Let it All Burn: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (From the Ashes Book 1)

by Denise Grover Swank

  “What is that?” I asked.

  “It houses that which you are meant to protect.”

  Narrowing my eyes, I asked, “What does that mean?”

  “What do you know about Greek mythology?”

  “Not much,” I admitted, moving around the case holding the sculpture.

  “What do you know about Persephone?”

  “More than you might think.” I turned to Vee. “Am I turning into Persephone?”

  Vee laughed. “No, but she is important. What do you know about her?”

  “She’s the Greek goddess of vegetation. The daughter of Zeus and Demeter, who is the goddess of the fertility of the earth. Hades, the god of the Underworld, kidnapped and dragged her to Hell, where he married her and refused to let her leave.”

  “That’s true, but around 100 BC a hero sought her freedom.”

  “I thought she could leave the Underworld for four months of the year.”

  “She could, and she grew to love Hades, but like most gods, he got bored and his roving eye found another goddess. While Persephone was visiting her mother, he moved his lover to the Underworld. When Demeter found out, she was furious and found a man foolish enough to try to save her daughter.”

  “You say all of this as though it’s real,” I commented, but without any heat. In the past, I’d thought I had a pretty good grasp of what was real and what was not, but now my tears had mysterious healing power and I caused fires every time I had a hot flash.

  Vee gave me a sad smile. “The hero was killed instantly, but he had brought his wiser sister who had a smooth tongue. She convinced Hades to give Persephone more than the prearranged four months of freedom at a time. He agreed to give her two thousand years, but of course he had conditions.”

  This sounded completely preposterous, yet I knew in my gut that it was true.

  Vee continued, “He didn’t want her to become powerful enough to escape him forever, so he insisted that she be human. A mortal. Nor did he want her to outsmart him again, so every fifty years she’s reborn and the cycle restarts itself. The hero’s sister did get him to agree to one point. Persephone was to be mortal, but with each rebirth, she has a guardian with the power to protect her. One chosen by the relic designed by Hermes and Demeter.”

  Hermes. In my research, I’d learned that Hermes was the one who’d convinced Hades to let Persephone free four months out of the year. He was the god of many things, but in this instance, I couldn’t ignore that he was a trickster god.

  “The last of the fifty-year cycles starts tonight.” Vee paused. “It starts with you.”

  I stared at her in disbelief, then started to laugh. “This is a joke, right?”

  I glanced around to look for the cameras that were capturing my reaction.

  “No, Darcie, this is all real. You are to become the guardian of Persephone.”

  I pressed a hand to my chest. “Me? I’m not even Greek.”

  A soft smile spread across her face. “Persephone is goddess to us all.”

  The wheels in my head were spinning, and as I tried to make the Persephone piece of the puzzle fit, another piece suddenly slid into position.

  “Vee,” I said, my heart sinking. “Sylvia. You’re my great-grandma Sylvia.”

  “Yes.”

  I took a step back and shook my head. “You died.”

  “Yes. I did.”

  “So you’re a ghost? A ghost guardian?” It sounded crazy enough that I laughed. She didn’t laugh with me, so my laughter trailed off into a shrug. “I mean, you’re protecting a goddess, right? So why not a ghost guardian?”

  “No, Darcie. I’m not a ghost. I’m real. I was reborn.”

  “Reincarnated?” I studied her more closely. She still looked like she was in her sixties, about thirty to forty years younger than she should. How did that work? If she’d been reborn fifty years ago, shouldn’t she look fifty years younger?

  Except a baby couldn’t protect anyone. Had she simply been reborn as a younger version of herself?

  “In a way.” She took a step closer. “Darcie, we don’t have much time.”

  “You died,” I said, refusing to move on yet. “You broke my nana’s heart.” I shook my head. Did she expect me to leave my children? Because that was not happening. “Why didn’t you tell her that you were still alive?”

