by Heloise Hull
“Oh they’re fine. Perhaps a tad homesick, although I doubt they’d admit that.”
“I miss them,” I said fervently. “Empty nesting is no joke.”
“Just bring them here,” Nonna said, shuffling clams around in the water.
“I can’t. Remember? It will trigger Thoth. Awaken the gods. Bring about the end of the world as we know it. You know. Important stuff.”
“Pah. Wives tales.”
“It came from an ancient book of wisdom.”
“They would need to go into the basilica and touch the old god before anything happened.”
“How do you know?”
“Nothing happened to you until you did,” she said, pointing a fork in my direction.
“That’s true,” I admitted. “But I’d rather not test that theory.” Dribble and drag. Dribble and drag. “Aurick thinks the mages and sphinx might not be working alone.”
Nonna looked up sharply and Tiberius paused with a walnut halfway to his mouth. “Does he know something?” she asked.
“Nothing specific. Just an educated guess that someone wants them for this empire-rising thing. Probably because they’ll be more biddable than me, no magic to speak of and they’re already grown. Almost, anyway. They’ll be eighteen in a few weeks.”
Nonna’s knuckles were white around her wooden spoon as she poured passata into a pan full of sautéed garlic and onions. The bright red tomato purée bubbled violently as it hit the hot pan. “You sound remarkably calm.”
“I trust you all. Everyone on Aradia has become more like my family than Jim ever was. If I could just connect the dots,” I said, ticking them off on my fingers. “First were the mages, then a sphinx. What do you know about sphinxes?”
“They’re solitary creatures and quite rare. They mainly stick to the coasts of Egypt and Greece, rarely straying into Italy, but I supposed if they were promised something...”
“See, that sounds like a mastermind.”
“Do you think… Now, Mamma. This is going to scare you, but don’t let it.”
“Okay, you’re already scaring me.”
“I’m just going to come out and say it. What if someone on the Council is doing this? Someone with power and authority. Or someone that has the taste of power, but craves more.”
My jaw ticked tighter as she laid out all of the possibilities my mind was already working over. “Of course. Those slimy, small-minded, motherfu—” I took a deep, cleansing breath. It didn’t help. “I’m going to kill them.”
“I think we won’t know unless we ask them,” Tiberius said, apparently the eternal voice of caution.
“Nah. I’m with Mamma. Burn it all down. I’ll bring the Greek fire.”
“Seriously?” My heart started to flutter. Was that really the solution? Was the Council the head of the snake? Had they gotten a taste of power with the archon and wanted more? Clearly, others knew about my curse and prophecy. It wasn’t a stretch to think a Council member might want to raise an empire for themselves. They wouldn’t have to know about Thoth to want that. On the whole, I still didn’t know why they let me go or what they discovered with their franken experiments on my blood. Maybe this was the best way. I would take my answers by force.
On the other hand, if I was wrong and they were simply a protective, peacekeeping body… I would kiss my freedom, possibly my life, goodbye. Prudence would be best until I had more puzzle pieces.
“Maybe Tiberius is right…” I said reluctantly, shoving my mess of fregola toward Nonna.
“Or maybe that chipmunk body is getting to his real brain.”
I sniggered, until I saw Tiberius glaring at me. I’d probably wake up with chipmunk “presents” under my pillow tomorrow.
Nonna continued stirring her stew. “The best advice I’ve ever gotten was from a Japanese master swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi. Ken no sen. Attack your enemy first.”
Tiberius’s whiskers twitched manically. “Really? That’s what you got from the conversation, old woman? Didn’t he also say that direct approach leads to the highest death count?”
I watched their bickering, fascinated. “How old are you two anyway? And what are you, Tiberius? I don’t even know what a familiar is.”
“A little of this, a little of that,” he said, sashaying around before scampering over the counter and up my shoulder. His whiskers brushed my face, making me sneeze.
“Nonna?”
“Hm, Mamma?” she tapped her ears like she was senile, that old broad. I gave her a look and she caved, but only so far. “Oh fine. I’m old. But a lady never tells.”
