Treasures of the Gods (The Unbreakable Sword Series Book 3)

by S. M. Schmitz

  “This isn’t a game!” Badb insisted. “I love Selena, and you know that. I was trying to protect her, but in case you haven’t noticed, Cameron, we gods aren’t perfect either.”

  “Do I still need to be here for this?” Ukko asked.

  “Shut up,” Cameron snapped.

  Ukko sighed but didn’t say anything else.

  “And how does lying to her and keeping all sorts of secrets from us protect us?” Cameron shouted at Badb.

  Badb’s gray eyes widened and she backed away from the angry sun god. Selena glanced between them, but she hadn’t noticed anything unusual other than Cameron yelling at her, but based on Badb’s reaction, he had done something to the goddess she still loved and wanted to protect as well.

  “Cameron,” Badb pleaded, “it won’t help her. I’ve always known Ukko would never harm her. He’s obviously not above kidnapping and coercion, but there are gods out there who want her dead because of who she is and what she means to the Tuatha Dé and he’s not at the top of my priority list right now.”

  “No,” Cameron agreed, his voice low and cold. Selena’s stomach felt cold, too. This wasn’t Cameron. This wasn’t the god she knew and loved. She was in this hotel room with a stranger. “The only priority you’ve ever had is your own. For yourself. For what you want.”

  Badb moaned and doubled over, gripping the nightstand between the beds. Selena heard Ukko muttering in Finnish, but her eyes were fixed on the beautiful goddess dying before her. Something stirred within her, that same strange sensation that so often whispered hints of familiarity between her and Cameron, only this time, it urged her to act. Save her. Save him. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.

  Selena dropped to her knees and put her arms around Badb, channeling the healing power she’d used to bring Alan and Anita back from death. But whatever Cameron was doing, whatever power he possessed, was far stronger than her own. After all, she wasn’t yet a goddess. She looked up at her boyfriend, the man she loved so deeply and completely but had been hidden from her somehow, and cried, “Cameron, stop! You’re killing her!”

  “They all need to die! It’s the only way you’ll ever be safe. We can’t trust any of them, Selena!”

  “Cameron, no!” Selena yelled. “I love her! If you kill her, how could I ever forgive you?”

  Cameron blinked at the war goddess then his dark brown eyes slowly focused on Selena. She held her breath as she waited for all of those emotions that didn’t belong in his eyes to clear, for her Cameron to return. He blinked again and inhaled quickly. “Selena…”

  Badb groaned again and Selena held her tighter, finally able to heal her now that she no longer had to struggle against a force she couldn’t possibly fight. She heard Cameron moving away from them, but when she looked up at him, he was gone.

  Badb placed a plate filled with white chocolate macadamia nut cookies on the table in front of her, but Selena wouldn’t touch them, even though they were her favorite. Her mother squeezed her hand and kissed the top of her head again, but Cameron had left her. He’d disappeared and no one knew where he was. How could she eat or sleep or even care about the Unbreakable Sword and the Norse and this upcoming war without Cameron?

  Even the Dagda couldn’t find him. She knew no god whose power exceeded the young sun god’s and if he didn’t want to be found, he would remain lost to them forever.

  And the one god whose power might exceed Cameron’s wasn’t coming around to offer his help anytime soon.

  Selena pushed the plate of cookies away and put her head in her arms. She’d only thought the day before had been one of the worst of her life. She’d expected Cameron to return as soon as he calmed down, and she’d waited in the Dagda’s palace with Badb, pacing in the great hall as the tapestry of the Cauldron waved and danced before her in its enchantment. When she grew too tired to pace, Badb waited with her in the bedroom she’d shared with him and she pulled each stone from the glass bowl and grouped them by color then size then threw each one across the room until her arm ached and she broke down sobbing. Badb had held her, once again, and let her cry and stayed with her until she fell asleep.

  In the morning, the war goddess brought her to Findias to be with her mother. But even Cynthia’s presence couldn’t fill the hole Cameron’s absence had ripped in her soul. Part of her realized she’d been in the Otherworld for over a day now, and time passed so differently, so much slower here, that this window Thor had given them on Earth had almost certainly passed.

