Days of Borrowed Pasts

by S. M. Schmitz

  “Did he just put out the sun?” Leon asked.

  “No,” Ayla said. “He’s not a sun god, and he shouldn’t have any control over the weather… which means he’s not alone.”

  “Great,” Thomas muttered. “That’s what we need. More assholes trying to kill us.”

  “A lost god,” Wurunkatte taunted, “is hardly a loss.”

  Ayla glanced at the sky and brought back the sunlight, chasing away the shadows that had covered the earth. Wurunkatte narrowed his eyes, and she finally glimpsed another goddess moving in her peripheral vision as she struggled against Ayla’s control over the sky. “Arinniti,” she hissed.

  The sun goddess kept her attention on the sky and took advantage of Ayla’s distraction, darkening the world once again. Wurunkatte laughed at her and started climbing the stairs that led to the entrance of the union. Thomas pulled her farther from her uncle, and Ayla finally broke out of her stupor.

  The Hittite god of war tipped his head at the building behind the lost gods, and its walls began to crumble. “No,” Ayla groaned. “There are so many people inside!”

  Screaming from within overshadowed her plea to spare their lives, and Wurunkatte continued ascending the stairs while Arinniti turned the sky into a starless and empty black canvas. “Thomas,” Ayla whispered, “please.”

  She couldn’t control physical structures like her uncle. She was powerless to stop them. She had no idea what Thomas could do about it either, but whatever he’d inherited from his mother might be useful. Something had to work or hundreds of kids would die.

  Thomas ran his fingers through his golden brown hair and frantically looked around the college campus. His hand fell beside him as he stared at an oak tree towering over the god who was threatening to tear the union down. Behind them, fists beat on doors and the screaming grew louder as people realized they were trapped — the doors wouldn’t open.

  Ayla had just turned around to head toward the doors, hoping she could somehow pry them open despite her uncle’s control over them, when a sharp, splintering crack made her jump and spin toward the tree. Half of its trunk and the heavy, snow-dusted branches had broken away and were cascading toward Wurunkatte, who briefly scowled at them before disappearing from the stairs. Ayla jumped again when the heavy branches toppled onto the steps, sending flurries of snow into the air.

  The street lamps and lights from the union exploded, and the only light they had left extinguished. Ayla focused on the sun again, welcoming back its rays, as Thomas searched for her uncle. Leon pulled on the union doors, but they refused to obey him and remained stubbornly closed. “We have to convince them to leave,” Ayla exclaimed.

  Leon stopped pulling on the doors, which hardly mattered since it had been completely futile, and snapped, “Oh, really? Why the hell didn’t we think of that? Let’s just ask them to leave.”

  “Asshole,” Thomas reminded him. “And I think she means give them incentive to leave.”

  “Like what?” Leon demanded. “Handing ourselves over?”

  Thomas shrugged, apparently not having any answers either.

  Ayla tugged on her backpack and lifted a shoulder. “We could run. If we’re the only reason he’s here, he’ll probably follow us and leave these kids alone.”

  Thomas held the key between his fingers and blinked at her. “We’re supposed to risk their lives on a probably?”

  “Open the doors with it,” Leon suggested. “Let them out before finding a portal for us to escape.”

  “And once Wurunkatte realizes you have a magic key, he’ll come after us or risk losing us,” Ayla added.

  “Oh, I definitely want to piss off the god who doesn’t hesitate to murder college students,” Thomas mumbled. But he backed into the doors anyway, and only cast one last nervous glance at Ayla before spinning around and touching the key to the doors that refused to open.

  The throng of students and employees who’d been pressing against it toppled out, tripping over each other in their panic. Ayla grabbed Thomas’s arm and dragged him away from the humans, and Leon miraculously managed to squeeze through the crowd without getting trampled. Thomas touched the key to the side of the building, which continued to pulse angrily, and Wurunkatte appeared beside them, his eyes narrowed and his fists clenched.

