The Everlast Series Boxed Set

by Juliana Haygert

  “And?” Ceris asked, her voice harsh.

  “When I was …” I closed my eyes and swallowed the lump in my throat. It was always hard to speak about it. “When I was with Imha, she had a large world map covering an entire wall. I saw symbols on that map, and now I know what they meant.” I glanced to Ceris. “I’ll need a map.”

  She extended her hand and a scroll appeared on her open palm. I pushed the food and drinks to the side of the table, and she unrolled it over the cleared area.

  The symbols sprouted to life. Several tiny bright marks danced along the map too fast to get a good look on them.

  “What’s happening?” Victor asked.

  “Do you see the symbols?” Morgan asked.

  Ceris shook her head. “I don’t see anything. I mean, I know they are there, I can feel their magic, but I don’t see them.”

  I pursed my lips. “It wasn’t like this.”

  “What do you mean?” Izaera asked.

  “Just …” I stared at the map. Nothing happened. I took a deep breath and focused on a central point on the map, willing the magic to happen. Dizziness rushed through me, my vision darkened.

  “Nadine,” Micah called me.

  I blinked and the darkness faded. Micah knelt beside me, watching me with concerned eyes. More mixed signals. Who needed that?

  When I turned my sight back to the map, the symbols were slower than before. I focused on them.

  Stop.

  They did.

  I gasped in amazement.

  Holy shit, I had made the symbols stop!

  “What do you see?” Keisha asked.

  There were too many symbols, everywhere. Izaera’s symbol shone over the destroyed forest, Ceris’s flashed at Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains Basilica in France, and Micah’s and Victor’s glowed in the same place. I rested the tip of my index finger on the spot on the map. “Here.”

  Everyone spied over the map.

  “A mountain in Mexico?” Morgan asked, squinting at me as if doubting me.

  “Not just a mountain. A volcano,” Victor said.

  “The Popocatepetl volcano,” Micah said.

  “Their scepters are in a volcano?” Keisha asked, disbelief laced within her voice.

  “An active volcano,” Izaera added.

  “Are you sure this is the place?” Ceris asked.

  What did she mean? “Hmm, no, but with all I saw and felt, this has to be it.” They looked at the map, as if answers or a detailed plan would pop out at them. “And I believe Victor’s scepter is around the crater, you know, free and close to the sky, and Micah’s scepter is deep down, near the lava bed because … underworld and underground.” I closed my mouth as heat spread through my cheeks.

  “It makes sense,” Micah said.

  My head whipped to him. It did? I was afraid I was delirious.

  He held my gaze, but Victor’s hand on mine ripped my attention from him.

  “Thank you,” Victor said with a smile. He looked at the others. “The water of the Lake of Life has a quick effect. I already feel better. We should get ready to leave within a few hours.”

  Everyone stood and walked around the tiny living room, talking at the same time, disorienting me.

  Wait. Where were the Fates? I glanced around. They were gone.

  I checked myself one more time. Armor tight, boots strapped, hair pulled up and away from my face, daggers inside my boots, another dagger in the scabbard attached to the right side of my belt, and a sword on my left. I felt like carrying more weapons, but what difference would that make if I had only two hands to wield them?

  With nothing more to do, I decided to use the bedroom’s rare peace and stretch out a little.

  While we got ready, Ceris and Izaera decided to go to the volcano and check the surrounding area, see if there were any demons around, if there were humans there, or if they could sense the scepters. They promised not to try anything without all of us.

  “Why the arsenal, darling?”

  I whirled around at the sound of Micah’s voice. He leaned against the doorframe, looking too good to be true with his cocky grin and wearing his armor. God, how I loved seeing him like this. Beige wasn’t really his color, but the way the thermal and the vest adorned his shoulders, arms and chest, and the way his pants hugged his legs, the color didn’t matter. He looked much hotter in a warrior outfit than in his biker-rocker clothes.

  I raised my arms over my head and stretched. “I want to be prepared.”

  “Hopefully, it’ll be a quick trip.”

