Dark Goddess

by Amalie Howard

  Sera dashed to Ryan’s side, mouthing to Kyle that he was alive before hurling herself back into the scuffle, her cries shattering the stillness. Sera was a silver and crimson blur, Kira a dark tornado of movement, and Kyle could barely keep up with either of them. He halted, panting, unwilling to risk striking Sera. Mordas, as he’d learned, would gorge itself on friend or foe.

  The battle seemed evenly matched, but Kyle felt afraid for Sera nonetheless. She was a skilled fighter, but this was Kali. Rage embodied. The mistress of time and everything beyond. According to what he’d read, she was what remained when the universe ended. Which didn’t bode well for this universe—and everyone in it.

  The two goddesses moved so fast that it seemed as if the earth was moving instead of their bodies. Demons in their path were ground into dust. Humans, too. Sera’s face went white with pain at each human casualty, but every ounce of her strength was caught up in keeping Kira on the defensive.

  And then the unthinkable happened. Kira darted forward, her sword arm and trident swinging, cleaver-like, at Sera’s neck. Sera dodged the attack, but couldn’t quite twist away from the third arm swooping in below to clutch her throat in a death grip. Kyle gasped. As an immortal, Sera couldn’t die, but if she lost to Kira, hundreds of people would.

  He had to do something.

  Without thinking, Kyle summoned his Azura energy, the power filling him to the brim and crackling beneath the surface of his skin like electricity. His teeth chattered with the force of it, and his entire body ached from holding it in. Focusing on the bemused humans—some awake, some not—he thrust the power outward, peeling all the demons from their hosts in one fell swoop. Their screeches cut through the ear like the howls of cats as they relinquished the bodies they’d defiled.

  Both Sera and Kira froze to stare at him, their arms and weapons falling to their sides, but Kyle didn’t stop. He dragged each of the demons toward him, kneeling and placing his hand on the singed earth. Red embers glowed beneath his fingers as he chanted a guttural language under his breath. A glowing red circle appeared and, one by one, he banished each of the remaining demons through the portal.

  “There,” he said gruffly. “Are we good now? Demons, banished. Humans, saved. I think we’re done here.”

  Sera was staring at him with shock in her eyes, while Kira’s gaze burned with something like grudging respect.

  “It’s not about a handful of demons,” Kira said. “It’s the infestation of this entire plane.”

  “An infestation we can end,” he replied coolly. “One I can end.”

  She was silent for a long moment, as if considering. Kyle held his breath and waited for her to speak. Her response would decide the fate of humanity.

  Kira’s voice, when it came, was soft. “Can you do this on a large scale, as you did just now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Very well.” Nodding, she turned and dipped into a short bow in Sera’s direction. Sera returned the formality, though her face remained wary. “Then perhaps my mandate can wait for a bit. See if you can restore order,” Kira said slowly. “This is the only chance I will grant you, so use it wisely.”

  Shifting into her human shade, Kira walked to Kyle’s side. He stiffened. After a searching look in their direction, Sera turned around to tend to some of the unconscious kids lying around the clearing. Kyle’s gaze returned to Kira.

  “Your powers are more impressive than I expected,” she said with a smile.

  “Were you really going to kill everyone?” Kyle asked. “Wipe out the earth?”

  Kira smiled wider. “I’ve done it before. Purging from time to time is healthy.”

  “But not now?”

  “But not now,” she agreed, stepping closer so that they were almost nose-to-nose. Kyle could smell cinnamon and sweat. He held his breath. “I could make you forget her, you know,” Kira whispered.

  “I know you can.” Kyle licked dry lips, trying to hold his stupid body in check while his thoughts ran wild. “And I’d like to take you up on that one day. But not now.” Then he tapped the ground with his foot so that the portal he’d summoned to Illysia glowed white. “Safe travels, Kira.”

  Her dark eyes went wide and her laugh as she vanished was as carefree and uninhibited as it had been before. He stared at the portal cinching shut, the sound of Kira’s laughter strumming along his nerve endings. He hadn’t felt so alive in months, and it was because of a goddess.