  “How is he doing that?” Thomas exclaimed as he grabbed Ayla’s hand and pulled her through the door. Leon ran after them, and Wurunkatte had just attempted to reach through it when Thomas pocketed the key and slammed the portal closed, leaving a vengeful god of war and goddess of the sun on a Minnesota college campus.

  One single act of kindness, of charity, of compassion, her refusal to allow a child to drown in Chicago, had led to both humans and gods discovering what she was… and she would eventually pay for that child’s life with her own.

  Ayla unzipped her coat and let her backpack slip off a shoulder. Without thinking, she handed it to Thomas so she could take off her coat, and it wasn’t until she reached for it that she realized she’d just relinquished control of everything she cherished most. As she silently pulled the straps back over her shoulders, she berated herself for such carelessness, but Thomas didn’t seem at all concerned about its contents.

  “To answer your question,” Ayla told Thomas, “Wurunkatte has the rare ability to transport himself short distances.”

  “Like teleportation?” Leon asked incredulously.

  Ayla just shrugged. “It’s definitely helped him survive.”

  “Man, I’d love that power,” Thomas said.

  “Wait, is that how he followed us from Nashville?” Leon asked.

  “Doubt it,” Ayla answered. “That would be a bit far for him. I think it’s more likely Thomas didn’t fully close the door when we left your house, so he and Arinniti followed us through. He could have easily destroyed the place even while they were going through it looking for us.”

  Thomas effected an air of serious contemplation then said, “You have quite a dysfunctional family.”

  Ayla snickered and agreed with them then added, “Actually, all us gods do.”

  “So humans and gods have something in common,” Leon joked. He yanked his coat off, too, and looked around. “Any idea where we are?”

  “Um… the sun?” Thomas answered.

  Ayla snickered and said, “It’s too hot to be the sun.”

  Thomas nodded smartly. “The sun’s younger sister?”

  “Would you shut up about the sun?” Leon snapped.

  “Is he always this cheerful?” Ayla asked.

  “Pretty much.”

  “Hey,” Leon countered. “I’m cheerful because my house got attacked, and I lost my entire arsenal, and we have at least two gods and the entire League after us.”

  “But we have another lost god,” Thomas offered. “We just need to figure out the rest of this spell.”

  Leon threw his hands up and exclaimed, “How? We’re in the middle of a desert and everything I had to either complete the portion of the spell I know about or to help me figure out the rest is gone!”

  “But you memorized the part you discovered, right?” Ayla asked. “We’ll get new ingredients.”

  “Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find viola cryana?”

  “I don’t even know what that is,” Ayla admitted.

  “I’m guessing that’s the extinct plant,” Thomas said.

  “Yep,” Leon confirmed. “Cry violets.”

  “Wait,” Ayla interjected. “If you can still find it, it’s not extinct. So we can replace it.”

  “It’s only grown in the League’s headquarters in Tonnerre,” Leon explained. “No one else is allowed to cultivate it. I’m not even supposed to know it exists.”

  “How exactly did you get it the first time?” Ayla asked slowly, suspicious once again about the motives of this strange hunter.

  Leon grinned at her and replied, “I can be devilishly charming.”

  “No, just devilish,” Thomas corrected.

 
; Leon waved him off, but if this plant was really used in the League’s most powerful spells, being charming wouldn’t have helped him at all and likely would have gotten him killed. Ayla crossed her arms and scowled at him until he laughed and relented. “Thomas broke us in using his magic key, and we stole it.”

  “Okay,” Ayla said. “So we break in and steal some more.”

  “We can’t,” Thomas sighed. “They’ve heightened security all around the greenhouse. We didn’t exactly go unnoticed before and barely escaped.”

  “Can we get out of this desert now?” Leon asked. “I mean, standing around the Sahara is fun and all —”

  “I think this might actually be the Atacama Desert,” Thomas interrupted. “It’s almost summertime in the southern hemisphere, and there are mountains in the distance.”

  “Why are you such a dork?” Leon sighed.

  Instead of pressing them to get out of the desert, she asked, “So we need some part of an extinct plant —”

  “The petals,” Leon interrupted.