“Nonna…”
“Fine, fine. I might be a little older than you.”
My jaw dropped. “I’m from 700 BCE!”
“And I’m a little older. Now don’t question your elders.”
“Nonna!”
“In my defense, when we talked about my age, we didn’t know you were the She-Wolf yet and you knew nothing of magic. What was I supposed to say? And I’ll have you know that I didn’t lie. I just said the extra couple of ones after 115 very, very quietly.”
My voice was harsher than I meant it to be, but she wasn’t wiggling out of this one. “How many ones? Exactly.” My suspicions from the first time I’d looked at the Emerald Tablets rose to the surface. A simple strega who could astral project and who knew about the Wandering Goddess. Who was she really?
She said something inaudible.
“Don’t make me come over there.”
“Fine. I was born sometime around 9000 BCE. Sorry if I can’t give you the correct date, astronomical appearances in the sky, or some great concurrence of events to herald and mark my birth. We couldn’t exactly keep accurate records while fending for our lives constantly,” she said haughtily.
“So you’re not the Wandering Goddess?”
Nonna jumped as if I’d shocked her. She waved a burnt finger in the air. “Ouch.”
I came over to examine it and ran it under cold water.
“No, I’m no goddess. And I’m not the Wandering Goddess, either.”
Then I gave her frail body a hug. “Thank you for telling me. Was that so hard?” I asked, although my world was rocking. That made her a touch over 11,000 years old!
In true nonna style, Nonna gave me a light smack on my arm with her wooden spoon. “I liked learning. I liked life. I went all over the world, but lately, those years are catching up to me. I can sense that this is my last go-around.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m dying, Ava.”
“Oh, Nonna!” I grabbed her cold, wrinkled, liver-spotted knuckles and held them to my cheek, tears dotting them. “I’m not ready to say goodbye,” I whispered.
She patted my cheek and turned back to her fregola clam stew. “Don’t plan my funeral yet. I’ve still got some time in me. And some Council burning. On a slightly related note, I enjoy the release of butterflies. They’re so calming.”
I bit back tears and laughed. “Right. So, you went around gathering knowledge, living long enough to learn how to astral project? That’s quite the life.”
“Basically.”
“Oh,” I perked up. “I have a question about that. Is there any way you can stop my past lives from surfacing whenever I astral project? How did you learn?”
Nonna’s face pinched together. If I had to guess, she looked immensely sad as one does remembering a bittersweet past. She bustled back to the stove and stirred ferociously. “From an archon. It took hundreds of years to even learn how to clear my mind properly.”
I pictured her studying in a rough-cut cave somewhere on Mount Everest, her legs crossed and her eyes closed, learning the art form of the gods. Maybe even falling in love.
Tiberius raised a paw. “Actually, I think I can help with that. I specialize in astral planes. When I’m not wearing this fabulous body, I’m a daemon.”
My blank face must have been hilarious since Tiberius and Nonna both burst out laughing. “Sit down, I’ll give you a
quick philosophy lesson,” Nonna said.
“You’ve heard of Socrates and Plato, I assume? The teacher and the student in Classical Athens?”
“Vaguely. Old white dudes who sat around talking about untouchable stuff.”
“Exactly. Truth, love, duty, and on and on. One priestess in particular, Diotima, deeply influenced both men, and she founded the basis of Plato’s concept of souls and love.”
“Let me guess. You were that priestess?”
Nonna took a bow, her enormous, dangling hoop earrings almost hitting the tabletop. “As we live and breathe.”
“Okay, awesome. I feel like I’m taking this all in stride, so please feel free to pat me on the back, too.” I felt Tiberius’s furry paw on my back. “I didn’t mean literally.”
He jumped to the top of my head and peered upside down in my eyes. “Yes, well, Diotima here theorized that daemons were the in-between. They inform the gods of mortal things and mortals of divine things. And we do. We helped the archons transverse the void of the planes without losing their minds.”
