Son of Sun (Forgotten Gods (Book 2))

by Clair, Rosemary

  I opened my eyes, trying to find which way was up when I saw her.

  She was inches from me, glowing the same way Dayne and Arabette had in LisTirna. Graceful and sinewy, ethereal in her own pelagic way, flowing ropes of navy hair dancing on the current.

  Her lips pulled into a serene, siren-song smile, but her grip held tightly to my legs. I no longer struggled to free myself, too awestruck by the magic before me, wondering if she was an answer Dayne’s memory had led me to.

  With leisurely movement, possibly slowed by the water, her delicate face turned to the surface, the moon light dancing on her angelic features, all tinted a surreal grey-blue. She released a school of tiny bubbles from her hypnotic smile. Swimming beside each other, they raced for the surface, and she inhaled deeply from the water. It was then that I noticed a row of gills lining her neck.

  She made it look so easy, and my lungs craved the relief a deep breath would bring, but I knew I couldn’t. Her smile faded and she gazed again at the water’s surface.

  It barely registered in my brain when two strong arms circled around me and began pulling me to the surface. I looked down to find the navy haired woman frowning as she reluctantly let me go.

  I broke free to the surface, gasping for air and coughing water from my lungs. Thomas held me firmly in a lifeguard’s clutch. Seth gripped the other end of the branch that guided us back to shore. Mattie was halfway down the bank, preparing to dive in if she had to, and Sam shouted incoherently from above.

  My life had been spared and the bank erupted in cheers as Thomas and Seth dragged me ashore like heroes. But celebrating my rescue was the furthest thing from my mind.

  The blue lady waited for me in that water. And when she got tired of waiting, there wasn’t a human alive who could stop her.

  Chapter Five

  Forgotten

  Fire lapped against ancient stone walls, casting gruesome shadows on the long faces gathered before it.

  The common area in the boys dorm where everyone gathered was identical to the one in my own dorm. An enormous circular fireplace rose from the center of the room all the way to the ceiling. Runners lounged on the couches and chairs scattered around the room, talking about the night’s events, their tales growing bigger with each retelling. I chose to sit alone.

  751 bricks lined the chimney from the fireplace to the ceiling. I knew because I had counted every one of the them...twice...trying to keep my mind occupied. But it was no use.

  The image of Dayne’s blood on my hands stained my brain. It was all I could see whenever I closed my eyes. Warm. Red. Death. It consumed me, hurtling my thoughts to the brink of insanity. As I saw it, I had two options. The old Faye Kent would be happy to continue on with her pathetic fake life and hope Dayne’s promise to come back was kept sooner rather than later. But I wasn’t the scared little girl I was pretending to be anymore. Before my life was turned upside down, I had made a promise to myself. A promise that I would find my way back to Dayne if it was the last thing I did. But taking matters into my own hands would mean waking the magic that slept in my veins. Magic I had come to fear. Was the world prepared for the dangerous magic that lived in me? Was I prepared to harness all that power without the first clue how to use it? The mind was willing, but I wasn’t so sure the body was able.

  After all I had seen that night, there was one thing I was sure of: I would lay down my own life before I would ever allow a final breath cross Dayne’s beautiful lips. If I had to charge into LisTirna and face a Sidhe army all by myself to save him, I would. If my death insured his life, it wasn’t a question. What good was a world without Dayne?

  My clothes clung to me, still damp, despite the blanket draped over my shoulders and the fire roaring in front of me. I kept my back to the crowd, knowing their thoughts would all be on me.

  My super human ability to leap raging rivers was forgotten after my near drowning and the ghostly apparition that appeared in the woods. It was my first time running the redwoods, and I was pretty sure everyone was secretly hoping I didn’t make another appearance. What had happened to me had never, in all the history of St. Anne’s, happened to another student. A fact that had to give some credibility to Meghan’s rumors.

