by Unknown
Light as a Feather
Amy Sumida
Copyright © 2014 Amy Sumida
All rights reserved.
ISBN-10: 1502983850
ISBN-13: 978-1502983855
DEDICATION
This one's for India Jones, my amazing cover artist. Thank you for all your hard work, your support, and your inspiration.
More Books by Amy Sumida
The Godhunter Series(in order)
Godhunter
Of Gods and Wolves
Oathbreaker
Marked by Death
Green Tea and Black Death
A Taste for Blood
The Tainted Web
Harvest of the Gods
A Fey Harvest
Into the Void
Out of the Darkness
Perchance to Die
Tracing Thunder
(Light as a Feather)
Rain or Monkeyshine
Blood Bound
Eye of Re
Beyond the Godhunter
A Darker Element (A Dark-Sidhe Novel)
The Twilight Court
Fairy-Struck
Pixie-Led
Raven Mocking
Other Books
The Magic of Fabric
Feeding the Lwas: A Vodou Cookbook
There's a Goddess Too
The Vampire-Werewolf Complex
Enchantress
Pronunciation Guide
Alaric: Al-a-rick
Arach: Air-roc
Carus: Care-us
Cian: Key-an
Craigor: Kraeg-or
Estsanatlehi(Mrs E): Es-tan-AHT-lu-hee
Fionnaghal: Fyoon-ghal-a
Froekn: Fro-kin
Huitzilopochtli: Weet-seal-oh-POACHED-lee
Intare: In-tar-ay
Kirill: Key-reel
Moirai: Moy-ry
Nayenezgani: Nah-yay-nez-gah-knee
Nyavirezi: Nee-yah-veer-ez-ee
Shehaquim: Shah-ha-keem
Tima: Tee-mah
Tobadzistsini: Toe-badsis-SEE-knee
Tsohanoai(Mr. T): So-ha-noe-ayee
Chapter One
July is in the beginning of hurricane season in Hawaii. Yes, paradise has storms. Horrible storms that split the sky with jagged tears of light and gusts of wind so strong it can pull the roof right off a house. I used to love the storms, the thunder loud enough to shake my home and the rain lashing against the tin roof like tribal drums. I never feared them or what they could do but now I knew better.
Thunder was a warning of something terrible to come.
I stared at the bright Hawaiian sky from my lounge chair and thought about the storms I'd just weathered. Zeus was conquered, most of his magic gone for good, and so was his wife Hera but you didn't need magic to be deadly. Anger could give a weak man strength and Zeus wasn't weak to begin with, even without his magic. I just hoped that letting him and Hera live wouldn't come back to bite me in the butt.
All thunder gods weren't bad though. I considered Thor and how wonderful it used to be when we were together. Storms had been about passion then, about wild desire and even love. So I guess you can add melancholy to my new distaste of storms. Although I'd long ago gotten over Thor, the memory of our time together was bittersweet. As all great romances left in the past are, I guess.
Nick, my gray tabby, started purring from his spot in my lap and I stroked his fur, trying to bring myself some much needed peace. Why couldn't I just let the past go and relax for awhile? I always complained about never getting time off from the God War and then there I was, with some free time on my hands, and what did I do with it? I laid in my backyard in Kaneohe and brooded.
“You want some more wine?” Jackson, one of my human friends, asked.
I'd invited him and his boyfriend, Tristan, over for a barbecue. I hadn't seen them in forever and it was just one more reason not to dwell on the recent trouble I'd had with the Greek Sky God. Oh and Freyr, of course. We couldn't forget Alfheim. Losing the last piece of my mother was something I'd regret forever but then not giving her up would have been far worse.
“Yes, definitely,” I said to Jax with a forced grin. “And keep it coming.”
“You got it, shug,” he poured a hefty amount of red into my wineglass. “What are you thinking so hard about?”
“Oh, the past,” I shrugged. “Regrets.”
