Adonis crossed his arms, biceps bulging with the motion, making shadows dance across the red flush of his skin. “That’s all you see, isn’t it? I wasn’t born a prince, I don’t care about politics, I don’t brood over this curse or that. Have you truly not noticed that there is one thing I take very seriously?”
Sex was the first thing that came to Saamal’s mind, but he wisely kept his mouth shut, cautious about pushing the demon any farther. Adonis shook his head.
“Love. Romantic love, familial love, it doesn’t matter. Love is worth anything and everything and just because I’m smiling and enjoying it, doesn’t mean it’s not something I always take very, very seriously.”
“I love Aiyana.” The words came out on a breath, like a shared confession.
Adonis sighed, his wings drooping. He tilted his head, his ebony horns catching the torchlight. When he looked at Saamal again, the anger was gone from his eyes and a knowing resignation had taken its place. “Did you tell her?”
Chapter Nine
Aiyana stared dumbly at the spot where Saamal had been only moments ago. She could still feel the heat of his mouth on her lips, his breath against her face. “Marry me.” Her heart beat against her ribcage like a beast trying to escape. She’d agreed. She’d agreed to marry him and she’d been so happy. Then he’d…vanished. Tears burned her eyes, and Saamal’s face, twisted with pain, hovered before her eyes.
“Your Majesty, what’s happened?”
“Something went wrong.” She raised her eyes to find Okomi standing in front of her, gardening spade in one hand, dirt smudged on his cheek. The sight of the shaman tugged at her spirit, trying to get it to rise, but there was so much he didn’t know, so much she had to explain if she wanted his help. “Okomi, I don’t know where to begin…”
“I know about the curse,” Okomi said calmly. “And the Dreamworld. I am not truly a shaman, Your Majesty—I am a nahualli, a sorcerer who is blessed to be firmly connected with my animal spirit.” He gestured around him with his spade. “I can sense the magic of this place. The same way I have always sensed the magic in you.”
Aiyana closed her eyes as relief washed over her. “Thank the gods,” she breathed. She opened her eyes. “Okomi, the man I came here with this morning, Saamal, he is the Lord of Near and Nigh, the Black God. He had the ability to project himself here from the physical plane and return at will. He was here a moment ago, but something tore him away.” She clenched her hands into fists, claws aching to come out, to find who’d done this to her fiancé. “He was in pain. He has enemies, I have to—”
“You must seek out the fairy in the woods,” Okomi said firmly. “Only she has the power to affect your situation. Only she knows how to send you to Saamal.”
Aiyana hesitated. “Saamal thought going to her was too dangerous.” She turned pleading eyes to Okomi. “You’re a sorcerer, can’t you help?”
“I can only affect what is in the Dreamworld. Without being on the physical plane, my ability to affect anything beyond this realm are too limited to help you now. If you wish to see Saamal again, the fairy is your only hope. She bridges the gap between the Dreamworld and the physical plane, she can help you.”
Slowly, Aiyana nodded, walling her doubts behind a stone barrier of determination. “Very well. If she is the only one who can help me, then I must find her now. Thank you, Okomi.” She stood and prepared to leave, but paused. Glancing back over her shoulder, she met Okomi’s eyes. “You will watch out for my mother and father?”
“I always have.” The gardener gave a small bow and retreated to whatever corner of the garden he’d been tending. Aiyana took a deep breath and headed for the inside of the castle. She made her way to her room, careful to avoid running into her parents, and went directly to the secret passageway that would lead her out into the woods.
The thick canopy of trees blocked the sunlight as she ventured farther and farther into the wilderness. Shadows moved against the motion of the swaying leaves and meager light crawled over the grassy forest floor, adding an unnatural darkness to the shade. A sense of foreboding raised the hairs on the back of Aiyana’s neck. She let the jaguar spirit inside her bleed out, lending her its brave spirit and heightened senses. Fur rose to coat her skin and her eyesight sharpened, senses coming alive with scents she never would have noticed as a human. Vanilla beans scented the air with their sweetness, but even their heady perfume couldn’t dispel the growing unease in her stomach. The urge to run overcame her and she didn’t fight it. She gave in to the drive of the jaguar that pushed her to race through the trees as if she were in an open field with nothing in her way. Instinct carried her farther into the forest, smaller animals fleeing from her path as she practically flew over the land.
