Coercion (Goddess of Fate Book 3)

by Tamara Hart Heiner

  A fire started in my navel, pushing outward, expanding to my limbs until it exploded from me, from my fingertips and my head and my ears, from every piece of me. I lost the ability to stand. My hand slipped away from my sisters, and I couldn’t even keep my eyes open as I smacked into the ashen grass beneath us.

  Laima’s plan had worked. The pieces of my soul were still shooting out of me, and I felt my body, my perfect, immortal body, aging in moments what should’ve happened over centuries. I gasped for breath, and a hand stroked my forehead.

  “Dekla,” a male voice moaned, his tone soft and mournful.

  Jumis. I wanted to see him one last time. I forced my eyes open, caught sight of his beautiful face, the angry tears glistening in his eyes. My ancient heart beat with all the passion it had left. I’m sorry, I thought. Sorry I couldn’t fulfill my promise.

  His hands cradled my head, and he said, “I will find a way. I will make it happen.”

  His lips on my face were the last thing I felt before I left my fading mortal body behind.

  The vision vanished, but I remembered so much more. My mind automatically shoved the memories aside, too many to rifle through, to internalize. But the feelings emerged in my soul, changing me. I opened my eyes and found Jumis staring at me.

  “You remember,” he said, hope and expectation in his eyes.

  “I remember,” I confirmed. And now I understood. But it was not the time. “Return me.”

  He didn’t hesitate. He waved his hands, and the world around me unfroze. The rage and roar of the battle filled my ears at the same time that Jumis wrapped a hand around Aaron’s wrist. The two of them vanished in a swirl of smoke.

  Well, I wouldn’t be going that way. Now I knew so much, so much. I didn’t even have time to think about all I knew because I had a battle to win.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The demons with their wicked swords were all around me, and I couldn’t take the chance of one of them touching me. I needed Auseklis. I turned around and ran back to my army, cursing my body for not having the speed of a goddess. My fighting instincts were honed and ready to go, though, and this proved useful several times as a few of the stupid mortals attempted to take me out.

  Trey’s eyes were focused on me as I skidded to a halt in front of him. I took his wrist and turned it over, examining the heavy chains tattood there.

  “Let’s break these, shall we?” I said.

  “Quickly, if you don’t mind,” he replied.

  “Beth!” I said, but I didn’t just call her. I knew now how to tap into the core energy that was my sister goddess. The two pieces of Karta in Beth drew me right to her. I found her in an instant, locked in hand-to-hand combat with three goblins. In her hands she held the bayonet of a kaukas, and she used it to skewer two of the vadatajs. I tugged on her energy. She whipped her head around, surprise on her features.

  “Beth!” I called again as she came closer. She stumbled forward.

  “Did you do that? Did you pull me here?”

  I patted her face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make it so strong. Where’s Ragana? I mean—Meredith.”

  “She’s there. Using wind to as a shield to protect those fighting.” Beth pointed just a few yards away.

  “Then we go to her.”

  “Remember I don’t have my powers,” Trey warned. “If we walk through these armies, we’ll be exposed.”

  “Let’s tread carefully.”

  Beth held onto Trey’s hand, and I fended off any approaching soldiers.

  “Meredith!” I shouted as we neared her. “We need you! Just for a moment.” I placed her hand around Trey’s wrist. “Beth, put your hand on top. It’s time to free his powers.”

  “You know how to do this?” Meredith asked.

  “Not me, you. You need to break the chains that bind him.” I opened my hand, showing the star burned into my skin. “I have his power. But it can’t get back to him.”

  “How?” she whispered.

  “Use the symbol for breaking.” I drew it on her hand, then closed my eyes and searched for Trey’s energy source. It was caged inside of me, shaking against the bars, desperate to get out.

  “Free it, Meredith,” I whispered.

  I opened my eyes and watched as she traced the symbol on her wrist.