  Another goddess. Seriously, couldn’t he fall for a normal girl—one who couldn’t kick his butt without blinking? Was that too much to ask? He had to be cursed or something.

  He turned to Sera, who was now crouched at Ryan’s side.

  “How’s he doing?”

  “A bit banged up, but he’ll be fine.”

  “What about the others?”

  “Most of the survivors are confused, but unhurt,” Sera said as she looked around, assessing the carnage. Sorrow swam in her eyes. “We’ve lost so many.”

  Kyle didn’t respond. Though people had died, the truth was, they could have lost so many more. They could have lost all of humanity. Kira—or Kali, or whoever she was—had given them a generous reprieve. Who knew how long it would last?

  They needed to figure out how the demons were getting into the Mortal Realm, and fast. Or face the end of the world as they knew it.

  Kali wouldn’t be so forgiving a third time.

  THE SISTERS DIVINE

  “What do you mean, Kali showed up at your school?” Sera’s mother shrieked. Her gaze flew between her human husband and her goddess daughter, who was now intently focused on the apple she was eating. “What was she doing there?”

  “She called herself Kira, and she said the Mortal Realm needed to be cleansed,” Sera said, avoiding her furious eyes. The last thing she wanted was for her mother to see how scared she’d really been. “We took care of it, Mom. Kyle and I.”

  “She’s not something you can take care of!” Her mom turned, exasperated, to her dad. “Sam—”

  Her father stood up, rubbing his wife’s shoulders. “Sera said she’s gone now, Sophia. Everything is okay, at least for the moment. We’ll figure it out with the Trimurtas.”

  “It’s not okay,” Sophia said. “She shouldn’t have come at all. I doubt that the Trimurtas would have resorted to this—not now, not after everything we and the Ne’feri have been doing. So perhaps she’s doing this of her own volition, which would make her very, very dangerous.” Her voice shook as her gaze darted back to Sera. “There’s a reason she is called the destroyer of the universe. Trust me, she’s not interested in making friends.” Her brow furrowed. “Was she in goddess form or mortal form?”

  “Both,” Sera said. “In her human shade, she looked like any other student.”

  Well, not exactly like any other student, she amended in her head, remembering the goddess’s drop-dead good looks and superstar charisma.

  “Are you sure it was her?” Sophia asked hopefully. “There are thousands of deities, or incarnations of them—maybe you’re thinking of someone else. The last thing Kali looks like is anyone else.”

  Sera stopped chewing. “It was Kali, mom. She morphed into a version of her goddess self when we were fighting the demons, and she looked just like how she’s described in the texts. Ebony skin, crazy hair, red eyes, skulls everywhere.”

  “Demons?” her mother whispered, paling. “You were fighting demons with her—today?”

  Sera stared at her mother. She lowered the apple. “Mom? Are you okay?” Seriously, the woman looked like she was about to faint.

  “There’s only one reason she’d come,” her mother whispered, almost to herself, shaking her head as if in denial. “Eleanor was right.”

  Eleanor was Beth’s mom, and head of the Ne’feri of the eastern seaboard. Sera perked up. What was Eleanor right about? Was it anything to do with what Beth had been trying to tell her today? Maybe she’d finally get some answers.

  “Mom, what happened at the last Ne�
�feri meeting?” Sera asked. “I saw Beth today, and she said something weird about a demon infestation. Then Mara and some new Yoddha-in-training appeared before she could explain why she thought so many demons were appearing on the Mortal Plane.” She took a shallow breath. “And get this—she made Beth drop what she was saying. Like she was trying to keep something from me. Something Mara said Dev wanted hidden.”

  Her parents exchanged a weighted glance before Sophia cleared her throat and shook her head. “Wait a moment, are you sure it was Kali you saw, and not Durga?” she asked.

  “What?” Sera said, frowning. “Aren’t they versions of the same goddess?”

  “Sometimes. It depends. Kali appears in extreme circumstances.”

  Sera shrugged. Even as a goddess herself, she couldn’t keep track of all the gods’ different incarnations. Apparently, even she had been several of them in previous lifetimes. “Well, it was Kali this time. She said so. Anyway, she’s gone. Kyle sent her back to Illysia. Now will you stop stalling and answer my question about the last meeting?”