  “I had to leave,” she said. “So it was easier that way. The exhibit left for England, and I had to go with it. Persephone is tied to the mirror.” She gestured to the patinaed piece.

  “That’s a mirror?” I asked in disbelief.

  Like the one I’d been given.

  “The back is plated in silver. It’s tarnished now, but it works well enough. She can’t be more than five hundred miles from it for more than forty-eight hours or so, or she starts to die.”

  “What?” What kind of madness was this? “I don’t understand what’s going on. Any of it.”

  “That’s okay,” she said with a sad smile. “You’ll learn as you go. That’s what I did. But some of the other gods aren’t happy that Persephone went free, and I suspect they’ll try to make an example of her for her last fifty years. You’ll need to hide her.”

  “You expect me to pack up my kids and move?”

  “Not your kids, Darcie. Just you and Persephone.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, that’s not happening.” I shook my head. “I’m not abandoning my family. You can keep doing it.”

  “I can’t,” she said kindly. “And unfortunately, thanks to James Randolph Perry, we don’t have a choice. He tied our family to the exhibit through Clementine, although he didn’t do it intentionally.”

  “Clementine? As in the mayor’s wife, Clementine?”

  “Yes. At least, she started out as the mayor’s wife. She and Perry moved to Birdsboro together. She was my great-grandmother. The previous guardian was from Italy, and she was the last of her bloodline. So when Clementine visited the museum exhibit, the relic chose her as the next guardian. The sacred duty was passed to us.” She glanced up at a circular window underneath the peak of the ceiling. A full moon was crossing the circle at the center of the patterned glass. It was starting to fill the space, the dimensions an exact match. “We don’t have much time. I’ve left you a journal that details what I went through, just like my great-grandmother left a journal for me. It explains how it all came to pass, but for now, you need to know that you are about to die, but you will reemerge as yourself.”

  “So what’s the point of dying?” I asked. “I’d prefer to skip the dying part.”

  “You need to die so you can be reborn with your full guardian powers.” She gave me a soft smile as her hair began to glow. “Persephone,” she called into the shadows. “It’s time.”

  To my surprise, Tammy emerged from the shadows and gave me an apologetic smile. “I’m ready.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “Tammy is Persephone?” I asked incredulously. This had to be a joke. Sure, I’d felt called to defend Tammy, but I hadn’t gotten the first clue she was the human incarnation of a goddess.

  “She will go back to the mirror,” Vee said, “and after your rebirth, she will be reborn as well. You will care for her and guard her until her fifty years is done.”

  I couldn’t wrap my head around this. “I’m supposed to take care of a baby?”

  Good heavens, I was too old for all of those middle of the night feedings.

  “No,” Tammy said, walking toward me. “When I reemerge from the mirror, I’ll be anywhere from ten to thirteen. I’ll have reached puberty. The last time, I was twelve. I won’t remember everything about my previous life or lives in the beginning, but it will begin to return to me as I age. Your job is to raise me and protect me from danger. If I die before my fifty years is completed, Hades will punish me for daring to escape him for two millennia. He’ll put me in the dungeons of the Underworld forever.”

  “Hades will send supernatural beings to kill her,” Vee said. “He’s sent them sporadic
ally over the last decade, but this time . . .” She paused. “He wants to make an example of her to all the souls in the Underworld.”

  “So?” I said. “She’s going to the Underworld anyway, right?”

  “Yes and no,” Vee said. “If she survives the next fifty years, she’ll return to her throne. If she dies, she’ll be in agony in the dungeons forever.”

  “So, basically, no pressure,” I said, then pointed a finger at Vee. “And you’re a terrible guardian if you let her marry Pete.”

  Vee laughed. “Your children are young. Just wait until they’re older and they start making big choices. See what happens when you try and stop them.”

  She had a point.

  “While Pete is a terrible husband,” Vee said, “he never physically harmed her. Our job is to keep her from being physically injured. She can deal with her own emotional injuries.”