  “We don’t know that.”

  “Hopefully, we’ll get in, grab the damn things, and get out. Ten minutes tops.”

  “Hopefully,” I repeated, extending my arms and bending at the waist to the side.

  He took two steps into the room. “You don’t sound hopeful.”

  I showed him a sorrowful smile. “Nothing has been quick or easy on this journey. I doubt this part, the important part, will be either.”

  “I’ll be there to protect you, darling.” He winked. “You don’t need to worry.”

  I rolled my eyes. Hadn’t I asked him to stop with his charm games? “I thought you had figured out by now that I can take care of myself.”

  He leaned closer. “I know, but that doesn’t mean I can’t protect you if I want to.”

  I stared at him. What was his deal? Why was he telling me this? Didn’t he have more important things to do—like plan with Victor what to do once they got their scepters?

  Panic rushed through me. They would get their scepters. They would become full gods with full powers, like Ceris and Izaera. They would be immortal once again. They wouldn’t need me anymore.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Promise me you won’t let Ceris kick me out of here once you are … Mitrus again.”

  He gaped at me. “What?”

  “I won’t be needed anymore. You won’t need my healing. Since Ceris hates me, she might ditch me, and well, I won’t be able to do anything about that. But I want to stay. I know I’m not a deity. I know I have no powers, but I want to stay. I want to help. Promise me I can stay.”

  He took my hands in his. “First, she doesn’t hate you. Second, I won’t let her ditch you because I want you here.”

  My heart skipped a beat, and then rushed the next ten. Oh, the mixed signals again. I couldn’t take that. Not now.

  Averting my eyes, I pulled my hands away. “We should finish getting ready.”

  However, he didn’t let me and held on to my hands more firmly. “Nadine, there’s something I need to tell you.” Not trusting my voice, I just stared. He inhaled. “I—”

  “There you are,” Morgan said, appearing in the doorway. “Lady Ceris and Lady Izaera are here. We are ready to go.”

  Saved by the bell. I took a step back from Micah. “Good. Let’s go.”

  I started after Morgan. Micah’s fingertips caressed my elbow. “Nadine …”

  I shivered from his touch, briefly ensnared by the way he said my name.

  “Come on,” Morgan called, going back to the living room. “They are waiting.”

  I paused but didn’t look back. “We should go,” I whispered.

  I rushed out the door before Micah could say something else that might make me cry. Like telling me our kiss had been a mistake. Or worse—that he wanted more.

  29

  Ceris and Izaera took us to an opening on the volcano's side, supposedly halfway to the top.

  Hugging myself against the cold air, I glanced around. The damn volcano was huge. Like gigantic. The view of the surrounding area, though mostly white because of the snow, was breathtaking. I closed my eyes for a minute and tried to imagine how it would be with the sun shining high. Sadly, I had never seen the sun outside of my visions, but I hoped I would see it someday. We were getting closer and closer to that. I would see it even if for only a second before the Soul Oath claimed my soul.

  “This is the only entrance we discovered,” Ceris said, pointin
g to the opening. It looked like a normal cave from where we were.

  “We didn’t explore it, though,” Izaera said.

  “Once we sensed the scepters and checked the area for demons, we went back to get you,” Ceris explained.

  “How about we talk about this inside? It’s cold here, you know,” Micah said, his teeth chattering. “Don’t want to waste time.”

  “Good idea,” Zelen said, taking the first step toward the entrance.

  “We can sense old magic in this place,” Ceris said, following the forest protector. “Be careful and don’t touch anything. When we find the scepters, let Levi and Mitrus get to them first. Understood?”

  Everyone mumbled a half-assed, “Yes,” turned on the flashlights, and she took us inside.

  Once I crossed the entrance, I felt the power in this place. It hummed along the walls and brushed against me, against us, not good, not evil. If I could feel it this strong, I wondered what it felt like to Ceris, Izaera, Zelen, Victor, and Micah.

  We walked along a narrow corridor with no openings in sight.