  But she didn’t care about the Unbreakable Sword.

  And she didn’t care about the Cauldron.

  All four of the magical island cities seemed to know something tragically disturbing had occurred because even the play between friends, these cattle raids that had been ongoing between the Irish and Egyptians for centuries, had been halted. Aside from Badb and Cynthia, everyone left Selena alone, not even trying to talk to her when they passed her. Even Nemain and Macha kept a respectful distance from the heartbroken demigoddess.

  Cynthia began to sing softly to Selena, a lullaby that tickled some memory buried deep inside her. Selena turned her head so she could see her mother’s face, frozen as the beautiful young woman whose every line and curve she’d memorized from photographs. Cynthia smiled sadly at her and paused her song, smoothing the stray strands of Selena’s blonde hair away from her face.

  “He’ll eventually come back to you, Selena. He’s ashamed. And shame is one of the most powerful emotions in the world.”

  “But he knows what’s coming. He knows the Norse and Slavs will invade soon and without him, we’ll lose. And I’ll die.”

  “I don’t know him, but Badb seems to think he’ll never let that happen.”

  “But, Mom, he left me!” Selena cried.

  “I know. He ran away from a situation that scared him, just like your father ran away from me.”

  “David never returned,” Selena pointed out.

  “No,” Cynthia agreed. “He didn’t.”

  Cynthia sighed and pulled the plate of cookies toward her, although she didn’t touch them either. “I wish I’d never said anything about him. I knew Ukko headed the New Pantheon, of course, but I had no idea he’d been after you, too.”

  A sobbing laugh broke free from Selena and she wiped her eyes and sat up. “Who isn’t after me?”

  Cynthia offered her that sad smile again and shrugged. “This is just another world. We demigods go on living, in a way, but unless Uscias or a living god tells us what’s going on with our loved ones on Earth, we have no way of knowing. Even the gods who’ve died and live here are cut off. Uscias is the only one who lives here that has one foot in both worlds.”

  “You know how you told me I wasn’t allowed to feel guilty about your death?” Selena asked. “Well, you’re not allowed to feel guilty about the choices Cameron’s making now. Anita assured me becoming a god wouldn’t change him, but Mom, this isn’t Cameron. The man I fell in love with would have never hurt Badb and he would have never threatened to kill Ukko unless Ukko was trying to abduct me again.”

  Cynthia picked up a cookie and nibbled at it then put it back down, staring at the plate thoughtfully. “Maybe it was the shock? After finding out you’ve been running from this god for three years and you’ve had to escape from him more than once, I can imagine it was pretty horrible to find out you’re related to him.”

  “It’s…” Selena stared into her mother’s pale blue eyes, so much like her own, and searched for the right words. Shocking didn’t even begin to convey the fear and anger and sense of disgust she’d felt when she’d learned about her father’s ancestry, but it seemed such an insignificant concern compared to Cameron’s abandonment.

  “I don’t understand it,” Selena sighed. “Ukko said when a new demigod is chosen to replace a god, any genes tying it to other pantheons should be suppressed, like they don’t even exist. But for some reason, he knew I was descended from him as well as Dian Cécht.”

  “What did Badb sa
y?”

  “She claims she doesn’t know why, and this time, I believe her. She was pretty upset yesterday, too. She also claims it doesn’t matter because my ties to the Tuatha Dé are so much stronger. But she noticed this about me the first time she met me, and that’s why some of the gods didn’t believe she’d found the right person at first. Between my strange nature and Cameron’s cavalier attitude about the whole thing, I’m surprised more gods didn’t doubt her.”

  “Hm, any chance you have some Norse genes hanging out in there, too?” Cynthia teased.

  Selena wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “If so, they’re definitely from David’s side.”

