“Stop hiding behind your shield, coward!” Imha taunted me.
I tossed a bolt at her and moved, drawing her away from where Nadine was headed. When Imha flung another bolt at me, I put the shield back up. Breathing hard, I took account of our forces. Zelen had fallen and Izaera seemed to be overwhelmed, fighting too many at the same time. Sol was fighting Imha’s demons and our allies, while trying to protect a weakened Lua. Ronen and Maho were in charge of Lucent, but it was getting harder and harder to trick the big creature. Ceris had been grazed by a Black Thorn on her arm and was struggling to keep fighting. She had fallen back and was now fighting demons. Levi had Omi for himself, while I had Imha. It was all too balanced, too perfectly matched. Unless we came up with an advantage soon, we would keep fighting for days, until our strength drained and we simply gave up.
When we thought Imha was done bringing more shit into the Clarity Castle, mist rose from the broken pool and more demons appeared. Then a dozen more. Then another dozen.
Imha cackled like a mad witch. “Surround them!” she yelled.
Swiftly, the new arrivals formed a circle around Levi and me and started taunting us, attacking us, trying to break our focus, to make us cave.
Omi stepped away from the circle. “I think you got things covered here, my dear,” he said to Imha. His gaze went past her, past the sea of demons around us. “I have an old toy to play with.”
What?
Panic rose in my chest as I watched him disappear in the crowd, headed to where Nadine had gone.
“No!” I yelled, trying to go after him. However, Imha and more demons were in my way, and all I could do was hope.
38
Nadine
Fighting demons, I advanced toward the place where I thought the spear had fallen.
“How can I help?” Alice asked over the grunts, the clang of metal, and the screams.
I almost told her I had this, but then I considered it for a second. This was it. I had to find this damn spear and use it on Imha. There was no other plan to win this war. And if she could help me do it, great—even if it meant deviating from her first assignment of securing the second line of defense with the lesser gods and goddesses. Finding the spear and having one of us hold it and use it was key.
“Just … watch my back,” I said, trying to focus on two things at once: the attacks from demons and the floor, where I thought the spear would be, forgotten like a fallen sword from a dead soldier.
She grunted in response, already engaging a demon that had lunged for me.
I struck a demon that had been in my way and pushed its heavy body aside. Behind it, I saw another demon, picking the spear up from the floor.
Relief and panic seized my chest. I had found it! But it was in the wrong hands!
But that panic was nothing compared to what I felt when Omi stepped in front of the demon and grabbed the spear from it. My heart and my breathing stopped.
With a haunting grin, Omi turned to me. “Looking for this?” He weighed the spear in his hand. “I saw you throw this at Imha. What is it?”
I gulped, not failing to notice that the demons had stepped away, giving Omi and me more space. It was as if he had said, “She’s mine!” and they all retreated. I didn’t let that scare me. Instead, I let my mind churn with ideas of how to take the spear from the man who had murdered my family. Oh, how I wished I was a fan of torture because Omi deserved it.
Behind me, Alice stiffened, but she didn’t stop fighting the demons that got too close.
Omi twisted the spear in his hands. “It must be important; otherwise you wouldn’t have that shocked expression on your pretty face.” He started walking around the circle, his gait that of a drunk man, and his gaze shifting between the spear and me. “Is it shock? Perhaps it’s fear. Fear of me. Fear of what I did, of what I can do.” His sneer widened and the glint of his brown eyes shone almost as crazy as Imha’s. “Tell me, my dear Nadine, are you afraid I will do to you what I did to your parents? Are you going to beg like those puny, little humans did?”
That did it.
I snarled and lunged at him.
But I didn’t get far. He threw a bolt at me, and I had to sidestep it. Then Omi started sending bolt after bolt, and I didn’t stop moving—rolling, ducking, jumping, all to get away from his power. A couple of times, I stood my ground and parried the bolts with my sword so I could try to advance on him a little, but that required too much of my energy and strength; I wouldn’t be able to keep that up for long. So, I resumed moving, jumping, tumbling as he made a show of his power, molding his bolts into daggers and birds and lightning.
At the edge of the circle, Alice kept demons at bay, away from me. An idea popped in my mind and I moved around the circle, putting Alice in my line of sight. Omi, she, and I formed an almost perfect equidistant triangle. As if sensing me, Alice looked over her shoulder and, praying for this ladies of Diana bond to be strong and magical, I hoped she could read my idea in my eyes. After half a second, she nodded and feigned ignorance by attacking the next demon that crossed her path.
I fished the throwing knives from my utility belt and, with a roar, lunged at Omi. Shock colored his face for one brief second before he created a shield in front of himself. His eyes on me, he didn’t see as Alice charged him, not until the last second, before she leapt and flew at him. Another brief expression of shock took over Omi’s face, but then he slammed a new shield down. Alice rolled out of the way right before hitting it, and raised her sword at him.
Then I was running, lunging at him myself. Without hesitation, without remorse, I pushed my hand out, letting my power, my magic out. White light burst from my hand, traveling in a quick wave toward Omi. The light hit him square in the chest, and he staggered back before falling to his knees.
