“But what would make him—?” I began, but Perkons interrupted me.
“If we are to rescue Saule, we need to find a champion,” Perkons said. “Laima, I expect your assistance with this.”
“A champion?” I asked. I looked across the stone slab at Laima, but her eyes were on Perkons.
“You mean a mortal, right?” Jumis asked, and I sensed the question was for my sake.
“We’ve always had mortals rise to the challenge and deliver aid when necessary,” Perkons said. “Whether to represent us in a sporting event or a battle. This time we will be more deliberate in finding the right champion, because only a mortal can challenge Velns and turn the tide.”
“But they are human,” a man said, his brow crinkling in confusion. “How can one defeat Velns?”
“The mortal souls are just as powerful as our own but more concentrated, since the mortal’s life is over in the blink of an eye. Not only that,” Perkons continued, “because humans know they can die, the sacrifices they make by choosing to fight for us are much greater than if one of us were to battle Velns. When there is no fear of loss, there can be no great reward.”
“What will you give this champion so he can accomplish this task?” Laima asked, directing everyone’s attention to her.
“Ursins could give him his ring,” Perkons said, his eyes falling on the Thor-look-alike who had helped us in one of the battles on earth.
Ursins’ face remained impassive, but he said, “You would give my ring to a mortal?”
Perkons pierced him with his gaze, electricity crackling from his crazy hair. “The mortal would have to prove himself worthy before he could wear the ring.”
“You’re asking me to give up my ring,” Ursins reiterated, getting to the heart of what was bothering him.
“I am,” Perkons said, and for moment they held each other’s eyes before Ursins backed down.
“If a mortal can prove himself worthy, he can use my ring.”
Perkons smiled grimly. “First we must have the trials,” he said. “Then we will pick our champion to fight for us and bestow him with gifts to accomplish his task.”
“The hero must have a valiant heart and a kind soul, or the underworld will tempt him away,” a woman who looked like a grandmother said. Zalktis, my memory supplied. Goddess of wisdom.
“I will put my sign in the sky. Laima will find those who are possible victors and summon them. They will follow the sign to Cape Kolka and then pass through the hollowed gateway until they arrive to the island,” Perkons said.
“How many people will come?” Jumis asked.
Perkons raised his chin, blue eyes flashing. “There will be many called, but few will answer. Those with the eyes to see the sign will be allowed to participate in the trials. Those who fail the tests shall be returned to earth.”
I took another look around the shady glen where we stood. “Are we not on earth?” I asked Jumis.
“We are, and we are not. This is earth within an earth.”
“So, we’re like . . .” I paused, trying to figure out what that meant. “On the other side of the mirror or something?”
“Just another realm. We are on earth. But they can’t find us unless we want them to.”
Like a fairy realm. Though the gods might not appreciate that comparison, so I just nodded.
During the rest of the discussion, they planned what challenges they would create to measure the worth of a mortal and prove whether or not they could be the hero. No one would be barred from trying, not by age or gender. But in the end, there would be only one champion.
“And if our chosen champion fails?” Jumis asked.
“Then we have to start over,” Perkons said grimly. “And quickly. Because the time we waste in finding a new hero could make the difference between victory or defeat.”
“Samantha will try to penetrate this realm,” Laima said, drawing eyes to her again.
Silence followed her pronouncement, and then Perkons said, “You have Seen this?”
“I have.”
“What does she want once she gets here?”
“Almost every future shows her coming for the Tree of Life.”
“She wants to be immortal,” Perkons grunted.
“No. She wishes to destroy it.”
“But that would kill us all!” another woman gasped.
Laima nodded. “She would take a branch to the underworld first. So that she and Jods and the gods from below can keep their immortality.”
“Then we must guard the tree,” Perkons boomed.
“But there are multiple paths,” Laima added. “That might not be the one she chooses.”
“We must be ready for whatever she has planned.”
