Thornton became quiet and could not answer his friend for several minutes. Finally, he was able to form a sentence. “She doesn’t even want to be in the same plane of existence as me. Since her mom died, I’ve been there for her. Since she was fourteen, I’ve hardly left her side. But even before that—I shared every single day of her life. More than her family—more than you. I can’t deal with being shut out.”
“That’s true,” Asher agreed. “I’ll admit to being a deadbeat uncle—but in my defense, it was ridiculous to pretend to take care of the kid when she was smarter than me by the age of four.”
“That’s my Pax,” Thornton said with a smile. “I’ve never been this far away from her, you know? We traveled everywhere—heck, we even tested that spaceship together. How many couples can say they’ve been into space together? I’ve been there for every major event, every single birthday, and now I’m missing years of her life while she’s in that place…”
“Just hang tight, bro.” Asher thumped his friend on the back merrily. “When she gets out of the Pseudosphere she is going to be so man-starved that she will catapult herself at you and never let go.”
“I pray she does,” Thornton said softly. “After what I did, I understand why she left the planet. I understand that she can’t stand to be in the same realm as me. I don’t blame her; I can’t stand to be around myself either these days.”
Asher struck Thornton on the back again, more forcefully. “Hey! Snap out of that funk, man. Maybe it will amuse you to hear about my pain. Did you see your mom putting the Spanish Inquisition on me earlier today? She drilled me about Amara. Every little detail about the breakup. It was humiliating. I actually got so nervous that I stuttered and said we had ‘irreconcilable differences’—what the hell does that even mean?”
Thornton grinned and leaned back on his arms. “You really said that?”
“Yeah. No kidding, bro. If your dad didn’t get her to lay off me, the headlines tomorrow would have read, ‘Brilliant Scientist Rose Kalgren Dies in Fatal Skydiving Accident: Where Was Her Parachute?’”
The blonde man emitted a low chuckle. His mother was completely human, and if Asher had pushed her off the temple she would have surely died. It was nothing to joke about, but Asher was the one person he would permit to clown around this way. The two men had been childhood friends, their families closely interwoven by their shared secrets and abilities—Rose was as dear to Asher as his own mother. In fact, Amelia Burnson had often encouraged Rose to take the liberties of punishing Asher along with Thornton—which was fitting since the boys had always gotten into the bulk of their troublemaking together.
Thornton knew that his mother had a right to question Asher about his intentions with her daughter—or rather, the sudden lack thereof. Realizing that he did not understand his best friend’s decision as well as he had previously thought, Thornton could not resist some casual questioning of his own.
“Speaking of Mara,” he said lightly, “you seemed awfully concerned about her earlier. What was that about?”
Asher looked disturbed by his friend’s line of questioning. “First your mom, now you. You said you’d leave it alone…”
“Hey, remember why you brought this up? To take my mind off my own shit. It’s your duty as my best bud to tell me about your problems in order to make me feel better—I need to know that as bad as things get for me, I’ll never be as much of a loser as you are.”
“That’s true,” Asher immediately agreed. It was an easy thing to agree with—he would never be on par with the son of the rich and successful Kalgren empire. “You want to know why I seemed concerned? Amara is used to luxury and comfort, not pain. I know her better than anyone, and I can tell you exactly what she’s doing right now: she’s crying her eyes out, man. That was a complex statistical analysis, by the way.”
“I think my little sis is tougher than we suspect,” Thornton mused.
“Nah. Amara is used to everyone around her protecting her and fighting for her. You and me, her dad, and Pax. She’s not going to know how to behave when thrust into the situation of needing to defend herself against the elements. And Pax is super aggressive, and she’s going to want to practice her techniques against Amara—Pax is going to destroy her.”
“Pax may have more control of her aggression than we think,” Thornton said.
“Nah.” Asher waved his hand in dismissal. “Don’t pretend the girls are anything different than they are. Pax has always been a vicious little tomboy, and Amara was the damsel in distress. She’s the one that the enemy captures and traps in a diamond pyramid.”
