by Unknown
“Don't, my love,” I whispered. “I'll get Naye, he'll heal you.”
I looked over my shoulder and saw Naye surrounded by gods. A Native American woman was screaming at him but he was ignoring her completely, sending flashes of light out into the throng around him. I'd never get past them all. At least not in time to save Toby. Then Toby's hands clenched around mine.
“It'll be too late,” his voice sounded wet as he yanked his feather from his hair. “I'm so sorry, Atahensic. You were right, it was always her I loved.”
He touched me with the feather and I screamed as my memories were instantly dominated by another's. I fought it but even with the combined power of Moon, Water, and Darkness, I was no match for my host. My memories, my thoughts, all that I was, was being locked away inside her mind. As the last wall closed around me, I simply disappeared.
And was reborn.
I blinked, coming out of the depths of myself as if from the bottom of a dark pool. The real me. Vervain Lavine. As my magic came bursting back to life, my chest started to burn. There was one too many magics inside me. Without conscious thought, I pushed the moon magic into the emerald around my neck. I was about to release it, banish it into the earth, but I just couldn't. It wasn't just Atahensic anymore, it was connected to Tobadzistsini, and I wasn't ready to let go of him.
So instead, I pushed the combined magic of Moon, Water, and Darkness into the gold band around the emerald for safekeeping. I'd decide what to do with it later. Then I took a deep breath and the smell of blood filled my lungs as the sound of a dog's whining filled my ears. I looked down at my hands and found them covered with blood. Tobadzistsini's blood.
“Toby,” I whispered. “No.”
“Vervain,” he gasped and slid my rings into my hand, the Ring of Remembrance and the simple gold band. His neck had begun to heal but I knew it wouldn't be enough to save him. It was amazing he could even speak. “Forgive me,” he continued, “I was wrong, so wrong for forcing her upon you. I release your magic and offer you mine as payment for my sins,” he held up his black feather.
“No,” I grabbed his wrist. “No, Toby, we can heal you. You're going to be okay. Just hold on a little longer. Teharon is here someplace and he's amazing. Or there's Naye, even if you die, he can bring you back, right?”
“The only way to stop Nayenezgani is with my feather,” he whispered, ignoring my hysterics. “Stop him, Vervain. Save our people from this horrible mistake.”
He placed the feather in my hands and as he did so, the tide of his magic rushed into it. Then he started to choke on his own blood. I cried out and pulled his head into my lap, stroking his hair back from his face. Without his magic, there'd be nothing to stop his death.
“Toby, please,” I begged as Doba continued to whine. “Don't do this,” I tried to put the feather back in his hair and he smiled at me with blood covered lips.
“I love you, Vervain. I hope that some part of you loves me too, that it wasn't just Atahensic I held.”
“You know I do,” I laid my lips to his forehead. “I was there the whole time. I love you, Tobadzistsini, don't die. Don't go.”
“This is the only ending possible for us,” his eyes started to lose focus.
“No!” I kissed his bloody lips. “Toby, I'll bring you back. Look for your father in the Void. I'll find you there with him and I'll bring you back. I swear it!”
But he was already gone.
“Vervain!” Trevor called my name and I looked up to see Nayenezgani in a circle of gods. They couldn't get past his heat.
I stood up slowly, letting go of Toby's body as I clutched his feather. I felt the power in it, knew I could claim it, draw it into myself, but I wouldn't. I'd use it as it was and then keep it safe for him. For the day I brought him back.
I ran toward Nayenezgani. He turned to me and his eyes went wide. His heat couldn't hurt me anymore, not with my dragon released. She loved it, gloried in it as I ran forward and tackled the son of a bitch. I needed only a moment, a second to lay that feather against his skin, and his magic was subdued.
“You've been vanquished,” I said as I got up.
Nayenezgani lay in the dirt, reeling from the loss of his power, skin dull without his magic to light it. He looked at the gods closing in around him and screamed with rage and frustration. He couldn't even trace away.