*~*
The war council dissolved, but nobody dispersed. I spotted Laima and Ursins conversing together, and I detached myself from Jumis.
Ursins turned as I approached. “So little Dekla has returned.”
“We have a piece of our sister, at least,” Laima said.
“Dekla was your sister?” I asked Ursins, remembering the distinct impression of brotherly affection I’d had when I first met him.
“Our sister,” Ursins said. He tilted his head as he studied me. “You don’t remember?”
“I remember pieces,” I admitted. “I remember you, but your exact relationship with Dekla is a little unclear.”
Ursins nodded and looked back at Laima. “I was surprised Perkons released you so easily.”
“He never could resist Dekla.” Laima rolled her eyes, a very un-goddess-like gesture. “He spoiled the baby.”
“And was too hard on you.” Ursins smiled.
“Always.”
“Hold on,” I said, their words starting to make sense. “Perkons is your father?” Mind-blowing. “And where is your mother?”
“Mother is dead,” Ursins said softly. “She died in the last great battle.”
The grief hit me in the gut as if it were my mortal mother. The tears came unbidden, and again I stood on that burnt meadow, my sorrow rolling down my cheeks. Giving up my immortality to end this war was the only option.
“I am sorry,” I said, focusing on the present and the gods in front of me. “You have lost so much.”
“But we have you now,” Ursins said.
“And soon we will have Saule,” Laima said.
“Yes,” Ursins said. “Without her, Velns and Jods will have to rely strictly on the power of the underworld. We will not be fighting against her light.”
“And we will end the submissive role of the goddesses,” Laima added, her eyes glittering. “We will return to the matriarchal society we were before.”
Ursins chuckled. “That’s what you’re really waiting for. Tired of being bossed around by your younger brother.”
Laima socked him in the arm. She actually hit him! “You’ve never held authority over me.”
“No man does.” He scowled at her and rubbed his arm. “You’ve never allowed one to possess you.”
“And I never will. For good reason.” She looked back at me, distracting me from the questions dancing in my mind. “Come, Jayne. There are other gods you must meet.”
*~*
For the first time since becoming immortal by proxy, I had a dream.
I dreamed I was walking through my high school. The halls were empty, and my bare feet echoed with each step through the corridor. It was hauntingly eerie, looking into each classroom and seeing nobody there.
I walked through the math wing to the vending machines and passed the auditorium. No one. I thought maybe I would find someone on the other side, so I went through the office to the main entrance.
The street was empty. No cars drove between the two high school buildings. Even the parking lot was vacant. Suddenly I felt like the only person left alive.
“Jayne.”
I startled at the sound of someone to my right when there’d been no one there a minute ago. And yet when I turned and saw Trey Clark,
my schoolmate-turned-protector, I wasn’t that surprised. Trey had talked with me in dreams before.
“What are we doing here?” I asked. “This isn’t a warning, is it? Some vision of the future?”
Trey should his head. “I don’t know. You are the goddess of fate, not me.” He looked at me carefully, his eyes probing. “How are you?”
“How are you here in my dream?”
He gave a slight smile. “You called me. I’m your servant.”
I needed to learn how to control these things. I had no idea I’d called Trey here. “How’s Aaron?”
“I took him back to New Jersey, just like I promised you. And I thought you might want to know—Stephen is home now also.”
“Stephen!” I’d completely forgotten my ex-boyfriend in my own emotional drama. “Does he still hate me?”
“He doesn’t seem to remember.”
I pressed a hand to my chest, relieved. “Thank you.”
“It wasn’t easy, since I’m a wanted fugitive.”
Right. There was that. “I’m sorry. I hope it wasn’t too much trouble.”
His eyes narrowed, astute in their seriousness. “I do your bidding, Jayne. And the situation you’re in now—” He hesitated. “Things didn’t go down the way I expected. I thought I’d have a chance at getting you out.”
My throat closed, and I bobbed my head in acknowledgment. He meant my marriage. I still hadn’t accepted it.
