by Jasmine Walt
Rays of light wrapped around my shoulder. I struggled, throwing punches and kicking my feet. But to no avail. The rays of light held me still, rooting me in place.
“Calm yourself, child.”
The voice was monotone and passionless. But it wasn’t Michael’s voice. The rays loosened enough for me to turn and face my father’s bright eyes.
“Let me go,” I said.
Gabriel shook his head. “You’ll only hurt yourself. This is for the best.”
Seriously? Thousands of years with no parental guidance and now he was trying to keep me from doing the most important thing in the world.
“You are more important than they are.”
“Get out of my head,” I shouted. “You’re cold and heartless and I hate you.”
That left eye definitely twitched this time. The cool wind of a huffed breath from Gabriel’s flaring nostrils brushed against me. But still, he did not let me go.
Eden appeared through the doorway. “I can’t say I didn’t expect this. It’s happened before, you know. But I had hoped you’d weave a different pattern.”
“Did you ever think that you’re what’s wrong with the pattern?” I asked.
“There’s always someone like you,” Eden said instead of answering me. “Something like you—a pocket of energy that burns bright with the fires of righteousness. It vexes me when you stand before me. But I miss you when you’re gone. Complacency does not improve an entity. True evolution only happens when there is adversity.”
“Like rebellion?” I said.
“Adversity is pushing. Rebellion involves mutiny. But I forgive you.”
She reached out to me, much like she’d done with the dragon. But I didn’t lean into her and seek her warmth or forgiveness.
Eden sighed, but she didn’t move away from me. “I hate this part.”
“Hate is a strong emotion,” I said. “You don’t like emotions.”
“Hatred is warm.” Eden nodded. “It burns and leaves scars. You don’t hate me. You’d like to. But you like me, just as I like you.”
“I don’t like what you’re doing,” I said. “I can’t reconcile that you do it with no feeling.”
“I do it with knowledge. Knowing it is for the best. Not the best for me, but the best for us all. You can’t see it. No one can see it. But I can.”
“I can only see that you’re hurting people, your creation.”
Eden opened her mouth to protest, but then closed it. That caught me off guard. Had I stumped god?
“Um, guys?”
All eyes turned to Loren. She’d made it to the center of the lab without detection. They’d misjudged her, likely assumed she was beneath their notice. Big mistake.
“What’s this orb thingy?” Loren asked. “It looks important.”
Eden’s eyes widened. Michael, who had come in behind Eden, tensed his jaw. Gabriel, who still held me tight in his arms, exhaled on a choked breath.
“Put that down,” said Eden.
“Let my friends go,” said Loren.
Michael lifted his hand, likely preparing to wreak havoc on Loren’s body again.
“Ah ah,” tsked Loren. “Pull one of those aging or muscle weak things and I’m liable to drop this.”
Eden put her hand up in front of Michael. Michael put his down.
“I believe we have what’s called a Mexican stand-off.” Loren tossed the globe up like a ball, one-handed. I know she aimed to catch it. But the orb wasn’t like a ball. “Oops.”
All eyes watched as the nucleus went up a few inches in the air. Then all eyes watched as it came back down in her palm… and rolled off the ridge of her hand.
And then, for the second time, there was a loud crash all around us.
17
The ground shifted again. I fell to my knees as the ground beneath my bare feet quaked. The walls of the lab shook and a few of the glass containers hurtled toward the floor.
But not a single enclosure crashed to the earth. Fast as lightning, Eden darted and dove. She caught one, and then another, and then placed them on a solid surface. Then she sprang up and dipped low to catch more as the seismic shifts continued.
She moved so fast, the room seemed to bend around her. Particles flew past her, moving out of her way so that she could save her precious specimens. While Eden was busy on her rescue mission, I realized we had an opening.
Loren had fallen to the floor when the orb had slipped through her fingers. Michael was scrambling over to the sphere, trying to scoop it into his arms. But with every bounce of the sphere, the core of the earth shook. Each time the earth shook, the sphere bounced away.