Saamal’s image hovered in her mind, his voice echoing in her ears. “Marry me.” A laugh trickled up her throat, a happy sound that urged her to run a little faster, chased back some of the fear.
“You don’t scare me, Saamal.” She spoke the words to the wind, imagining Saamal could hear her. The god may terrify some people, but she had seen his heart. Saamal only wanted what was best for his people, and he put his full passion behind ensuring that the best was exactly what they got. If his methods were crude and a little brutish then perhaps he just needed someone to help him think outside the sacrificial altar. “I will marry you,” Aiyana whispered.
The scent and sound of water rippling in the breeze trickled over her ears. Aiyana put on another burst of speed, careening into a shady glen holding a beautiful turquoise lake. The meager light that managed to pierce the canopy of trees danced over the waters in brilliant spots of gold, making the surface shimmer like a bed of diamonds. It was as if the water hoarded the sunlight, magnified it until the water glowed with far more light than it should have in the darkness of the deep forest. Like magic.
Aiyana stepped up to the lake, chest heaving as she fought to regain her breath. Magic rippled off the surface, rolling into the air like delicate mist. The sizzling energy made her fur stand on end and she fought the urge to take a step back. She inspected the lake then focused her attention on the trees surrounding it. The fairies could live anywhere, underwater, in the trees, underground. She would never find her by searching. She had to convince the fairy to show herself.
“I am Aiyana, princess of Mu. I am here on behalf of the Lord of Near and Nigh.”
Nothing. Not a leaf moved, not a splash of water disturbed the rolling ripples of the lake. Aiyana sat down on the bank, nerves singing with tension. She took a deep breath and tried to center herself, forcing herself to project confidence and calm.
“I’ve come for help,” she said, her voice firm and clear. “Okomi, nahualli and close friend of mine, sent me here.”
A bubble gurgled up out of the lake. Aiyana’s heart leapt in her chest and she leaned closer to peer down into the watery depths. “Is anyone there?”
For a second, she could have sworn she heard a voice. A whisper, too low for her to quite make the words out. Something moved in the lake, a form that glittered with all the colors of the rainbow. Aiyana leaned a little closer.
“Is anyone there? Please, I’ve come for your help.” She peered into the water, focusing, trying to make out what that colorful form had been. There. Movement again…
Something exploded upward. A form broke the surface of the water amid a rain of cascading water droplets, each one shimmering with light that it shouldn’t have held. Aiyana’s eyes flew open as she found herself face to face with slitted yellow reptilian eyes set in a face covered with multicolored scales. A pink serpentine tongue flicked out, drawing Aiyana’s attention long enough for the creature’s sinewy arms to reach out for her. Clawed hands closed around her biceps and Aiyana barely had time to scream before she was pulled under the water.
Bubbles erupted around her face, tickling her skin as the serpent lashed its tail, carrying Aiyana down into the dark depths of the lake. The magical glow that the surface held vanished as they moved deep
er, a thick inky blackness closing around them like a thick curtain. Aiyana’s chest burned with the need to breathe and adrenaline sizzled through her blood, creating starbursts behind her eyes. She groped for the serpent’s arms, trying to get her own claws in its flesh, but she only grazed its scales, her claws sliding helplessly off of them. The serpent paid her attempts to injure it no mind as it continued to swim down.
Pressure grew around Aiyana, closing like a fist around her body. Darkness ate at her vision. Just when she was certain she would lose consciousness, the last of her air leaving her in a weak trail of tiny bubbles, the serpent slithered through a hole in some sort of hulking mass at the bottom of the lake. A second later, they broke the surface and cool air rushed to meet Aiyana’s flushed cheeks.
