The Last Winter (The Circle War Book 2)

by Matt King

  “Is it that bad?”

  “You’ve looked worse,” Bear said. He stepped forward and wrapped August in a hug. When it was over, he kept his hand on August’s shoulder. “From now on, you do like Daddy told you, okay? You stick by me.”

  “Yeah,” August said with a nod. “Will do.”

  Bear took a step back to let Aeris in. She hesitated. There was an air between them, like they both were on the other side of a fight they weren’t supposed to live through. Things were said, but were those things still the truth?

  She reached out and took his hand. She held it just like she had at the top of Amara’s castle. When her eyes rose to meet his, she took him in a hug quickly. He held onto her as she quietly let go of her tears.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

  “I am too.”

  “August,” Bear said as she pulled away, but still held onto his hand. “I didn’t want to say anything before, but you should know—”

  August raised his hand to stop him. “I heard. Or at least I gathered as much from everyone trying to avoid the subject with me. It’s gone.”

  Bear and Aeris traded a glance. Bear turned back to him and nodded with a thin frown on his face.

  Even though he’d known deep down, part of him didn’t want to believe that the Earth had been destroyed. Since he hadn’t seen it, it couldn’t have possibly have been true, but oddly enough it was hearing the tone in Soraste’s voice as she danced around the topic that cemented the truth in his mind. Seeing Bear’s face only confirmed it.

  “We will avenge them,” Aeris said. Her Revenant voice returned.

  “No,” he answered. “We won’t. There’s no one left to fight for.”

  “We can’t just give up,” Bear said.

  August turned his new eyes to him. “I never said anything about giving up.”

  “Am I interrupting the warm reunion?” a man’s voice spoke from the doorway.

  Aeris and Bear turned toward the newcomer. August looked past them to see a man adorned in golden armor walk into the room. He had shoulder-length dark blond hair and a wide, toothy grin. If August didn’t know better, he would’ve assumed the guy walked in off the UCLA football team. He couldn’t mask his alien eyes, though. No god could.

  “Which one are you?” August asked.

  “Cerenus,” the man said. “Sorry if you were expecting Balenor but I hope you don’t think me too conceited if I tell you I’m an upgrade.”

  “Cerenus came and got us when he figured out what Paralos was doing,” Bear said. “We got to Earth as fast as we could.”

  “I remember your voice,” August said. “You were at Amara’s trial.”

  “A small part of me was. A bit of last-minute reconnaissance to confirm my suspicions before I decided to let Meryn in on my plans. Poor Amara. So obsessed with punishing others for not following her rules that she didn’t stop to think of who she was inviting into her den. I have to say, it was worth it to see the look on Tamaril’s face at the end. I do love it when that disgrace of a god fails to get his way.”

  “We were surprised to see you,” Bear said.

  Cerenus snorted. “None of you should have been surprised, especially Meryn. I do enjoy living. Seeing that only one of them was planning on killing me in the end, it shouldn’t have been too hard to guess which side I’d fall on.”

  “Where is Meryn?” August asked.

  “Attending a funeral,” the god answered.

  August looked to Bear, who shrugged.

  “Anyway, I came to let you all know that we’ll be rendezvousing with Soraste shortly.”

  “Where?” August asked.

  Cerenus gave him a quizzical look. “One of her worlds, I imagine. Did you have somewhere else in mind?”

  August turned and walked to Shadow’s casket. He put his hands on the top. “Yeah, actually. I do.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  The winds of Elos swept through the tall grass in waves. August watched the reeds sway back and forth, still slightly cautious of his new vision. He drank in every image like it might be his last. Bordering the grasslands in the distance were titanic mountains, capped with blue ice on their peaks. A storm boiled to the west, its clouds black in comparison to the bright sun beating down on the plains.

  “August?” Bear said.

  “Hmm?” He looked at Bear and then behind him where Aeris and Cerenus stood a few steps back with the Horsemen.

  “Do you want to start?”

  “No, you go ahead. I never know what to say at these things.”

  Bear gave a solemn nod and then set his eyes on the wide length of stones they’d piled on top of Shadow’s grave. They placed her within sight of the crystal blue ocean. August didn’t know if she’d appreciate the view or not, but it was a beautiful world and they’d tried to give her a view of all its best parts.

  “You and I were never properly introduced,” Bear said, speaking to the grave. “But I remember the day I first came to know you. Daddy and I were on a camping trip, and while I was on a hike, a bear cornered Daddy. I knew there was no way I could get to him fast enough. I think that’s when I first felt the connection between you and me. When we switched places, you saved him when I couldn’t, and I have always been grateful to you for that.”

  Bear rubbed his hand over his shaved head. He stood in place without speaking, but wouldn’t turn around. He finally cleared his throat to continue. His voice rumbled, barely louder than the wind.

  “The thing that took you from us—Talus. He also took my father. I want you to know, Talus will never hurt another person you fought to protect. I promise you that.”

  He hovered over the grave for another second before backing away and settling in beside the Horsemen.

  August stood alone in between the group and Shadow’s burial. He caught Aeris’s eye. She nodded to him, urging him on.

