Selena nodded and rested her head on Badb’s shoulder, who smoothed her hair just as a mother would comfort her child. “I’m on my own then. If we knew who Nuada’s heir was, I could try to find him…”
“Or her,” Badb corrected. “We shouldn’t assume it’s a man. I know I said ‘he’ back at the palace, but really, that’s only because English needs a gender neutral pronoun. The druid knew the least about Nuada’s heir, so I don’t actually know if it’s a man. I was told all three heirs would live at the same time. I knew Lugh’s would be a young man, and Dian Cécht’s would be a young woman when they met. But he could tell me nothing about Nuada’s.”
“Oh, well, good, because I thought this was going to be impossible,” Selena said bitterly.
“Nothing is impossible, my child. Enjoy your movie. And don’t wait up for me.”
Badb grabbed a gold clutch from the desk – another purse Selena was sure hadn’t existed a few moments before – and blew her a kiss on the way out the door. Selena listened to the locks sliding back into place then grabbed the remote for the television and began flipping through the channels. She buried her body under the thick hotel blankets and when she couldn’t find a Marvel movie to watch, settled for the Superman remake. She rolled her eyes more than a few times at the butchering of the comic book series and her eyelids must have agreed with her brain that this movie only grabbed people’s attention because of the handsome man in tight clothes and lots of explosions and violence.
She couldn’t place the pounding sound though. Why didn’t Superman just knock down the door? And why was it taking him so long? Her eyes slowly opened and she blinked at the television. Superman wasn’t on the screen. The movie wasn’t even on anymore. Some romantic comedy with Ralph Fiennes and Jennifer Lopez was showing instead, and Selena groaned and searched in her blankets for the remote. She was pretty sure her head would explode if she had to listen to one more line of this movie.
The knocking at the door startled her again and she dropped the remote before she could hit the power button. She heard him call her name this time. “Selena?”
“Cameron,” she whispered. She pushed the blankets off her and approached the door slowly, suddenly nervous about what she would say to him. He must have heard her on the other side of the door because he stopped knocking. Her fingers trembled as she pulled the door open and only then did she remember she’d been asleep and her hair was probably tangled and messy and, oh God, please don’t let me have drool on my face.
If Cameron noticed any of it, he didn’t let on. He took two wide steps into her room and swept her into his strong arms, relief flooding his features and posture and Selena sank into his embrace. She willed herself not to cry.
Cameron closed the door behind him and immediately locked the door but Selena stopped him from closing the swing bar. “Badb will be coming back tonight.”
“Badb…” he repeated carefully.
“Cameron, just…” Selena looked over her shoulder toward the clock on the nightstand but she couldn’t see the numbers from where she was standing. “What time is it?”
“Midnight.”
“Ok,” Selena breathed, seeing the concern already settling into his beautiful dark eyes again. “Can we just leave the bar off and we’ll check out in the morning? I’ll go back to Baton Rouge with you. I promise.”
Cameron’s shoulders sagged in relief and he hugged her again. “God, Selena, I was so worried about you,” he whispered.
“Hey,” she teased, “you told me to cut that shit out. Don’t you start.”
Cameron laughed and told her he’d be more careful. His eyes flickered to the television then he arched an eyebrow at her and held his hands up. “I won’t judge.”
“I fell asleep on Man of Steel,” Selena said but she couldn’t stop smiling. He came for her. He found her.
Cameron yawned and motioned to the other bed in the room. “May I? I’ve kinda been awake for almost two days straight and I’m pretty damn tired.”
“Yeah, of course.” Selena turned off the television and the lamp above the beds then lay in her own bed again. She watched the clock for a while, waiting for Badb to return, but eventually, sleep overpowered her. If she dreamed, they were the mostly peaceful, odd dreams she was meant to have because she didn’t stir again until morning.
Cameron was already awake, trying to pack her things quietly. He glanced over his shoulder and caught her watching him and he smiled at her and pushed the power button on the coffee maker. “Check it out,” he said. “It’ll brew two cups at the same time.”
