Goddesses of War (The Guardians of Tara Book 4)

by S. M. Schmitz

  “Of course it’s a trap,” the Dagda agreed. “But considering we’re kind of on a time crunch here, we’re counting on your ability to walk away from these traps.”

  “They just killed Badb!” Cameron cried. “We’re not going to volunteer for any more of their games.”

  “True,” Badb acknowledged, appearing in the doorway. “But if we weren’t willing to risk our lives to save the world of mortals, what kind of Guardians would we be?”

  Cameron inhaled a slow, deep breath and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to pretend like he didn’t want to cross the room and sweep her into a ridiculously humiliating hug. “Pretty sure you’re only allowed to die and come back to life once and your sisters are a huge pain in the ass when that happens so let’s try something that won’t get anyone killed, okay?”

  Badb smiled at him and shrugged. “I think we should go to this restaurant. And I’m willing to bet when Selena wakes up, she’ll agree with me.”

  “That’s cheating,” Cameron reminded her.

  “I won’t influence her decision,” Badb promised. “But Cameron, we have to figure out where Koschei is hiding these souls or we’ll never be able to kill any of the gods who are attempting to destroy the world.”

  “I don’t think they’re attempting to destroy the world,” he argued. “We once thought Huitzilopochtli had triggered Ragnarok so he could rebuild the world he wanted with himself at the helm. I think that’s what he’s promised gods like Enlil and Koschei. Between Earth and the Seventh Heaven, they’ll have plenty of space so that they don’t have to turn on each other.”

  “You think that matters?” the Dagda asked. “We weren’t fighting the Norse over land but the people who lived there. Once they kill every human on Earth, they’ll turn on each other simply because no one is left to even read their stories.”

  “If we lose and Earth is consumed by Ragnarok and the Otherworld is lost to Huitzilopochtli, I really don’t care if they tear each other apart,” Cameron said. “And we’re still not going. In fact, I’m kinda reconsidering going back to Earth at all.”

  “Cameron?” his father called out.

  Cameron’s heart raced and he let his arms fall by his sides as his father stepped into the open doorway. He looked around the room then his eyes settled on his son, and he ran his fingers through his hair in the same nervous way Cameron often did.

  “I, um, heard someone was… back home. On Earth, I mean. Apparently, someone…” his father stuttered.

  “Died?” Cameron finished for him. “Yeah, but Selena saved her.”

  “Oh,” his dad breathed. “I thought at first it might have been…” He stuffed his hands into his pockets and glanced over his shoulder at some phantom in the hallway.

  The Dagda and Aonghus shuffled their feet then the Dagda cleared his throat and announced, “I’m going back to Ailill’s palace to see if we missed anything. You can decide if you’re going to this restaurant after Selena wakes up.”

  “Don’t need to,” Cameron told him. “We’re not going.”

  The Dagda shot him a look that he interpreted as, “You will if Selena says you will,” but this was one time he intended to argue with her. As the Dagda disappeared from his hall, Aonghus told him he was going to help so Cameron quickly tried to convince him he didn’t have to leave as well. He really didn’t want to be left alone with his father, and Badb had already walked away.

  But Aonghus ignored him, and soon, he found himself alone with his father after all.

  Cameron picked at the same chip on the Dagda’s chair and said, “I should go check on Selena.”

  “Yeah,” Brent agreed. “She seems really nice.”

  “She is. And she’s way too good for me.”

  “I don’t know. I always thought that about your mother, and yet, she’s put up with me for thirty years.”

  “Did you know Mom is a demigoddess?”

  Brent shook his head and gestured to the chair. “You’d better leave that alone unless you have some hidden refinishing gift. And I guess you gods could sense your mom’s ancestry.”

  “That she’s a demigoddess, yeah. But I wouldn’t have known who she’s descended from. Somehow, Lugh can tell these things. Did she go to Findias to meet with him?”

  “We both did.”

  Cameron stopped picking at the chip in the chair and gaped at his father. “You?”

  Brent shrugged and pointed to the chair again. “I can fix that for him if he has any wood putty.”