  He turned back to Shadow and stepped forward until he was at the foot of her plot. The cool wind tossed the curls in his hair. He struggled to start, not sure where to begin.

  “Since you’ve been gone, I’ve had some time to think about what happened to you. It wasn’t fair. I signed up for this. I asked to be put in harm’s way, but you never did. I tried to picture what it was like for you, to have a god take you out of the life you were living and warp your brain to make you think you had a child to protect. I never saw much of my parents, so I didn’t know what it felt like to have someone so protective of me, but I saw all of that in you. I mostly remember the look in your eye whenever you saw something that was trying to hurt me. When you came down next to me during that first fight in the mountains, I thought you looked mad enough to tear through everything Galan had. If he’d stuck around, you probably would have.”

  He paused to collect his thoughts that were starting to ramble. “Bear made you a promise. I want to make a couple of my own. The first is that I plan to honor what you did for me. You kept me alive when by all rights I should have been dead. When the time came, I couldn’t do the same for you, and I’ll take that with me to my grave. I want you to know, though, that I won’t waste what you gave me. I won’t take it for granted ever again.

  “My second promise is this.” He knelt down and put a hand on the mound of stones. “When this is over, if I’m still standing, I’ll make sure that no one will ever suffer what these gods put you through. Never again.”

  Even though he couldn’t form tears anymore, he still felt the urge as he stood to take in her sight for the last time. He waited for the feeling to go away, but standing over Shadow’s grave made it impossible. He turned to the group instead. They watched him as though they expected to clean up his shattered pieces at any moment.

  A light sparked in the sky overhead. His hand went to the handle of his sword as he watched a light streak through the clouds.

  “No need for that,” Cerenus said. “Soraste’s champion is coming to join the party.”

  Thunder rumbled through the air as the champion sped
toward the beach like a meteor. His landing kicked up a cloud of sand. When the dust cleared, an orb of light hovered above the sand. Small arcs of lightning spread from his surface to the beach. The lightning died away along with the brightness of the swirling colors running across his curved shell.

  Cerenus approached it and did a slow walk around the hovering champion, inspecting the sphere with a smirk. “I don’t know why I expected anything different from her,” he said. “Of course she would send a limbless ball to fight by our side. Why wouldn’t she?” He knocked on the shell. “Hello? Is there an actual person in there?”

  “His name is Ion,” Bear said. “And I wouldn’t stand too close when he glows red like that.”

  Cerenus stepped away, eyeing the red streaks running across Ion’s shell. As soon as he backed off, the red morphed back to white.

  “What does he want?” August asked.

  Bear shrugged. “He doesn’t talk, best I can tell.”

  “He talks,” Cerenus said. “Though not so anyone can hear it. He’s almost like a little person in there. His thoughts don’t look much different than any of yours actually.”

  “You can see them?” August asked.

  Cerenus nodded. “As plain as the sand on this beach.”

  Ion hummed.

  “What is he saying?”

  “He’s saying we’re wanted on Soraste’s world. Meryn is summoning us, I believe.”

  Bear perked up at the sound of her name.

  August nodded to Cerenus. “Are your champions close?”

  The god smiled. “I only need one.”

  “So where are they?”

  Cerenus put out his arms and bowed. “At your service.”

  August and Aeris traded a glance.

  “Don’t everyone look so surprised,” Cerenus said. “When it comes down to it, the only person I trust to fight for me, is me.”

  “I thought your kind weren’t allowed to fight,” August said.

  “Not as gods, no. But as a man? I don’t remember any of Amara’s silly laws telling me I couldn’t create a clone of myself to do the fighting for me. Not that this form feels much different than being a god, mind you. The addition of Balenor’s worlds has given me a recent surge in strength. In the end, Mr. Lawson, I believe I managed to find someone who was even worse at negotiating than you.”

  Bear cut a glance to him.

  “Anyway, by the looks of Ion here, he may soon explode if we don’t get back. He wants us to leave right away.”

  “We’re not going anywhere,” August said.

  The group turned their attention to him. There they stood, eight in all, and each focused squarely on him, waiting.

  “What do you mean we’re not going?” Bear asked.

  “All this time, we’ve been fighting for the wrong people, Bear. We’ve done what these gods asked us to do because we thought we were protecting people. We weren’t. We were protecting the gods, and that ends now.

  “From now on this war isn’t about saving a god’s life, it’s about saving the lives of everyone they claim to represent. No more armies. No more battlegrounds with innocent people caught in between. The nine of us—this Alliance—exist for only one reason: to end this war. We hunt down anyone who calls themselves a champion and we take their life before they can take anyone else’s. These gods, they don’t control us. Not anymore. We fight our own fight and we do it together.”

  He walked across the beach to stand in front of Bear, whose face was cemented in a worried frown. “Are you with me?” August asked.

  Bear looked at August’s extended hand. He gripped it. “You know I am.”

  August moved to Aeris next. He put out his hand without saying anything.

  She took it quickly. “I am.”

  He faced the Horsemen. Each brother shook his hand with a simple nod.

  Beside them, Ion hovered motionless over the beach.

  “If you don’t want to be here, now’s the time to leave,” August said.

