The Fire Wars

by Kailin Gow

  “But that stone...” Victorinus was insisting. “It's sacred. In all my years – I've watched treasure hunters come this way, trying to collect the stones...”

  “She's not trying to collect anything,” said Chance. “She's just being dumb and walking around.”

  “Hey!”

  “She doesn't even know what the stones mean!”

  “But she has taken one!” the man insisted. “How will it please the goddess if one of her stones is missing?

  “She's not a treasure hunter,” Chance rolled his eyes. “And...” He stopped short and turned to me, grabbing my arm. “Wait, you took a stone?” Suddenly, his whole expression changed – his customary hardness vanished, and a look almost like joy came over his face.

  “A round orange one, like a ball. It did this weird glowing thing in the cave – I just wanted to get a better look...”

  “You found it in the cave?” Chance gaped at me.

  “I just said that! Really, Cutter – start listening better.” I didn't know what Chance was up to, but I didn't like it. He'd been messing with me too much for my liking.

  “You're not lying?”

  “Why would I lie?”

  “You saw the paintings, then?” Chance's lips curled into a grimace. “Describe them.”

  “Why wouldn't you believe me? There's this fireplace and this bonfire and then something that looks like the sun, and then there was an animal – I don't know, a goat or a sheep or something? My flashlight died...” I put my hands on my hips. “Listen, Cutter, go see them yourself if you want.”

  Chance said nothing. He turned to Victorinus. “Leave us,” he said, and with a grumble the man stalked off.

  “What was that about? What's the deal with the cave? I wasn't anywhere near the mountains – I can't be more than a mile off-trail! And, frankly, I'm sick of getting harassed every time I go hiking. Your dad owns a nature hotel. With hiking trails. If your guests get threatened every time they go hiking you're going to close down in no time...”

  “Guests aren't supposed to find these places,” Chance scowled.

  “Well, then you shouldn't put your bloody trails near them!”

  “They're protected by magic!” Chance shouted, then stopped short, clapping a hand over his mouth.

  “What are you talking about? You really are insane!” I scoffed. But something about what Chance had just said – ridiculous as it was – brought back the feeling I'd had at the bonfire. A feeling deep within the pit of my stomach that what Chance had just said was true.

  We were protected by magic.

  Chapter 13

  “I'm not making this up,” Chance said softly.

  “Well, if you're not, why don't you start explaining,” I sighed. “What do you mean magic?”

  “Even I can't enter this cave,” said Chance. “Evers, listen...”

  “Mac,” I sighed. “Or does only your special goddess get that name? If this is some sort of weird Chance prank, I'm sick of it.”

  “You're right,” Chance said sarcastically. “I must have made that stone glow in your hands. I must have made it happen from all the way over here for a prank. Or maybe, Evers, you could listen to me for once.”

  “Fine, go ahead.”

  “The two places you've ended up in trouble – tourists are supposed to not be able to see them. If they head towards one of the Veteri areas, their minds are enchanted to convince them to go somewhere else.”

  “Well, the other thing happened to me – I felt like something was telling me to go in! So clearly your magic's broken.”

  “Evers, the only person able to enter that cave is the goddess herself. Or one of her handmaidens. There are many caves like the one you've just entered all over the world – all of them, residences of the fire goddess.”

  “Is this some Veteri myth?” I thought back to class. Surely we'd learned about fire deities in our mythology course – but they were treated as long-forgotten stories from a culture long since died out.

  “It's not just a myth,” said Chance. “In each cave, the goddess has hidden a stone. A special stone – like the one in your pocket right now.”

  “How did you...?” I reached into my pocket. “Never mind. What do they do?”

  “They cast spells,” Chance said simply, “performing magic – they open locked books. They cast light. Seers or truthsayers can use these stones to see the future. Or the past.”

  “Now I know you're lying,” I said. “If they can't get into the cave, how do they use the stones, huh?” But I had to admit, if Chance was a liar, he was a terrifyingly good one. He looked perfectly serious.