  “With this power of mine, I set free the power of thine,” she whispered. The symbol glowed blue for a moment before fading.

  I focused on Trey’s energy source and put my hand, star-down, over his. The power grew stronger and larger until the proverbial cage around it swelled.

  Trey sucked in a deep breath, his hand trembling where it was sandwiched between mine and Beth’s. And then all of that caged power burst out of my hand, blowing me backward like a fuel-powered jet pack. Trey’s hand flipped around lightning-fast, grasping my wrist and holding me on my feet. For a moment his entire body glowed, and then only his eyes. I looked down to see the chains had faded.

  “Step back,” he said, and I did so. What was he going to do?

  “Jayne,” he said, meeting my eyes, “turn the tide. I’ll protect you.”

  Turn the tide. I cast my gaze about and spotted several of Samantha’s mindless humans fighting with Ursins’ army, or what remained of it. The jackals and vadatajs gathered too close for comfort, but I ignored them, trusting Trey. My eyes scanned Samantha’s soldiers, finding one with the yellowish-orange aura Amy had told me about. I could see it as clearly as a spotlight glaring behind him.

  “Look at me,” I said. I didn’t shout or try to get his attention; I just directed my words toward his mental energy.

  He looked at me, and I was so surprised I almost didn’t follow through. Black, empty eyes stared into mine, and I worried there would be nothing for me to influence, no soul. But I summoned a vision anyway, just as I knew I could.

  I saw the battle through his eyes, but there was no emotion. He acted on instinct, destroying the enemy like a mindless drone. I saw his comrades fall around him, many of them dead, but he didn’t react. There was nothing.

  It gave me a moment’s pause. I knew the proper course of action was to find a better future and plant the first step in his head, and then leave it open for him to choose. Whatever his fate should be of his choosing.

  But this man no longer had the ability to choose. He could only obey.

  In which case, I had to do something different. I had to give him orders.

  This was new territory for me. I had to find whatever Samantha had done and change the command. I searched the emptiness in his body for the commands, for a source of understanding. For anything left of his soul.

  I almost didn’t find it. It flickered like a burning ember ashed over, black on the outside with sparks of orange attempting to burst through. I held it gently with my mind, catching my breath as it went from blistering heat to unexpected coldness. It seemed he would turn me to ice. I gripped the frozen energy source, cupping it between both hands. The pain was intense, searing through me, and I screamed.

  But I also succeeded. The black outside melted away, revealing a shimmering, blue crystal. It only had one command: destroy the life sources. I gave it a new one: lay down your arms and go home.

  Immediately I withdrew, breaking eye contact with a ragged intake of breath.

  Someone supported me, and I turned my head to see my sister holding me up.

  “You screamed,” she said, her eyes bright with worry. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m okay.” I pushed myself to my feet and looked for the soldier. Just as I had ordered, he had put down his staff. He turned on a diagonal and began walking.

  “Where’s he going?” Beth asked, her eyes on him also.

  “Home,” I said, a rush of relief warming my chest. “He’s going home.”

  “Does he remember?”

  I shook my head. “He doesn’t know anything. But at least he’ll get home alive. His family can figure out what to do with him until I get his soul back to his body.”

&n
bsp; “Can you do more, Jayne?”

  I turned my attention to Trey and noticed for the first time the way he stood in front of us, arms pushed outward as if holding up a wall. Sweat dripped down his face, and his arms trembled with fatigue.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Protecting you,” he said with a grunt.

  “He’s created some kind of field that the demons can’t get through,” Beth said. “The humans can still pass through, but Meredith and I have been handling them.” She brandished a staff that one of the zombies must’ve left behind.

  Then I spotted the human bodies lying around her, eyes closed, with metal helmets over their heads. A few wore armor, but most were dressed in street clothes.

  “I can’t hold this forever,” Trey said.

  “Why do you need to hold it at all? The visions are instantaneous.”