Not wasting one second, I pulled my sword back before plunging it into his heart.
Eyes wide and mouth hanging open, Omi hit the floor with a dull thud. Alice straddled him and with two long daggers pierced his shoulders, making sure the weapons were buried deep enough that their tips stuck in the floor underneath him.
“That should hold him for a moment,” Alice said, playing with her sword in her hand, ready to strike when he recovered from his wounds, which would be fast, since the damn man was a damn god.
I pressed my foot against his arm and pulled my sword out from his chest. He gasped, his face paling a little more, and thick red blood seeped out of the wound.
“I’ll have my revenge,” I snarled, taking the spear from his hands. For effect, I kicked his chin. His neck twisted with a sick crack.
“Go,” Alice said as I turned away from the scene.
It wasn’t easy to kill a god, and unfortunately I couldn’t kill him. As for my revenge, he was probably thinking I would torture the hell out of him, or try to kill him for real. But that wasn’t what was on my mind, as he would soon find out.
I rushed through the demons and lesser gods, trying to get to where Imha and her dozens of demons fought with Micah and Victor beside the reflective pool.
Always wanting attention and to be seen, Imha was standing on the large crystal blocks of the broken pool, making her an easy target.
It was now or never.
With the spear in hand, I dodged several demons and approached her. She was half-distracted with the battle against Micah and Victor, but I knew she wasn’t stupid and she kept her senses open, making sure no one else could approach her.
So I didn’t try to be stealthy.
“Hey, you bitch,” I called.
Slowly, she turned to me.
I threw a dagger at her. She twisted her shoulders, to avoid being hit. Then I threw the spear.
It pierced her chest and she gasped, stunned.
I also gasped, stunned that she fell for the same trick I had used before.
Oh my God, it had worked. Imha stood immobile. It was as if she were frozen in place. Her arms by her side, her head staring ahead, her feet two or three inches from the f
loor.
It was as if everyone was frozen in place. The battle had hit a pause button while everyone stared at Imha and me, even the Lucent.
Imha looked down at the spear jutting from her chest. “But how … what is this?”
“That’s the Spear of Justice,” I said, walking to her.
Omi let out a big scream, but Micah and Victor had him, and Sol growled in Ronen’s and Izaera’s grasps.
“Who do you think you are?” Imha snarled.
“Just a girl with a big ass weapon,” I said.
I felt a force taking me over, a foreign power descending over me. I blinked and when I opened my eyes, it was as if I was a spectator, watching a movie.
I opened my mouth and a foreign voice said, “Imha, goddess of chaos, I hereby sentence you to—”
“No!” she screamed.
“—spend the next one hundred years in a special cell here in the Clarity Castle. During your sentence, your powers will be useless if you try anything against anyone from the Creed, and outside that your powers will be lessened by fifty percent. When the one hundredth year comes, we’ll meet again. If I decide you still didn’t learn your lesson, I’ll extend the time of your sentence for another one hundred years, and I’ll do so until I find you trustworthy.”
Several snorts and scoffs came from behind me.
The power in me made me move. I pulled the spear from her chest and she fell to her knees, breathing hard.
“No, no, no!” she sobbed.
I turned my back on her and threw the spear at Omi’s chest. I repeated the same judgment, but Omi had the decency of not protesting or complaining.
When I pulled the spear from him, he wavered but didn’t fall down.
Then I passed the similar judgment over Sol—instead of one hundred years, his sentence was cut in half. After all, he had been a puppet. But he had had choices, and he had made the wrong ones.
In a quick succession, I repeated the process with the lesser gods and goddesses that had sided with Imha and Omi. They too deserved to be punished for the evil they inflicted.
“Ronen, Izaera, please take them to the cells on the third floor,” I said, once it seemed to be over. “Alice, please, help Lua.”
They hustled into action.
And just like that, the force was gone and my knees wobbled.
Micah was by my side in less than a second, his arms around my waist. “I’ve got you, darling.”
Around us, Maho and a couple of lesser gods rounded up the remaining demons, and Maho expelled them all to the island in Croatia—we didn’t know what to do with all of them right now, but I certainly hoped the gods didn’t kill anyone anymore.
Oddly enough, Lucent looked around. His glassy eyes scanned each one of the survivors, as if he was searching for our faces in a database and studying our records. Then he retreated to the pool, disappearing inside it. The two halves of the pool closed, but the destruction of Imha’s explosion remained.
“What the hell?” I asked.
“He sensed the threat was over and went into sleep mode again,” Micah said, slipping his arm from my waist to my shoulders and tucking me into his side.
Victor approached us, carrying a limping Ceris.
“So, I guess it’s over, huh?” I said, not feeling the relief I thought I would feel.
“This war is over,” Victor said. “We still have a lot to do.”
I frowned. “But Imha and her demons are contained.”
“True,” Ceris said. She suppressed a cough. “But the world is still in chaos. Imha might be gone, but there are other threats out there.”
Victor continued, “There are more demons hiding, and lesser gods and goddesses and other deities who didn’t show up today on either side. We have to make sure they are following our rules and not gathering for a rebellion.”