I stared at the wine and smiled a little. When had I started drinking red again? It was awhile back surely. I was surprised I hadn't noticed sooner but then losing an aversion to something was usually a lot easier than whatever caused the aversion in the first place. In the case of the wine, it had been Blue and his penchant for drinking blood out of a glass. The thought of drinking blood didn't disgust me anymore though. In fact, the dragon in me rather liked it. Who would've thought?
“Best not to dwell on things you can't change,” Tristan added from where he was seated nearby, at the picnic table.
“Past is past,” Kirill, my Russian werelion lover, agreed. He was at the grill, cooking some shrimp and steaks. His hip-length black hair was in a ponytail to keep it out of the food but I was intending on setting it loose as soon as he finished. I liked seeing it shine in the sun, almost as much as I liked the way his deep blue eyes did. “And our past is good because look vhere ve are,” he gestured around my pretty yard, with its fragrant orange tree and happy little koi pond. “Paradise, da?”
“Da!” Tristan exclaimed exuberantly.
“And look what we have to drink,” Trevor added as he came out of the house with another two bottles of wine.
“Is that Dionysus' wine?” I gaped at him.
“Yep,” he nodded and set the bottles down on the picnic table. He immediately set to opening one of them.
“Dionysus,” Tristan whispered in awe as he reached for one of the bottles.
“Don't, Tryst!” I called out and he pulled his hand away as if he'd been burned. “That wine is strong enough to get a god drunk. I have no idea what it'll do to you.”
“I think the taste would be worth it,” Jackson went over to investigate.
“Have at it,” Trevor laughed while I glared at him.
“Trevor,” I chided, “he could get alcohol poisoning or something. Maybe even die.”
“He's not going to die from drinking wine,” Trevor scoffed. Typical alpha werewolf. He also happened to be my alpha lover.
His hair was almost as dark as Kirill's but where Kirill's shone with blue highlights in the sun, Trevor's went auburn. He also had some wave to it and when he let it grow out, it tended to look more wild than Kirill's sleek locks. He'd cut it recently though and so it was laying calm around his head with just the slightest hint of fullness. He didn't have it as short as Azrael, my angel lover, kept his but it seemed pretty short for Trevor who normally liked the more carefree look. No matter what he did to his hair though, Trevor's honey colored eyes would give away his true nature every time. There was a tilt to them and a glint within them that was all wolf.
A sloshing sound caught our attention and we looked over to see Jackson pouring a small amount of wine into his glass. Tristan was peering at the dark liquid like it was cyanide but Jax lifted the glass to his nose and inhaled deep, a look of pure bliss crossing his features. Then he crumpled to the ground and promptly passed out, drunk and snoring, in the grass.
“Jackson!” Tristan jumped up, as did I, upsetting poor Nick, who ran off to find something to kill so he could assuage his wounded kitty pride.
Trevor, in a panic, ran over and picked Jackson up by his upper arms. He shook
him till Jax opened his eyes sleepily, blinking hard until he was able to focus on Trevor's face. Jackson pulled his head back a little, lifting his brows and turning his mouth down to give Trevor a dramatically serious expression.
“Shaken not stirred,” Jackson intoned in a perfect James Bond voice. Trevor sighed in relief and started to put Jackson down but then Jax giggled abruptly and put a hand to Trevor's face. “You're a nice doggy,” he patted Trevor's short, dark hair.
Trevor dropped him immediately and grimaced at me when I laughed.
“Hey!” Tristan rolled Jax onto his back and brushed the grass from his face. “You didn't have to drop him.”
“I'd normally do far worse to someone who called me a doggy,” Trevor went to pour himself a glass of wine. “He can count himself lucky.”
“You're the one that insisted he'd be fine,” I reminded him. “You'd best count yourself lucky that he didn't take a sip of that wine. If sniffing it did that to him, drinking it could very well have killed him.”
Trevor began to look uncomfortable.