  Cynthia laughed and hugged her daughter. A soft rapping knock on the door startled them both, and Selena lifted her head to see Badb standing in the doorway, her gray eyes still filled with the same sense of heartache and worry and fear she’d carried since Cameron’s confrontation with her the day before. “I have to go to Anita and Jasper. I doubt we can still reach Asgard as weeks have likely passed, but I still have to help them find the Unbreakable Sword. Uscias will make sure you have anything you need while you’re here with your mother, and Macha and Nemain will stay to guard you…”

  “No,” Selena said, the conviction in her voice surprising her as well as Badb and her mother. She pushed her chair away from the table and stood up. “I’m going with you.”

  “No, you’re not,” Badb responded with just as much conviction. “It’s far too dangerous. You are staying here.”

  Selena crossed her arms and scowled at her friend. “You can’t make me. And I’m pretty sure I can get us back to Waco before the Norse return from Russia.”

  “I don’t care,” Badb insisted. “I’m not going to risk losing you.”

  “This isn’t your decision. You can’t stop me, you know.”

  “Selena, don’t do this,” Badb pleaded. “We need you.”

  “If you’re hurt or almost killed again, I’m the only one who can save you. I’m going.”

  Badb grunted then looked at Cynthia and gave her a beseeching look. “Reason with your daughter.”

  “Sounds like she’s made up her mind, Badb. And trust me. I know this look because she gets it from me. Neither one of us will be able to change her mind now.”

  “But Selena, you don’t even care about the Sword right now!” Badb insisted.

  “True, but I care about you. And I’m not willing to lose anyone else I love.”

  Badb groaned and rubbed her forehead. “Why do men have to be such a pain in the ass?” she complained.

  Selena shrugged. “Maybe we should ditch Jasper and take care of this Unbreakable Sword hunt ourselves. Get the Dagda to figure out how to let my mother return to Earth. She fought cancer. You don’t get any tougher than that.”

  Badb snickered and smiled at Cynthia. “I don’t disagree with you, Selena, but we’re gods. Even we can’t perform miracles of that sort.”

  “So you’ve got a twenty-six year old healer, a middle-aged psychic, and a Greek demigod who would rather be just about anywhere than helping a bunch of Irish find an old sword,” Cynthia sighed. “What could possibly go wrong?”

  Badb shook her head as if to say, “Don’t even ask,” but Selena had grown tired of listening to their reasons for her to remain behind in the Otherworld. Even though her soul begged for the respite of unawareness, of some sort of deep sleep or curse in which she would never have to know that half of her had vanished, she refused to allow Badb to confront the Norse alone. Without Cameron, they would both likely die, but she could live in her afterlife with the knowledge that she’d done all she could to save the goddess she’d befriended and loved.

  Selena grabbed her hand and glanced over her shoulder at her mother, giving her one last sorrowful smile. “I love you, Mom. I’ll see you soon.”

  Then she crossed the veil from the Otherworld to Earth and stared out over the tranquil waters of Lake Waco.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “How did you bring us here?” Jasper asked cautiously, looking from the lake to Selena who watched the surface of the water carefully for the ripples of the water horses.

  “I don’t know,” Selena admitted. “I don’t know how I do most things.”

  “Where’s Cameron?” Anita asked, turning in a slow circle as if the sun god were just playing hide and seek and would appear at any moment.

  Selena swallowed the painful answer that wanted to spring from deep within and kept her eyes on the lake. Badb finally responded with the only answer she could give. “We don’t know.”

  Jasper scoffed and started to protest that this wasn’t a funny joke at all, but Anita grabbed his arm and told him to be quiet. “They’re not joking, Jasper. Just… just help.”

  “Holy shit,” Jasper whispered.

  “We have one goddess,” Doug said quietly. “Granted, she’s one of the Mòrrìgna, but what chance do we have against whomever is still in Asgard, let alone these water horses and their creator, when we’re just a few demigods and one war goddess?”

  “None,” Badb answered just as quietly.

  Selena felt a familiar presence and closed her eyes, breathing slowly as she mourned the carnage that was about to fall on the gods in Waco, Texas. “I knew they’d come,” she whispered.

  She opened her eyes in time to see Badb nodding, but the goddess wouldn’t take her intense gray eyes off the lake. “She would never let me go into battle alone. We’ve saved each other’s lives more than once.”