  “We have only one way to go,” Ceris said, at the head of the line. Victor was second, Morgan third, Zelen next, and then Keisha and me followed by Micah.

  We walked a linear course for over ten minutes toward the middle of the volcano; the only sound was our boots on the stones.

  “I see an opening,” Ceris shouted after a while.

  I sighed in relief.

  We crossed the archway into a large, round room. The walls were smooth, like someone had sanded the stones. The ceiling was like a dome, high and curved with the symbol of The Everlasting Circle carved in its peak, and there was some kind of altar in the center, three feet high, with holes around its perimeter.

  The power was even greater here, dancing and hopping around the room like a charged bunny. If I read too much into it, I would say it was waiting for something.

  Ceris rushed to another opening across the room. She peeked into it. “Another corridor, but it’s short and ends in a stairwell. One staircase going up, another going down.”

  Victor reached her first. “Separate, then?”

  “I don’t think we should separate,” Zelen said.

  “I don’t like the energy here and would appreciate if we could speed things along,” Izaera said.

  Micah nodded. “If we go to one first, then the other, we’ll be wasting time.”

  “All right, let’s separate the group then,” Ceris said, stepping to the side.

  Izaera stepped to the other side. “If you’re going up with Levi, I’m going down with Mitrus. If anything happens, each group has a full goddess.”

  “Good thinking,” Ceris agreed. “All right. So”—she looked at us—“Zelen and Keisha are coming with us.” They stepped closer to Ceris. “And the rest of you go down with Izaera and Mitrus.”

  Micah glanced at me, offering me a satisfied smile. With a smile of my own, I shook my head.

  Izaera turned around to us. “The plan is to go down or up, find the scepter, and come back to this room as fast as we can so we can get the hell out of here. Everyone fine with that?”

  We all nodded.

  “Good luck,” Ceris said.

  She stepped into the stairwell. Victor, Keisha, and Zelen followed her.

  “Here we go,” Izaera said, taking the lead. Morgan went after her, then Micah and me.

  The stairwell was almost as narrow as the corridor, fitting only two people side by side. It was uneven and high enough that Micah brushed the top of his head on the stones every few steps.

  After eight flights of twenty steps—I counted—Morgan spoke up. “Whoever designed this needs to go back to architecture school.” We chuckled. “Hmm, if it was you, Lord Mitrus, please forget what I said.”

  Micah laughed, and it sounded close to me. It brought goose bumps to my arms. “It wasn’t me.”

  “I think the Everlast energy carved this place,” Izaera said.

  How was that possible?

  We stayed quiet, and I wondered if these steps would ever end. I had counted them to one hundred four times and then given up because I didn’t really want to know how many there were or I would hate it more than I already did, and there was nothing I could do about it.

  “Iz,” Micah said from the back, startling me. Iz?

  “Yes?” Izaera said from the front.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, and by his steady, solemn tone, I knew he meant it. Which made me more curious. Micah was sorry? About what?

  “I know,” she said. “Apology accepted.”

  Morgan glanced back with a what-the-hell-are-they-talking-about look, and I shrugged.

  “Iz used to have a pretty garden inside the Clarity Castle,” Micah explained. “She kept a sample of the rarest plants on Earth there, the ones in extinction, and the newest ones so she could study them. On the day prior to my death, we argued about humans and their belief in us. During the argument, she brought up Levi and his ideas and how great he was and that we should follow him blindly and such. I lost my temper and burnt the entire garden.”

  “Oh.” I wasn’t sure if there was anything else to say.

  “Mitrus’s temper has always been a problem.” Izaera glanced back. “Perhaps it isn’t anymore.”

  “I’m still not sure about that.” Micah sighed. “Iz, I promise I’ll help you build it again. And I’ll even help you care for it.”

  Izaera snorted. “That’s something I’ll only believe when I see it.”

  I chuckled.

  “What?” he asked, nudging his finger against my back.

  “I can’t imagine you caring for flowers and plants.”

  “Well, you’ll see it.”