Selena sat up and looked around the room. “Where’s Badb?”
She heard Cameron inhale slowly and he focused on the coffee maker again. “They don’t have milk, so do you want this powdery creamer shit?”
“Cameron, did Badb come back?” Selena asked.
Cameron wouldn’t look at her. He shook his head and held up the black bag with the gold fleur-de-lis on the side. “This will go nicely with your yoga pants and t-shirt from New Orleans. You’ve got the whole outfit now. I think this means I’m contractually obligated to take you to a Saints’ game.”
“She didn’t come back,” Selena whispered to herself. “She promised me…”
Cameron sat across from her and held her hand gently between his own. “You know what? We don’t have to go back to Baton Rouge. Pick a place. Anywhere you want to go.”
Selena shook her head slowly and lifted her eyes to meet his. “No. We can’t abandon your friends, Cameron. Quetzalcoatl is still out there and he’s planning something and we’re going back to help them.”
“Selena…” He reached up to her face and tucked some of her long blonde hair behind her ear then seemed to realize what he was doing. He let his hand fall and lowered his eyes again. “Let me help them. And when it’s over… we’ll hide. This is so much for you to have to deal with between Ukko and the New Pantheon and Quetzalcoatl. Let me do this then we’ll get you some place where you can rest for a while.”
“I’m coming with you, Cameron. I’ll fight by your side, and if we live, then we’ll go. Just like you want.”
Cameron lifted his eyes and inhaled slowly. “Ok, my Sweet Goddess. But first… your coffee.”
She watched him move the cup away from the coffee maker and pour the sugar and creamer into it and her brain tried to convince her heart to stop crying for a goddess that Cameron may have been right about all along: she was playing games, telling her what she wanted to hear in the hopes she would end up getting what she wanted, but ultimately, Badb had never intended to give Selena the future she wanted with the only man she now knew she could ever love.
Chapter Fourteen
Cameron opened his apartment door and Quinn barreled in, his large frame taking up most of the narrow hallway until it spit him out into the living room. Selena looked up from the laptop where she was reading as much as she could about Quetzalcoatl but when she saw Quinn’s expression, she set the laptop down so she wouldn’t inadvertently drop it whenever he delivered whatever news he’d come to deliver.
“Avery’s gone,” he panted breathlessly. “I can’t find her anywhere.”
“How long?” Cameron asked. “Maybe she just went to visit someone she doesn’t want you to know about.”
Quinn shook his head quickly and collapsed onto one of the chairs near Cameron’s coffee table. “First Selena takes off and now Avery. What the hell is going on?”
“Well, I think we have more reason to be concerned about Avery,” Selena said. “She’s been part of your group for a while. I’m new here and thought people were judging me for hallucinating shit, so…”
Cameron rolled his eyes at her and sat at the other end of the sofa. “I’ve told you a thousand times. Nobody was judging you and considering no one knows anything about a healing power, we have no way of knowing what kind of toll it takes on a person.”
Both Cameron and Selena glanced at Quinn to see if he would even register their decepti
on, but Selena wasn’t convinced he was even listening. But when Cameron healed her in that hotel room in New Orleans, he had been telling her the truth: he’d never told anyone about his ability to heal, not even his demigod friends. He’d taken an enormous risk to help her with Justin, but so far, no one seemed to think he’d been doing anything but comforting an injured friend and that Selena had done all the healing herself. Perhaps Avery had sensed what he was doing, but she hadn’t mentioned it.
When they returned from Atlanta, Cameron told her he wanted to come clean with the others so the burden of healing wouldn’t always fall on her but Selena had refused. She didn’t want him hunted the same way she had been hunted for most of her adult life. Cameron had argued that it wouldn’t matter: he’d be running with her anyway, but Selena had finally convinced him to keep his secret a little longer.