  Mattie and Sam sat on either side of me, staring as blankly into the fire as I was. Thomas had brought us steaming cups of peppermint tea, but I was too shaken to drink it. Blocking the vision of Dayne’s blood on my hands was impossible enough, but it was obviously a future vision I still had time change. What bothered me more was the magic that hid in the woods around St. Anne’s. Dark magic that hunted me just as it had in Ireland.

  “So are we going to talk about it, or just act like we didn’t see it?” Mattie finally said, breaking the silence that loomed over the room.

  “I’m still not exactly sure what it was I saw,” a random voice behind me offered.

  “We all saw it, right? There was something glowing in the woods behind, Faye. It was coming right at her.” Mattie shivered as she thought about it.

  “It was foxfire, Mattie. There’s moss in the woods that reflects moonlight. It’s completely harmless, except for all the ‘haunted forest’ tales it has started around here,” Thomas, who had been scrambling down the bank and not witnessed the glow in the woods, assured everyone. They nodded, agreeing with him because no one wanted to think about what else it might have been.

  Had I never tumbled into the water that night, I probably could have believed Thomas’ reasoning. After seeing the woman in the water, I knew something more was out there, and just like in Ireland, it obviously wanted me.

  Dayne had told me there were others, demigods like him, but not entirely the same. He had also told me there were darker forces at work in the world. Which one the blue lady was, I didn’t know.

  The woman had seemed innocent enough, smiling the way she had, almost sad to see me go. Was she an answer Dayne was leading me to? When I had finally let go and welcomed my magic in the woods, it was like he was right beside me, holding my hand, trying to tell me something that might help me understand what was happening to me. Then the woman appeared to me in the water.

  “Faye?” Mattie rubbed my shoulder, startling me from my own depressing thoughts. “The pizza’s here.”

  I looked down at her hand on my shoulder and sighed.

  “At least we didn’t have to buy the pizza, huh?” I joked, hoping my act was convincing.

  “We better hurry, Thomas and his friends inhale pizza.”

  Mattie never asked me about that night. Just like she had never asked me about Dayne. Somehow, she understood I needed to keep my secrets. All anyone could talk about was the foxfire, and now that I was officially “in the club” I learned that what happened in the woods stayed in the woods. Even if they remembered, the students who had witnessed the events of that night were bound by a code of honor to keep it quiet.

  Even if that night was never spoken of again, nothing could change what it had awoken in me. A plan began to take shape in my brain that night. A plan that was beyond dangerous. It would take patience, and I would have to bide my time until my plan could be put into action.

  “Again?” I asked tossing my bag in a chair and shrugging out of my fleece. Sam sat sprawled across my bed, buried in text books and flash cards. Finals were a week away and campus was uncharacteristically quiet as students crammed a semester’s worth of knowledge into their brains.

  Sam put her finger on the page to hold her place and looked up at me with an exasperated scowl. “Tell me about it. When I told her to get a room I was meaning his room, not ours.” Sam shook her head and slid a flashcard into her book as she closed it.

  “Well, I’m kinda glad your roommate’s boyfriend moved in. Mattie insists on ruining our pizza with vegetables.” I smiled as I pulled a slice of cold cheese pizza from the greasy box beside my bed and flopped down on the air mattress that had become Sam’s bed. “I’m starving!”

  Sam raised her arms to stretch and yawned. Her movement
shifted the pile of books surrounding her, causing them to slip and slide as they threatened to fall. She grabbed at the stacks, saving all but one. It slid from her grasp and toppled to the floor, falling open at my feet.

  As if in slow motion, my eyes ticked down to where the book spread its pages. As I focused on the full-sized picture staring up at me, the slice of pizza I was about to bite into fell from my hand.

  My flesh chilled. My blood boiled and the room began to spin until I saw nothing but a woman coming to life on the paper spread over our checkerboard carpet. Deep at the base of my spine a fiery sensation burst to life and seared its way up my back and into my brain. What little color remained drained from my sight, and it was just me and her, locked in a spinning vortex of grey.