  “And what else?” Ayla prodded.

  “Hair from a Sardinian pika,” Thomas replied.

  “A… what?” Ayla said.

  “Pika,” Thomas repeated, as if he just kept saying its name, she’d completely understand what the hell he was talking about.

  Ayla lifted an eyebrow at him and waited, so he tried again, but a little slower with exaggerated emphasis on each syllable. “A pi-ka.”

  “I’m calling you Tommy from now on,” she threatened.

  Leon snorted and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “It’s kind of like a small rabbit. As far as I know, they’re only in the League’s Sassari headquarters.”

  “Sassari,” Ayla murmured. “The city on Sardinia?”

  “Which would be why it’s called a Sardinian pika,” Thomas explained even slower.

  Ayla squinted at him and said, “I’m new to spells, Tommy. Cut me some slack.”

  Thomas grinned at her, but Leon grunted at them both and demanded, “Key, Tommy. Get us —”

  “You can’t call me that.”

  “Then why can she?” Leon asked.

  “Because we need her to get off this planet, and she’s far prettier than you.”

  “Oh, the latter should totally matter right now,” Ayla countered, even though she was admittedly a bit flattered. Thomas just grinned at her again but dug the key from his pocket and looked around the desert for some place to open a door.

  Leon looked around, too, and groaned. “Please tell me that key can work without walls.”

  “It got us here,” Thomas said. “So I’m guessing yes?”

  “Guessing?” Ayla squeaked.

  “I’ve never actually been to a desert,” Thomas said. “But there must be a hidden doorway here, or we couldn’t have stepped through one on the college campus.”

  “I can’t believe after all I’ve survived, I’m going to die from dehydration in a desert,” Leon complained.

  Thomas rolled his eyes and muttered, “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “Can you please just look for the door?” Ayla begged.

  Thomas nodded while chewing nervously on his lip. He gripped the old bit key in one hand and ran his fingers through his hair with the other, but they were in the middle of a desert — aside from the mountains in the distance, he had nowhere to place the key in order to open a door.

  Ayla was about to collapse grumpily onto the hot sand when she realized they were standing on the only visible surface for miles. “Thomas,” she exclaimed, “the ground! The door must be beneath us.”

  Thomas opened his mouth then closed it, glancing at the ground as if the hot sand would confirm the elusive doorway was, indeed, hidden there. “Well, that would be a first,” he said smartly.

  “Just try it,” Leon insisted. “And concentrate on bringing us back to the U.S. where we can blend in easier. You two might be fluent in multiple languages, but I can’t pass for anything except American.”

  “New Orleans,” Ayla added.

  Thomas shot her a strange look, so she explained, “It’s a tourist town, so generally easier to blend in. But it’s not so huge that we won’t be able to find our way around if we get separated. Plus, with it being November, finding rooms shouldn’t be difficult unless the Saints are at home.”

  Thomas seemed to think about it and nodded. “Good idea. I’ve never been to New Orleans anyway.”

  He slowly bent down, and his hand hovered over the ground, afraid, perhaps, that Ayla was wrong and they would be trapped in this desert after all. Ayla knelt beside him and put a hand on his arm. “If I’m wrong, we’ll keep looking. We’ll figure out this spell and get the ingredients, and we will open the veil to the Otherworld. We just need to hold onto our faith.”

  An airy laugh answered her before Thomas lowered his eyes and slowly shook his head. “I haven’t had faith in anything since this war began.”

  “Then I’ll keep enough faith for both of us,” Ayla promised.

  Thomas glanced up at her and smiled, taking a deep breath before pinching the key between two fingers and touching it against the ground. For a moment, nothing happened, but the sand began to swirl underneath them and a bright white portal opened, providing them an escape from their slow deaths in a stifling desert. Leon let out a careful, measured breath and nodded toward the doorway. “Let’s hope we don’t end up in Antarctica or something,” he said. He grabbed his coat from the ground where he’d dropped it and without hesitating, jumped into the open portal and disappeared.

