Paldimori Gods Rising Box Set

by T. L. Callahan

  10

  Jaxon had acted like he was afraid to get near me on the ride down to the training floor. He had left me at the elevator doors saying he had something to look into. The only people I saw were Devon and Maya who looked to be having a battle of wills as they glared at each other. Instead of going in the direction Jaxon had pointed out to get to the gym, I went the opposite way, deciding I had time to explore.

  The training floor was a massive cave that looked like an insane interior decorator had pieced together stage settings for all four of the elements. There was a forest area for earth. A large lagoon area for water. A scary-looking section of rock pillars that glowed an angry red was fire. And two slender towers surrounded by rushing wind. There were other areas too, but I didn’t stop to check them out.

  When I arrived at the gym area, Molly was already there looking angry and ready to rip into me. Then I noticed her eyes dart over to the man and woman sparring on the mats. Lia was here! I rushed over happy to see her, but before I could reach her Bennett took advantage of her distraction to tag her. She said something, and he scooped her up. She shouted to me that she would see me at dinner as he carried her toward the elevator. The excitement I had felt at finally getting to spend some time with her died. She had promised she would be here with me through this. It looked like I was on my own.

  I turned to Molly, surprised to see a look of pain on her face as she watched Lia leave as well. What had happened between those two? Before I could ask, Molly started snapping out instructions. She pushed my limits, but I took up the challenge and made it my own. If Molly declared we were doing burpees, I added a Malasana pose—or yoga squat. It wasn’t about trying to crack that tough shell of hers—I considered the fact that Molly had yelled at me for a solid five minutes as progress—but I needed to win this. My whole life was hanging in the balance.

  By the time I took second place in the three-mile foot race, I was exhausted, but feeling a little lighter. Slowly the edges of the crater that losing Dan and my job had left in my life were being filled with new purpose. I could do this.

  I went up to my room and was surprised to find Lia there waiting for me. For the first time since we had literally run into each other in college, I didn’t know how to act around her. Lia had been the only other constant in my life besides Dan. She had been through a lot, and I had allowed her to be the one to determine how much she was willing to share of what had happened to her. She had finally told me about the boating accident with her parents a couple of months ago. She’d also promised that she was going to try harder to open up to me, but she was rarely around anymore. When she was, she seemed more and more different.

  She hugged me and apologized for not being able to be with me until now. I shrugged it off like it was no big deal, but that wasn’t the way it felt. Lia followed me to the bathroom talking about how great I was doing. She was still talking when I hopped in the shower. It was funny how our roles seemed reversed right now. She was the one talking non-stop and all in love. I was the one holding back and having no luck in love.

  “Damn, Dia, you almost beat that asshole Mikhail in the race today,” Lia shouted to be heard over the shower. “How come I’ve never seen you run like that?”

  “Probably because you’re allergic to exercise,” I shouted back while trying to keep shampoo suds out of my mouth.

  “Hey, I can’t help it if I have an allergy,” she exclaimed in defense. “People should thank me for not putting them in harm’s way.”

  “You are more accident prone than Wile E. Coyote in a gym.” I finished rinsing and turned off the shower. “What do you think would have happened if the Road Runner had been a girl? She probably would have brought in a bear. And been all like ‘come get some grub.’ Nom nom. The end.”

  “Don’t hate on the coyote. Watching him get blown up by his own traps was the only thing that kept me sane that summer I was bedridden.”

  “That must be where your love of action movies came from.”

  “What can I say? Chaos and mayhem are kinda my things. You could even say Chaos is my superpower,” Lia said with a chuckle. “I’ve given up on the cape, though. My time as Dominatrix Girl in the first competition ruined my interest in costumes.”

  I dried off and slipped into a peasant shirt and harem pants. Then walked to the sink where Lia sat on the counter swinging her legs. Her long mahogany hair was pulled up in a high ponytail. Her red V-neck Star Wars T-shirt had a picture of Princess Leia on it and said: Don’t Mess with a Princess. The shirt was more form-fitting than usual, as were her jeans. They both showed off a well-endowed Romanesque body that left men panting, unlike my own nonexistent curves.

