they exchanged one of those inscrutable looks, talking with their pupils in a way only beings who had spent thousands of years together could, passing information at warp speed.
I cleared my throat. “What, uh, was that?”
Nonna didn’t mince words. “There was a touch of chaos in that god magic, Mamma.”
“God magic like I used on Thessaly? But the moon isn’t out…”
“No. Chaos magic is a very specific type of god magic. It has nothing to do with the moon.”
I swallowed again, feeling like I’d been screaming at a concert all night long. “Well how do I control it?”
“Chaos is chaos. You don’t control it.”
“Then what do I do?”
“You hope it doesn’t control you.”
My body iced over at her words, but Nonna was already hobbling back to the house. “That’s enough for now. Come inside. I’m making ribollita for supper. Something hearty to warm us all up, although your boys managed to eat everything except the dried beans and a few odds and ends. We’ll throw it all in the soup.”
Although my insides were wobbly and fear-stricken, a smile tugged at me. “That sounds about right.”
Aurick joined us for dinner. He didn’t say where he’d been, but I didn’t push him either. Probably sparring with Manu, again. For the hundredth time, I wondered how I could help him out of this situation without losing him.
I cleared the plates while Nonna went to find dessert. She came back holding a silver platter filled with indescribably ugly, misshapen, brown rocks. At least, that’s what it looked like.