  Sophia and Sam’s meaningful glances were starting to irritate Sera. She opened her mouth to complain, but shut it as her father spoke, with a pained exhale.

  “Beth’s right,” Sam said. “About the rakshasa infestation. It’s . . . concerning.”

  Something in his tone made her eyes snap to his.

  “Concerning, as in KaliYuga proportions?” The Mortal Realm couldn’t survive another near apocalypse, not so soon after the last.

  Sam shook his head. “We don’t know.”

  “You . . . don’t know,” Sera repeated slowly, searching her father’s face. There was more he wasn’t telling her. She knew she could break past the human defenses of his mind if she had to—goddess power and all that—but she held back. He was her dad, after all. She might be immortal, but she was still his seventeen-year-old daughter, and Caelum house rules applied. Like “respect your parents” and “no mind reading.”

  He tugged on his hair, a nervous tell that had Sera’s hackles rising. “We have a few theories, but we’re working through them.”

  Sera nodded at his bland response, tempering her frustration. Clearly, she wasn’t going to get any more out of him.

  Just then, the small blond hurricane that was her brother, Nate, burst into the room.

  “Hey, bud,” Sam said, rumpling his son’s head of curls. “How was your first day of middle school?”

  “Awesome, Dad,” Nate said, throwing his backpack onto the kitchen counter and grabbing a banana from the fruit bowl. “I made a bunch of friends,” he said with his mouth full. “Get this, there’s a boy there whose dad is a producer in Hollywood. Like, the real Hollywood.”

  Sera rolled her eyes. Nate’s obsession with filmmaking was an epic pain in the butt. Months before, he’d tried to make a documentary profiling Xibalba and the seven levels of hell, nearly getting himself abducted and killed in the process. Unlike Sera, Nate wasn’t immortal—while Sam had been Azura when Sera was born, he’d become human before Nate was conceived. But he was half Sanrak, and though he’d never shown signs of having divine gifts, Sera knew they could manifest at any time.

  “Planning to conquer the film industry?” Sera asked her brother drily.

  “That’s how I roll.” Nate grinned. He spread his palms wide, the dimple in his cheek deepening and his eyes flashing with mischief. “Fake it ’til you make it.”

  Sera bit her cheek to suppress a giggle and smirked at her parents. “Bet you’re regretting letting him go to middle school.”

  Sophia smiled weakly, her troubled expression not quite fading. “Home school is always an option.”

  Nate’s eyes went wide. “No way.”

  “Mom’s only teasing,” Dad said. “Go do your homework. We have some old friends coming over for dinner. My old partner from the law firm and his family—the Kumars? They’re back in town.”

  “I saw Jemitra—I mean Jem—at school today,” Sera said, a warm feeling spreading in her stomach. It had been the only bright, normal spot in her day.

  “Who?” Nate said.

  “You wouldn’t remember them,” Sera said. “But when you were three, you used to follow Jem around everywhere.”

  “They moved into the Becketts’ old house a few streets over.” Her father smiled. “Like old times, right?”

  Sure—aside from her mother being a goddess, her father being a former Azura Lord, and Sera practically being married to one of the Lords of Illysia, it was exactly like old times. Sera sighed. Still, dinner with the Kumars would be nice. No demons, no goddess history, no fate of the world hanging on her shoulders.

  Sera headed for her room, grabbing her backpack on the way. It was pathetic how much she was looking forward to doing homework. It was just so ordinary. But just as she was closing the door to her bedroom, her phone buzzed with an incoming text from Kyle.

  —Hey. You free? Sal’s?

  Sera thought about it for a minute before her fingers skimmed the phone’s screen. Can’t. Dinner plans.

  —Half hour tops? Need to talk.

  Sera sighed, tapping her phone against her palm. Her mother would never allow it. It was a school night, and Sophia was already in a mood about the Kira thing. But Kyle needed her. She’d be back in more than enough time for dinner, and with any luck, her parents wouldn’t even know she’d been gone.