Truthfully, part of her couldn’t let go of the suspicion that she shouldn’t trust the Norse, no matter what had or hadn’t happened with Badb. But she couldn’t tell Cameron that without him giving her another one of his you’re-one-comment-away-from-being-institutionalized looks.
“What are we going to do?” Quinn groaned, burying his large round face in his equally large hands.
“I… have a stupid and possibly crazy question,” Selena said slowly. Quinn lifted his head and waited and when Selena didn’t immediately ask her stupid and possibly crazy question, he urged her on.
“Selena, she may be in danger. Any idea is worth hearing out right now.”
“Any chance you have a way of contacting Thor?” Selena winced a little as she asked him, anticipating Cameron’s patronizing reaction, but he surprised her.
“That’s not a stupid or crazy idea,” he said excitedly. “Her own gods may be able to help us track her down.”
Selena’s palms began to sweat and she wiped them against the legs of her jeans as she nodded along, pretending she wanted to meet and help Thor as badly as the others. “Let Quinn try to reach him on his own first and if he needs us, he’ll let us know. I think we may end up just getting in the way right now.”
Quinn’s blue-gray eyes darted between them but he nodded as he thought about Selena’s proposal. “I can’t really… summon him or anything. But I’ll see what I can do. If she’s hurt, I will need your help though.”
Selena offered him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “Of course. Just call us as soon as you hear anything.”
Quinn nodded his large round head again and stood up, raking his thick fingers through his reddish brown hair. “At least you’re back,” he sighed. “With so many gods out there trying to kill us, I’m starting to think we should all go into hiding.”
“Separately,” Cameron added quickly. “No offense, but the fewer people who know where we are, the better.”
Quinn nodded again and lifted a hand at Selena as if he no longer had the energy or heart to utter a goodbye. Selena watched him leave then closed her eyes, offering a silent prayer to whatever god could hear her that Avery had left town on her own volition and had not been kidnapped. She’d prefer betrayal over abduction.
Cameron locked the door behind Quinn then returned to his living room, his arms folded over his chest, a serious expression on his face that Selena rarely witnessed. “I know you wanted to stay out of this war you think is coming with Quetzalcoatl, but this has to be related to his vengeance. He’s taking us now, Selena. We have to do something before there aren’t enough of us left to fight back.”
“You don’t know Quetzalcoatl was behind Avery’s disappearance,” Selena argued.
Cameron grunted and shook his head at her. “Then you tell me who else would have kidnapped her. She wouldn’t take off. She wouldn’t just disappear on Quinn. They’re engaged, for God’s sake!”
“Which god?” Selena asked.
Cameron rolled his eyes and raised his voice, “Not now!”
Selena shrugged, still not convinced she should be worried about Avery. She couldn’t share Cameron’s panic because she couldn’t shake the belief that while Badb may have been manipulating her, she hadn’t been lying about the Norse and a far more disastrous war on the horizon than the one quickly approaching with Quetzalcoatl.
“Quetzalcoatl almost killed us once, Cameron. What do you want us to do? Walk back out to the Atchafalaya River and let him finish the job?”
“Of course not. We’ll get more help. Maybe Thor himself will fight with us. Avery is descended from him, after all.”
Selena eyed the computer screen because she didn’t want Cameron to notice that the idea of fighting beside Thor made her nervous. She was convinced he was just as likely to turn on her as he would be to kill Quetzalcoatl, especially if he knew who she was. Or if he knew who Cameron was supposed to be.
“Selena,” Cameron said, “I know you’re scared. I know I almost got eaten by a giant ass snake and that’s one injury even you can’t heal, but we’ll do things differently this time…”
A knock on Cameron’s door interrupted him and for the second time that evening, he stared at his door like it had somehow become animate and was just trying to piss him off. And he was so damn cute about it, Selena found herself smiling at him then immediately reprimanded herself for smiling about anything right now.
Cameron looked through the peephole then glanced over his shoulder at her. “Do you know an old woman who wears a long black robe and looks suspiciously like a witch that should have been burned at the stake in the seventeenth century?”