  “Not this time,” Beth said. “You weren’t moving, and then you screamed.”

  The news startled me. Usually during a vision, time didn’t pass. But to know that I had been standing still, helpless while I manipulated Samantha’s orders—suddenly Trey’s role felt even more important.

  “I know what to do now. It won’t take me as long.” I turned my attention away from them and focused on the next soldier with the orange glow. Look at me, I thought again, and the soldier swiveled.

  It was a girl. The realization surprised me, though I knew it shouldn’t. Samantha had collected without bias. As soon as our eyes connected, I initiated the vision. This time I knew right where to go, looking for the icy blue rock covered in black.

  I found it, but the cold emanating from it was so strong that I hesitated. This would hurt. But I had no choice.

  I gathered what I could of my own firestorm into my mental hands, warming them. Bracing myself, I wrapped my fingers around the black ice.

  Again the cold stunned me, so sharp it burned. I might have screamed again, though I tried not to. My teeth chattered as I plugged myself in and issued a new command. Drop your weapon and go home.

  Immediately I withdrew, shaking and looking for my own warmth.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Beth asked, her voice hesitant.

  I shook my head clear, getting myself back into the present situation. My fist clenched and unclenched even though there was no physical chill. “I can do this.”

  “Then do it quickly,” Trey said. “You’ve done two, and there’s a whole army out here. Meredith and I can’t hold them forever.”

  I took just a moment to look around, and my heart sank. They were maybe half of the kaukas left fighting, and only seven remaining goddesses and their entourages. Horses littered the ground, and the bees were gone. Ursins was fighting also, giving out orders and encouraging at the same time. My heart filled with gratitude for him, and I could only hope the fallen were injured and not dead.

  I also noticed the piles of human bodies, and the total was still rising. My chest knotted. How close was this to Meredith’s vision? If I wanted the destruction to end, I had to act.

  I found the next adolescent, and this time I didn’t hesitate when I found his icy core. It hurt, but the pain passed quickly. I moved from him to the next, and the next, and the next.

  I lost count of how many freezing rocks I held in my hand. My breathing came harder, faster, and I stumbled forward, searching for the next one.

  I tried to get the attention of another soldier, but the soldier didn’t answer me. Was I losing my power? Look at me, I directed. Instead, the soldier walked right past me.

  “Jayne. Jayne. Up now.”

  I hadn’t even realized I was on the ground until Trey’s hands heaved me to my feet.

  “They’re in retreat.” Ursins placed an arm around my waist, lifting me away from Trey.

  “Where were your people?” Trey snarled, anger flashing in his eyes. “Where are the other gods?”

  Ursins shook his head. “They have decided only to watch. For now.” He caught my gaze. “The right person might be able to change their minds.”

  “Don’t they know what’s at stake?” Trey continued to rage. “Samantha is after their immortality! How many pieces of the goddesses has she collected now?”

  “I know.”

  I struggled to get my feet under me and walk without their assistance. My eyes raked over the fields, the carnage. The bodies.

  “We lost so many,” I whispered.

  “On both sides,” Ursins said, his tone grim.

  “No,” I said, anger and desperation choking me. “On our side. All of them are on our side.”

  *~*

  We retreated back to the safety of our vehicles. I watched Meredith’s storm cloud suck itself back into the sky, and only then did I notice a series of television vans along the road.

  “How many people saw that battle?” I asked, rubbing my palms together. I still couldn’t seem to get warm.

  “It was broadcast live,” Ursins said. “The mortals know now.”

  “What does that mean?” Not that I’d been under the impression what we did was a secret, but I couldn’t imagine the rational part of the world accepting what was happening.

  “Oh, the government will come up with a logical explanation,” Trey said, his eyes still simmering. “They always do.”

  “And the death count?” I couldn’t see the battlefield from here, but in my mind’s eye I pictured all of the bodies, and I wanted to cry.

  “Disease. Drugs. Bees gone wild. Whatever they can come up with.”