“Stop!” Mrs E called out. “Please, just leave him.” She came out of the press of bodies and stood looking down at her son. “Your brother is dead,” she said hollowly, “and you are vanquished. It's over, Nayenezgani.”
He stood and stared at her, then turned and began to leave.
“Naye!” I called and he stopped, though he refused to face me. I went up to him and laid Toby's feather on his skin once more. “I grant you enough magic to be able to trace home. I owe that much, at least, to your brother.”
He didn't say anything, just walked away. The gods parted to let him through. I turned toward Mrs E and she came to me with arms outstretched. We'd been here before, losing a loved one together, and we didn't need any words to comfort each other. Still, there was something I had to tell her.
“I'll bring him back,” I vowed. “If he'll agree to it, I'll bring back your son.”
“I'll go into the Void and look for him,” she nodded, some of the hurt leaving her eyes. “I think he might return for you.”
“And maybe Tsohaonai will come with him.”
She began to smile.
“Oh, and one more thing,” I looked around for and then found Teharon. He was finishing up healing a few of my Intare who'd been wounded. Pain surged inside me. If only he'd been close enough to heal Toby. I sighed and pushed back the pain before I waved him over. He did one last check on Lucian, his last Intare patient, and then walked over, looking grim and bloody. Though not as bloody as I. My white dress was covered in Toby's blood. We must have looked horrifying to the humans who were fleeing in terror. Blood covered gods calmly reuniting with each other.
“Vervain,” Teharon took my hand as the rest of the gods closed in around us in a comforting circle. “We're glad to have you back.”
“I'm glad to be back but, Teharon, I'd like you to meet your grandmother,” I put Mrs E's hand in his.
“What?” They both asked at once.
“Nayenezgani fathered twin boys with Atahensic,” I explained. “Her family took them from him and he's been searching for them ever since. You and Tawiskaron were those boys. Naye is your father, which makes Mrs E-”
“My grandmother,” Teharon cut me off.
“I've always felt there was something connecting us,” she whispered to him as they smiled sadly at each other. “We've lost so much but at least we've gained something too.”
They hugged each other while I backed away into the arms of my men. We spared a few moments for each other, hands touching each other and kisses rapidly bestowed, before I pulled away gently and went back to Toby's body. Doba was still with him, her head laid across his chest as she stared intently into his face. The poor girl, this was the second time she'd lost someone she loved in a matter of days. I knelt beside them and stroked Doba's soft fur. She whimpered and licked my hand, then settled her head back on Toby's chest.
“I know, honey,” I whispered to her and then turned to look at my men, hovering behind me in concern. “I'll meet you all back at Pride Palace,” I said to them and then embraced Doba and Toby together. I held them to me tightly as I traced us away.
Chapter Forty-Three
I put Toby's body in one of the spare bedrooms. Mrs E said she'd wash and dress him so that I could spend some time with his body before she took him back to her territory to bury. Doba took a seat beside the bed and watched her, a silent guard. I wanted to stay and help Mrs E but there were more pressing matters to attend to.
Odin.
As soon as I'd stepped from the tracing chamber, I'd heard his screams. After seeing to Toby and Doba, Trevor led me down to the underground level of the palace and
then to a cell where the screams were coming from. Yeah, I'd put a prison cell into the palace just in case of an emergency and it looked like that emergency had come. I opened the iron door and my men closed in around me.
“Careful, Minn Elska,” Trevor put his hand on my arm. “The demon powers have altered him.”
“He won't hurt me,” I went in with Trevor close at my heels and then I stopped short.
Odin was chained to a wall, arms spread apart and head hanging down on his chest. He was sitting on the stone floor, looking like a beaten man. Except he was growling. He lifted his head and stared at me with eyes gone entirely black, from lid to lid. Not just black but hollow. His eyes were gone, replaced by twin pits of darkness. I'd seen eyes like these once before and just like the last time, they pulled me down into them. I swayed forward as I felt myself fall into his abyss, into the waiting arms of the twisted things lurking there.
“Welcome home, lover,” Odin started to laugh.
