by D. G. Swank
Ellie screamed, “No!”
I had a split second to react, but I wasn’t prepared for the blur that shot across the room and stopped several feet in front of me.
Okeus’s eyes widened in interest when he saw Abel suddenly appear. The warrior woman looked pissed.
“I knew he would interfere,” she sneered.
“I said I claimed her,” Abel said, holding the arrow in his hand. Shirtless with evident stab wounds, he looked like a warrior ready for battle. “No one will harm her.” He turned to face Okeus in defiance. “Even you.”
“Holy shit,” Rhys muttered from behind me.
Abel had actually shown up, but there was no thanking him now. Fury radiated from him in powerful waves, and I knew it was partially aimed at me.
The warriors vanished into thin air, clearing the path for Okeus to walk toward us, and it struck me that Abel had inserted himself into the triangle. Was he stuck too? But Jack had said the spell keeping us in here could only be broken by the being I was intended for. If Caelius had been vague…
I turned back to Jack and whispered, “Try to leave.”
“Piper. No.”
“I have two powerful beings who both want me alive. I’ll be fine, and they might use you to get to me, so go.”
Understanding filled his eyes, but he was still reluctant to leave me.
“Jack.”
He took Rhys’s hand, drew a deep breath, and then walked across the line.
The spell had been broken.
Neither god even noticed. They now stood about ten feet apart, Okeus still on the outside of the triangle.
I was suddenly terrified for Abel. Once Okeus realized he was Ahone’s son, he might not let him leave alive. Could Okeus kill him? Or would he endlessly torture Abel until the moon appeared on my hand? I had to find a way to protect him.
“Who are you to defy me?” Okeus asked. The words could have been fused with anger, but they were laced with curiosity.
“I lay no claim on either your power or your world,” Abel said, bowing his head. “I am but a lowly supernatural being who wishes to stay in your good graces, my lord. My only request is that you let me have the woman for my own.”
Let him have the woman for his own? The phrasing pissed me off, but I reminded myself that Abel was playing Okeus’s game. He didn’t mean it.
Right?
“Why do I not know you?” Okeus asked.
“As I said, I am but a lowly creature,” Abel said, taking a knee and still keeping his head bowed. “Too lowly to catch the eye of a great king.”
“No,” Okeus said, his eyes alight with excitement. “I can feel your power even as you try to hide it. You are no lowly creature. You are part god.”
“I have no quarrel with you, my lord,” Abel said in a humble tone I’d never heard from him before. “I only wish to take the woman and live in peace.”
Okeus was intrigued. “You may wish to live in peace, but you have a purpose of your own for her. What is it?”
“She is like a siren, my lord. I am possessed by her beauty. She has captured my heart and attention so that I cannot sleep or focus when I am not with her.”
Okeus looked at me with renewed attention, taking a step closer. “Are you a siren?”
I fought to keep from laughing. “No. I am a ghost shepherd.”
“And a demon slayer,” Okeus added, nodding to the sword in my hand.
“I don’t seek them out,” I said. “They find me, and I do what I must to defend myself and my friends. Like Abel, I have no quarrel with you,” I lied.
“Abel…”
Oh shit. Abel hadn’t told him his name. Names had power.
“Abiel,” Okeus repeated Abel’s name, but the pronunciation was slightly different this time—like Abiel, with the hint of an “i” sound after the “b” and a softer “l”. “God is my father.” His eyes widened, and his anger was back. The fire forking through the storm above us shot across the ceiling, but somehow the building didn’t catch on fire. “Who is your father, Abiel?”
“I never knew my father,” Abel said, his head still bowed. “I cannot say.”
“Who was your mother?”
“She lived many years ago, my lord. I have forgotten.”
“You have forgotten your own mother?” Okeus asked in disbelief. “No matter how old a man becomes, he never forgets his mother. Look at me, boy.”
“He was born after the Great Separation,” Demon Hudson explained to Okeus. “After we were locked away for hundreds of years. When only one god was free to roam the earth.”
