Paldimori Gods Rising Box Set

by T. L. Callahan

  Giovanni’s face appeared above me. “Be calm, Lia. You must stop fighting, or you will hurt yourself.” His weathered hand pressed against the bubble surrounding my head as my mouth opened wide, struggling to find a breath. But there was no air, only the clear liquid burning through me with every swallow. “Jameson, she’s having a panic attack! Get the blasted thing off her.”

  The restraining bubble disappeared. The liquid streamed from around my head and poured out of my mouth, as if someone was suctioning it from my lungs. Lights danced in my vision as it took the last of my breath with it. Gurgling sounds issued from my throat as the liquid lifted into the air in a reverse rain shower before disappearing. I curled over the side of the table coughing and gagging so hard my eyes felt as if they would pop out.

  Grayson elbowed my grandfather out of the way, talking to me in a soothing voice as I shuddered through every wracking cough. My lungs filled with air as they tried to figure out how to function properly again, but it was little use as sobs replaced the coughing. My grandfather grasped my hand and placed a white handkerchief in it. Grayson continued to rub my back until there were no more tears left in me. I wiped my eyes and blew my nose. Then flopped onto my back feeling wrung out.

  “I am sorry for this, but you had to know the truth of your parents’ deaths.” Giovanni smoothed away a lock of hair stuck to my forehead, his eyes full of pain and sadness as he looked down at me. “They loved you greatly, Lia. I am glad my only son found such happiness with you and your mother.” Regrets carved new lines into his wrinkled face even as I watched, and my heart melted a bit toward him. Whatever had happened between them, he had loved his son.

  Garbled words poured from my lips, but Grayson got the gist and helped me to sit up. The sounds of a fight reached me. Bennett and Jameson danced around each other trading punches. Both were bleeding from various cuts. Bennett launched into a rapid-fire series of kicks that got past Jameson’s guard and dropped him to his back. Jameson quickly rolled to his feet and laughed as he tackled my furious bond-mate. We had become allies with a madman. I turned my head away, not having the energy to deal with them.

  I pushed my surprisingly dry hair away from my face and stopped short at the sight of my hands. My throat burned still, and my words came out barely above a whisper when I said, “W-why am I g-gl-lowing?”

  “The memory serum,” Giovanni replied. “It is liquid sunlight and a mixture of other things our scientists have come up with. The light is a part of who you are and recognizes you as it would any of Apollo’s children.”

  My powers finished healing my throat, and I jumped from the lounger, putting some distance between myself and any other furniture in this room. Who knew what other surprises they hid? Grayson angled himself into a position slightly between me and my grandfather. Giovanni nodded to the young man, as if he respected Grayson’s dedication to my protection. A flicker of movement caught my attention, and I looked up at the Jumbotron. Everything I had seen under the influence of the serum was playing there in a continuous loop.

  I quickly averted my eyes. As I did so, the control panel we had passed on the way into this room caught my attention. They had known exactly what they were doing leading us in here. Anger lit up the powers at my center. What kind of people subjected their allies to a forced memory dump without our consent? Who the fuck did they think they were?

  “Listen here Zen-master-lightbulb, I’ve already got a Yoda-wannabe stuck to me like I sat in gum.” I gestured at Grayson, who grinned at me unrepentantly. “Can you give me the House of Light Training Manual for Dummies version of what the hell just happened? Cuz I’m two seconds from lighting up like a bonfire, and this looks like a no-smoking area.”

  When Giovanni gave me a puzzled look, Grayson translated. “My lady’s patience for diplomacy has ended and further provocation of her temper will result in fire. Most likely thrown at your expensive equipment. She does not appreciate being taken by surprise and wishes to understand what was done to her.” Grayson motioned to the Jumbotron. “How is this possible? Please explain in simple terms.”

  “Ah yes, simple is best.” The twinkle in Giovanni’s eyes said he was amused by us, but I didn’t give a shit. I would torch their mind-melding equipment in a heartbeat if they made one more wrong move. Only a few months ago I would have been embarrassed about threatening someone. Now threaten or maim first was becoming a way of life. If only people would take me seriously. My threats were not cute, dammit!

  Giovanni cleared his throat as I continued to glare at him and said, “The memories you saw were from a man we captured several months ago. He was sent to steal the piece of the prophecy that I guard.” Giovanni pushed aside the collar of his robes to reveal a pale pink line that looked like a scar from a knife wound. “I am not so easy to kill. What Jameson said earlier about his family being against the killing of the Paldimori was mostly true.”

  My grandfather looked at the floor and shook his head in shame. “His uncle, however, was an exception. The man was cruel and vain. The Olympian Omàda played to those weaknesses, and he was their puppet. Through him, they gained access to our technology, using it against us to brainwash our children into doing their killing and delving into the minds of those they captured to find the locations of the Paldimori Houses.” Giovanni’s sorrow was a hard thing to witness. “Jameson’s father challenged his brother and killed him to become our Kyrion. That was eight years ago. Jameson took over when his father was killed three years ago and began actively working against the Omàda. We have been tracking down the serum to reclaim it from them and subtly stalling their efforts where we can.”