  From the text book page, she called to me in a way I heard only with my heart. As its beating picked up speed, it swelled in my chest, pushed against my ribs and throbbed at the base of my throat. Before I realized it, a cold tear washed over my lash and down my cheek, streaking its way to her until it landed with a drowning splash that covered her chest.

  Who was this woman?

  No goddess I had ever seen before. Yet I knew immediately that’s what she was—her power was undeniable. She was a young woman, not much older than myself, hair loose and flowing like the Sidhe, but more radiant in all her splendor than Queen Daoine could ever hope to be. Her face appeared faded, hidden behind soft flames that engulfed her beauty, yet were not strong enough to stifle a resplendent smile. Fire obscured her flesh wherever it peeked from under a shimmery blue tunic. A bright red cord looped her slim waist, its ends spilling down her thigh. Although her flesh burned with flames of ethereal light, not a single inch of her was charred. She remained painted in all pastels, soft as a summer breeze.

  “Faye?” My name came from far away and a gentle hand rested on my shoulder. “Faye?”

  I said nothing, still entranced by the photo. Two careful hands moved into my line of sight and slowly closed the book. When the woman disappeared, I snapped out of it.

  “Is it your PTSD?” Sam asked in a halting voice as I looked up into a pair of worried eyes. I shook my head, trying to play it off and wiped a hand over my cheek, catching the tear’s cold trail in the palm of my hand.

  “Who was that?” I asked, my voice near a whisper.

  Sam looked at me for a moment, obviously wondering if it was a good idea to pursue a topic that she assumed triggered the post traumatic stress disorder my parents insisted I had. She fumbled with the book in her hands, flipping through pages until she found my tear wetting a page.

  “Her name is Seraph. My mythology professor talked about her in his Forgotten Gods lecture.” Sam slid over to sit beside me on the mattress and lay the book in my hand. “She was Hera’s daughter, born of Hades. Zeus blessed her with great power in the womb before he knew she wasn’t his daughter.”

  “I’ve never heard of her.” My voice sounded hollow and far away as I stared at the fiery woman.

  “Most haven’t.” Sam ran her fingers over the page, drying my tear with her thumb and wiping in on her jeans.

  “Tell me about her.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Faye?”

  I nodded my head and forced what I hoped was an indifferent smile to my lips.

  “It all started over Zeus’ many indiscretions. Eventually, Hera had enough and decided to get even with Zeus. Hera snuck into the underworld and lay with Hades until she conceived, knowing that carrying a child by Zeus’ most hated brother would be the ultimate revenge. Zeus assumed Hera’s child was his and blessed the unborn baby with the power of his lightening bolts in the womb. On the day Seraph was born, the skies darkened and the earth rained fire into the heavens. Zeus was furious over Hera’s betrayal and banished the baby girl to the underworld with her real father.”

  “Why punish the child instead of Hera?” I asked, my brow knitted in confusion.

  “Seraph wasn’t banished as punishment. Zeus couldn’t rescind his blessing once it was given. He knew anything born of fire that carried such a gift was much too dangerous to live in this world. He imprisoned the child, just as he had her father, and sealed Hera’s womb for her betrayal.”

  “Why have I never heard this before?”

  “Zeus forbade Seraph’s name from entering the histories of Olympus. Her existence was wiped from the earth and anyone who dared mention her name found themselves face to face with one of Zeus’ bolts.” Sam flipped the page to reveal a picture of a mortal meeting that very fate.

  I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes. Seraph. Her name sounded almost lyrical to me. Its intonation somehow familiar to my tongue. A spark flickered to life from the depths of my consciousness and my mind began to open some long forgotten door. The light that shone through that door brought with it such a simple clarity I felt like an idiot for not thinking of it sooner. No wonder Dayne couldn’t understand the language he heard in my soul. It wasn’t from his world, but from somewhere else entirely. Somewhere much darker, according to Seraph’s tale.

  “A forgotten goddess?” I asked in a distant voice.

  “I personally think Zeus was just jealous. It sounds to me like Seraph would have been way more powerful than he was. You know men, can’t stand to be bested by a woman.”