  “That’s not my idea of mothering,” I said in disgust.

  “You are not her mother,” Vee said sternly. “You are her guardian.”

  I shook my head. “If my duty is to raise her, I’ll do it as her mother. Nothing less. You saw the way I fought for Harriet. A mother does everything in her power to protect her child.”

  Sadness filled Vee’s eyes. “Then perhaps you’ll be a better guardian than I was. Only time will tell.”

  But I had to admit that the full meaning of her warning was hitting home—the god Hades was going to send supernatural creatures to kill her.

  How was I supposed to protect her from that? Even though my role had come with certain new abilities, I hadn’t had time to practice using them. It also didn’t escape me that those same supernatural creatures could do harm to my children.

  The moon moved further into the circle in the window.

  Familiar heat rose in my chest.

  Tammy placed a hand on her chest. “I hate this part, Vee.”

  Vee put a hand on her shoulder. “I know, but it will be over soon.”

  “If she’s Persephone, why do you call her Tammy?” I asked, saying it aloud before I realized it was probably the least important question I had.

  “Sephi picks,” Vee said. “Once she’s reborn, she’ll tell you her name.”

  The heat in my chest increased, as if fresh wood had been thrown on a fire, spreading down my arms and into my head.

  “Darcie!” Heath called out from the shadows, running toward me.

  I held up my hand, panicked that I would hurt him if he touched me. “Stay back, Heath.”

  “I’ll get a fire extinguisher,” he said, glancing around as though trying to figure out where to find one.

  I started to laugh. “I don’t think that’s going to work this time.”

  The moon crept farther into the circle.

  “You need to leave,” Vee told him, her hair still glowing. “Now.”

  I felt another flash of protectiveness, this time toward him. “He’s with me,” I said. “Don’t hurt him.”

  “I’m not leaving, lady,” Heath said, sweeping the lower part of his jacket to the side and pulling out his gun in one swift movement.

  Vee’s entire body began to glow and vibrate with a low hum.

  “What’s happening to her?” he asked, staring at me in horror.

  Tammy moved closer. “She’s turning into a phoenix.”

  “A what?” Heath shouted.

  I worried that the people below would hear him, but the murmur of voices and music helped camouflage our sounds.

  A phoenix. Which meant I was one too. It made so much sense, but now I was even more terrified. The phoenix burned to death and was reborn in the ashes.

  “Heath,” I said. “Listen to me. If I don’t . . . if I’m not here when this is done, I need you to promise to make sure my kids are okay.”

  His jaw hardened. “You’re not burning up, Darcie. I won’t let you.”

  The moon had almost completely filled the center circle in the window.

  The heat in my body increased to a painful level.

  “Darcie,” Heath gasped. “Your hair.”

  I glanced down and saw the ends. It was glowing now, just like Vee’s. “What happens to you now?”

  “My time is done,” she said. “I’ll join the previous guardians in the afterlife.”

  “You’ll die.”

  “Do not mourn for me, Darcie. I’ve lived nearly two lifetimes.”

  “And lost so many years with your daughter,” I grunted through the pain.

  “It had to be done,” Vee said. “How would I have explained it to her?”

  “She would have understood. She would have accepted it. You thought everyone would believe your husband, but in her heart she believed in you.”

  Something softened in her eyes. “It’s too late to do anything differently, but I should have known. Tell her I love her.”

  A sharp pain spread across my back. Releasing a cry, I fell to my knees.

  “Darcie!” Heath took another step toward me.

  “Stop!” I shouted at him, holding up a hand. “Don’t touch me.”

  “She’s right,” Tammy said. “You have to let her do this. The process of transformation has already begun. If you don’t let it finish, she’ll be destroyed.”

  Either I was hallucinating from the pain, or Tammy was becoming transparent.

  But there wasn’t time to ask, because the moon completely filled the circle and flames shot out of my skin, engulfing my body.

