Behind them marched out several hundred humans, all wearing helmets and body armor. My heart skipped a beat. Samantha’s warriors were more prepared now. “Where is our army of heroes?”
Jumis pointed to the base of the mountain. A tunnel opened from within, and Perkons stepped out. Behind him came a collection of sprites, pukis and kaukas, and a ragtag band of humans. They didn’t look nearly as formidable as Samantha’s army, even without her mortals.
“We fight also,” Jumis said, and a spear appeared in his hand. “Let us descend to see what our heroes are made of.”
“Fight with what?” I panicked. “What do I use?”
“Your sword and shield, of course.”
“What sword—” I began, and then I realized there was one belted to my gown. How long had that been there? A shield also rested on a strap behind my shoulder blades.
“Beware of their weapons,” Jumis said. “If they have been forged in the leviathan’s breath, they will strip you of your powers.”
The cursed swords. Trey had warned me of them.
Jumis leapt off the mesa, startling me. The other gods I’d seen at the war council and some I didn’t recognize also began to jump. Their long cloaks fluttered in the wind, and they dropped to the earth as gracefully as a landing eagle.
My heart rattled in my chest. I couldn’t die, but I also wasn’t one hundred percent goddess. Could I do what they had done? I glanced from left to right and saw that I was the only person left on the mesa.
“Ready or not,” I breathed, and then I ran at the cliffs. If I didn’t give myself a running start, I would never convince myself to take the plunge.
My feet tripped up under me and I nearly lost my footing, but I managed to get to the edge of the cliff in time to tumble gracefully over the side. At least I hoped it looked graceful, with the fabric of my orange gown rippling around me.
Somehow I got myself righted, and my feet touched down on the desert floor before the rest of me. Maybe goddesses had the same gift as cats to always land on their feet. Although I had a cat once that didn’t do that . . .
My random thoughts were dashed to pieces when I took in a jackal man pummeling toward me. The sword he brandished managed to take my eyes off his head, and I backed away, unsure how to defend myself. I lifted my arm in a panic as he brought the sword down on me.
The sword resounded off of a metal shield with a resounding clang. I caught my breath, immediately thinking someone had rushed to defend me before realizing that the large shield on my back had somehow moved to my forearm.
I straightened up, lifting the shield to defend myself again when with a yell, he charged my open side.
I should’ve seen that coming. There was no time to move the shield from one arm to the other, but instinctively I pulled my left arm back. The glittering short sword tugged away from my belt and appeared in my hand, light as a feather but lethal. I crouched to avoid his blow and thrust my sword into his belly.
His eyes went wide. I jerked my arm back, and his hands flew to his stomach, where black blood already oozed. He stared into my eyes, and I could not turn my gaze away as liquid bubbled up around his jackal lips. And then he collapsed, and I remembered to breathe, sucking in gulps of air.
It wasn’t my first kill. But the last one had been accidental. This one, I’d meant it.
I stood there, my mind buzzing, reliving the moment again when I thrust the sword into his stomach. I’d watched the light go out of his eyes, and that had been so different from feeling death itself.
And while the mortal part of me shrank at the thought of killing again, the goddess part of me roared with hunger. Dekla hadn’t shirked from her duties or hesitated to kill, and all I had done was whet the power’s appetite.
A vadatajs approached me, and I looked up at the cliff I had jumped from, wishing I could jump back up. The dual desires warred within me. The demon didn’t stop its charge, and I raised my shield above my head, defending myself.
A scream rattled me from nearby, and I lowered the shield enough to see a jackal bring his sword down on a goddess. She didn’t die. But her immortality shivered out of her like steam from a hot bath. The jackal stepped back. I straightened, ready to run to her side and defend her.
But there was no chance. She screamed again, holding her hands to her face as her skin wrinkled and aged. Her hair grew out, white and long, and then she collapsed to the ground, convulsing as she whithered away to nothing but dust.
Terror brought goosebumps to my skin. That was what awaited us if we lost.
CHAPTER SIX
Something whispered inside my soul, something angry and indignant over the death of the goddess. I slashed the back of the demon’s legs as he charged me. He crumpled to the dusty ground, and I stepped over him as if he didn’t exist.
My attention was caught by something else.
It was as if every creature on the battlefield had suddenly become a ball of light. I blinked, but the vision didn’t change. I saw the different colors charging and withdrawing, quartering and parrying.
But that wasn’t what held my gaze. I saw a familiar light, the same one that had responded to my summons an hour earlier.
My sister was here. Beth was here.
I tucked away the sword and shield and broke into a run, sliding easily between the battling orbs of light. I created a pathway to the perimeter, where a road intersected the desert landscape a mile from where we fought. Beth wasn’t alone; several other vehicles followed the one she sat in. I could see all of them, all of their souls.
I expected the vehicles to park along the road and unload their passengers. Instead, they turned onto the desert floor and went off-road, coming straight to me.
I waited, allowing my vision to drift back to a normal spectrum. Trey’s truck led the front of the pack. The truck skidded to a stop in front of me, dust kicking up behind its tires. Trey had barely stopped moving before the passenger door opened and Beth jumped out. She half ran, half stumbled to me before throwing her arms around my neck in a strangle-hold.
