“I’m here.” Levi’s voice filled the room as I was serving myself another double shot. I dropped the glass and turned to him. “Sorry, I’m late. It wasn’t easy to dodge Ceris.”
I gestured to the hundreds of bottles behind me. “Can I get you anything to drink?”
“I don’t want—” Levi’s gaze fell on Morgan and his eyes widened. “Morgan! You’re here!”
Morgan bowed. “Yes, my lord. It’s good to see you.”
Levi offered him a small smile. “You too.”
“I’m sorry, my lord, for all the problems I caused when I was under the Crimson Dagger’s influence.”
“It’s okay, Morgan. I know you weren’t yourself.” Then Levi turned to me. He crossed his arms, his brows creased. “I don’t have too much time, Mitrus. Tell me why you would risk our cover by calling me here.”
“I can’t take it anymore!” I yelled, clenching my fists. “Imha is … ugh, she’s so clingy, and it has been hard to dodge her.”
“I know, brother.”
“And there’s Omi too. I don’t think he trusts me. I think he’s suspicious.”
“As long as he doesn’t find anything to incriminate you, it should be okay.”
“But it isn’t okay.” I sank down on the chaise lounge. “Being there, working with them … it disgusts me.”
One side of Levi’s lips curled up. “I’m glad to know that.”
I growled at him. “I’m serious. I’m gonna break soon.”
Levi sighed. “It was your idea, brother. Hang in there. We’re almost done with all this madness. Just a few more days.”
“Days?” I scoffed. “I think you mean weeks. Months.”
Levi shook his head. “I hope not. I’m tired of this war. I want it to end soon.”
Me too. Gods, how I wanted it to end. And yet, I didn’t. Because once it was done, once the war was over, the Soul Oath would be complete, and I … I just couldn’t think about that right now.
I let out a long breath. “There’s one more thing.”
Levi lifted one eyebrow. “What?”
“Besides Aruhi, there’s someone else in Imha’s dungeons.”
Noticing my dejected tone, Levi sat on the chaise across from mine. “Who?”
Every so often, I thought about the library at the monastery. I relived the events, thinking, studying what I could have done differently. I could have gotten the Cup of Life. I could have grabbed a few books before the place burned down. I could have done so many things differently. If I had, I wouldn’t have to pretend to be one of Imha’s faithful minions right now. I wouldn’t have to endure her evil smiles. Worse than those, her naughty smiles. I shuddered, disgusted just thinking about it.
Morgan paced in front of me.
“You’re making me nervous, Morgan,” I said from the chaise lounge.
He halted. “Sorry, my lord. It’s just … I’m thinking.”
I wasn’t in the mood for talking, but I indulged him. After all, he indulged me all the time. “About?”
He looked at me with big eyes, as if he was going to tell me the discovery of the century. “What if the books survived the fire?”
“That’s … how would they have survived the fire?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, my lord. I’m just pondering. I mean, that place was hidden and sacred. Surely, whoever created that place must have protected its contents against any damage. No? I don’t know. I’m just rambling nonsense now.”
Nonsense. But what if it wasn’t? What if he was right? What if …
I stood in a flash, startling Morgan.
“You put an itch in my mind and now I’ll have to go back and check it out.”
Morgan wrinkled his nose. “I-I’m sorry?”
With a half-smile, I shook my head and teleported to outside the monastery. From there, I followed the same steps Levi and I had taken before but halted when I saw the library building destroyed by the fire. The fire was long gone, but the walls were black, the windows broken, and the roof had caved in.
“Shit,” I muttered. I hoped I could get to the secret staircase.
It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The hardest part was descending the narrow staircase with all the rubble on the steps. I had to use magic several times to move aside stones and bricks.
When I finally reached the secret library, I gasped.
The walls were black, the shelves were burned to a crisp, most had fallen over or turned into ashes … but the books? The books were intact. The books and the scrolls. All of them. Perfectly intact.
“No way.”
Morgan had been right! There was a spell on the library’s contents.
In haste, I moved over the shelves—most crumbled into even smaller pieces when I tried to lift them—and went back to the last place I had seen the book. Under a broken shelf and more books, I found it. The book about Diana. I opened it and made sure the pages were all still there. Not ripped out, not burned.
Incredible.
I teleported back to my lair in the underworld.
“Back already?” Morgan asked, his brow at his hairline. His eyes found the book in my hands. “There was a spell on the books?”
“It seems that way.” I sat down on the chaise and flipped the book open to the chapter about the ladies of Diana. “Here.”
Morgan leaned over my shoulder and read it with me.
The ladies of Diana were females who had been chosen to serve Diana, helping her maintain justice and peace in the world.
Often ladies of Diana were confused with heroes from the Everlasting Circle. However, heroes were chosen by the Fates, while the ladies of Diana were chosen by Diana’s magic. Another difference is heroes were stronger and had an accelerated healing, while ladies of Diana were stronger, had accelerated healing, but also had special abilities.
Most ladies of Diana possessed several abilities, like being expert warriors with any kind of weapon, being able to heal minor injuries or pains from humans and lesser gods, and finding missing people. These special abilities varied from lady to lady, depending mostly on their ranking under Diana’s command.