Luckily for me, Loren wasn’t so bouncy. I grabbed her, and the two of us scrambled to the opaque doorway. Gabriel was near enough to grab for me, to bring me back into captivity. He remained in a crouch, his gaze affixed on me.
I turned away from my father. Whether I imagined his apathy or not, he would not receive any gratitude from me for letting us escape. Thanks was reserved for those who took action to assist. He’d done nothing but obstruct my hopes and dreams since we’d been reunited.
As the earth shook again, a rock fell in front of the door of light. The boulder was taller than me. Loren and I would have to climb over it. And still a shower of rocks of various sizes rained down.
Arms came around me. I looked up, expecting to see Zane’s face. It wasn’t his dark head or honey-golden arms. Instead, my father lifted me in his arms.
“No,” I shouted, reaching for Loren.
Gabriel frowned, as though I were a whining toddler reaching for her favorite toy. But in the end, he hefted Loren up with his other hand and lifted us both up and over the blockage. I allowed a bit of appreciation to seep into my heart.
“What’s happening?” I said. “Has it begun? Is this Armageddon?”
“Your friend caused a tectonic shift,” Gabriel said.
“How was I supposed to know that unguarded little ball would cause such a big problem?” said Loren.
We were on the other side of the lighted doorway and thrust into pandemonium. It was mayhem as trees swayed, their stiff limbs bending against their will. Some even fell to the ground. Beings of all shapes, sizes, and species ran for cover. Most of the Elohim had shed their skin and hovered above the ground. Still, that didn’t save them from falling objects like tree limbs and rocks.
“Go,” said Gabriel. “Now.”
“But,” I began. I didn’t know what other words to add?
Thanks, Dad?
Come with us?
Did you do that because you love me?
“Now.” Gabriel’s voice brooked no argument. He looked down at me with those expressionless eyes, and I swore I saw… something. Before I could name it, he turned and faded back into the lab.
Loren and I stayed low. Or at least we tried to. The moment we got outside, we were both lifted into the air.
Zane held me in his arms. He raced away from the destruction on sure feet. Just behind him was Tres, cradling Loren in his arms.
“Let me guess,” said Tres. “This is Loren’s doing.”
“You don’t know that,” she said.
Tres grumbled in dissent, a sound I knew all too well.
The guys continued to race with us as we approached a cliff.
“There’s no way out,” said Loren. “Maybe we should just Thelma and Louise this?”
“No,” shouted Tres. “I know that film and it ends with two women going over a cliff. There were no men. It’s not going down like that.”
“Put us down,” I said. “We’ll move faster if we’re each only carrying our own weight.”
The guys stopped. The moment they set us down, the Earth stilled. There was an eerie silence in the calm.
Then, without warning, the ground shook again. But this time it was a localized event. A hand struck up from the rock, followed by another hand and then a head.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Loren. “Didn’t we alr
eady vanquish this one?”
“I think we vanquished him to here,” I said.
Cronus, the Titan father of the Greeks, extracted himself from the bowels of the earth. His dark shadow moved across the landscape and hovered over us. His dark, soulless eyes were fixed on us. Then he opened his large, gaping mouth.
“Climb inside,” shouted Rhea.
Rhea had always been kind to me. She’d called upon me for help, so imagine my shock when she asked me and my loved ones to do the unthinkable.
“It’s the only way,” Rhea said. “Michael won’t be able to detect you in there.”
“You want us to climb inside the mouth of a filicidal god?”
“It’s either that or climb the four thousand miles to the surface,” said Cronus. “Your human friend here won’t make it. The heat will rip the flesh from her mortal body. It’d be a waste of such a glowing soul.”
Cronus’s gaze was fixed on Loren’s flushed skin. To remain on the surface, these gods had to consume human souls. Cronus had taken the practice too far, and his children had banished him to another realm. I guess this was that realm.