She gasped, choking on the bitter water she’d swallowed and fighting to breathe through her panic. The water was freezing, numbing her skin and making her movements sluggish. The serpent dragged her onto a rocky ledge and released her, leaving her writhing about on some sort of slick stone in pitch blackness. Scales grated over the stone next to her as the serpent slithered past. A few moments later, warm crimson light lit the area, chasing back the darkness and casting long shadows over the water. Aiyana blinked and raised her attention to the source of the light.
A fireplace set into the far wall was filled with brilliant crystals, glittering with reds, oranges, and yellows to put any fire to shame. The light radiated out like a sunrise, bathing the strange room in a warm glow. The domed ceiling was high and worn smooth by the kiss of water, perhaps suggesting this cavern had once been completely submerged. Aiyana hovered on a ledge that jutted out into black water that ran from the left side of the cavern to the right. On the side of the water opposite the fireplace, there was only a stone wall, as sleek as the ceiling. The area in front of Aiyana was not terribly large, just a sizeable shelf of rock. The fireplace carved into the far wall was the only thing that suggested this was anything more than an underwater cave.
The serpent slithered over to the fire, its upper body with its long arms held off the ground by powerful muscles. She faced Aiyana and drew herself up to her full height. The scales receded in a sudden rushing, hissing wave. Human flesh appeared, the palest copper Aiyana had ever scene. Her dark hair fell like a sheet of liquid obsidian to her waist. The warm glow of the crystal fireplace only made the icy spark in her eyes seem all the more cold and calculating. Pale coral lips curled into an ugly sneer.
“So, you are Aiyana.” The former serpent crossed her arms over her small, firm breasts, eyeing Aiyana like an insect that had crawled onto her dinner table. “How…pathetic. In a Dreamworld with all this magic, surely you could have found some way to make yourself appear less like a drowned cat?”
Aiyana gritted her teeth, the fur on the back of her neck rising as she fought not to glare at her captor. She had to reign in her temper and not let the woman’s barbs get the better of her. Insulting beast or no, Aiyana needed help. If this was the fairy Okomi has spoken of, she was Aiyana’s only hope. “I am Aiyana, Princess of Mu.” Her voice was hoarse from the torment her lungs had been put through. “Are you the fairy of the lake?”
The woman’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “No. I am Chumana, the Spring Maiden—bride to be of the Lord of Near and Nigh—the Black God.”
“What?” The word was out of her mouth before Aiyana could stop it. Chumana’s smirk broadened and anger rushed like boiling water through Aiyana’s veins and she narrowed her eyes at the shapeshifter. “I find that hard to believe—since the Black God proposed to me not an hour ago.”
Chumana’s eyes glittered like ice. “Are you certain you weren’t…dreaming?”
Aiyana’s blood ran cold. This was the woman Tenoch had referenced—Saamal’s former lover. The one who had cursed her. “You.” She bit the inside of her cheek, resisting the urge to call the woman a liar, to tell her exactly how little Saamal thought of her. She was half in the water—far under the water—with a woman who could turn herself into a serpent. The advantage was Chumana’s, now was not the time to make her move.
Chumana seemed to interpret her silence as resignation. “Ah, so you finally understand then.” Chumana stepped closer to Aiyana, bare feet silent on the wet stone. “The Black God is mine, little one. He’s always been mine, since the day he stole me away from my former husband. The land is suffering because he has tied himself to a weakling such as yourself, but I will save him from that false prophecy. After you’re dead, he will come back to me and I will lead him into battles the likes of which he has never dreamed of. Blood will rain down on the land and quench even that monstrous Cipactli’s thirst.”
“If you care so much for the land, why did you stop the sacrifices?” Aiyana demanded, ignoring the way that even now her stomach rolled at the thought of human sacrifice—willing or no. “You aren’t trapped in the Dreamworld, you must see how the land is suffering.”
“Unfortunately, it was necessary to teach my love a lesson.” Chumana sighed. “Death was always so distracted, so obsessed with his little people, his precious land. His mind wandered from where it should be. Some men need to fall terribly far before they realize how much they need a woman in their life.”