Okeus’s eyes flashed with fire. “Ahone.”
“Yes,” the Great One said in excitement. “I have brought you two gifts—the witness to creation and your brother’s son.” He gestured toward Abel. “Ahone’s son, Abiel.”
Ellie and Collin stared at Abel in disbelief.
“Is this true?” Okeus demanded.
Abel slowly lifted his head but didn’t respond.
“Who was your mother?” Okeus asked in a tightly controlled voice, his nostrils flaring.
Abel held his gaze. I couldn’t see his face, but his entire body screamed defiance. “A lowly Croatan maiden.”
Okeus’s chest expanded, and the speculative look in his eyes shifted to surprise. No, shock. Finally, he asked, “What year were you born?”
“My people had other ways to record time, my lord.”
“You’re obviously an intelligent man,” Okeus scoffed. “How soon after the Great Separation were you born?”
Abel hesitated, as though weighing his options. “The next summer, my lord.”
Okeus’s excitement continued to build, and a new horror swept through me. What if Abel wasn’t Ahone’s son?
Okeus took a moment, then said, “Your mother was no lowly maiden. Your mother was a Croatan conjurer who willingly accepted me into her bed.” He took a step closer. “Weeks before I was locked away.”
Okeus moved closer and cupped Abel’s face, searching. Then joy washed over the god’s face. “I have a son, and you are perfect.” He threw out his hands and shouted, “I have a son.”
I’d just made Abel’s worst nightmare come true. He’d wanted to avoid any contact with Okeus, and for the very best of reasons. I’d made a dangerous mistake.
Ellie and Collin looked horrified, but then Ellie took a step forward. “This means you don’t need us anymore. You and Abel can have your family reunion and let us deal with the Great One, and then we’ll be on our way.”
Okeus studied her, his face giving nothing away.
Ellie and Collin may be free to go, but I wasn’t leaving Abel’s side. I’d gotten him into this mess. Somehow I was getting him out of it.
Abel stood, his shoulders sinking in defeat. “We have much to catch up on, Father. Let them be on their way.”
Okeus waved a hand in dismissal toward the curse keepers. “Go, but you cannot have the Great One. It is mine to deal with. Ellie, you and I have plenty of time to revisit our arrangement.” Then the god turned to me. “But Piper will stay.”
“No,” Ellie said with fury in her voice. “We will finish our business with the Great One. Now.”
“Not today,” Okeus said, sounding firmer. “If you leave now, I will restrain my wrath.”
Indecision wavered in Ellie’s eyes before she took several sidesteps in my direction. “I want that demon, Okeus.”
“Not today.”
“You’ll never subdue us, war god,” Tsagasi shouted.
“You are nothing to me, little man,” the god said, sounding disgusted.
Tsagasi and his brother continued to taunt the god.
Ellie closed the distance between us. Standing on the outside of the triangle, she extended a hand toward me. “Let’s go.”
I shook my head. “No. I can’t leave Abel.”
Abel turned to me with hatred in his eyes, catching me off guard. “Go.”
“No.” I stared back in defiance. I wasn’t
leaving him.
He shot me a look of annoyance, then crossed the line of chalk, walking out of the triangle and heading toward the ruckus.
Surprise filled Ellie’s eyes. “Is your blood vow keeping you here?”
“No.” I didn’t know how to explain it; I didn’t even understand it myself. I just knew he’d exposed himself to protect me, whatever his reasons. And while he was a self-centered demigod, he’d shown me his humanity. I knew if he stayed with Okeus—the last being on earth he wanted to be with—he’d lose every last shred of himself, not to mention Okeus could end up with one more ally on his side. I didn’t know how I would save him, yet I had to try. “But I can’t leave him. You and Collin go. Take everyone to my house and wait for me there.”
“You love him?” she asked in surprise.
“No. But his destiny is tied to mine. I have to try.”
She pursed her lips, then nodded. “Good luck, cousin. Hurry up and get to your house because you and I have a lot of catching up to do.”