“You almost killed my boyfriend!” Tristan shouted at Trevor.
“I'm sorry I almost killed Jackson,” Trevor huffed. “I guess now we know not to serve this stuff to our human patrons.”
“You think?” I chuckled as Jackson started singing a sea shanty. I didn't even know Jackson knew any sea shanties.
“You were going to serve god wine to humans at Moonshine?” Tristan gasped as he tried to wrestle Jackson into a seated position. He finally got him propped against the side of the picnic table.
“Well, I was thinking about it,” Trevor sighed. “We got a whole case from Di the other day. I figured people would pay big for wine this good. We could tell them it's Greek.”
“Gods vill pay big for vine zis good,” Kirill poured himself a glass and sniffed at it delicately. He'd been a Russian Prince once, son of Peter the Great, and every once in awhile I'd see a little elegance seep through his tough exterior. It made me wonder what his life had been like back when he was human.
“Good point,” Trevor brightened. “We'll just have to make sure the bartenders know to only offer it to gods.”
“Oh, I'm so glad you'll still be able to make a profit,” Tryst fumed. “Don't worry about us over here.”
“Tristan,” I giggled and gestured to the very happily intoxicated Jackson. “He's fine, relax.”
“Maybe I should have a sniff too,” Tryst made a face at me.
“No!” We all shouted at once and Tristan started to giggle. He leaned back against the table with Jackson, who threw an arm heavily around Tristan's shoulders.
“There you are,” Thor huffed as he came around the side of my house. His reddish-blonde hair was tied back in a braid and he was wearing traditional Viking leathers. His blue-green eyes became almost translucent in the sunlight and his muscles bulged against the leather. In short, he looked amazing.
I blinked, wondering for a second if I'd somehow called Thor through the link we still shared. Sometimes if I thought about him, he'd know, sense it, through the oath he'd given me with his blood the first day we'd met. Blood to Mouth, it meant that he would protect me forever. It's kind of a big deal and yet I still managed to forget about it every once in awhile, what with all the other bonds I now had. And not a single one was with a hot British secret agent. Get it? James Bond... bonds... never mind that was stupid.
“Thor,” I stood, trying to ignore my own ridiculous thoughts. “What's up?”
“Vant some vine?” Kirill had a silly grin on his usually stern face. Oh dear. I don't think I'd ever seen Kirill drunk.
“No, thank you. We've got trouble,” Thor said, relieving my anxiety over our link but establishing some new anxiety in its place. “It's the Navajo twins, Estsanatlehi's sons. They've been spotted with Tawiskaron again.”
“Spotted by the Thunderbirds?” I asked as Tristan watched our exchange avidly.
“Yes,” Thor settled his ocean eyes on me. “There's also been some activity among the Navajo population that's caused a bit of concern.”
“What kind of activity?” Trevor asked.
“The kind that involves a lot of guns,” was Thor's grim reply.
“Indians on the warpath!” Jackson cheered. “Kill the white man! Take back the land!”
“What's wrong with him?” Thor frowned down at Jax.
“Dionysus' wine,” I sighed.
“He drank it?” Thor gasped.
“No,” I shook my head. “He sniffed it.”
“Wow.”
“Yep.”
“He's right though,” Thor nodded.
“About what?” I dumped out my normal wine and poured me some from the deadly Dionysus bottle. I had a feeling I was going to need it.
“Indians on the warpath,” Thor clarified. “It looks like that may be the plan.”
Yep, I definitely needed the wine.
Chapter Two
We had to cut the barbecue short but Jackson wasn't up for much more than going home and going to bed anyway. Tristan promised to keep an eye on him just in case the inebriation took a turn for the worse but we were pretty sure he'd be okay.