“That’s it,” Morgan said, his voice full of wonder. “Nadine is a lady of Diana. That’s why she could heal you and Lord Levi. That’s why she found the scepters and is now finding other gods. And I’m guessing Alice is one too.”
And Keisha was one too.
That made sense.
I handed the book to Morgan and started pacing. Morgan sat down with the book open and he became immersed in it. Meanwhile, I let my mind wander, remembering each of the times Nadine had touched me and healed me, the time she had found Levi’s and my scepters, and then given us the energy to transform into full gods. The times she had looked at the map and seen symbols, even when no one else could see them. And she had become an expert fighter in such a short time.
It did make sense.
But why didn’t her aura read like Alice’s and Keisha’s? Every god or goddess knew what Alice and Keisha were from their auras, but we didn’t feel the same thing with Nadine’s. Why?
“I think I may have found something, my lord,” Morgan announced.
I turned to him. “Yes?”
Morgan turned the book to me. “See this chapter?” He pointed to the picture of Diana. She stood in front of her ladies, holding a crystal spear. “This chapter talks about Diana’s weapon, the spear of justice. According to this text, the spear has a unique power. It can render any enemy immobile, even major gods, allowing Diana to pass judgment without any interference.”
I frowned. “This Diana is powerful, huh?”
“She was.”
If Diana could really render any enemy immobile, she could win this entire freaking war for us. “We should look for her. She could be of great help.”
“My lord, there’s another chapter here that explains more about Diana’s vanishing act. It says that she’s not just hiding. It says she’s dead. For real. Otherwise, don’t you think sh
e would have stopped Lady Imha and Lord Omi by now? She is the goddess of justice, after all.”
By the Everlast, I wished he weren’t right. If Diana was still around, she could be a great ally. Our ultimate weapon. But if she was alive and hiding, then she had some explaining to do.
“How about her spear?” I asked.
Morgan narrowed his eyes. “What about it?”
“Maybe we can’t find Diana, but we can try to find her spear, and with the spear, we can stop Imha and Omi.”
“That’s a good theory.”
I clicked my tongue, realizing something important. “To activate our scepters, we had to be the ones to hold it. If this spear is like that, we won’t be able to touch it.”
“Maybe you can’t, but the ladies of Diana can.”
“Nadine,” I whispered.
“Or Alice,” Morgan offered.
“Yeah, right. Her too.” He smiled. “I should tell the others.” I was ready to teleport to NYC, but Morgan raised his hand.
“You shouldn’t go, my lord. Your cover might be blown if you do.”
Damn it. “I’ll send a message to Levi, then.”
26
Nadine
Alice and I walked out of the gym and saw Victor at the door, accepting a rolled paper from a man I had never seen before.
I stopped and watched as Victor nodded to the man, then closed the door, his eyes on the rolled paper in his hands. Uninterested, Alice went to the kitchen.
I wiped the sweat from my face with my towel. “Who was that?”
He looked up from the paper. “I’m not entirely sure,” he said, his voice low, distant.
He unrolled the paper and read it. His forehead creased and his lips pressed into a thin line. Not good.
Finally, he rolled the paper and beckoned me to follow him. Wary, I went with him to his bedroom, where Ceris was seated in an armchair reading a book about the creed. She closed the book and raised her eyebrows at us. At the little table beside her, a wild rose-scented candle burned.
He marched to the bed, sat on the mattress, and swept his hand in front of him. The map I had left in my bedroom appeared on the mattress.
“I need you to find someone for me,” he said.
I walked to the bed and looked down at the map. “Who?”
He extended his hand between us and a bolt of white power appeared floating over his palm. The bolt morphed into a symbol. A round circle, like the other gods and goddesses, with lines of varying width crossing each other in the center.
“Find this symbol. Please.”
I sat down beside him and focused on the map. The symbols sprouted to life, their white shine blinking all over the map. I still hadn’t figured out what that meant. Were these deities teleporting like Ceris did every time we left our apartment, or was their energy lost and spread throughout the world?
Ceris stood from the armchair and sat on the other side of the bed. “Whose symbol is that?”
Victor lifted one finger, as if asking her for a moment. “Do you see it?”
I focused on the map. It didn’t matter who it was, as long as we could find him or her, and convince this deity to join us. Our time to assemble an army was running out.
I searched for over twenty minutes, while Ceris and Victor breathed down my neck, waiting and making me tense.
“I don’t see anything,” I finally said. “Maybe this deity is hiding his aura.”
Victor shook his head. “I think this deity is dead. I wanted to find her weapon.”
“Why?” Ceris asked.
Victor looked at the paper rolled in his hand. “It doesn’t matter now.”
Ceris pointed to the paper. “What is that?”
Victor waved his hand and the paper disappeared. “Nothing.”
Ceris glared at him but didn’t say anything.
Meanwhile, I continued staring at the map. If the deity were dead, I couldn’t find her, but if her weapon was still around, I should be able to find it, just as I had found Victor’s and Micah’s scepters.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, emptying my mind. Feeling silly, I called on the magic, whatever magic was hidden in me—if any. I opened my eyes and concentrated on the map. I searched each millimeter, ignoring the blinking and moving symbols I saw all the time. They weren’t the ones I was looking for.