“So why weren’t you banished with the archons and gods after the war?” I asked him. “No offense.”
“We are benevolent, nature-loving spirits, neither good nor evil. And we didn’t take sides. After the war, I found Nonna and we clicked.”
“Oh, now you admit it, you mangy old—”
“As I was saying,” Tiberius interrupted. “I can help your astral jumps get easier and perhaps take those memories away. They’ll still be within you to access, but they won’t appear uninvited anymore.”
“Great! Let’s do it. What do I need?”
“Patience,” they both answered together.
Tiberius put his hands over my eyes, his soft, furry paws closing my eyelids. He murmured something low that sounded a lot more like chittering chipmunk than ancient, awe-inspiring daemon, but I didn’t interrupt with a joke about Star Trek and Vulcans, like I wanted to.
He knocked on my forehead, right between my eyes. It felt like someone had cracked an egg there. Cold tendrils dripped down my face, oozing into a puddle over my heart. For a moment, I felt ethereal—as light as clouds—and then I dropped to the earth.
“So?” the chipmunk asked. “How does it feel?”
I clicked my tongue, the after-effects lingering on everything from my taste buds to a ringing in my ears. Before I could answer, there was a staggered knock on the door.
“Are we expecting anyone?” I asked.
“Not anyone who would knock,” Nonna replied.
I went to answer the door, feeling slightly woozy, only to come face-to-face with the last person I expected to see on the island.
Luca.
Chapter Thirty
Before I could even blink—or scream bloody murder—Aurick blasted through the front door, throwing his miniature, demonic straight jacket at Luca and slapping a Gordian Knot around his wrists.
“Where were you?” I asked stupidly, my first full sentence to him in a week.
Aurick opened his mouth, but Luca wasn’t muzzled. “Wait, I’m here to help, I—”
Whatever else he was about to say was cut off by a quick jab to his face. I reeled, shaking out my knuckles. I didn’t know punching someone would hurt so much.
Luca’s head snapped back. A trickle of blood drizzled down his chin. He looked at me ruefully, but with his hands tied, he couldn’t wipe the blood. “Ava, I’m sorry. I know you have every reason to be angry.”
“You think?”
“Please listen to me.” He looked grizzled and perhaps the tiniest bit remorseful. “There’s an imminent attack on your boys.”
Aurick had already begun to drag him outside, but I stopped him with a firm hand. “Wait. I want to hear what he has to say.”
“Don’t trust this criminal. Even if the Council let him go, he still poses a risk.”
“Oh, so now the Council isn’t all roses and acts of righteousness?”
“Ava—”
I held up a hand, ignoring the flutters in my belly at the sight of Aurick and his tousled hair and muscular forearms. I turned back to Luca. “How did you get through the veil?”
Luca met my eyes. I took that as a good sign. “As you know, I no longer have magic. I’m more MILF now than when I lived here masquerading as one ten years ago. So I simply talked to Aradia. We came to an understanding. I promised not to hurt any inhabitants and she believed me.”
“Yeah, well I believed a lot of things you said,” I countered. “And they all turned out to be lies, Luca. Lies. You might have tricked an island—if she can even understand you—but you can’t—”
The island suddenly rumbled, making me sway back and forth. I guess Aradia didn’t appreciate my insinuations. “Fine!” I shouted out the window, as I tried to balance between chairs while everyone else stood normally. “I believe that you believe him, but I’m withholding my own judgment since it was my soul he tried to replace.” The rumbling ceased abruptly. “Thank you.” I turned to Luca. “As I was saying.”
“Yes?” he asked hopefully.
“I don’t trust you.”
He winced. “I understand that. I would expect no less. But I heard about a plan to attack the She-Wolf’s twin sons, and I knew I had to at least try.”
That made me pause. I owed it to my sons to gather whatever information I could. Even if it came from necromancing jerks named Luca. “I will listen to what you have to say. No more, no less. When you’re done, you will leave and never contact me again. Deal?”