  “Dad, why did you go visit Lugh?”

  Brent gaped back at his son. “Because you’re his heir, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “So I wanted to meet the god you’d replaced.”

  “Yeah, but—” Cameron tried again.

  “And he’s not so bad. I mean, he’s still a god, but I didn’t hate him. And then we heard all these gods around here panicking because one of you had died, and I just thought what if it’s you? What if you died thinking I hate you now?”

  “Well… you know you could have just found me in Findias, right?”

  Brent took a deep breath and put his hand back in his pocket. Cameron did the same thing when he was nervous and didn’t want anyone to notice. “I know as long as Alison and I are here, we can go if someone is willing to take us. But we’ll be going back to Baton Rouge at some point and we’d never see you again. And I think that’s what’s made me so angry because you might be alive, but really, we’re kind of losing you anyway, aren’t we?”

  “Because of the geis? Dad, I’m pretty sure I’ve already broken it, and besides—”

  “No,” Brent interrupted. “I’m still not even sure what a geis is. You remember how I reacted when you told me you were quitting your job to help a bunch of demigods bring down the New Pantheon?”

  “Sure. You weren’t too thrilled about that either. I’m starting to think you’re just impossible to please.”

  Brent snickered then lifted a shoulder at him even though he almost certainly knew Cameron had been joking. “In my defense, you had a good job and you left it to tackle an extremely dangerous mission, one I agreed with in principle, but I figured somebody else could do it. It didn’t surprise me though. You’ve always been that way: wanting to save the world.”

  Cameron threw his hands up and sighed in exasperation. “You make it sound like that’s a bad thing.”

  “It is a bad thing when it’s your child that can die!” Brent countered. He freed his hand from his pocket again and rubbed his eyes. “Is your mom right? Is Selena pregnant?”

  “Is Mom ever wrong?” Cameron pointed out.

  Brent snickered again and even smiled. “According to her, no.”

  Cameron nodded smartly. “We’re lucky we married up, to be honest.”

  “You’re married?”

  Cameron waved him off. “Sort of. They explained the whole past life thing, didn’t they?”

  “Yeah, and that’s even weirder than the apocalypse being triggered by letting a god out of a cave.”

  “Now that wasn’t my fault.”

  Brent’s smile faltered and he took another deep breath. He and Cameron had always been close, but they were still guys and they’d never really talked about feelings beyond the occasional “I love you” and “Stop being such an obnoxious asshole.” Cameron still wasn’t sure if he was relieved they were talking now, or if he should just disappear and hide out in Findias with Lugh or even Ukko until Selena was ready to leave again.

  “Do you even still feel like yourself?” Brent finally asked. “I mean your old self. Your normal self. You know… my son.”

  “Dad,” Cameron sighed, “just because I remember this past life now doesn’t mean it’s changed me. I thought becoming a god might, but it’s apparently this stupid curse and not me at all. And ever since it controlled me and threw me in some sort of glass prison, I haven’t even felt that anger I used to worry about.”

  “I guess that explains your anger, but
what’s my excuse?”

  Cameron folded his arms and squinted at him. “You? You’re just an obnoxious asshole.”

  Brent laughed and pretended to agree. “Conceded. But assuming there’s a Basin left after all this, you’re still going to take this obnoxious asshole out fishing in the spring, right?”

  Cameron swallowed and reminded himself not to pick at the chip on the Dagda’s chair again, or he’d end up having to find some carpentry god and he wasn’t even sure those existed. “Of course. And maybe if Logan isn’t pissing me off too much, I’ll pick him up as well. I can teleport now.”

  “Ah,” Brent teased, “so apparently Logan won’t be coming with us.”

  “Cameron?” Bridget called. The queen of the Tuatha Dé showed up beside his father so Cameron immediately asked if Selena were awake yet.

  Bridget shook her head then held up a hand before he could even ask her what the hell she was doing here then. “She’s still sleeping, and I’m going back to your room. Don’t worry. But someone else is looking for you.”