Aiyana dug her nails into her palms, but couldn’t hold back the barb that flew to her tongue. “You mean he would have to be desperate to want you.”
“He is desperate for me!” Chumana snarled. “I was married to Tlaloc, god of storms, and Death wanted me so badly he kidnapped me, stole me away from my powerful husband. That is not a risk one takes if one is not desperate to have someone.”
“But he didn’t marry you,” Aiyana guessed.
Chumana’s eyes flashed and the air around them crackled with the force of her ire, her power rolling off of her like a thick fur rug. “You little wretch. You know nothing of our world, of what it is to be a god. Before that damned prophecy turned his head—not because of you, mind, but because he thought marriage to you would bring him power—he and I ruled this miserable kingdom. There was nothing we couldn’t have, nothing we couldn’t do. He knew how to laugh then, how to have fun.”
A faraway look came into her eyes. “Death was a true god then. He was a strong, fierce god and he demanded the same from his people. Our men were warriors back then. Death used to wait at crossroads, challenge young men to fight, to test their skill. If they failed, they died there on the road, their blood seeping into the ground. All in the kingdom knew the importance of strength, and they worked hard to be worthy of Death. We would lead the people into war, urge them to glorious heights worthy of song.”
As Chumana grew more and more absorbed with her rant, Aiyana eased her body out of the water, using her claws to give her whatever purchase she could find on the slippery rock. Her body shivered with the cold and she ached to rid her fur of the water that clung to it in icy drops. She scanned the room, searching for something—anything—she could use to her advantage. Nothing presented itself. Just the polished stone of the walls and the crystals flickering in the fireplace.
The Spring Maiden started pacing, quick agitated movements. “You ruined it all. Without his strength, his enemies were too powerful for him to be the same brazen man I knew. He forgot about training warriors, forgot about making love, forgot about everything except the miserable maiden lying in a tower! The land has grown weak and miserable without him and it is all your fault!” She sneered. “He’s been sulking for the last century, moaning and groaning about how terrified the people are of him. He’s lived among them so long now that he’s started to believe he’s one of them—he’s forgotten he’s a god!” She whirled around to glare at Aiyana. “Who cares if they’re terrified? We support them, we give them land, we fight their enemies. I will not grovel on the ground and beg for their good will. I don’t want it!”
“Good will is not given, it is earned.” Aiyana shoved herself to her feet and met Chumana’s eyes, itching to rake her claws across the woman’s arrogant mouth. “S
aamal cares about his people, wants what’s best for them. He hasn’t always made the best choices, but for better or worse, he did it for his people—not for the sheer pleasure of seeing their blood flow!”
Chumana ran a hand down her neck, trailing her fingers down to the curve of one breast. “When he first stole me from my husband, I was frightened. The Black God—Death—had dragged me to his bed by force. He told me our union would bring us both power, would strengthen the land. Two earth deities…” The corner of her mouth twitched up in a smile. “He was very convincing. And he was right. The power I’ve gained since then is more than I ever could have imagined. That serpent form you saw, that is a gift from the power he gave me, a result of the combination of our energy. I am more than just the Spring Maiden now.” She met Aiyana’s eyes. “So you see, little human. You do not know him as I do.”
It was Aiyana’s turn to smirk, and she put all the disdain she could manage into the expression. She called on everything she’d ever learned as a princess, drew herself up with all the poise that came from ruling. It was easy to look down her nose at Chumana, letting her scorn show in her eyes. “You used to know him. Back when he wanted to know you, back when he wanted anything to do with you. I have part of his spirit inside me, I have seen into his mind. And I know the prophecy.” Inspiration struck and Aiyana followed the thread out loud, keeping her voice strong and sure. “The prophecy said that I would bring him power and then I would lead him away from the bloody path he’d followed. And that’s the key, isn’t it? As long as he was on the path he used to travel with you, he didn’t yet deserve more power.” She straightened her shoulders. “But he does now. And I’ll do everything I can to see that he gets it.”
Beautiful Salvation Page 17