Then I saw it. A faint little thing, hidden under several of the blinking, moving symbols. It never moved or blinked, and with the other symbols jumping around it, its shine became almost imperceptible. Almost.
“I found it,” I said.
Victor stiffened. “You did?” I nodded and he rushed to my side, leaning over the map. “Where is it?”
I pointed to the Coliseum in Rome.
Ceris crossed her arms. “All right, now tell us. Who is this deity?”
Victor sighed. “A long time ago, there was a goddess who ruled separately from the Everlasting Circle, but adjacent. Her name was Diana, the goddess of justice, courage, wisdom, and honesty. She could overrule us.”
Ceris’s brows dipped into a frown. “Wait, I don’t remember any goddess named Diana.”
“Like I said, it was too long ago. We forgot about her.”
“But … how did we forget her?” Ceris asked.
“That doesn’t matter,” Victor answered. “What matters is that Nadine may have found Diana’s spear.”
“What is so special about that spear?” I asked.
Victor stood from the bed and looked at us, a revived shine in his blue-green eyes. “As the goddess of justice, Diana had the power to pass judgment over us, and her spear had the ability to render any deity immobile while doing it.”
Ceris gasped. “So, with the spear we can capture Imha and Omi.”
The corners of Victor’s lips tugged up and he nodded. “Exactly.”
“But if this spear is like your scepters, only you can use it,” I pointed out. “And this Diana is dead.”
“Well, this is where the next bit of information comes in,” Victor said. Now he sounded like a crazy scientist going over his incredible finding. “I have reason to believe Alice isn’t a hero.”
I frowned. “Then what is she?”
He smiled. “The same thing you are.”
“W-what?”
“Along with Diana, there was a group of females called the ladies of Diana. These females were accomplished warriors, much like heroes, who helped Diana with her duties. They rose in rank and the highest-ranking lady was known for several abilities. Finding deities, minor healing, a little magic …”
I gasped.
“Nadine and Alice are ladies of Diana,” Ceris whispered with wide eyes.
“And Keisha was one too,” Victor added.
“But …” I couldn’t find any words for this new discovery.
“It makes sense,” Victor said. “Look at everything you did, everything you can do. It’s not a coincidence. We knew you were something. Now we know what.”
I stood. “That’s … impossible.”
“Why?” Victor asked. “By now, you should have realized nothing is impossible.”
I did realize that, but this was different. This was me, my life. It was one thing to think, to presume, there was magic in me, and another to know there was magic in me and to know where it came from.
Lady of Diana. And not just any lady. Judging by the many abilities I possessed, a high-ranked one.
“I think Nadine can take and use the spear,” Victor continued, adding to my shock. “As Diana’s highest-ranked lady among us, you should be able to.”
“But … what if this is all a mistake?” I asked. “I mean, what if we’re not ladies of Diana. What if we’re something else?”
Victor sighed. “If you aren’t a lady of Diana, then we’ll know when you try to take the spear and can’t.”
I swallowed. I was trying to reason against gods. Better to just do whatever they were telling me. If they were right, good. If they were wrong, we could scra
tch this and focus on another theory.
“All right.” I filled my lungs with air as if it could provide me with courage. “When are we leaving?”
“Not we. Just you,” Victor said.
“What?” Ceris asked, her blue eyes hard on him. “Levi, can I talk to you for a minute?” She walked to the other side of the bedroom.
With a heavy sigh, Victor stood and walked to her. They exchanged a few harsh whispers while I pretended I wasn’t seeing anything.
After two minutes, Ceris walked out of the bedroom and Victor turned to me. “Go gear up and pack. You’re leaving now.”
I opened my mouth to ask more questions about it—What did he mean leave now? Where was I going? How would I find the spear by myself? And if I ran into a band of demons? Or Imha? But his cold eyes told me not to question it. Not now.
I swallowed my protests and marched to my bedroom.
I put on our beige armor and boots, packed a small leather satchel with an extra change of clothes and some food and water, grabbed a sword and two small daggers from the training room. All the while trying to ignore the nervousness rising in me.
Oh my God, that was what I was? A lady of Diana? We had finally found out? How had Victor stumbled on this information? He didn’t just find it this morning, lying around our living room.
When I was ready, Victor escorted me out of the building—quietly, almost as if he didn’t want anyone else to see me.
“You have four days to find the spear and come back. On the fifth day, we’ll have all of our allies gathered here, and we’ll march on Imha.”
Four days. If I didn’t have someone to teleport me, I wasn’t sure how to get there and come back in four days. I still couldn’t believe he was sending me away. How the hell was I supposed to cross the ocean alone in four days? Make that two days since I had to go and come back.
“Are you giving me any details, or I’m supposed to figure out what to do and how to get there by myself?”
“You won’t be alone,” Victor said as we crossed the protective shield. He touched my arm and teleported us to three random places before arriving at what looked like an deserted road in Japan—that was what I assumed by the looks of the abandoned buildings along the road.
The Everlast Series Boxed Set Page 67