“By now the sun should be back and the weather and many other things should go back to normal,” Micah said. “But in the last thirty years, many countries and nations have fallen, many governments were in disarray. We need to help the humans in any way we can.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You plan on revealing yourselves to them?”
Victor shook his head. “No, but we can use our powers to influence them, to help them make the right decisions to speed up the recovery. Once they have a good grip on it, we’ll retreat and keep an eye from a distance.”
“But first,” Ceris paused, groaning. “We bring a healer to take care of our injured and we should rest.”
I smiled at her. “And you need to rest.”
She wrinkled her pretty nose. “Only after we’re done here.”
I shook my head. By the state of things inside the Clarity Castle, we wouldn’t be done cleaning for days. I knew Victor would find a way to make her rest, though.
Meanwhile, Micah and I decided divide and conquer was the best approach, so after a quick kiss he and I went around the throne room, taking into account all that needed to be done, and the injured who needed immediate attention. It would be a long night.
After hours helping at the Clarity Castle, I finally crossed the portal and went back to the villa. The portal let out at the reflective pool in the back garden.
My breath caught as I stared at the sky.
The black was receding, as if it had been clouds hanging above our heads this entire time, and the sun—the beautiful, bright, warm sun—was descending to hide behind the top of a hill.
The colors …
Tears brimmed in my eyes. Blue and yellow and orange and even red splashed the canvas of the sky. Together with the green and purple of the garden, I was sure I had never seen a more beautiful sight in my entire life.
I sat at the edge of the pool and tilted my head back, trying to memorize each detail, each shade, each feeling coursing through me at this precious moment. Because this was the first time I was seeing the sun with my own eyes, and it would be the last.
Micah had been avoiding me since we separated to help with the wounded and repairs. I knew why he turned away each time I got close to him. I understood because I was feeling the same.
But a deal was a deal, and it was time to pay.
We won the war. There would be no immediate trouble. Yes, there still was a lot to be done to fix the world, to put it back together, but that wasn’t my problem anymore. The gods and goddesses could do that without me. Now it was time for my family to come back—to a safer world, to a hopeful world—and live their lives.
I stood and went to search for Micah.
It was time for me to die.
39
Micah
The Clarity Castle and the villa in England looked like a hospital. There were cots spread everywhere and healers walking around going from deity to deity to make sure their wounds weren’t fatal, or to speed up their already super healing.
The throne room had been cleared though, and Ceris, Levi, Izaera, Maho, Ronen, and I discussed our next steps.
The reflective pool was still destroyed, like the rest of the place. Our priority was to get everyone back to his or her full health, and then we would begin restoration.
After agreeing to take the less seriously wounded deities to the villa in England—and we made a note to seal the portal soon—Ceris decided it was time to bother me.
“Why isn’t Nadine here?” Ceris asked, sitting on her throne. After spending half an hour with a healer, Ceris deemed she was feeling well enough to start helping too.
Groaning, I paced in front of my throne. “Don’t.”
“Oh, I forgot.” Her tone dripped with sarcasm. “You’re avoiding her.”
“Stop,” I hissed.
“Ceris,” Levi said, his tone definite. “Stop bothering him.”
“But it’s true!” She became serious. “It’s your responsibility. You can’t avoid it forever. You know there are consequences.”
“I know!” I shouted.
Fuck. It pained me to stay away from her, but yes, I had been avoiding Nadine. I a
lways kept her aura on my radar, so I knew when she was coming, and I turned the other way. She was probably pissed at me, thinking I was running for two reasons. One, because I didn’t love her anymore or two, because I wanted to delay the inevitable.
She was ready for the Soul Oath. I wasn’t.
Letting out a sigh, I plopped down on my throne. “I can’t … I can’t lose her. I can’t let her die.”
“That’s not your choice,” Nadine said from behind me.
“Shit,” I whispered. Apparently, I hadn’t been doing a good job of checking for her aura. I stood and faced her. “Please, Nadine,” I groaned. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Izaera, Maho, and Ronen leaving the room.
“No, Micah. You don’t get to do this.” She walked to me. “Please, don’t do this to me. Don’t make it harder than it has to be.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “You can’t ask that of me.”
“Micah, I asked for this months ago and you agreed. I don’t need to ask again; you just need to pay.”
I groaned. “How can you be so fine about this?”
“I’m not!” she yelled. Then she continued, her voice even. “I’m not. But this is something I have to do. And I will do it. We will do it. Right now.”
She was right. We couldn’t delay the Soul Oath or we both would suffer unspeakable pains until both of us were too weak to finish what we started, and both of us died in torture. Well, that was how it was supposed to go. Being a god, I would probably survive, but it would still hurt a lot. I didn’t mind the pain, though. What I minded was a life, an eternal life, without Nadine.
My eyes filled with tears. “Nadine …”
She stepped into me and my arms went around her, holding her against me. I buried my face on her neck and inhaled deeply, trying to etch her sweet scent to my brain.
“I love you,” she whispered in my ear. “I’ll always love you.”
“I … I love you too,” I said.
I moved my mouth to hers, kissing her soft and slow. It wasn’t a deep, harsh kiss. It was a lingering, caring, longing kiss.
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