“Speaking of which,” Thornton interjected, “my research team has not made any progress on that fjuyen material. There is none present on Earth to study so we have no concept of how it will react to stimuli—it’s all hypothetical. How are we supposed to examine the properties of material formed in the core of a White Dwarf Star?”
“I would really love to know how to break that shit,” Asher said heartily.
“In essence, that’s what I just said,” Thornton said with a smile. “In any case, if the Asura ever try to use such weapons against us again—well, we beat them once. We’ll do it again.”
“That was a fluke, man.”
“Yeah,” Thornton said. “Well, that’s why the girls have gone to practice in the Pseudosphere. So that they’re less vulnerable to enemy attacks.”
Asher nodded thoughtfully. The sun had completely set while the men had been talking, and the brightest stars were beginning to pop out of the growing darkness.
“I know I said I wanted you to stay away from my niece,” Asher said in a soft tone, “but I want you to know that I think what you did earlier was really bold. I really respect that you were so honest with her, and that you came clean in front of all of us like that.”
“Thanks, man,” Thornton said with a smile. For all of Asher’s simplicity, the younger man was the person he craved approval from the most.
“I couldn’t have done that,” Asher added. He shifted his eyes from the emerging constellations and gazed down at the dark clouds below. “I don’t know how you can just lay it all bare like that.”
“You and I have had a lot of women—and I mean a lot of women,” Thornton said with a chuckle. Asher nodded ardently in agreement as his friend kept speaking. “But at the end of the day there’s only one Pax.”
“Is it because she’s a deva?” Asher asked.
“Nah. It’s because she’s Pax. It’s about what she considers important.”
Asher nodded, not needing further explanation. He sat in a comfortable silence with his friend for a few more minutes before his head snapped around. He glared at the empty place from which the girls had disappeared earlier. “Fuck! I wish we could go in there with them. If we could just open a door and walk into the vector zone right now, I would.”
“Wow, you’re really worried about Amara.”
“I’m just bored,” Asher lied awkwardly. “Dammit. We should have taught the girls how to use the coalescence technique. It might have come in handy if they ever needed to multiply their strength. I wonder what her name would be?”
“Pamara? Amax? Amarax?”
“Sounds like anthrax,” Asher said with a chuckle. “I wonder what she’d be like.”
“Overconfident.” Thornton squinted up into the sky thoughtfully. “It’s a good thing the girls don’t know that technique. When two demigods join their bodies together, they become a highly dangerous entity. The arrogance alone could cook a country. Don’t get me wrong—Ashton is awesome, but he is kind of a creep.”
“That’s because you and I are already dicks on our own. When we join, that gets amplified along with all of our other qualities. The girls wouldn’t necessarily get as big-headed and vain as we do. They’d just be…”
“Powerful,” Thornton finished, thinking of Pax.
“And brilliant,” Asher added.
The men were lost in thought for a moment, trying to pict
ure the goddess-merger, before Thornton shook his head. “She’d probably be hideous.”
“Yeah. Butt-ugly,” Asher agreed. The two men laughed companionably. They could both feel the affection in each other’s meager insults. The coalescence technique was their special, private bond; they did not want to cheapen its sacredness by sharing it with the girls. Both devas were startled out of their laughter when Thornton’s phone rang.
“What the hell? There’s reception here?” he pulled his phone out of his blazer angrily. “For fuck’s sake! It’s the office.”
“We have WiFi too!” Sakra shouted from somewhere in the depths of the temple.
Asher’s eyes widened. “I knew it! I wasn’t interrupting godly meditation. I was interrupting godly porn.”
Thornton hit the answer button and lifted the phone to his ear reluctantly. “Hello?” He listened to his secretary prattling hastily for a few seconds before he glanced at Asher with worry and stood up abruptly. “Thanks, Nina,” he said, before slamming the phone back into his blazer.
“What’s up?” Asher was already rising to his feet, sensing his friend’s stress. “No, wait! Let me guess—laboratory explosion? Some kid choked on part of a K.T. product, and you need to make a public apology to the media and rewrite the labels? Oh, I know! Some idiot spilled his coffee while driving and you need to do a massive recall to fix the cup-holders of doom…”
“None of the above. Death threats.”