  “Darcie!” Heath tugged at his jacket, fighting with the buttons.

  I wanted to tell him to stop, to not try to put this out, because I knew that he would be burnt.

  Tears. I needed tears to save me, but it was too late for that.

  I was burning alive.

  The pain was overwhelming, and I fell to the floor.

  My life flashed before my eyes—my parents, my childhood, meeting and marrying Richard—all in the flash of an eye, but it slowed down for my pregnancy with the twins, their birth and their infant and toddler years. Then Elena’s birth and watching her grow. Hugs and kisses and love. So much love. Love surrounded and filled me, easing the pain of life’s trials and tribulations, bursting into a bright light until I was swallowed by it.

  Swallowed by flames that gave life rather than destroyed it.

  And then I reemerged, rising up as though I were being inflated. I was me, but not me; I was a huge bird, taking flight in the museum. I flew over the crowd of several hundred people, hearing their gasps and screams before I shot through the circular spot in the stained glass window, shattering it.

  I soared over the town, my wings spread wide, and a quick glance told me what I already knew. My wings were on fire.

  Feelings too big to be contained rushed through me. Joy. Purpose. Freedom. I could fly forever, and it wouldn’t be long enough.

  Yet something tugged me back. An invisible cord that tied me to that mirror in the museum. My true purpose was to guard Persephone for the next fifty years.

  I would be reborn as a younger woman and start my new life with the goddess.

  Something in me rebelled. I wasn’t leaving my children. I wasn’t starting over. I’d gotten this far in the body I had, the life I had, and I didn’t want to leave it. The compulsion was strong, though, and I understood why Vee had left her family, especially because she’d been chained to a husband who didn’t understand or respect her. I understood plenty about that.

  I flew back through the window and back to the pile of ashes where my human body had been. Vee and Tammy were gone—a pile of ashes where Vee had stood too. Heath stood there with his jacket in hand, his eyes wide with disbelief and indecision. He jumped back when he saw my bird form landing on the ashes.

  I closed my eyes and poured every bit of my focus into my body and my kids, and when I opened them, I was standing in my two-inch heels, wearing my red dress . . . and my wings were spread out behind me, extending six feet on either side.

  Heath stared at me, his eyes wide and his m
outh open, struggling with what to say or do.

  The fire alarms were blaring, and people were shouting down below, but I paid them no mind. My attention was on the mirror. It began to glow, and a white vapor appeared in front of it, slowly taking shape until a small girl who looked about twelve years old materialized. Her shoulder-length auburn hair brushed her bare shoulders. Her entire body was pale and bare of clothing.

  Heath must have realized this as soon as I did, because he cried out and turned his back to me, holding out his jacket. “Here! Put this on her.”

  The girl stared at me with fear and confusion.

  My wings automatically tucked back into the flesh of my back, and I picked up the jacket and wrapped it around her.

  “Do you know who you are?” I asked.

  She stared up at me. “I think so.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Persephone,” she said softly. “And you’re Darcie.”

  “That’s right,” I said encouragingly.

  “You’re not going to hide us, are you?” Her body shook, but I wasn’t sure if she was cold, scared, or both.

  “No, Persephone. I’m not. I’m not leaving my kids.”

  Fear filled her eyes. “You’re sending me away?”

  I shot a glance at Heath. The shock on his face wasn’t helpful, not that I could blame him.

  “I’m not sending you away,” I said. “You’re coming home with me.”

  “You can’t do that,” Heath said. “Child Protective Services will take her. Unless you’ve already gone through a home study and been approved . . .” He ran his hand through his hair. “You haven’t, have you?”

  “No. But I can’t lose my kids, Heath. I won’t.” Would I be forced to choose between them?

  “I know. What if you say she’s the daughter of a cousin who died in an accident? It would make it easier.”

  “I hardly have any relatives,” I said. “I’m not sure my kids will believe it, and my mother definitely won’t.”

  “What about a friend from college?” he suggested.