“Vervain!” Trevor shook me and I blinked away the hypnosis Odin had been putting me under.
“I'm okay,” I assured him before turning back to Odin. I focused on his nose this time. “Odin, I can help you. Just hold on, baby.”
I started to move forward but I heard a creaking noise and saw Odin's arms tense, his fists clench and surge forward against the manacles. Then he sighed and relaxed.
“I've been waiting for you, Godhunter,” he purred. “Just biding my time here till you came home to me. Come closer, sweetheart. Come give me a kiss.”
As I stared in horror, his shoulders tensed again, muscles bulging as he pulled on his chains. The metal creaked.
“Vervain!” Trevor shouted and I looked back at him.
“I thought we enchanted those chains?” I asked him.
“We did,” he said with wide eyes, “but it looks like we forgot about the walls.”
I turned back and saw that Trevor was right. The chains would hold but the plates securing them to the walls were slowly being pulled out. Odin laughed and it had the ring of insanity to it. I was losing him and in moments he'd be free. I had to do something. The creaking intensified and dust started to fall from the walls. Then the plates burst free and Odin launched himself at me just as I dove for him.
I wrapped myself around him with my eyes shut tight and pressed the emerald between us. I reached through it, into Odin, searching for the dark magic dwelling inside him. I found it easily enough. It had permeated everything within him, his magic and the magic of Griffin's body. It was all tainted by Tawiskaron's demon power. I sought deeper, looking for the heart of it, and found a pulsing, twisted, black mass of ice. Winter. Tawiskaron had held the power of winter too. I grabbed hold of it and hissed.
Destruction. Oh it was so seductive. No wonder Odin had fallen prey to it. It whispered to Odin's death magic like a lover. They'd go so well together, Death and Destruction. They were meant for each other. Just one touch, one breath, let it in and reap the rewards. I pulled it away and a mutant scream echoed through me. I didn't listen to the terrible wailing, just pulled and pulled till the dark coalesced, condensing back into itself like hardening tar. One final yank and it was free. I drained it through my emerald and was about to ground it when I heard Teharon yelling behind me.
“No! Please, Vervain,” his hands were at my shoulders. “Give me the magic. I can handle it, it's the other half of mine. It's my last tie to my brother.”
I gasped with the effort it was taking to hover between taking and releasing. I should ignore him and destroy this horrid magic but then a part of me whispered and stilled my actions. Magic wasn't good or evil, it was shaped by the one who held it. Odin didn't have the right balance for it, his death and war magic tipped the scales too far in one direction but Teharon's healing and light would be the perfect foil for his brother's darkness.
I reached up and took Teharon's hands, slowly turning to face him. I smiled gently at him as I released his brother's magic into his keeping. Teharon's turquoise eyes flashed once and his face softened into gratitude. Then I watched as spokes of black bled out from his pupils, creating a starburst of darkness. I felt the last of it leave me and those new eyes closed in relief, Teharon falling back into Karni Mata's waiting arms.
“Vervain?” Odin's voice was raspy and low.
“Hey,” I turned as Trevor came forward with a key to open the manacles at Odin's wrists.
“I guess I can't be you,” he smiled wanly. “I don't have the strength to hold more than one magic.”
“No, you don't have the strength to hold a demon magic as well as your death magic,” I held his face in my hands and leaned in to kiss him.
“Demon magic and death magic?” Odin asked after he pulled back from our kiss. “I didn't even think of that. Next time I'll be more selective.”
A chorus of groans came from behind me.
“What?” Odin chuckled as he struggled to his feet. I helped him stand and Trevor started to reach for his arm but Odin waved him away. “I'm a god, a little insanity isn't going to cripple me.”
“Well, welcome back,” I took his hand, “again.”
“I could say the same to you,” Azrael said from the doorway. “I thought I'd lost you to insanity again.”
“No, just memories this time,” I sighed and fingered the emerald pendant. “Someone else's memories.”
“Are you okay now?” Trevor stopped me before I left the room. “Did you win? Destroy her memories?”