  Chapter Seven

  What is this feeling trying to awaken within me? It’s been sleeping for so long, I’d almost forgotten its name. It propels me forward and forces me to keep searching, moving, dreaming. But I remember you, old friend. For the first time in centuries, hope has returned.

  Thomas yanked on her arm and pulled her out of a busy street where she’d suddenly found herself standing as a car honked and passed by her. As she stumbled onto the sidewalk by Leon and the lost god who’d saved her life several times already, she thought the driver of the car even flipped her off, like she’d intentionally chosen to stand in front of oncoming traffic. Leon wrinkled his nose and blinked at the narrow streets, nodding in obvious approval.

  “Definitely New Orleans,” he said. “I like it when you get this door thing right on the first try.”

  “Asshole,” Thomas reminded him.

  Leon patted his back and ignored him. “Where should we stay? I think we’re somewhere in the Quarter, and it’s the middle of the week, so there shouldn’t be any football games for a few days.”

  “Actually, I’d rather get something to eat,” Ayla admitted. “I’m starving. And if hunters or gods catch up to us, it would be better to run on a full stomach, right?”

  Thomas agreed and pointed to a restaurant across the street. “It’s kinda chilly out here, so the courtyard is empty. No one will overhear us planning a break-in of heavily guarded headquarters.”

  Leon grunted and snapped, “We can’t break into either place now. Both times, they found out someone was stealing from them, and I’m certain they got a good look at me in Sassari. They know I’m trying to piece together this spell, which is why they’ll just kill me if they find me.”

  “They would’ve killed you anyway just for leaving the League,” Thomas pointed out. “There’s no walking away from the hunters.”

  Leon nodded in acknowledgment as they crossed the street, but none of them mentioned spells or hunters or gods again until they’d been seated in the courtyard, shivering but alone. Ayla pretended to read the menu, but her mind was on a way to break into two hunters’ headquarters so they could steal ingredients to cast a spell she didn’t even know would work. But with the idea of opening the veil implanted in her heart, she would die trying to find out.

  As soon as she confirmed they were alone, she leaned across the table and, in a low voice, said, “We know three of the ingredients. How do we find out
the rest of the spell? Trying to break into Tonnerre or Sassari is pointless until we know what else we need.”

  Leon glanced over his shoulder like hunters were waiting behind him, ready to slaughter them all as soon as he shared this betrayal. When he seemed satisfied they were still alone, he leaned across the table, too. “I learned half of it from an ex-girlfriend who worked in the headquarters in Tonnerre. That’s the original one, the most powerful. And, according to her, there aren’t any written records of it. If this spell really exists, it’s passed orally to the highest-ranking hunters. They memorize it and never speak of it.”

  “Then how did she know about it?” Ayla pressed. This couldn’t be a dead end. She couldn’t lose her mother twice.

  “There’s a greenhouse behind the main building in Tonnerre,” he explained. “That’s where they grow the Cry violets. We’ve been piecing together the most heavily guarded objects in the League’s possession all over the world. And we know they don’t always kill lost gods when they find them.”

  Ayla sat back, her eyes wide, and whispered, “What?”

  Thomas offered her a sympathetic smile and shrugged. “It’s an open secret among hunters that the Boston League houses two lost gods. The League is ensuring they have everything they need to reopen the veil, but they’re keeping each ingredient separate so no one can just break in, grab everything, and open it. They’ll be the masters of both worlds, deciding if and when to reopen it, because only they control what’s in this spell.”

  “But…” Ayla stammered. “People? They’ve had gods imprisoned for centuries?”

  “Yeah,” Leon sighed. “Look, we know each headquarter is housing one key part of this spell, which means we not only have to get the Cry violets and Sardinian pika hair, but whatever else is being hidden from us in the seven other headquarters around the world. The blood of lost gods would have been the most difficult to obtain because they’re gods. They must have a dozen hunters watching them at all times.”

  “Thomas,” Ayla pleaded, grabbing his hand from the table top, “we can’t leave them there. If we can get this to work… we can’t just leave them in the League’s prisons forever!”