  “The truthsayers are the servants of the goddess,” he said. “The handmaidens. In the goddess's absence they take care of her homes – the caves.”

  “And you really believe this stuff?” I looked him up and down. “You're serious, aren't you?”

  “I have read every piece of mythology relating to this island. It's a special place, Aeros. Nowhere in the world have the myths and legends of the Greeks and Romans, the Polynesian peoples, and the Norsemen met. But when each wave of settlers came to Aeros, they brought their gods with them. And so this place is full of their atavistic secrets.”

  “Funny,” I said. “I wouldn't have pegged you for a believer. Doesn't seem your thing.”

  “And how do you know what's 'my thing'?” Chance shot back. “You don't even know me.”

  “Someone who doesn't believe in anything or anyone – from the looks of it.” I grew angry, remembering how he had treated me the other day. “Someone who doesn't have faith in himself, let alone anybody else. Someone who doesn't care enough about other people to care what they believe in...what's important to them.”

  Chance grew silent, suddenly. “You really think that of me?” He sounded hurt, even vulnerable, and I felt sorry for my harsh words.

  “You haven't given me a reason not to,” I said. “I tried to get close to you – I tried to get to know you – but ever since we've met you've treated me like dirt. And I'm not about to feel sorry for you, whatever deep dark past you're supposed to have...”

  “That...was not my intent,” said Chance quietly.

  “I don't care what your intent was, Chance! I'm a person, too. A person who deserves to at least be called by her name and not messed around. If you had a girlfriend you should have just told me instead of leading me on...”

  “A girlfriend?” Chance looked shocked.

  “Misty!”

  “Misty?” His surprise grew. “Misty's not...” he stopped short. “Listen, I wasn't trying to hurt you. I'm not trying to mess with you. I just want to be left alone, Mac. I don't want to get close to you. I don't want to get close to anybody. And the more you refuse to understand that, the more danger for us both...”

  “What danger?” But then I thought of Jana, and regretted what I had said.

  “I don't want you to get hurt,” said Chance. “And I don't want to get hurt. I've lost enough people I love – I'm trying to make it easier on myself, okay? I'm not trying to lead you on. But having you near me, tempting me, trying to get me to open up or whatever it is you think you want me to do – you don't.”

  “Don't what?”

  “Don't want me to open up. Because if I do, you'll die too....” His blue eyes no longer sparkled with disdain now. They were wide open. Full of pain, of fear. Beautiful. “And I'd rather you hate me than die because of me,” he whispered.

  “Die? Because of this goddess...”

  “It's a risk. Everyone I've ever loved...” his voice cracked.

  “Your dad? Varun?”

  Chance gave a sorry laugh. “Perhaps my father loves me,” he said. “But he loves Varun more. I'm a risk – I always have been. That's the real reason I was sent away. That I was replaced by my cousin in my father's affections – replaced in the family business. I'm trouble, Mac, and you don't want any part of it.”

  “Maybe I do,” I said. “Maybe I'm worth the trouble. You can't push
people away forever, Chance. I know. You can't cut yourself off from the people who care about you?”

  “Why should you care about me?” he asked bitterly. “I'm not worth anyone's time. Jana, Victoria, my mother...there's not a woman I've loved who's still alive today; what does that tell you?”

  “It tells me you've had a lot of bad luck. And that you've been hurt.” I put my hand on his shoulder, my heart breaking for him. My anger at Chance was gone, replaced with pity and pain. “Nobody should have to live without love – especially if they're hurting the way you do.”

  Chance looked up at me, tears in his eyes. “If you're trying to get me to kiss you again,” he whispered hoarsely, “it's working.”

  Before I could respond, he pulled me in and kissed me. Not roughly, as he had kissed me before the Veteri – not pulling away, as he had done at my house. Just the simple electric shock of his mouth on mine, our longings intertwined.

  And then he jerked back. “I'm sorry,” he said. “I shouldn't have done that.”