  “There will be some who see the truth,” I said.

  “Absolutely,” Ursins said. “Those will be the mortals who choose to stand and fight with us next time.”

  Next time. This wasn’t over. “How will they find us?”

  Ursins shrugged. “I do not know. But they always manage to.”

  “It’s us.”

  I turned my head to see one of the women looking at me. I recognized her power as identical to my own, which made her a Dekla also. She finished bandaging the head of her ragana, and now she faced me. “We are goddesses of fate. If they get it into their heads that it’s their fate to help us, they will find us. And they will fight for us.”

  “Jods has gone too far,” Ursins rumbled. “When we fight again, it will be bitter.”

  I snorted. “Because this last battle was sweet? I can’t wait to see bitter.”

  Trey closed his hand on my arm. “Let’s get back to the hotel. We have preparations before then.”

  “How can humans fight with us?” Meredith asked as we climbed into the truck. “What can they possibly do?”

  Die, I thought, but I kept the morbid thought to myself.

  Beth turned to her. “We’re human too. And we are out there fighting.” Her eyes swiveled to me. “Jayne? You’ve remembered stuff, right? How does this work?”

  I was suddenly too foggy with sleep to dredge up a memory. It tickled the back of my mind, an awareness of how this had been done in the past. “They’ll answer a call. They’ll be ready. They’ll be trained.”

  “How can they be trained for something they didn’t know was coming?” Meredith asked.

  I leaned my head back against the seat, letting my heavy eyelids slide closed. “It’s their destiny.”

  Silence met my proclamation, and then Meredith said, “Well, that’s twisted. That’s like saying this war with Samantha was fated to happen.”

  I didn’t have the strength to answer, but I felt the truth to her words. All of the possible futures were right there in front of us. I used to think the path I saw before me was inevitable, that it was the only one. But I was starting to understand there were many paths, and the only thing inevitable was that we had to choose one.

  Which one being the magic question.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  I slept the entire hour back to the hotel. My sleep was not restful. I knew I was dreaming, but I sat in a dark room, unable to see anything, even myself.

  “Turn on your light,”
Jumis’ voice said from somewhere in the blackness.

  I did, turning my palm up and calling for the ball of flame he had given me. The energy pulled up from my core, coalescing in my hand.

  The light illuminated Jumis standing in front of me. Shadows flickered across his face as the fire danced and balanced majestically.

  “Where are the souls?” I asked, my throat achy as I spoke past a lump.

  “In the underworld, along with Aaron. When will you come for them?”

  “Tonight,” I said. I couldn’t wait another day. There would be no more battles with human casualties, not if I could help it.

  I sensed him in my head, probing my thoughts, searching for my secrets. I slammed up a wall so hard that he physically reared back.

  “Yes,” I said with a smile, “I remember how to do that now.”

  His hand came out and stroked my forearm. “And us? Do you remember us?”

  I did. I remembered the strength of their love. But it wasn’t mine, it was Dekla’s, and she lost him. My heart belonged to someone else, and I would do whatever it took to free him.

  But I wasn’t going to reveal that. Not until Aaron was safe.

  “I do,” I said. “I remember.”

  His fingers tightened around my arm, and I didn’t need to read minds to feel his immense relief. I felt sorry for him, because I knew he loved me—no, Dekla—and he had done all of this to fulfill his promise to her.

  “Tonight, then,” he said. His hand slid off my arm, and I woke as Trey shook my shoulder.

  “Come on, Jayne,” he said softly. “We’re at the hotel.”

  I blinked and looked around. Beth and Meredith were already gone. I swung my legs out of the truck and planted my feet on the concrete.

  Trey came around the truck and placed his hands on my shoulders, forcing me to meet his gaze. “What happened out there?”

  I frowned. “What do you mean? I did exactly what I was supposed to do. I got my memories back and figured out how to change the soldiers’ immediate future.”