“He won’t harm you,” said Rhea. “I give you my word. You’re the only hope for my children.”
Tres jerked his head back like he was having an epileptic fit. “How is this any better than going over a cliff?”
“I don’t think we have much choice,” said Zane. “It’s either our father or Zeus’s.”
“No, there’s another way.”
Once again, we all turned to face another familiar voice. It wasn’t quite so unexpected to see her standing there, hand cocked on one hip, the other twirling her father’s hammer. Bryn was just as pissed off at her parents as we were at ours.
“You’ll help us?” I asked.
“Don’t trust her,” said Loren. “She’s up to something.”
Bryn cast Loren a sly look. “Of course I’m up to something. I should’ve joined you when you came to Asgard. You really know how to shake things up and get attention.”
“Well.” Loren sniffed and shrugged her shoulders without a modicum of modesty. “It’s a gift.”
I wasn’t so easily swayed. There was that saying, better the devil you know than the one you don’t. I knew what kind of devilry Cronus might bring, and I trusted Rhea to keep her husband in check. Mostly. She hadn’t exactly been the one to free her children either time their daddy woke up hungry with a taste for magical flesh. I didn’t know anything about Bryn. Except she had a bone to pick with her mother.
“Do you believe your mother is making a mistake with humanity?” I asked.
Bryn shrugged. “She’s made mistakes before. Have you seen a platypus?”
Loren sniggered at the mention of the mismatched animal. Tres grimaced and shook his head in despair, likely mourning over the ill-conceived, ill-fitting proportions of the egg-laying mammal. Zane crossed his arms over his chest, looking affronted. He could find beauty in anything.
“Are you coming or not?” Bryn swung her father’s hammer around in an arc. “I mean, unless you’re gonna hitch a ride with the old Crone. Is that your stomach I hear growling, Croney?”
Cronus coughed and rubbed at his bare belly. In unison, we all took a step toward Bryn.
“Bryn,” Eden’s voice rang out.
Eden was moving in, flanked by dozens of Elohim with Michael storming toward us in the lead. Gabriel was off to the side. Whatever emotion I thought I’d seen on his face was wiped clean, and he was back to his blank stare.
“Oh, hello, Mother,” said Bryn. “Nice of you to come find me.”
“I thought I told you to take that hammer back to your father,” said Eden.
“You did. And I will. Just as soon as I finish my play date with my new friends.”
Eden reached out her hand. Bryn held firm. The hammer didn’t come flying into it like it had with Loren. Maybe something to do with Bryn being directly from Eden’s essence.
“Let’s talk about this, Bryn.”
“Oh, now you have time to talk to me? Sorry, I’m going to hang out with my new friends. Don’t wait up.”
We all grabbed onto her as she swung her father’s hammer. Bryn banged the hammer into the ground and set off another loud, crashing bomb. How much more would the Earth be willing to take from any of us?
18
As the world exploded around me, the marrow in my bones vibrated. My skin was still very thin. The ringing of the hammer’s impact caused the rays of my soul to undulate.
We flew up through darkness, but it wasn’t entirely black. Particles danced in front of my nose. They looked much like those that had danced around Eden as she’d raced to save her specimens from true extinction. Still, with my skin so thin, it felt like parts of me were being torn away and I was falling to pieces.
But I didn’t fall apart. Something solid held onto me. Something as familiar as my heartbeat.
Zane.
Like when he’d kissed me and held my hand, and our essences touched. I felt him move through me. I felt us blend. It was a feeling of completion, of wholeness.
I’d never been one of those girls who thought a man, or even another living soul, had the ability to complete them. I had been a straight line all my life, traveling my own trajectory. Now, with him all around me, a part of me, I felt I’d come full circle traveling along a coordinated path.
Soon enough, the molecules coalesced. Blackness became bright. The ringing from the hammer’s pound stopped. Zane and I broke apart, but he was still a part of me. Would always be.