  She was humming—something I hadn’t heard her do in a long time. I had been forced into enough movie marathons with her to recognize the Star Wars theme song. For some strange reason, she was obsessed with those movies. I had never been a fan. Give me cartoons or romance. Happy endings were my soul food.

  I dug into my messenger bag and pulled out my brush, prepared to tackle my Rapunzel-like hair.

  “Here, let me.” Lia jumped off the counter and took my brush. She sectioned the damp tresses that skimmed my thighs and started working through the tangles. Our reflections were a sharp contrast in the mirror. She was the tall all-American beauty with porcelain skin that I had longed for as a child. I looked like an exotic waif with my olive-toned skin and large azure-blue eyes. She was my opposite in every way, but there was no one else in the world I had ever felt closer to.

  Or I had at one time.

  “Thanks,” I said around the lump in my throat.

  “I haven’t done this since we were in college.” Lia’s eyes met my teary gaze in the mirror. “I meant what I said about being a better friend, Dia.”

  There were things I wanted to say, but my throat closed up on me.

  She swallowed thickly, her own eyes teary but didn’t say anything more. I watched silently as she worked over my hair. I had held on tight to the image of the girl I knew from college. I’d safely preserved that memory of who she had been as if she would one day pick it back up like a favorite shirt. But seeing her now, I knew that Lia was long gone.

  Pain bit into my chest—the feeling I was losing her all over again.

  She was creating a new life for herself, one with Bennett. One without me. I needed to let the image of who I wanted her to be go. I pictured that bright-eyed girl who knew she could take on the world and win. I mentally wrapped her up in a giant hug and whispered, “Goodbye, College Lia, I’m going to miss you.”

  Her image faded away.

  But even if we were different people now, I had to believe our friendship would last. She was the sister of my heart. Losing Lia completely would be the last blow to crumble my battered heart. Determination filled me.

  Hello, New Lia, it’s nice to meet you.

  She bumped my hip, pulling me from my thoughts, “Are you ok?

  “Yeah, I think I will be.”

  “I’m here if you want to talk,” Lia said cautiously, “We could have a sleepover like we used to?”

  “I think I’d like that.”

  “Great.” The excited smile she gave me brought a little bit of color back to my world.

  11

  The same black-haired boy from my dream last night sat atop the black-and-red dragon. His eyes swirled with colors, but there was no mistaking the pain in their depths. He held out his hand toward me. On his palm was a large emerald that glowed, lighting up his haggard face.

  The emerald called to me like a siren song. It whispered to me that it belonged with me. That I was its true owner. That we needed each other. I craved it and tears slipped down my cheeks as I struggle to be reunited with the stone. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move.

  Cold crept up around my bare ankles and up my calves. When I looked down I saw frost climbing up my legs. I shivered in my sleep shirt. The sound of millions of cries pushed against me. I covered my ears, but it couldn’
t block out the sound. I searched for the boy, wanting him to make it stop. His eyes settled into a startling sapphire-blue color and, for a moment, his face morphed from that of a young boy to a man’s. Then darkness began to swirl around him and the swirling colors slowly bled back into his eyes to take over the blue. His face contorted in agony and the boy was back.

  A single bright blue tear slid down his cheek before the darkness swallowed him.

  My eyes opened to darkness with a shout on the tip of my tongue. For a moment, I thought I was stuck in the dark with the boy, but then I saw moonlight coming from the bedroom window. Slowly, I sat up on the side of the bed and put my head in my hands. It wasn’t unusual for my dreams to be filled with people and places I’d never seen before. But this felt different. I didn’t know why but this dream had felt like a possibility. Like a premonition of something that could happen. My stomach clenched thinking of that darkness.

  I walked over to the windows. The moon was nearly full and hung high over the valley below. A glimmer of light on a ridge top in the distance caught my attention. What was that? Movement at the base of my spine had me spinning around, but the room was empty. That dream must have affected me more than I realized. Then I felt it again and, with it, came a tugging sensation. Almost, like what I had felt for the emerald in my dream, but not as intense.