Tears stung my eyes. “I will.”
She and Collin quickly left, and then Tsagasi and Tsawasi vanished into thin air. The only ones left were Okeus, the Great One, two demon lions, Abel, and me.
I stayed in the triangle wearing my bra and panties, watching Okeus and his son as they faced each other in the center of the warehouse. A now-bloody Demon Hudson stood to the side, waiting for his orders from Okeus.
I slipped my daggers and my sword into their sheaths, then headed toward the god and his son. Okeus had clearly not given up his plans for me, but he seemed pompous enough to assume I’d sit around and wait for him to get the love party started. It was important for him to know right off the bat that I wasn’t a sit-around-and-wait kind of woman.
Abel caught sight of me and watched me in disbelief. His movement caught Okeus’s attention.
“Piper,” Okeus said. “I hear you are very powerful in your own right, and I can feel it despite the bracelet you’re wearing to mask your power. No wonder you caught my son’s fancy.” He turned to Abel. “Have you bound her to you?”
Abel’s eyes widened, but he quickly recovered. “I have given her my mark.”
“Yet you haven’t supernaturally bound her…if you’re as taken with her as you insist, I’m surprised you haven’t made it permanent.”
“How would I know how to do such a thing?” Abel asked, sounding subservient and totally unlike himself. “I have much to learn. I had no one to instruct me while you were locked away.”
“We can do it now,” Okeus said. “What could be better than to have your father assist you?”
“I don’t want to be bound to him,” I said. “I’m still getting used to the whole ‘having him around’ part.” Not a lie, “And besides. I don’t want to get married in my underwear.” I motioned to myself. “So we’ll take a rain check.”
My demonstration only called attention to the fact that I was scantily clad, and the god’s gaze lingered on my body.
“Hey, buddy,” I said, pointing to my face, “my eyes are up here.”
The god grinned. “You’re a lot like your cousin.”
“The Lancaster women are a feisty lot.” I turned to Abel. “I realize you want to get acquainted with your dad, but you and I have a previous commitment, and you’re not getting out of it this time.”
He stared at me like I’d grown another head.
“Teaching me to read those ancient texts?” I said. “Ring a bell? You’ve put me off three times, but you swore you’d teach me tonight.”
Abel must have been really shaken by his family reunion because it took him a second to realize that I was up to something. Still he looked unhappy about playing along. “I’m with a god, Piper. My father. That takes precedence over teaching a human how to read ancient texts.”
“You’re teaching her how to read ancient texts?” Okeus asked.
“She’s very intelligent,” Abel said, although the look he was giving me suggested I was anything but. “Part of her appeal.”
“I can see that.” Okeus was looking at me with renewed interest. A hungry interest.
Oh shit.
“She also has many titles that add to her power,” Okeus said. “List them, my son.”
Abel held my gaze, his eyes dark. He was furious with me. “Piper Lancaster, Kewasa, shepherd to lost spirits, witness to creation, slayer of demons and gods.”
Abel left off creator of worlds, not that I was surprised, but suddenly an idea popped into my head. The question was whether it would work.
Okeus’s eyebrows shot up. “Slayer of gods?”
“She is my Kewasa,” Abel said. His gaze softened. “My deliverer.”
“Son,” Okeus said. “I am god of all things, great and small, and everything bows to me. Do you bow to me?”
“You are my father,” he said in a neutral voice, returning his attention to his father.
“Yes, and I must instill in you that I own all things. Even the things you hold most dear. Can you accept that?”
“I am your son. You are my father. How can I withhold anything from you?”
“I’m so happy to hear that, my son,” he said, smiling. Then he reached out a hand toward me. “Come, Piper. Let us go make Abiel a brother.”
“What?” I screeched, backing up.
Abel’s face remained impassive.
Okeus cocked an eyebrow. “You’re willing to let me have her?”
“As long as she isn’t harmed, what is mine is yours, Father.”
Okeus closely watched Abel. “What if she’s only slightly injured?”
“A few bruises won’t matter.”