“While I’ve got you here,” I whispered, as if afraid my words would be overheard, “have you had any luck? Finding a loophole?”
“I’m looking. Don’t give up. If there’s a way to get you out of this, I’m going to find it.”
It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but I swallowed back my disappointment. “How’s my sister?”
“Coming into her role quite gracefully, if you ask me. Perhaps even faster than you did.”
I cocked one eyebrow at his underhanded criticism. “She’s had a lot more help than I did, no thanks to you.”
He smiled wryly. “I only found you once you came into your powers. And then my own were taken from me, so . . .” He shrugged. “Yeah, sorry I wasn’t much help.”
I grinned back at him. “And how’s Meredith?” I said, letting a note of teasing enter my voice.
His eyelids fluttered just slightly. “Flourishing. She’s the best ragana I’ve ever seen.”
“You don’t think you might be slightly biased?”
“I wouldn’t be the first guy to find power attractive.”
I laughed at his response. He and Meredith had antagonized each other like a feral cat and an untrained house dog. I should’ve realized the tension came from attraction rather than disgust. There were no proper terms to describe my mystical relationship with Meredith, and while Trey could be irritating and overbearing at times, his genuine concern and devotion to me had finally won me over.
“Well, I’m happy for you guys. Take care of her.”
“Always. Or haven’t you noticed we are the forever kind of people?”
I returned his knowing look. Something about ancient powers and immortality tended to make you a forever kind of person.
CHAPTER FOUR
My eyes opened, the last vestiges of the dream whispering away. My heightened senses told me it was morning, and I lay for a second on my bed, inhaling and exhaling, feeling the air moving in and out of my lungs.
I was alive, and so was Aaron, but I wasn’t with him. One hand dropped off the side of the bed, tracing the soft fabric of the linens.
Down the hall, in the other bedroom, I heard Jumis’ feet as they hit the ground. He was awake. My husband.
My stomach churned. I didn’t want to be here. I stood up and walked over to my balcony, throwing open the doors that overlooked the forest. Water glittered far to the left, framed by sand and rocks and dark trees. Waves lapped at the shore. Far out, so far I almost couldn’t see it, was a small island.
Laima could turn herself into a swan. And Dekla could too, not into a swan but a . . . I closed my eyes, trying to remember.
A phoenix. A beautiful orange bird with the ability to be reborn. I took a deep breath and imagined turning into a bird.
I opened my eyes and exhaled in disappointment. I still stood on the balcony. I tried harder, squeezing my eyes shut and trying to picture some kind of transfiguration.
Still nothing.
“Dekla?”
Jumis was calling me, and I didn’t want to talk to him. I swept out of the room and hurried down the hallway into the kitchen, my silky pajamas flowing around me, almost as exquisite as my orange gowns.
I stepped out of the house and paused. Where should I go? Picture it in your head and the path will be created, Jumis had said. An image popped into my head: a large Cape Cod-style house on the pier.
Aaron’s home. The New Jersey shore.
A pathway opened before me, and I hurried down it without a second thought, hoping it would close before Jumis followed me out of the house. My mental block was still in place so he couldn’t read my thoughts. Hopefully that meant he couldn’t track me like some kind of hunting dog.
The path meandered through the woods until the ground became less grassy and more rocky, and though I expected it, I couldn’t help letting out a gasp of surprise when I saw the shoreline in front of me with tall weeds and bushes framing the beach. I quickened my steps, eager to feel the sand beneath my toes.
I was here. To my right was Aaron’s house, overlooking the shore where the waves rushed against the sand. Straight in front of me was Aaron’s dog Charlie, a shaggy golden retriever digging rapidly in the rocky ground. Which meant Aaron had to be here somewhere, because he didn’t let the dog out by itself.
At that moment, I lost my nerve. I took a step back and felt the forest close around me again. Another step, and the rocky sand changed to twigs and moss. I couldn’t let Aaron see me. What would we say to each other? There was no possibility for a happy reconciliation here.