Asher chuckled. “That’s all? Don’t you get those all the time?”
“At least once a week. You and I may be tough to kill, but this person threatened our families too.”
“Our families?” Asher asked to clarify.
Thornton nodded, frowning at his friend. “Not just me. You, Pax, and Amara were mentioned by name. The person even asked for our mothers.”
“We should head back to California,” Asher said. He began walking briskly across the temple floor to the enclosure where Sakra had disappeared.
“Hey! Ash, cool down for a second. It’s probably nothing. You tend to overreact when someone threatens Amara, but remember: one, she’s not in this dimension, and two, when she returns she’ll be able to defend herself.”
“Our moms need to be protected,” Asher said angrily. “Pax already lost her mom, and I’m not letting that happen to either of us. Do you think it could be the Asura?”
“Why would omnipotent highborn demons call my office?” Thornton asked.
“Why would the holy Lord of Devas have his temple hooked up with WiFi?” Asher retorted. “I need to get back to Burnson Grove. Hey, Sakra! Pause the porn and get out here—we need you to whip us up a portal.”
Chapter 4: The Silver Dragon
Pseudosphere, Month Nine
“I’m so hungry,” Amara whispered. “I would give anything for a bit of bread right now. I would exchange sexual favors for a taco.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Pax said with a yawn. “Stop complaining and focus on taking your energy from the space around you. You’re good at this.”
“I’m a human being, not a windmill! I deserve a taco.”
“You are whatever you need to be to survive right now—and that’s a deva,” Pax said in a firm tone. Inwardly, she thought to herself, This is insane. She’s right. We aren’t plants or solar panels. I feel like I’m trying constantly trying to absorb sunlight—but there isn’t any. It’s exhausting.
“I heard your thoughts, hypocrite,” Amara grumbled. “My telepathy has been improving!”
“I know,” Pax said, lying on her side. She studied her friend’s profile as the blonde woman lay a few feet away from her.
“I swear, we’ve sucked Room Two dry of every drop of energy in here. And I’m tired of being a human battery, or generator, or whatever—I just want to eat the old fashioned way. I’m going to become a cannibal and eat you if we don’t get out of here soon.”
She looks so much like Thorn, Pax thought, as she looked sleepily at her friend. They have those exact same Kalgren blue eyes. What is she saying? She looks upset; I should act like I’m paying attention.
“I heard that too!” Amara shouted in frustration. “Look, Paxie, we need to get the hell out of this room. I hate it here. I want to get back to the cube.”
“But I don’t know how,” Pax protested. “We’ve been trying for months and making no progress.”
“You have to try something new,” Amara begged. “I can’t live like this much longer. Starving and freezing.”
“Maybe it’s time to check out the lake,” Pax suggested.
“No. It’s liquid nitrogen. If you dive into that lake, you will be instantly frozen,” Amara warned.
“I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but I knew it would,” Pax said. “They wouldn’t put that lake here unless we needed to explore it. Maybe if I’m in Ruby Form I can find enough energy to keep my body warm.” She pulled herself off the ground to a sitting position. She crossed her legs and took several deep breaths.
“But how long can you maintain Ruby Form before collapsing from exhaustion?” Amara argued. “Five or ten minutes max? Twelve minutes when you’re really pissed off?”
Pax lifted her index finger, as if pointing at the figurative light bulb that had lit up in her mind. “Thirty. I can maintain that level of power for thirty minutes if you’ll contribute your body.”
Amara seemed ready to protest, but a weak smile transformed her face instead. “Why not? I only seem to be any good when we’re joined together.”
“That’s not true,” Pax said.
“Sure it is.” Amara curled her torso off the ground and sat cross-legged across from Pax, in a posture that was becoming familiar to both women. Every time they felt weak or lost, they found themselves sitting across from each other and seeking strength from this brilliant technique. It was the ultimate natural steroid, taking them outside their bodies and temporarily making them greater than themselves. Extending her hands, Amara sighed at the sight of her dry, chipped fingernails. “I really want to go home, Paxie. I didn’t know it would be this difficult.”