“For the love of Saints and deity,” she choked out, “I wasn’t sure I would ever see you again.” She took a step back, her eyes moist.
I squeezed her hands. “Of course you would. I’m your sister.”
She cocked her head, taking in my outfit. “Is this is all the rage in the goddess world these days?”
My lip quirked upward. “You would look stunning in one the shade of blue.”
“I would, wouldn’t I?”
Meredith joined us, decked out in combat boots and camo and leather gloves.
“Ready for the zombie apocalypse?” I asked.
“Ready,” she said, eyes narrowing behind the wire frames. She glanced over my shoulder. “The zombies are coming to us.” She scrutinized me, hand on her hip in a gesture that made her five-foot frame seem taller than I was. “Are you okay? I can’t believe Trey let you get married.” She shot a glare his direction as he came around the front of the truck.
“He didn’t just let me. He married us.”
“She didn’t really give me a choice,” he said, placing something that looked like a tuning fork into Meredith’s hand.
“This is true,” I said, eyeing the fork. “And I would do it all again if it meant saving Aaron. What’s with the fork?”
Meredith grinned, and I didn’t miss the look she shot at Trey. “Wind might be my element, but with a little help, I can channel electricity.”
“Better get to channeling.” Trey’s hand landed on her waist, and he gave her a quick squeeze before moving away. “Looks like the battle is coming to us.”
I turned around, feeling fortified now that I had Team Jayne with me. “How did you guys get here so quickly?”
“We’ve been tracking Samantha. She got away from us, but we were an hour from here when I felt your call.” Beth stole a look at me. “How many other tricks have you picked up?”
“Ha. Quite a few.”
The vehicle
s had emptied while we spoke, and I recognized the entourages of other Deklas and Kartas, including Amy and Melissa, the two who had guided us and helped us understand our abilities. Several pukis and kaukas flanked them, swirling out of midair and rushing to the front line. They pulled daggers from their bodies and thrust them into the ankles and calves of the oncoming soldiers, felling many before they got to us.
But not all of them. Some managed to evade the sprites, and jackals and humans slashed their way toward us. I grabbed my sword and hefted my shield, ready to fight again.
Sounds of battle surrounded me, from screaming to war whoops. Meredith traced a rune on the back of her hand, then lifted her fork and pointed it at the sky. Her voice disappeared in the battle noises, but lightning shot down and struck the earth in the middle of the advancing vadatajs, and half of them fell down to the ground.
My attention was attracted by a giant of a man charging toward my sister.
“Beth!” Trey shouted, and I chanced a quick glance to see him pulling a dagger from a belt around his hips. “He’s human! You can change him!”
I looked back toward the approaching man. He met Beth’s eyes and ground to a halt. He tilted his head as if considering her, and then he continued his charge.
Trey was ready. He threw his dagger, and it embedded itself in the man’s chest.
Beth gasped as the man sank to his knees. “How did you know it wouldn’t work and I would need you?”
Trey placed a foot on the man’s chest and removed his dagger. “I didn’t know. But I knew you couldn’t force him to change his destiny. Some men are so determined in their pursuit of evil that they cannot be persuaded.”
He shoved the dagger into its hilt, and I shuddered. That had to be filthy.
“Jayne.”
I shifted slightly but kept my eyes on the battle as two women rushed to my side. They were already sweaty and covered in dust from the fighting, and I squinted to make out their faces. I didn’t recognize them, but my vision shifted, back to what I considered my goddess eyes. I saw the light of their souls, and something within me leapt in recognition and longing. One of them had an orange ball the same shade as mine, and the other had a pale blue one that matched my sister Beth’s.
These women held more pieces of the original beings, Dekla and Karta.
For a moment, my vision blackened, and when I blinked I was no longer standing in the orange dust of the Colorado desert. I was stepping barefoot through burnt moss and grass, my gown whipping around my ankles as I avoided the fallen bodies.
Humans. Sacrificing themselves for us. Mortals whose destinies were being chosen for them. Anger fueled my body, anger and indignation. They shouldn’t have to die. Something had to be done before more of them died needlessly.
My eyes were set on my sisters, Karta and Laima. Each of them battled the enemy as if we were once again fighting the great war in heaven. How many times would we have to fight for free will?
Laima raised her eyes to mine as I approached. “It is time,” she said.
My vision snapped back to the present, but I remembered that moment as if it were a minute ago. I knew what happened after that. Right after was when we split our powers to give mortality a second chance.
I recognized the meadow now. It was the one with the stone table, the one where we had our war councils. The enemy had breached Slitere’s sacred ground and burned it. They almost reached the Tree of Life, nearly destroying the celestial realm before Laima’s radical idea to split the souls gave humanity a second chance and saved the gods and goddesses at the same time.
My eyes shot across the battlefield, roving over the fighting personages in front of me until I found her. Laima.
As if sensing the pull of my gaze, she lifted her head and met my eyes. Then she mouthed something to me, and even with the distance between us, I knew what she said.
“It’s time.”
A shiver ran through me. They were the same words she had said to Dekla and Karta before dividing their souls. Only now I remembered the other half of the plan, the part that I had forgotten until this very moment.