  I rubbed the base of my spine and closed my eyes trying to figure out where the tugging was coming from. Moments later, I heard the chime of the elevator.

  Great Mother Earth, how had I gotten here?

  I was standing right outside the elevator—in a jungle. At least, that was my guess, since I was surrounded by the heavy weight of humid air and the damp scent of earth. Not to mention the towering trees and riot of animal sounds. Sweat beaded my skin already. The sun was bright in the projected sky. The transition from night that I had seen outside my window to this artificial day was jarring. That tugging sensation flared up again. I was an adventurer, it was in my DNA, but even I knew it would be a bad idea to go into the jungle by myself.

  I turned to get back on the elevator and shrieked. I scrambled backwards and fell onto my butt. Grass tickled the backs of my thighs as my sleep shirt bunched up around my waist. My messenger bag tangled around me, I hadn’t even known I was carrying it. A giant crab stood in front of the elevator. It was easily three feet tall with pincers as big as dinner plates. Its plated body was splashed with blues and purples, and reddish-brown patches down its six segmented legs. Its antennae waved in the air as its dark red eyes watched me from the end of their stalks.

  It was kinda ugly-cute. The colors were pretty, but weren’t bright colors a sign that something was poisonous? I slowly untangled myself from my bag and started to stand. The crab took a step closer. I stopped moving and it did too. I tried again with the same results. Ok, we were at a shellmate.

  “Uh, hey, I didn’t mean to invade your space,” I said to the giant crab. “Yeah, so, if you want to just move a little to the side, I can leave.”

  The crab’s claws made clacking sounds as they opened and closed rapidly. I gulped and braced myself for an attack. It scuttled forward, and I jumped to my feet. I got into a self-defense stance and waited. One big claw reached out and bumped my bag. The it did it again. “You want my bag?”

  The claw eased forward, and the strap of my bag was between those claws. “Hey, you don’t have to break it.” My hand contacted the edge of the claw and impressions came to me in the same way as with Mr. Skittles.

  Color. Shine. Mine. Color. Shine. Mine. Goddess.

  A smile stretched across my lips and I laughed. I was Dr. Doolittle. “You can have the bag. But you have to promise to let me leave after I give it to you. Ok?”

  Stay. Belong. Show. Goddess.

  What did that mean? A rustling sound came from the woods behind me. Then the chittering of monkeys. I loved animals, but this was looking more like a When Animals Attack! episode. I slipped the bag over my head and dropped it in front of the crab. “It’s all yours. Remember our deal?”

  Instead of taking the bag, it nudged me with the back side of its claw. I stumbled back a step. A glance over my shoulder showed monkeys peering at me from the tree line. This was an alternate universe where the animals herded the human. I put my hand back on the crab-thing to communicate, but I was suddenly knocked off my feet. A solid weight pushed me into the ground. Heavy breathing brushed my ear and my training kicked in.

  I reached both hands behind my head as I pulled my knees up and used my hips as leverage to flip the person off me. I quickly rolled in the opposite direction and got to my feet. The forest was unnaturally silent.

  “I stand—or I guess ‘lie’ would be the proper word at the moment—corrected,” Jaxon said, his voice full of amusement. “You aren’t a peacock, you’re a tiger in disguise. Mind giving me a hand up, Tigerlily?”

  “I have a name,” I grumbled as I offered him a hand. “You probably flirt with so many women you don’t remember it.”

  “I remember everything about you, Tigerlily,” he grinned. “Some parts more fondly than others.”

  He flashed me a teasing smile as he took my hand and tugged. I landed on top of him with a grunt.

  “What’re you doing?” I struggled in his hold and managed to get into a sitting position.

  “Talking,” he said as his large hands gripped my thighs.

  Oh, this was bad. I straddled his hips. The hardness beneath me wasn’t all muscle. Heat crept across my chest and Jaxon laughed at my reaction. My traitorous body urged me to take advantage of our positions, and I had to think of yoga to keep my hips from moving.

  “W-We can talk just fine standing,” I gulped. “Uh, like on opposite sides of the jungle.”