  Athena approached Badb’s side, her dark hair pulled tightly behind her head, her equally dark, fierce eyes searching the still calm waters of the lake. Ares scanned the shores and exhaled slowly. “This is a trap, Badb.”

  “Probably,” Badb agreed. “But what else can we do? Especially now…”

  Selena bit her lip until the piercing pain distracted her enough that she was able to focus on the water horses and searching for their creator, the traitor Echthge. “How will we get her to appear?” Selena asked. “None of us have that kind of power.”

  “We don’t,” Badb corrected. “But you brought us here on your own. You manipulated time. You continue to do the impossible.”

  “I can’t conjure a goddess that even you can’t summon!” Selena protested.

  Badb looked away from the lake and blinked at her then gestured to their surroundings. “I can’t do this! I can’t choose what time to come to on Earth, and I’m one of the most powerful gods in the Tuatha Dé! Or I was until now.”

  Selena shook her head again and gasped as a bubble broke the surface of the water and arced out in widening ripples. “I can’t,” she whispered. “I’m not even a goddess. I’m a mortal. A demigoddess!”

  “Are you?” Badb asked.

  Selena shot her an angry, petulant look and hissed, “Of course I am! The tapestry in the hall…”

  “Oh, forget the tapestry!” Badb yelled as the first of the water horses rose above the surface. “Maybe you’re not a goddess yet, but you’re no demigoddess either! What difference does it make what you’re called? Summon her and give us a chance of surviving!”

  Selena searched the lake desperately and panic welled within her. The first water horse had been joined by four others and the rest wouldn’t be far behind. “How?” Selena whimpered.

  Athena moved from Badb’s side and stood next to Selena, gripping her sword tightly in her hands even though it would be useless against the water horses until their master and creator was dead. “Want her here, Selena,” Athena advised. “You wanted to travel here. You wanted it to be a specific time. You wanted Doug, Anita, and Jasper with you. And you were able to do it because you have so much power inside you, the world obeys your desires.”

  Selena tried to make sense of Athena’s words but the water horses had reached the surface of the lake and galloped toward the group on the shore, frighteningly fast and terrifyingly huge and deadly. Her eyes quickly scanned the behemoths running toward them. Ten water horses, which left
two below the surface, perhaps waiting to see how easily this group of gods and demigods could be killed and if they’d be needed at all.

  “I hate water horses,” Ares mumbled as he stepped forward to meet the first creature as it reached land.

  The water horse leapt from the lake toward Ares, knocking him down and trapping him beneath one of its massive hooves. He thrust his sword into the belly of the beast, but the water horse only lifted its hind legs and prepared to trample the Greek war god.

  Selena’s heart exploded. “Echthge!” she yelled.

  The water horse lowered its hind legs behind Ares’ body although it didn’t remove its hoof from his chest. Selena kept her eyes on the war god. He’s still alive. I can save him if we can defeat them.

  The rest of the water horses reached the shore and all nine of them prepared to leap at the gods and demigods, ready to crush them or drag them into the lake to drown them. A fury that felt completely foreign to her replaced the fear that had kept her paralyzed by Athena’s side. She was dimly aware that the winds suddenly picked up around the lake and the sky darkened, but her focus was on the abhorrent creatures that had been sent to kill her and her friends, and the goddess she needed to summon in order to save them all.

  “Echthge!” she yelled again. “You’ve escaped us too long, you backstabbing bitch!”

  A woman with raven black hair and an ivory complexion stood before her by the edge of the lake, her eyes wide with fear at first then they narrowed at Selena. “What are you?”

  “Call them off,” Selena demanded. “Or you’re going to die.”

  Echthge’s coal black eyes darted to Badb then settled on Selena again. “If I call them off, I’ll die anyway. Do you think Badb hasn’t been dying for this chance for centuries?”

  One of the water horses sprang at Badb, its mouth open to snatch her in its jaws and pull her into the water. Selena wasn’t was a warrior. She had no weapon. She had no idea how Cameron had almost killed Badb without even touching her. And if she used her telekinesis against Echthge instead of focusing on keeping her here, she risked allowing her to escape back into the depths of the lake.