We were never meant to be split forever.
The energies called to me. They longed to be whole again.
My head whipped around to stare at all of the other portions of my soul, the other Deklas and Kartas fighting this battle.
They fought valiantly. But the demons with their swords were cutting them down. I saw several had already lost their powers, much as Beth had in our first battle. Still they fought on as humans, mere mortals, even knowing they could die.
With Meredith’s help, I could call the pieces residing within the women on the field to me. Did they know this could happen?
Did they know it was about to?
My eyes landed on Amy, the first Dekla I had met when we started this quest. She had been something of a mentor, guiding me and Beth and even Meredith as we tried to figure out how we fit together.
But she had also indicated that Beth and I were part of a bigger plan.
Amy glanced away from her attacker. Our eyes met across the battlefield. She knew. Maybe they all did. Maybe they had all been prepared for this eventuality except me.
I turned around and drew up abruptly when I nearly came nose to nose with Laima. We regarded each other silently, and then Beth stepped over and joined us. She already had two pieces of Karta’s soul; perhaps the outcome had become clear to her before it had for me. This moment went deeper than words.
“Ragana,” Laima said, and Meredith came forward.
Unlike Beth, she didn’t look certain at this moment. She looked frightened and a bit bewildered.
Laima reached her hand out, and I placed mine on top. We both looked it Beth, who added her hand to ours. Then Laima turned her penetrating gaze on Meredith.
“Put them back together,” she said.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Meredith licked her lips. “What?”
“The souls,” I said. “The pieces of Dekla and Karta. Rejoin us.” My head pounded even as I pondered what this would do. Would I really and truly become Dekla? Would Jayne even exist?
I expected Meredith to shrink back from the challenge, but instead her eyes narrowed. She gripped her metal fork in her hand and then drew a symbol with it in the air. “Let the splitting be undone and make right what once was wrong!”
It didn’t exactly rhyme, but I quickly forgot that sentiment when a rush of glowing orange balls flew at me. Before I could blink or take a step back, they darted into my eyes.
A scream rang out across the battlefield, so sharp and loud that everyone froze.
“No!” Samantha cried. She gripped the collar of her long dress as if she might rip it open. “No!” she cried again.
Around me, the mortals who had housed parts of Dekla’s soul retreated, clutching their chests as if something were missing, as if they felt the loss.
I closed my eyes and stretched out my hands, feeling the power of the lives and endings of thousands of beings. But I didn’t feel complete. I blinked and looked at Laima. “Am I whole?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Samantha has too much power for us to retrieve the energies she took. And some are lost, have been lost through early death throughout the years. As Dekla, you could not die from natural causes, but you could be killed, and it has happened often enough. We will have to search for them. But you now have most of them.”
A shift rippled through the air, and suddenly a large animal dropped out of the funnel, landing beside Jods and Samantha.
“Is that—?” Meredith began.
“A cow,” I finished, and I knew Jods’ end game. “He’s going to kill the humans.”
“With a cow?” Meredith didn’t look like she quite believed me.
“That’s no ordinary cow,” Laima said. “It’s a Gorgon. It’s breath will kill every mortal present, and then Velns will harvest their souls. Jods must have cut a deal with him. We must act quickly.”
“What
are you going to do?” Meredith asked.
“Protect the humans,” I replied, swiveling to her.
“All of them? Samantha’s army also?”
I looked toward them. She didn’t have thousands at her command anymore, only a few hundred. Then there were the would-be champions Laima and Perkons had gathered. With a sinking heart, I knew we would not be able to save them all.
“If you have time,” I said. “Save the ones fighting for us first.”
“No,” Laima said. “You cannot interfere with the champions. They must make their own fate now. Save the humans Samantha conscripted.”
I would start with Meredith and Trey. I summoned visions of their lives and in an instant I Saw their futures. To my pleasant surprise, Trey was already prepared for a Gorgon attack and had gas masks on his belt. He didn’t need my help; his survival was written in the stars. And he would protect Meredith.
The giant cow bellowed.
“Run!” I shouted to the women who moments ago had been part-goddesses. The rotten breath might not kill them from this distance, but it could make them very sick. “Seek refuge in your vehicles!”
Beth darted away, using her powers to urge the humans to lay down their arms and flee. My eyes scanned the mortals around me, but I didn’t see any adolescents. The Gorgon bellowed again, and half a dozen of Samantha’s mortal army collapsed in the wake of its deadly breath. I watched their life energies rise from the mortal bodies and hover in the air, waiting to be claimed by the underworld. Jumis marched among them, collecting the energies. Jods met him partway, and an argument ensued between them before they both pulled out their swords and began to fight.
I rushed toward Ursins, who easily batted away the demons and jackals that came at him with their staffs and spears. “We have to get the humans away from the Gorgon!” I cried. “If they die, Jods is taking their souls!”
“He has that claim,” Ursins grunted, not even looking at me. “Whether their will or not, they fight for him.”
“Then we can’t let them die!”
Perkons’ electric voice rang out over the bellowing cow.
Destined (Goddess of Fate Book 4) Page 5