Are you kidding me?
Okeus continued to study Abel’s reaction. “My son, why didn’t you seek me out after I was freed? I find it hard to believe you didn’t know who your father was. Ahone must have approached you. No doubt he tried to turn you against me.”
Abel held his gaze. “Ahone said that my father would be threatened by my power and that you would try to kill me. I was fearful of you. But I’m eager to get to know you now, Father. Of course I will give you whatever you wish, but I ask that you wait to impregnate her. Spend time with me first before you make a second heir.”
I tried to hide my relief. Abel was playing his father, but would Okeus believe it?
“No,” Okeus said. “This will be a true test of your loyalty. First, I will create a brother for you, and you will watch while I do it. Then I will take you to my home, and I will host a feast for you.”
Oh, hell no. “You’re both acting like I don’t have any say in this.”
“You don’t,” Abel said, his jaw rigid.
“Abiel is right,” Okeus said. “I made that mistake before with Elinor. I won’t be making it again.”
I felt like I was going to throw up. “Can I make a request? If I give myself to you willingly, will you let me give Abel a kiss first?”
Okeus’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“You are a great god, and so powerful,” I said. “Surely you can grant such a simple request. I’m frightened, and I need Abel’s reassurance.”
“You may have her, Father,” Abel said, his voice perfectly neutral. But then—his eyes drifted closed a hairsbreadth of a moment, a soft breath exhaled, and it was all I needed for the spark of hope in me to grow. “But permit me assure her that I still care for her.”
I was sure Okeus was going to deny my request, but then he stared me in the eyes. “I will let you go to him, but only if you willingly give yourself to me.”
I hoped to heaven and earth this worked. “Okay.”
He motioned to Abel. “Go.”
Abel stood stock-still as I walked toward him. I pressed my body to his and wrapped my arm around his neck, pulling him into a hug. I whispered in his ear, “I have a plan.”
Whatever it is, it will never work, Waboose. Why are you doing this?
“You saved me, Abel. Now I have to save you. Remember what we talked about earlie
r. Think of someplace you want to go.”
His body tensed, and he held me tighter. No, Waboose. Do not show him what you can do.
“And what should I do with you?” Okeus asked the Great One. “After your betrayal weeks ago?”
“Okeus, have mercy on me,” the demon pleaded.
I took advantage of the Great One’s distraction and whispered, “Will you be able to watch him take his time with me? Bait you into proving that you’re not as loyal as you claim? I may have just agreed to be willing, but I’m going to put up a hell of a fight. Can you watch that unfold?”
“Piper,” he said, sounding anguished.
The grief in his voice proved to me he cared. It was all I needed.
“Think of a place, and when I kiss you, I’ll take us there.” I leaned back and stared into his eyes, then gave him a reassuring smile. “I trust you, Abel.” And for the first time, I really did.
His hand lifted to my cheek and he leaned his face close to mine. I trust you too. But don’t take us away until I kiss you.
“Your lordship,” Demon Hudson said. “I have one final gift for you with the girl. One more title to add to her list.”
“One more title?” Okeus demanded, shifting his attention to me and Abel. “Have you kept secrets from me, Abiel?”
“He doesn’t know about my other title,” I rushed to say. “Don’t accuse Abel of deceit when he was clueless.”
“Don’t believe her, my lord,” Demon Hunter said. “He knows of her gift.”
“Gift, you say?” Okeus asked, intrigued.
“A gift that far surpasses her witness to creation title.”
Horror washed through me. I’d told Hudson about seeing Marilyn’s world. The Great One knew I could create worlds.
Abel’s arm stiffened around me, as though he could read my thoughts. He whipped me around so that his back was to his father.
Demon Hudson laughed manically. “The witness to creation is a creat—”
Abel shoved me away as he pulled out his sword and ran it through Demon Hudson’s chest, cutting off his sentence. The Great One’s resemblance to my friend disappeared and it morphed into a gray mass that looked like a lump of clay as hundreds of white lights exploded from it.