  “This is the Emerald Rain Forest.” He watched me patiently as if waiting for something and he had all the time in the world. “I’m not sure how you even found this floor, but you are always full of surprises.” I tried to move off him, but he gripped me tighter. “What’s your hurry? I find this a very comfortable position to talk in.”

  “I don’t think so.” I struggled again, but that only seemed to make things worse. The hardness underneath the fly of his jeans grew bigger. His grip on my hips tightened, pulling me more firmly against that ridge. My breath trembled out of me as he rubbed against me through the thin layer of my panties.

  “So, uh, do you think if a tree falls in the woods it still makes a noise?” I squeaked out, trying to distract us both. “I bet yes. Animals would hear it. Owls have excellent hearing, you know. So do cats. Mr. Skittles one day heard me open a pack of Skittles all the way downstairs, and I was really quiet.”

  Jaxon was laughing, but a deeper laugh joined in from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to find a smiling Bennett and a very angry-looking Lia.

  “I think your friend is fine,” Bennett said.

  Lia stomped over to us. “Having fun, Jaxon?”

  “Yes,” he smirked, “could you maybe not ruin the moment? You tend to be a bad influence.”

  “No way, that’s my best friend you’re trying to sex-up.” Lia grabbed my hand and pulled me off him. “She’s way too innocent to be left alone with you.”

  Heat crept over my chest. “Geez, I’m not a kid. We were just ... talking.”

  “Exactly.” Lia said, then gave Jaxon the “I’m-watching-you” gesture. She turned to me. “Why are you here?”

  “Whoa, what’s going on?” I asked. Instead of answering me, she glanced around the area. I had a feeling that my bestie wasn’t telling me something. Again. My heart ached, but I told myself to give it time. “Hey, did you see where that crab went to?”

  “Do you mean Phil?” Bennett asked as he wrapped his arm around Lia.

  “Uh, maybe? There was this giant crab with pretty purple and blue colors.” I looked around again, but there was nothing except us. “He was blocking the elevator.”

  Jaxon stepped closer. “He’s a coconut crab. A huge coconut crab thanks to Moll
y feeding him all the time. He’s harmless.”

  Lia elbowed Bennett in the stomach. Then snuggled into his arms. “You named a giant crab Phil?”

  “It is a fitting name.” Bennett pulled Lia tight against him. “He often comes to the elevator doors when anyone visits. Phil is an excellent doorman.”

  “Only you would have a giant crab as a door greeter, wacky wizard.” Lia pushed out of Bennett’s arms and walked toward the elevator. Bennett narrowed his eyes and, a second later, she yelped, rubbing her butt. She glared at him over her shoulder. “Not nice.”

  Bennett stalked after her and I looked away. Jealousy was an ugly emotion that I wasn’t used to feeling.

  I looked around the area once more. “I think Phil took my bag.”

  Jaxon helped me search, but we didn’t find any sign of it. “They’re called ‘robber crabs’ for a reason. He lives over there in the roots of that group of trees.” Jaxon pointed to a dense group of massive trees in the distance. “We can go search and give those two some privacy.”

  Bennett’s deep voice cut in. “A servant can be sent later. Dinner will be served soon, and the Kyrion are hosting tonight.”

  Lia cleared her throat. “Yeah, that means they’re going to invite the peasants up to the Kyrion floors to wow them with their fancy digs. Then bore us to tears with another ceremony. Run while you can, Dia.”

  “I would, but a klepto crab is probably doing drag with the only bra I brought with me,” I sighed. “How formal is this dinner?”

  12

  Candlelight danced on the river-rock walls of the dining room. Huge candle chandeliers hung from the arched ceiling above. Large paintings of the same men and women portrayed in the smaller statues in the throne room lined the walls. Beyond the three open arches at the end of the room, people stood at long tables intently focused on preparing numerous dishes for the meal. A fire roared in a large fireplace at the center of the back wall where meats cooked on spits. Women in black jumpsuits climbed tall ladders to pluck herbs from pots that covered the rest of the wall from floor to ceiling.