Luca nodded. “There’s a few underground bars I’m familiar with.”
Aurick snorted. “Trafficking in black market magic, are we?”
“No,” Luca said firmly. “I’ll admit that goes on there, and the clientele is a bit questionable, but I don’t dabble. I sit and listen. And drink. A lot.”
I almost felt bad for him at the bitter and rough sound of his voice. This was a man who hadn’t slept properly in weeks, drowning himself in alcohol, hoping to die.
“What did you hear?” I asked wearily.
“Necromancers are solitary creatures, so when I saw a group of them together, it made me suspicious.”
“A group of necromancers would make me suspicious too,” I said.
“So, I listened. They were discussing the catch rate for your twins.”
I exchanged a meaningful look with Nonna and Aurick. Mages, a sphinx of legend, now necromancers? Maybe she was right. These weren’t just ambitious fools. Someone was offering a bounty.
As he spoke, I could easily imagine a lonely Luca staring into his warm mug of beer in some dingy underground bar with sticky floors and a menu full of mystery meat. His head must have lifted slightly, his interest piqued.
Why he was telling me this was another question... To get in my good graces for another shot at my body? Or to atone? Only time would tell, and at this age, time wasn’t something I gave away freely. “What did they say?” I demanded.
“They’re going to attack soon, and they plan to use the armies of the dead to incapacitate whatever defense measures you’ve put in place. Once those are out of the way, they will take the boys alive, which I found unusual.”
“Why?”
“Because one doesn’t normally engage a bunch of necromancers to take someone alive.”
“Good point.” I decided not to illuminate him on their prophecy. “How did you get here?” I asked instead.
“The old-fashioned way. I bribed a boatman and swam the rest of the way when he threw me overboard.”
“I still don’t trust him,” Aurick said, juggling his glass grave goods with a menacing look.
Luca, to his credit, didn’t argue. Instead, he agreed. “I know. You have no reason to, but sitting in that bar, going days without anyone to care about me… I learned a lot about myself. I saw my future and I couldn’t bear it. Over those ten years, Aradia became my home. I should have never…” His voice choked. “I’m sorry. I lost sight of everything but my goal.
I promise I will make it up in any way I can, and if I can’t, I will leave forever and do penance elsewhere. I swear it.”
Perhaps it was my mother’s heart. Perhaps I was a fool. In any case, I stood, my voice decisive. “Yes,” I said, a glint in my eye, “you can help.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Aurick tied Luca to a chair in the kitchen and had Nonna keep an eye on him while we had our first real discussion in days. Hungrily, I searched him for clues, trying to determine if he’d missed me as much as I’d missed him. All I found was Aurick. Same blondish-red hair, gray eyes, and knowing smirk, although it was turned way down in intensity to fit the moment. More of a knowing smolder.
“Where have you been, if I may ask?”
“Trying to trace the sphinx and anyone she might have had contact with,” he replied evenly.
My heart sped up. He was searching for answers. For me. Maybe he wasn’t still mad. He was just incredibly bad at communication. I licked my lips. “Did you find anything?”
“Not yet. She hasn’t been outside of the Mediterranean, hasn’t seen or spoken to anyone as far as I can tell, hasn’t even left her lair except to come die on Aradia. There were bones and tufts of fur littering her cave, but not a speck of evidence to connect her with anything or anyone else.”
That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. My face must have drooped, because Aurick caught me in a bear hug. He murmured into my hair promises of safety and revenge, my two favorite things after food and wine.
Reluctantly, I pulled away and glanced across the villa at Luca. “I think we need to follow him to these necromancers.”
Aurick shook his head. “How did I know you were going to say that?”
“Because it’s the reasonable thing to do?” I ventured.
“I was going to say the opposite, actually.”
“Of course it’s not reasonable. Someone is attacking me and my boys. They want this power one way or another. Either to use the boys themselves or—” I shivered and gagged here, “—to mate with me. They think they can crown themselves the new emperor of a new world order. Whoever it is is dangerous, and this is our best lead.”