I stepped out of his embrace and looked at my surroundings. The light wasn’t exactly white. It was more purple with glows of pink. Just beyond where we stood was a castle with turrets rising to the sky. Before the castle was the statue of a man. He stood with one arm up in welcome. The other arm was extended down to hold the hand of a standing… mouse?
“Where are we?” I asked.
“The most magical place on Earth,” answered Bryn. Her eyes glowed bright with enough amusement to rival the lights of the park. “I read all about it. There are fairies here, and knights, and enchanted castles. Surely we can mount an offensive here.”
“This”—Loren spread her arms, but not in the welcoming fashion of the statue man—“is Disney World. You brought us to Disney World.”
“Well,” said Bryn, her brow crinkling with confusion. “Yes. There are many princesses and queens here. That’s what we need. Royal women, warriors who will fight villains and protect their subjects.”
“This is a place of make-believe,” said Loren.
Bryn cocked her head in full confusion now. The move reminded me of her mother. Obviously being the daughter of God and from a family of warrior females, she’d run here instead of to the mostly male military present on each continent. She probably wouldn’t believe us if we told her that men largely ruled the human world.
“Disney World is where families bring their children.” Loren continued to try to explain Bryn’s folly.
“Wait a minute,” I said. “Where are all the families?”
The streets of Disney World were barren. Not a soul was at a concession stand or standing in a long line for a ride. But there wasn’t total silence. A cacophony came from a distance.
“Where are the children?” Zane asked.
All the rides had stopped. No one stood in any of the shops. No one milled about. So where was the sound of raised voices coming from?
Dark clouds canvased the sky. I couldn’t see a light, manmade or natural, beyond the strobes of Disney. It was as if the stars went out and the moon had disappeared.
Heaven will disappear with a roar.
Off in the distance, I heard a professional voice, stressed in its fake calm. A news reporter. I walked over to an array of flat screens in one of the outdoor eating areas.
“Take shelter now,” said the anchorman. “The storm is coming. Meteorologists are having trouble categorizing it. It has exceeded the limits for a Categor
y Five hurricane. This unprecedented monster storm has suddenly developed off the coast. It will hit Florida within the hour, reaching farther inland than we ever thought possible.”
Screams soaked the air. They came from another television set, but they matched the muted cries we were hearing from somewhere inside the park. Or maybe not inside.
The second screen showed a bird’s eye view of the scene just outside the gates of Disney. People were running in the streets. Cars careened to get out of the parking lot. There was a bottleneck at the gates, and panic ensued.
On another screen, satellite cameras captured a wall of water headed toward the Florida coast. The wall of water moved faster than I’d ever seen. It was unnatural.
It was the apocalypse.
“Oh, god,” moaned Loren. “This is my fault. I dropped that orb thingy.”
“It is not,” I said. “They had the orb in hand when we left. They could’ve stopped it.”
But that wall of liquid destruction wasn’t stopping. It wasn’t slowing down. The tip of it would hit the coast within the hour and slam far inward, very possibly touching Orlando. None of these people would even be able to get on the highway, much less get home. And this was just the beginning.
“What do we do?” asked Loren.
I opened my mouth, but no solutions came forth. I turned to Zane. As though we were twins, he opened his mouth in the same fashion. He didn’t have any luck getting words out either. Instead, he pulled me close. I knew without him saying anything that he thought it was a hopeless cause, but he wouldn’t leave my side.
Tres stood at Zane’s shoulder while Loren stood at mine. A solid front against an indomitable army. Fight our way through a mass of assailants, sure. Take down destructive gods, not a problem. But put us in front of a wall of water, and we were helpless.
“So,” Bryn said, “where’s your army?”
No one answered. We all just stared bleakly at the screens depicting horror and chaos and impending doom.
“You do have an army, don’t you?” Bryn said. “If not, this is going to be one lame, and quick, war.”