  “Would you just...” I was getting angry, now. “Listen, Chance. If you don't feel anything for me, just tell me. I'm a big girl. I can handle that. But what I can't handle is you changing your mind every five seconds...”

  “It's not that...” Chance began.

  “Then what?”

  “I do feel something for you!” Chance cried. “That's the whole problem.”

  “Because it puts me in danger,” I said. “From this magic...which may or not exist. Because I kissed you.”

  “Not just because you kissed me. Because of something else.” He pointed at my shorts pocket. “Take out the stone.”

  I reached into my pocket, and then let out a yelp of surprise. In my pocket there was not a stone at all, but a small ancient book, thickly bound, the size of a pocket Bible. The stone was gone. “What the...”

  “The goddesss's own book,” he said. “Her magic, her memories. Her power. Zeus’ powers. Billions of years old. Dating back from the time when the myths walked the earth. It had the power to hide itself in any shape. A tree. A flower. A stone. It is so powerful that guards stand outside the caves where it is hidden. A book so powerful that it could tear the veil between Olympus and our world. Between gods and mortals. A book that could control the world...”

  I looked at him in shock.

  “The god Zeus needed to keep it safe from the others of Olympus,” Chance was talking faster now, as if frantic. “And that's why he entrusted it to Vesta – goddess of the flame and of the hearth. The most incorruptible and pure of all the goddesses. The one who hid her dire powers of flame and destruction, choosing instead to warm the homes and hearts of those who were good to her. And only she can find the book. Only she can open it. The rest of us can't even touch it, unless they are of Vesta’s line or service, but even if they are, they can only hold onto it for a bit.”

  I looked down at the book in horror. “You switched it when I wasn't looking. You're playing a trick on me – and it's a nasty trick to play on someone – messing with my head like that!” Yet as I spoke, feeling the book in my hands, I felt a strange sense of kinship with the book – as if it knew me. As if it recognized me.

  “Why don't you take it, if it's so powerful?” In my anger, I thrust the book into Chance's hands. To my surprise, he screamed with pain, his hands blistering and burning as he dropped the book, which seemed to fly back into my hands.

  “Chance!” I cried, watching with amazement as his burns healed within seconds. “I'm sorry – I didn't...”

  “Do you believe me now?” He looked up at me. “Look, I don't want it to be true any more than you do. Because if it's true, now every single creature – god, man, and beast – between here and Hades will come to you. And if it's true...” Chance looked pained. “That means that you're the one I've been looking for. And that I've been looking for you...been missing you...for a very – very long time.”

  Chapter 14

  “What are you talking about?” I said. But as I spoke, my mind flashed back to the strange thing Varun had said when we first kissed. He, too, had spoken of missing me. Of knowing me. Of recognizing me. Did Chance know me too?

  “The goddess Vesta,” he said. “The fire goddess – queen to my king. The only one who can touch the book without getting burned. And you're touching it now.”

  In horror I put the book back into my pocket.

  “I don't want it,” I said. “I don't want to touch it.”

  “But it wants you,” said Chance. “You feel it, don't you?”

  I nodded mutely.

  “Listen,” said Chance. “We can't talk any more about this now. It's not safe for you here – not now that you've got the book. We need to get back to civilization. The forces – Olympian and Hades alike – they're less powerful in places that have been modernized. You'll be safer in the hotel, around people. The magic doesn't feel as real there – and so it isn't. Magic requires belief, after all,” he gave a grim smile. “I need to contact the truthsayer. She'll be able to tell you if you're a goddess or even if you could be Vesta herself. ”

  “I'm not,” I said quickly. “I mean – I'm pretty sure I'm not.” Yet as I spoke, the feeling came back more strongly than ever. Was I sure? When I had seen the bonfire, seen the stone glow in my hand?