  I came to a halt, and he bumped into me. I would have tripped if he hadn’t put his arm around my waist and held me with my back pressed to him.

  I tilted my head to the side and looked up. His eyes were intent on mine, much like his tone had been, but there was something else there, something that made my decisions more difficult to carry out.

  Why did he say that? Why did he look at me like this? He knew, better than anyone, that when the world reached that point, when they were in the Clarity Castle once again caring for flowers and whatnot, I would be long gone.

  Besides that, I kept in mind the same thing I told myself after finding out what Victor really was. Micah was a god, and he would live forever. Even if I didn’t have my death day on a calendar, he would never waste time with a mortal. Yes, he was all flirty and knew exactly how to spin me around his finger. I didn’t doubt that in his long life he had had affairs with humans, but that was all. Affairs. I wasn’t an affair kind of girl.

  Holy shit, what was I thinking?

  A wave of rage coursed through me. I brushed his arm away from me and rushed down to catch up with Morgan and Izaera.

  A new tension filled the crammed air of the narrow stairwell as we continued our descent. I blamed Micah for it.

  Morgan asked, “Any idea how deep we are?”

  “We’ve been going for forty minutes,” Izaera answered. “I would say two miles or so.”

  “That’s a lot,” Morgan mumbled.

  “Which means we should be almost there,” the goddess said.

  Silence returned.

  I hoped it didn’t take much longer because each time I realized we were deep inside the earth with no windows and no central air system, I felt panic building inside me. I had no idea how we were still breathing in here, but I hoped it didn’t change any time soon.

  “We’re here,” Izaera said several minutes later.

  “Here where?” Morgan asked, watching over Izaera’s head.

  “I don’t know,” she answered. “I just see a doorway ahead.”

  I shifted to the side and looked past Morgan. The glow from the flashlight showed the faint contours of an opening about thirty yards down.

  Eager to reach it, we raced down the remaining steps and crossed the doorway. Red-hot heat wash
ed over me, and I gasped. The air was excessively stuffy here, and I felt dizzy.

  “Oh God,” I whispered, glancing around.

  We were in an underground chamber, not too tall, but wide and deep. Singed rocks lined the walls, the ceiling, and the ground. They lined everything except the lava river flowing forty feet from us. It surged up from the wall on the left and disappeared once again behind the wall on the right. Never before had I thought I would see real hot lava.

  “Wow,” Morgan whispered, big eyes on the lava. “For some reason, I don’t really like being here.”

  “Me neither,” I said.

  Izaera closed her eyes. “Can you sense it? It’s stronger here.”

  Micah narrowed his eyes. “Yes, I can.”

  I glanced around once more. There was no other opening, no other door. It had to be here. But where? Other than rocks and lava, there was nothing.

  Morgan paced in front of the doorway. “What do we do now?”

  “I don’t know,” Micah said.

  I took a few steps toward the lava. The heat increased exponentially with each step, and I wondered if I could be burned without touching it. Besides being deadly, it was a beautiful thing. Thick, orange magma, looking like creamy fire, flowing away like a wave.

  A hand clasped around my wrist. “Careful,” Micah said, holding me back. “Don’t get too close.”

  I glanced over my shoulder and found his worried eyes on me. Was he afraid I was still trying to kill myself and would jump in? “I don’t plan to,” I told him, halting. He let go of my arm but came to stand by my side. “Where could it be?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “But I bet my powers you’ll be the one to find it.”

  I looked at him. “How come?”

  “You’re the one who finds everything. Without you, we wouldn’t have done anything. We wouldn’t have gotten to Cathedral Rock, we wouldn’t have found out who we are, and we wouldn’t be here.”

  I shook my head. “I’m sure Ceris would have found a way to help.”

  “To help Victor, but not me.” Once more, his expression was solemn and his voice sincere.

  I hated when he was serious. It was hard to be mad at him, to keep my distance from him.

  “I can’t pinpoint the source of the power,” Izaera said, cutting through our trance. I lowered my eyes from his, noticing she was standing on my other side. “How are we supposed to find it?”