  “It can’t wait?” he asked, glancing at his father. Part of him was convinced if they ended their conversation now, he’d return to the Dagda’s palace to discover the whole thing had only been a dream and his father still refused to acknowledge him, let alone admit he was counting on the fishing trip they’d been planning before his life had been turned upside down.

  “I don’t think you’ll want this to wait,” Bridget offered. “Not when you have a rare chance to talk to him without Selena knowing.”

  Cameron’s confusion quickly turned into understanding and he smiled at his young queen. “Goibniu? He’s finished?”

  “Yeah,” Bridget said, crossing her arms as she pretended to be pissed about it. “And he won’t let anyone see those rings until you’ve seen them first. I couldn’t even pull the ‘But I’m your queen’ card. Bastard.”

  As if by some secret love god magic, Aonghus reappeared in the doorway next to Bridget and immediately offered, “I’ll go with you.”

  Cameron snickered and glanced toward his father one last time. “Dad, we’ll probably be back to saving the world soon so… you know.”

  Brent nodded and shot Cameron an awkward smile. “Any chance you know anything about our grandchild I can tell your mother so she’ll stop talking about it all the time?”

  “Yeah, but I doubt what I know will change that. So for now, just tell her you’ll have a granddaughter and we’re naming her Crochan.”

  His father blinked at him then said, “You’re naming her what?”

  “That’s what I said. Selena compromised on a reasonable nickname because nobody should be named Crochan. We’re going to call her Hanna.”

  “Hanna’s a Nordic name,” Aonghus sighed. “Poor girl.”

  “We’re not calling her Crochan,” Cameron insisted. “And the Norse are our friends now.”

  “Goibniu,” Bridget reminded him.

  “Still want to go with you,” Aonghus also reminded him.

  Cameron shrugged and the Dagda’s great hall disappeared and was replaced by Goibniu’s workshop.

  “So we’re going right now,” Aonghus said smartly.

  “I would have warned you, but let’s face it: We’re always delayed when I speak,” Cameron responded.

  Goibniu emerged from the back of his workshop, smiling at the young sun god who’d asked him to make two rings, one for his future wife and one for his future daughter. He held a small box in his hands and placed it on the table in front of Cameron. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to give Hanna this ring as a child or an adult so it’s enchanted, Cameron. It’ll grow with her.”

  “Whoa,” Cameron murmured. He gestured to the box and asked, “May I?”

  “Of course,” Goibniu answered, smiling as he lifted the lid.

  Cameron peeked inside, the brilliant red of the small stone from the stream in Murias reflecting the light spilling in from the windows. No ruby or red diamond on Earth could match the brilliance of a stone Selena had plucked from the bed of a river in a world of gods, and no jeweler would have been able to cut the stone so precisely that it appeared to be in flames as it reflected the sun’s rays. The metalwork holding the stone was like tendrils of fire that twisted into the band.

  Hanna’s ring, crafted from a stone with the deep blue of sapphire, had the same flames holding the gem then snaking into the silvery band. Cameron lifted his daughter’s ring from the box and slowly twisted it, causing the stone to appear as if it were made from the waves on the sea in Murias.

  “It’s not just fire,” Goibniu told him. “There are waves as well. Look again.”

  Cameron turned Hanna’s rings between his fingers and the metalwork holding the sapphire undulated and rippled.

  “For Midir,” Aonghus said softly.

  “Oh,” Cameron realized. “He was a god of rivers and lakes.”

  “You were a god of rivers and lakes,” Goibniu corrected. “And because you were willing to give life one last chance for Étain, we will have Hanna gifted to us all.”

  Cameron smiled and placed the ring back in the ash wood box. In one of those murky memories from a lifetime ago, he remembered that even the ash had a special purpose, a magical role for the Tuatha Dé. “Is the box itself enchanted?” he asked.

  “Of course,” Goibniu told him. “Only you will be able to open it from now on so that both rings are safe until you’re ready to give them to Selena and Hanna.”