And then he appeared, jogging around the side of the house and whistling for the dog. Charlie lifted his head and ran for Aaron, but my eyes didn’t leave Aaron’s face. He was too thin. He probably hadn’t eaten much when he’d been under Samantha’s spell, but he had been liberated for two days now. At least, two in my time. I expected him to have a healthier pallor to his skin, but he didn’t look well. His cheekbones stood out a little too starkly, and dark shadows ringed his eyes.
He sat in the sand next to Charlie and pulled his sweater closer around him, even though it wasn’t cold outside.
“Aaron?”
My lip curled in distaste at the sound of his mother’s voice. She didn’t like me, and there was no point in pretending like the feeling wasn’t mutual.
“Aaron.” Elizabeth Chambers came around the house and spotted him. Even though her son had been missing for days, she looked perfectly pressed in a short linen dress with her hair pulled up in a bun at the nape of her neck. “Honey. Come into the house. You know I don’t want you out here.”
He turned his head her direction without looking at her. “I know.”
I let out a small gasp at the sound of his voice. He didn’t even sound the same. The strong, confident tone was gone. Gone was the underlying humor that tinted everything he said. He sounded beaten, exhausted. Broken.
She approached him. “Aaron, sweetheart, this isn’t healthy. Would you like me to get you a cup of tea? Did you take your medication this morning?” She reached a hand out, but Aaron tilted away from her before she could touch him.
“I don’t need medication.” Now his voice was hard and cold. “I’m not sick and I’m not delusional.”
He pushed to his feet and stormed around to the front of the house, and Elizabeth called after him, “It wasn’t real, Aaron! She tricked you! Bewitched you somehow!” She ran after him the best she could on her pointed little stilettos.
I leaned my head forward, almost daring to venture back into their world. What had he sai
d to his parents? He didn’t actually tell them the truth, did he?
Whatever he told them, they didn’t believe him. And, as always, the root of the problem was me.
Aaron was better off without me. If I’d known the trouble I would cause him by stepping into his life a few months ago, I would have fought harder to keep us apart.
*~*
I stayed hidden in the shadows of my world for the rest of the day, watching between the barriers from our side. My body had no needs, though I fantasized about bagels and ice cream.
Aaron did not come outside again.
As night fell, my eyes focused on his bedroom window, where the light was on. His parents talked in their room, their voices raised enough to be heard from where I stood. Or maybe my hearing was better.
Then all the lights went out.
I stepped toward the house, moving quietly all the way to the brick exterior. I stopped there and pressed my hands against the firm cement before looking up to where Aaron’s room was. That was where I wanted to go.
The brick wall in front of me disappeared, and a hallway appeared in its place. Not a hallway from Aaron’s house, but a pathway. I followed it, and when I stepped out, I was in his room.
It was black inside, and I had not been endowed with special powers to see in the dark. I made my way to where I knew the bed leaned against the far wall. My eyes adjusted, and I spotted Aaron asleep on top of the blankets. He hadn’t changed into pajamas, but fallen onto the bed in his pants and oversized sweater. My heart clenched at the sight of him, and I crouched beside the bed, unable to resist working my fingers through his thick dark hair.
He stirred, and I withdrew. The situation had changed. I was still married, and I couldn’t be with him.
“Jayne,” he whispered, and my eyes tracked toward his face. But he was asleep, murmuring my name in his dreams.
Tears gathered behind my eyes, hot and threatening. I was seeping into his thoughts, troubling him even when he tried to rest. He needed to move on. He needed to forget me.
Resolve strengthened within my core, and I stood up, pushing back my shoulders. Wasn’t I a goddess of fate?
“Look at me,” I whispered, willing his eyes to open. He wouldn’t remember seeing me in the morning. The vision would last a split second for him, but it would change the course of his life.
Destined (Goddess of Fate Book 4) Page 3