“I did win,” I nodded, “but only because Toby released my magic. I didn't destroy her memories though, I don't think I even know how. I've locked them away and put her magic into the gold for the time being,” I tapped the emerald. “I'm trying to decide what to do with it.”
“Give it some time,” Teharon said as he stood with Karni. “Moon magic might be a good thing to have, especially if it's part of a star.”
“Fair enough,” I agreed. “Either way, you're right. I should take some time to make the decision. Right now, all I want to do is bathe and sleep.”
“Zen ve vill bathe vith you,” Kirill scooped me up and I laughed as he carried me to the elevator and up to our bathroom with the rest of my men in tow. It was a good thing our tub was so big.
Chapter Forty-Four
I sat staring at Toby's corpse, Doba lying across my feet and Nick across my lap. They'd formed a kind of wary truce, something that would never have happened with Nick before I'd brought him to Pride Palace. Now, he was a little more lenient when it came to new animals invading his space and I was grateful for that because I didn't want to leave Doba alone and at the same time, I needed my cat with me, needed the comfort only he could provide.
I was remembering the time I'd spent with Toby. It was clearer now that Ata had been locked away. I could focus on the details and experience them entirely as myself. I should be angry with Toby but I wasn't. All I felt was a hollow ache in my chest. It wasn't like when Odin died, Toby's death wasn't consuming me, but I knew that somewhere in the time we'd had together, he had reached me. Me. Vervain. Not just Atahensic. I'd fallen in love with him too.
Maybe not as deeply as I loved my other men but Toby had found a place inside my heart. I knew he'd been right. The only ending our love affair could have had was death. I couldn't make him a part of my life. My other men would never accept him and he wouldn't accept them. He was a lot like Thor in that way, too proud to share a woman. I understood that. How could I not? I'd never share my men. No way. So how could I fault a man for not wanting to share me?
But it did pose a problem for any kind of relationship between us. All we'd have would be those stolen moments in his secret garden. Even if I brought him back from the Void, Toby would never be mine again. My heart clenched painfully at the thought and I cursed myself for a selfish fool over it. I remembered Ata thinking how much she hated me for having so much love when she had none and I knew she was right. I had too much love to be sitting there lamenting the loss of one man.
Sti
ll, there I sat, lamenting. Love is a selfish thing and it seemed that the more I had of it, the more I wanted. I didn't need or deserve Toby's love but when I thought of his face bathed in moonlight, of how he told me he loved me, calling me Vervain instead of Ata, I wanted to scream in anguish. I wanted... damn but I wanted him back.
“Tima?” Fallon was at the doorway, halfway in the room, as if unsure of his welcome.
“Fallon, what is it?” Then I realized why he'd come. “Toby.”
“I'm so sorry, Tima,” he came forward and knelt in front of me. “I was trying to save you. I thought that man was going to trace you away and that we'd never get you back. I had no idea that you cared for him.”
“I know, Fallon,” I touched his shoulder gently. “And you're right, he was going to trace me away. If you hadn't killed Toby, I wouldn't be here right now,” I swallowed hard, the words bitter in my mouth. “You did what you thought was right and you saved me. You just did it a little too well.”
“Please forgive me,” he whispered.
“No,” I said and his face crumpled. “Because there's nothing to forgive. You attacked a god to save me and there's no shame in that. You had no way of knowing who he was to me. Yes, I'm hurt but this has nothing to do with you. What you did was brave and honorable, and I'm lucky to have you for a friend.”
“I love you, Tima,” he said simply.
“I love you too, Fallon,” I squeezed his hand as he got to his feet. “Now get out of here. Go hold that beautiful baby of yours and celebrate life. Don't let this death weigh you down.”
He nodded, throat working as he swallowed hard, then turned and left. I was instantly lost to my thoughts again. So lost that I didn't hear the door open once more.
“Vervain?” It was Trevor this time and I jumped guiltily at the sound of his voice. Nick and Doba both made disgruntled sounds as they settled back into sleep.