We helped get Jackson into their car and then watched them pull out of the drive. It was slow going, Tryst drives like a grandma with poor eyesight. He even used his turn signal to get out of the driveway. Jackson hung his head out the window and waved at us the whole way, causing Trevor to mutter something along the lines of Who's the doggy now? When the car finally reached the end of my lane, we all went back inside and traced over to Bilskinir, Thor's Hall in the God Realm.
It had been awhile since I'd been to Thor's home. Most of the God Squad meetings we'd had recently had been at Pride Palace, the home of the Intare and myself in the God Realm. Ever since the renovation I'd done on it with a little bit of transformation magic, it had one of the largest meeting rooms available to us. Though now that I've seen Hades' amphitheater, I think it kind of trumps my super-sized, lion, dining hall.
Anyway, I'd forgotten how beautiful Bilskinir was and how interesting the items in it were. Like Thor's rare books and his collection of armor from all over the world. We were meeting in the library, which was my favorite room in Bilskinir. It was big enough for the whole God Squad to sit comfortably, which these days, is saying a lot. The Squad had grown significantly from back when I'd first joined.
Thor's library always reminded me of a film set. It was that perfect library you found in British manors or in those fantasy movies where they had to go someplace wonderful to do research. All rich wood, leather-bound books, and that prerequisite ladder on coasters so you could get to the top shelves. It also had a fireplace, which I enjoyed even more now that my fey nature had revealed itself. We dragon-sidhe have an affection for fire.
Everyone was already there, even Azrael had found time away from his duties as the Angel of Death. I took a seat between Azrael and Odin. I was finally used to seeing Odin in this new body, with his short blonde hair and softer face, but I was still getting over the trauma his death had caused and I tended to gravitate toward him when he was in the room.
Azrael had come pretty close to dying as well. It was in the battle of Olympus. I can still see the expression on his face as he plummeted to what we all thought would be his death. It had been peaceful, a calm acceptance of his end in light of what had brought him there, mainly loving me. It was the same expression Odin had worn when he'd taken a lethal blow meant for me. They haunted me, those dying, silent declarations of love. It seemed like the only way I could get rid of their ghosts was to be worthy of them.
That could take awhile.
I'd come close to losing Kirill too but that hadn't been to death. Just an annoying Russian dream goddess who couldn't hold her dream liquor. I won't go into it but let's just say she won't be pursuing any of my men ever again.
“Artemis?” My wandering gaze landed on the Greek goddess, where she was seated beside Torrent. “Are you joining the dark
side?”
“You guys are the good guys, right?” She laughed, flipping her layered, dark hair back. She was in her normal jeans and T-shirt but the shirt was printed in a style suspiciously similar to ones Pan wore. It read, in big black letters: Where's my bitches at? One of those “bitches” was actually sitting beside her and the white dog was perked up, watching her mistress avidly as she continued to speak. “So that would make you the light side.”
“First of all, I've never heard of the light side,” I frowned. “Why is that? You always hear about the dark but never the light. No one ever urges anyone to join the light side. Second, dark and light all depend upon perspective, Blue taught me that once,” I winked at Blue and his smile softened the harsh lines of his Aztec face. “The Sith view the dark side as good.”
“Are we doing Star Wars references already?” Horus asked in a bored tone.“Isn't it a bit early for that?” His black, Egyptian hair was a little longer than he usually kept it and I noticed that he was wearing a gold hoop in one ear. Egyptians did seem to like their jewelry but Horus tended to dress more sedately. I had a feeling I knew who'd been influencing his fashion choices.
“How are things with Katie?” I asked sweetly and saw Horus turn a lovely shade of pink.
Katie, aka Hekate, had been going on dates with our Horus ever since the Fall of Zeus(that's what we we'd been calling the battle over ambrosia, mainly because it ended with Zeus knocked out cold). They made an interesting couple, what with Horus' simple elegance and Kate's penchant for goth attire. Though Horus did have that falcon tattoo, maybe he had a hidden wild side that Katie could set free. Hopefully she'd free that stick from his ass while she was at it.