  The glowing orb gathered the wisps of colors swirling across its shell and morphed them into streaks of green across its face.

  Good enough.

  “You may have drafted the wrong man,” Cerenus said as August came to him last. “I’ve never been much of a team player.”

  “Well you’re on a team now, if you think I can trust you.”

  The godclone flashed a smile.

  August stared him down until Cerenus turned away with a quiet laugh. He looked to the rest of the group. Finally, he extended his hand to August and smiled. “All right. I’m in. So, where would we like to start?”

  EPILOGUE

  When he absorbed the last bit of Velawrath’s power, reclaiming the final remnants of his blast, Michael closed his eyes to take stock of his new strength. He waited for the rush of euphoria that came with claiming his prize, but instead felt an unnerving sense that something was wrong. He kept his eyes shut, hoping that maybe he hadn’t finished bonding with his new energy, but the familiar influx of new power didn’t end the way it normally had. He’d always come back after a blast feeling like a person again, feeling whole.

  What he felt now was anything but whole. He was a shifting tower of sand, ready to fall apart at the slightest breeze.

  He opened his eyes again slowly, afraid of what he might see.

  Oh God, no.

  His power boiled like liquid flames beneath his skin, now a transparent shell instead of the network of veins that had been his comfort. He held up his hands, no longer black and ashen, but alive with fiery light. His cracks were gone. His eyes wandered to the glowing sphere of red light encasing him. Thin wisps of energy escaped his skin, struck the edge of the barrier, and returned to be absorbed back into his body.

  Beyond the edge of the sphere, he could see the hint of a star in the distance, casting a film of light on the remnants of Velawrath floating around him. A smell like dying embers filled his nose. The synapse to Earth was gone. Everywhere he looked, he saw nothing but endless black. It didn’t dawn on him until then that he was alone.

  “Free, perhaps, but not alone.”

  Michael spun at the sound of the words, searching the sea of space for the man. He’d heard that voice before. “Where are you?”

  Paralos unveiled himself in a show of radiance. Michael raised his hand to shield his eyes as the god’s light spread until it seemed to take up all of space. Despite the heat flowing beneath Michael’s skin, he could feel the warmth of Paralos’ glow. It was like standing next to a sun.

  “Your champion is dead,” Michael said, making a show of looking around at the debris. “I killed him.”

  “I know. I was witness to it all.”

  “You said he could never be killed. You said I couldn’t do it.”

  “It seems I was wrong to underestimate you. You were more powerful than I realized, and yet you’ve barely scratched the surface of your potential. The question is: what can you do with all this power, young one?”

  Michael’s smile faded as Paralos swelled in strength. The god’s light intensified.

  “You won’t hurt me,” Michael said, unconsciously releasing some of his energy to push himself back. “You’re not allowed. Amara said—”

  “Amara isn’t here. No one is, but the two of us.” Paralos’ light changed from a hint of red to pale blue. “She has no idea where you are. No idea how to find you. You’re stranded. The nearest habitable world would take a thousand of your lifetimes to reach.”

  “I’m not scared of you.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  Michael felt it then, the sensation of fingers reaching into his mind. He hadn’t suffered the intrusion since Amara tore through his memories after his first meeting with the old god. “Stop!” he said. “You can’t!”

  “And who is going to stop me? You?”

  Michael tried to move but his muscles wouldn’t respond. He was held in place, his arms and legs deaf to his commands.

  “Just as I thought,” Paralo
s said.

  At once, Michael gained control of his body again. He moved farther away from the god, his power roiling under his skin. “You bastard. There are rules.”

  “And you are not the only one ready to live a life without rule.”

  Paralos’ energy began to shrink, gathering in on itself until he was in the form of a man, his face hidden by the brightness of his light. He was the size of a skyscraper, looming over Michael. He no longer presented himself as the fragile old man Michael had seen on top of Devil’s Tower. He was a god, powerful and imposing.

  “What do you mean I want a life without rule?” Michael asked.

  “I’ve seen your mind, young one.”

  “Stop calling me that.”

  “Yes. You prefer Gemini, don’t you? Because that name now brings fear with it.”

  Michael kept his face blank despite the fact that his thoughts were as exposed as his skin, thoughts full of the same fear he was so proud of causing in others. But what was he worried about? If the old man wanted him dead, he’d be dead already. He pushed himself higher until he was at the face of the god. “What do you want?”

  “I want what you want. I want to give you power.”

  Michael felt the tug of desire. “Why?”

  “Here, at the edge of things, we have no secrets, you and I. I want what Amara has. I want to rule the Circle.”

  “So what do you want me for? You don’t need me to fight your battles.”

  “Oh but I do. As much as I want the Circle’s crown, I can’t risk open war with another god. We’re too powerful.”

  “But I’m not your champion.”

  “Are you hers?”

  Once again, Michael felt the exposure of his thoughts. “She’s been good to me.”

  “Unlike your father.”

  “Don’t you ever speak of him,” Michael growled.

  “Or what? You’ll set yourself off again? You remember the early days of your power, when thoughts of him would cause you to lose control, but control is exactly what that was.”

  An unsettling wave of nerves rolled through his stomach. “I don’t understand.”