Selena jumped off the sofa and hurried to the door. She didn’t mean to push Cameron aside, but Badb had a lot to account for and she had no intention of letting her talk her way out of anything now. She yanked the door open and scowled at her.
“You have a lot of nerve showing up here,” Selena told her.
“Nice to see you, too,” Badb croaked.
Selena shook her head. “I’m not happy to see you. I’m pissed off at you and you know why. You lied to me!”
“Now wait,” Badb said, lifting an old, bony hand. Her black robe waved beneath her arm as the evening breeze blew the draping material like a flag on a post. “Invite me in and I will explain.”
“Badb…” Cameron said. “The Badb you keep telling me has been harassing you?”
Badb’s thin, wrinkled hand rested on her hip and she shot Selena a what-the-hell? look. “I never said harassing,” Selena muttered.
“Move,” Badb ordered, waving her hands toward the interior of Cameron’s apartment. Selena found herself obeying the goddess, even though she was still angry at her. She moved out of the way so Badb could enter. “Come, Children,” she instructed.
Cameron arched an eyebrow at Selena as if to ask if the old woman was serious, and Selena just sighed and motioned for him to follow her. Despite Badb’s many broken promises, Selena was sure Cameron hadn’t forgotten his promises to her, and he reluctantly followed the goddess and sat on the exact spot on the sofa she indicated she wanted him to sit. She pointed again and Selena sat next to Cameron, a little too close. She could feel the heat from his body on her bare arms and smell the deodorant he used, an intoxicating mix of spices and cedar.
Badb sat across from them, in the same chair Quinn had occupied only minutes before. She took her time smoothing out the folds of her robe and Selena lost her patience.
“For God’s sake, Badb, you abandoned me in Atlanta! Explain!”
Badb looked up at her, her small beady eyes conveying so much regret and sorrow. “I didn’t abandon you. I knew Cameron was with you and you would be all right. But I couldn’t return to the hotel that night as I’d assured you I would because I was no longer on Earth. I got called back to the Otherworld.”
“Why?” Selena asked weakly.
“Word is out about you both, I’m afraid. Our enemies know who you are now. And that’s why you can’t find Avery.”
“Avery…” Selena whispered. The cogs in her mind began turning faster and she stared wide-eyed at the goddess who had brough
t them far worse news than she’d originally thought. “It was her. Avery told the Norse. She sensed it in me after I healed her and she turned me in!”
Badb lowered her eyes and studied the back of her hands, the thin pale skin punctuated with age spots and ropey blue veins. “Yes,” she sighed. “Your heart is so good, Selena. But you must be careful because as you’re learning, not everyone you save will value your sacrifice over their own selfish desires.”
“Wait,” Cameron interrupted. “Avery did something to stab you in the back after you saved her life?”
Selena nodded but couldn’t meet his eyes. She had endangered them all. She had endangered him. And she was beginning to think there was nothing worse in this world than risking Cameron’s life.
“That bitch!” Cameron yelled. He stood up, but Selena grabbed his hand and forced him to sit down again.
“There’s nothing we can do now, Cameron,” she told him. “She’s gone because she turned me in. Not to the New Pantheon, but to the Norse who took sides against the Tuatha Dé in the war. And the Norse are protecting her now. She will try to convince Quinn to go with her. It’s already in motion and there’s nothing we can do.” Selena closed her eyes and swallowed the burning pain in her throat. She wanted to cry for ruining his life, destroying his friendships, but she didn’t want to upset him. “I am so sorry,” she whispered.
“Hey,” Cameron said softly, “this is not your fault. You were betrayed. If you want to blame someone then blame me. I trusted her… I led her right to you, and…”
“And,” Badb interjected, “neither of you are at fault. You can make choices that determine the outcome of your life, but you can’t escape your fate, Cameron. And you and Selena would have been discovered eventually.”
Shadows of the Gods (The Unbreakable Sword Series Book 1) Page 15