  —Pick me up? Same spot.

  —See you in 10.

  She climbed out of her window and edged her way across the slate roofing tiles, chuckling quietly to herself. She was a goddess—she could defy gravity, for heaven’s sake—and here she was, creeping around her roof like a human-sized squirrel. Smiling, she inched around to the side of the house that was partially hidden by a large oak tree and jumped—okay, floated—the fifteen feet to the soft grass below.

  “You’re going to get into trouble doing that, you know,” a low voice filtered down to her.

  Sera nearly jumped back onto the roof, her heart in her throat, at the sight of the figure propped casually in the limbs of the tree. “Nate! You scared the crap out of me.”

  “Sneaking out?”

  “What are you doing in a tree?” she evaded. “Aren’t you supposed to be doing homework?”

  Nate eyed his sister pointedly. “Some of us can’t just fly off the roof.”

  Sera sucked in a breath. “You’re sneaking out?”

  “Learned from the best.”

  “You can’t. You’re too little.”

  Her brother swung down the last few branches and landed at her feet, wiping his palms on his jeans. “I’ll keep your secret if you keep mine.” He stuck one hand out toward her. “Shake on it.”

  “It doesn’t work like that. You’re eleven. I’m almost eighteen.”

  “You’ll still get into trouble if I tell Mom.”

  He had her there. She frowned at him. “Where are you going, anyway?”

  Nate flushed a violent shade of red, which, with his creamy complexion, made his cheeks look like two shiny red apples. “I promised someone I’d help them with something.”

  Sera’s frown deepened. “Who?”

  Nate traced the tip of his sneaker in the dirt, the red from his cheeks seeping down his neck. “Stella.”

  “Wait, Stella from next door?” she asked. Nate nodded miserably. As understanding dawned on her, Sera nearly giggled, which she knew her brother would not appreciate. “Let me get this straight. You’re in public school for one day, and you already have a girlfriend?”

  “No,” he said quickly. “She needed help with our math assignment, and I did it on the bus.”

  Sera grinned. “Doing her homework isn’t going to win you any brownie points. Trust me.”

  “How would you know?” Nate shot back. “You didn’t go on a single date until last year, and then you found out you were married to a god. I’m pretty sure listening to any of your dating advice would get me ghosted.” Sera gaped at Nate’s back as he brushed past her.
He stopped at the gap in the fence and stared at her over his shoulder. “So, do we have a deal?”

  “Yeah,” she murmured, dazed. One trip to Xibalba and her sweet, innocent little brother seemed twenty years older. Shaking her head, she checked the front yard and then raced down the sidewalk to two houses down the block, where Kyle was waiting. She collapsed into the front seat of his car, breathing hard.

  “You okay?”

  “Nate has a girlfriend.”

  “Whoa. Skills.”

  Sera shot him a glare. “He’s eleven.”

  “Mad skills?”

  She chucked him in the arm. “Is that the only thing boys ever think about? Hooking up with girls?”

  Kyle drove off slowly and winked. “We think about other things, too, like eating and sleeping. But yeah, mostly girls. So, who’s the babe?”

  “Neighbor,” she said, ducking as they drove past her house and then the house Dev had lived in the year before, in his human shade, just to be close to her. She wasn’t missing the irony of the fact that her little brother was now into their other next-door neighbor.

  She sighed, staring at Dev’s vacant house, and Kyle glanced over at her. “Seen him at all?”

  “Not in a while.”

  “I’m sure he’s busy, ruling Illysia and all,” Kyle offered.

  “Yeah.”

  They rode the rest of the way to Sal’s diner on the outskirts of town in silence. Sera didn’t want to think about why Dev hadn’t come to see her, or why he didn’t want her to know what was going on with the demons. She wanted to focus on something else—anything else.

  She knew she was being stupid. If she wanted to see Dev, she could. Easily.

  But she didn’t want to. She was too proud to run to him like a kid begging for handouts. If he wanted to keep secrets from her, then fine. She was fine with that.

  “I’m ordering an entire plate of hash browns,” she announced as they entered the diner.