  “I don’t even know how to thank you,” Cameron admitted. “These are incredible, and I—”

  “Thank me?” Goibniu asked. “Why would you need to thank me? I can’t defend our world, and you and Selena saved us once and are saving us again. This is simply my way of thanking you.”

  “Okay, all of you need to stop making such a big deal out of what we do,” Cameron pretend-warned. “Or we’re moving to Hawaii.”

  “There are definitely worse places to move,” Aonghus pretend-agreed.

  Cameron nodded and picked up his box, but Bridget knocked on the door and called out, “She’s awake and wants to talk to you, Cameron. And you’d better hurry because I’m pretty sure Badb has already talked her into going to that restaurant you didn’t want to go to.”

  “Goddamn it,” Cameron sighed.

  “Which god?” Aonghus asked. “You? Or Badb?”

  Cameron thought about it then decided, “Badb because I don’t want to go back to New Orleans even to damn something.”

  Aonghus nodded smartly. “Don’t blame you.”

  Bridget pushed the door open and grunted at him. “And by now, Badb has probably talked her into a permanent residence at the W Hotel so get your ass over there, Sun God.”

  “I don’t think queens should speak like that,” Cameron told her then quickly added, “Your highness.”

  Bridget arched an eyebrow at him and retorted, “Perk of being queen. I get to speak however I want. It’s in that rulebook you never found.”

  Cameron snorted then handed the ash box to Aonghus. “Hide this for me?”

  Aonghus slipped the box inside a pocket and nodded toward Bridget. “Think you’ve already lost. You’re going back to New Orleans.”

  “Badb promised she wouldn’t influence Selena’s decision,” Cameron complained.

  Aonghus shrugged and countered, “Should have had her agree to a definition of ‘influence.’ Midir would have known better. You’ll need a few centuries to remember how to interact with her.”

  Bridget stepped out of his way and waved a hand at him. “See you in New Orleans, Sun God.”

  Cameron narrowed his eyes at her and hissed, “Next time you come to Earth, I’m not sharing my breakfast with you.”

  “Oh,” Bridget said. “And stop in Findias before leaving. You need to talk to Lugh.”

  “Again?” Cameron groaned. “Nothing good ever happens after hearing ‘You need to talk to Lugh.’”

  “Technically,” Bridget started, but Cameron stopped her.
/>   “I’m going,” he muttered. “The least you can do is tell me why.”

  “Because,” Bridget answered, “you first came looking for answers about why so many events were unfolding in areas close to you, and Lugh found them. But he’s also been trying to piece together information about Koschei, and he thinks he’s discovered where his soul might be hidden.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Cameron glared at Badb who finally threw her hands up and insisted, “I didn’t cheat! I only told her about the note and that I wanted to go but you didn’t.”

  “That’s mostly true,” Selena agreed. “Except she did have a chance to explain why she wanted to go to this restaurant before you had a chance to talk me out of it. And besides, you can think of it as your chance to avenge yourself against Nemain.”

  “No way,” Cameron said. “Let Thor challenge her. How she won is some supernatural mystery, but my ego can’t survive losing a second time.”

  “Totally believe that,” Badb hurriedly interjected.

  “Still not talking to you, Crow,” Cameron replied.

  “Obviously, you are,” Badb pointed out.

  “Besides,” Cameron mumbled. “That restaurant is closed right now anyway, so there’s no point in demanding a rematch.”

  Lugh opened Uscias’s door, his bright blue eyes dancing as he looked at each god, but they settled on Selena. “Are you going to let me make a big deal out of saving Badb’s life yet?”

  “Nope,” she responded.

  “How about tomorrow?” he pretend-bargained.

  “Did you actually find Koschei’s soul or not?” Cameron asked.

  “I found a clue,” Lugh clarified. “I can’t do all your work for you.”

  “You’re kind of a pain in the ass,” Cameron observed smartly.

  Lugh nodded and stepped back so the gods could enter then led them to Uscias’s library where books covered a long table near the back wall. Cameron glanced at one of the pages, but it wasn’t in English. It didn’t even have recognizable characters. “What language is this?”

  “Greek,” Lugh answered.

  “You speak Greek?”