Pax peeled off her leather gloves, revealing her palms which were scarred with burn marks. “Don’t worry. As long as we work together, we’ll beat all of these stupid trials.” She reached out to touch her friend’s fingertips, and the familiar magenta glow sparked at the connection of their skin. Pax’s dark brown eyes met with Amara’s pale blue irises as the two women began to chant the familiar words in unison:
Be in me. Be of me. Be with me.
Only but fragments, let us be whole.
Seamlessly we unite, soul to soul;
My heart is half yours, this half hour.
The magenta flames that had engulfed their hands now rapidly traveled across their arms, surrounding their bodies. The eerie fire released a great din as it detonated, creating a blast of blinding brilliance. When the magenta smoke cleared, one girl lay sprawled on the ground where two had previously been. She lifted a hand to rub her head, and felt the unusual texture of her skin and hair. She stood up abruptly, realizing that her hair was no longer blonde or black, but deep indigo.
“Yeah, bitch!” Para said, looking down at herself smugly. “Why would either of you weaklings want to be your pathetic individual selves when you could be me? Look at this body!” Para clenched her fists, studying the sleek muscle tone of her arms. “Mmmm,” she murmured approvingly, her laugher ringing out in a divine peal. “Looks like it’s time for me to fix all the problems you two can’t solve on your own.”
Racing through the air to the lake of liquid nitrogen, Para let out a scream. A red blaze swept up around her skin and hair, coating her body with pure heat. Without thinking twice, the indigo-haired woman dove into the freezing lake. As expected, the Ruby Form served as a buffer, mostly protecting her from the wintry realm. The source of her energy had been changed, temporarily switching to a higher level of physical output, and a higher level of mental concentration. She rapidly swam around in the
lake, searching for any sign of life or monument—anything that might give her a clue on how to pass this second trial.
When fifteen minutes had passed, and there was nothing to be found, Para’s body began to shiver, even in Ruby Form. The below-below freezing liquid had crept under her clothes and was pricking her skin like sharp needles. She simply hated subzero acupuncture. Growing upset with herself, she used internal conversation to ease her stress.
I am the unstoppable combination of two amazing women, part of her reminded itself. I will find a way to get my damn taco.
Don’t be ridiculous, Amara! Para scolded herself while rubbing her arms vigorously to keep warm. Focus on the task and hand, and stop filling my mind with visualizations of cheesy, meaty, fully-loaded tacos.
Paxie, you don’t understand. I will die if I don’t get my hands on a taco. I never realized how important they were until this… Para’s thoughts trailed off with both of her halves quieting down as the frigid liquid nitrogen near her was jostled by movement. She snapped her head to the left, and saw a retreating shadow. If she had not already been thoroughly chilled, a chill would have surely run through her. Even so, her shoulders shuddered violently.
There is a dragon in this lake, Para thought to herself. She was no longer sure which portion of her consciousness was speaking to whom, or if she was speaking in unison with herself. She was too amazed by what she was seeing to organize her mind. A gigantic silvery beast was slithering in the darkest reaches of the silvery liquid. She felt torn between a healthy fear and reverent astonishment at the sight of the majestic creature. It made a sharp U-turn and began to head back in her direction. She continued to stare at the beautiful beast in awe.
Her stomach growled. I wonder how Dragon Tacos taste? It was an automatic thought she immediately felt guilty for having. As the animal approached, Para found herself extending her arms in a gesture of peace and affection, the way that one might have initiated a petting session with a dog. Aw, he’s so adorable! Look at those gorgeous golden eyes. When the dragon moved close to her, it’s huge head several times larger than her body, and its eyeballs larger than the palms of her hands, Para was astonished by the fact that the dragon allowed her to reach out and caress its skin. Her heart melted when she touched the warm brow and the massive eyes closed, almost purring in pleasure.
Thirty Minutes to Heartbreak Box Set (Books 1-3) Page 33