  “Yeah, you know men,” I echoed her chuckle and forced a smile to my lips again. Looking down at Seraph, I knew she held a key to my past. And, as much as I hated to admit it, there was some niggling part of me that feared she still had a role to play in my future.

  Chapter Six

  Left Behind

  It was late in the afternoon onthe last day of finals when the dorm room door burst open and hurrican Mattie storned into the place, slinging books and spewing curse words at no one in particular. I raised my arm for cover.

  “What’s going on with you?” I asked, quickly tucking away the note I had just received from my mother, and wiping my cheeks.

  “Dr. Lawlis is going to fail me!” She all but screamed, landing a fist on her desk.

  “Fail you? She can’t. What about your scholarship?” I babbled, knowing what this would mean for Mattie.

  “She can. And she is. Said I can make it up in summer session.” Mattie mocked as she grabbed a bottled water from the fridge and flopped down on the floor. She clenched her jaw tightly as tears glistened on her lower lashes.

  Whoa. Mattie never cried. Never. Even though they were angry tears, my own troubles were quickly forgotten to see her like this.

  I slid off the bed onto the floor beside her, wrapping my arm over her shoulders. I didn’t see the note I had tried to hide under my pillow flutter to the floor, carrying the wad of hundred dollar bills with it.

  “What’s that?” Mattie asked, immediately distracted by the pile of money. Looking at Mattie’s tear streaked face, it seemed pointless to try to hide my bad news. With a sigh, I tossed the letter in her lap, and folded the bills back into a neat little stack.

  “Faye—Hope you don’t mind us going without you. We would lose our deposit if we cancelled. Treat yourself to something nice and remember we love you. Merry Christmas, Mom & Dad.” Mattie finished the letter, held it up and wrinkled her brow, questioning its meaning without saying a word.

  “They’re going on a Mediterranean cruise for Christmas, but it’s six weeks long and we only have three for break,” I sighed, wiping at the tears that dampened my cheek. I hadn’t seen my parents since they shipped me off to St. Anne’s months ago.

  She nodded silently and pursed her lips, not needing any further explanation. But I did. Even though I’d known about their plans for weeks it still bothered me that they could discard me so easily. I had lived with it for years, but at that moment, being reminded I was about to face three weeks at St. Anne’s without anyone but the nerdy international students, the loneliness overwhelmed me.

  Mattie wiped her cheeks, tossed the letter in my lap and pulled her knees into her chest, hugging them tightly to her. I s
cooped up the letter, read it one last time, and then wadded it into a ball, landing a prefect bank shot in the trash can. Mattie chuckled.

  “You know Faye,” she said, tilting her head as she thought. “Your aren’t the first kid to realize their parents aren’t superheroes after all. I figured out long ago my mom would rather spend her time serving passengers at 40,000 feet than hanging out with me. Did you know she missed my swim meet when I qualified for Nationals?”

  I shook my head.

  Mattie shrugged helplessly. The next second the determination that burned so brightly in her returned, lighting a fire behind the smoldering grey ashes of her startling eyes. She punched her chin in the air defiantly. “You can cry about what you’ve lost and let it rule your life, or you can deal with it and live your own life.”

  I picked at my fingernails, thinking about how right she was. Only it wasn’t my parents abandonment I thought about. Sure, I was disappointed they had discarded me...again. But it wasn’t the loss of a family holiday that bothered me. The loss that consumed me was Dayne. I hadn’t had any say in the matter when Daoine banished me from their world, ripping us apart. Daoine had certainly assumed I would be the type to cry about it. But Daoine didn’t really know me.

  I was tired of crying. I was tired of being weak. I had bided my time, and three weeks alone on campus finally gave me the perfect opportunity to put my plan in motion.

  The door Mattie had nearly ripped off its hinges seconds before squeaked when it opened again. Sam peeked into the room, obviously sensing something was off. She froze when she saw us on the floor, wide eyed with worry that something was wrong.