  “My Goddess,” he whispered softly. “My love, my twin...” He nodded. “The connection you and I felt – I felt it, too. Felt it so strongly. The love of centuries, millennia of wanting you. Needing you. But...I was so afraid. Afraid I was wrong – that the attraction I'd built up in my head was a lie. That I would force you to risk your life as I'd done to Jana, to Victoria. That I'd be mistaken – that I'd be wrong. Leaving you dead. That's why I acted the way I did to you. I wanted to push you away. I wanted you to hate me because then I wouldn't be a threat to you. But the more I pushed you away, the harder you tried...”

  “Reverse psychology,” I shot him a smile, trying to cheer him up. “If you'd come up to me and just told me you were desperately in love with me, I'd probably have been weirded out and never talked to you again.”

  “Hindsight...”

  “Then what you said about being the Fire God to the Veteri,” I said, “that was real?”

  Chance kissed me then, and my whole body reacted once again to the heat of fire that shot through me. The spark between us was instant, and I felt his reluctant longing give way to the love he held back from me. He was scared. I could feel it. I felt him shake slightly, as he gently touched my face, unable to believe I was truly there in front of him. “I tried not to fall in love with you. I tried to keep you away from me, but fate has brought us together. Like it once did, my love.” He bent down to kiss me again, and as his face came closer to mine, I could see the fire burning in his eyes. And when we kissed it was the most gentle kiss, and a kiss that almost felt like a farewell.

  I opened my eyes and the fire was gone from his.

  “Because I love you, I have to try again. I have to tear myself away from you again, Mac. Until I’m certain. Until you’re certain. I can’t risk…no, I can’t face losing you in the flames, too. Not you, Mac. I’ll choose another before I put you through the test, if I have to…”

  Chance pulled away, and I felt a sudden chill. I felt we had finally broke through our wall, but now it seems there was another.

  Chapter 15

  I spent that night in a haze of confusion, trying to make sense of all that had happened. I had seen a book – a stone. I was told that I could be a goddess. I had heard of truthsayers and seers, of Olympus and Hades, of all these words I knew only from my history textbook, words that had no real meanings before today. For once I was relieved to find the familiar post-it on the door telling me that my mother would be otherwise engaged for the evening; apparently, the Cutter Imperial was having a wedding or a reception at least every other night. I didn't mind. I needed the time to process what was going on, to try and screw my head back on.

  On the one hand, everything t
hat I had heard and seen today was incredible. If somebody – my mother, my friend, anyone – had come up to me and told me half of what I had experienced in the past couple of days, I would have called them crazy. Was I crazy? I had hallucinated the fire, perhaps – and if I had hallucinated that, then what was to say I hadn't imagined the stone and the book, imagined flying through space.

  But another part of me felt that each new question that burned in my brain was also an answer – answers to questions that had dogged me my whole life without my even knowing it. Why was it that I felt such a strong connection to certain stones – why did they glow in my hand? Why was it that I had felt so attracted to the flames at the luau the other night? Why had we moved here – out of all the islands in the world? What if there was some force calling us here, calling me and my mother to this mysterious place, summoning me to fill the role of Vesta?

  No, that was unbelievable, I told myself. I wasn't a goddess at all. I was just a normal girl.

  And yet something in me, buried as deep as the memories of a dream, told me that all that I had seen and experienced today was real. That it was, in a sense, more real than any part of the life I had lived before now – as if all else was a dream, and this – this was the reality.

  I couldn't concentrate. I had walked up and down the length of our cottage too many times – and I certainly wasn't going to be able to get any homework done in this state. And so I decided to clear my head and take a walk along the beach – perhaps the calm lapping of the waves would give me some answers. Perhaps the book would have some answers. I stared at the tome mournfully as I placed it into my tote bag – I couldn't bring myself to open it just yet. Touching the book would confirm to me that I really was crazy, that I really did believe all this talk about magic and Olympus.

  I decided to compromise with myself. I'd take the walk first, and then I'd read the book on the beach. By then, I thought, I'd be able to approach the text more calmly.