  Could I trust what I saw, or was this another trick? There were so many questions. Then something Giovanni said triggered a memory. My hands shook as Titan’s voice echoed through my head again. “Find the twin Houses of the Olympian Omàda.” It couldn’t be this easy, could it?

  “You know who the Olympian Omàda is?” I asked, holding my breath in anticipation of his answer.

  Giovanni nodded slowly, watching me with concern. “Did your parents not teach you of your people? Of our history, child?”

  “Until three months ago I had no idea your world existed,” I confessed. Giovanni’s shock may have been the only forthright thing about this meeting. “My parents gave up their names, their families, everything to give me a life free from your fighting. From the blind hatred between the Houses. They wanted a better life for me.” Tears clogged my voice as the images I saw when they put me in their shrink-wrap mind-probe thing played through my head again. They were real. I knew they were. “When the fight came to our door anyway, they sacrificed their own lives to give me a better chance at surviving all of you. Don’t you dare blame them for any of this.”

  Giovanni’s lined face had grown haggard. “I do not blame them, child.” His hand trembled when he reached out to me. I hesitated for a moment looking for signs of deceit. Betrayal had become as common as the cold around me, and it was catching. Yet they could have killed us all while Bennett and I were under the influence of the serum. My hand was engulfed in his before I could overthink it. He smiled and patted my hand. “My son made the hard choices that I was too afraid to make. I gave up the woman who could have been my bond-mate for my duties. She passed away several years ago, and now all I am left with are regrets. You and your Bennett share a very strong bond, even I could feel it. I am very proud of my son and of you.”

  “Thank you,” I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. Grayson moved closer, pressing his shoulder against mine to offer me comfort.

  Giovanni’s eyes were suspiciously bright when he patted my hand one last time and cleared his throat. “Well, then, we have much to cover. Your history lessons begin now.” He tucked his hands into his robes. His brow furrow as he focused on some distant past.

  “The Houses were not always enemies. In the beginning there was only the Primordial Gods—Chaos, Gaia, Eros, Erebus, Tartarus, and Nyx—the children of the God of Chaos. Then came
the human children of God.”

  Giovanni sighed. “Curiosity is a weakness for god or man. The Primordial Gods began to breed with the humans and created halflings—demigods. The first few children born to the gods were bound in servitude to Chaos, and he called these twelve Titans. And there began the sowing of his own demise.” Giovanni made a clicking sound with his tongue in reproach. “We will discuss that in more detail at a later time.

  “Now, the first Houses were founded by the six Primordial Gods to protect their halfling offspring. Ruled over by Chaos, they called their people Chaonians and created a sanctuary on the island of Atlantaionia. The Titans were the strongest of all the halflings and hated the weaker siblings who came after them. They asked to be free to live on their own on Mount Olympus and the request was granted. There they renamed themselves the Olympians.” Giovanni scowled and removed his hands from his pockets to shake a fist at the sky. “And what did they do? Betrayed their parents, intending to kill the weak and take over. But Chaos stood against them, wielding the sword they called the Achlys—the god-killer. He drained the power from the land to—”

  “Time-out. There were twelve of them? On Mount Olympus? You’re talking about the Olympian gods, aren’t you?” I asked in astonishment. Giovanni nodded. My gaze wandered back over the twelve loungers in this room. Shit on a shingle, the Olympian Omàda were the Olympian gods, and now their descendants. Finally, I had a name for the enemies of the Paldimori, and I was standing in their midst. “I read somewhere that the Chaonian War was started when the firstborns attacked the gods. That was them. The Olympian gods turned on their parents—the Primordials.” I shot my grandfather an accusing look. “The House of Light is part of the Olympian Omàda!”

  “We were once,” Giovanni said sadly. “Jameson’s father made a deal with Kyrion Zeus from the House of Storms, leader of the Omàda. He had finally found proof—”

  A fireball shot through the ceiling above. We all ducked for cover as glass and wood fell down around us. Grayson crowded me protectively beneath him. Across the room Jameson disappeared. Bennett stood still as a statue, his eyes the only thing moving as he searched out his target. Blood trickled from his nose and mouth. His shirt was missing half of its buttons and holes were burned into the fabric. His jeans were ripped, and one thigh was soaked in blood. Suddenly his hand shot toward a spot to his right. Jameson reappeared dangling from the hand Bennett had wrapped around his neck.

  Stupid testosterone-filled men. The only way they knew to solve their differences was through their fists. My powers lit up, and I stroked my hand over the glowing ball. That’s right girl, let’s show them how a woman ends an argument. The light filled me as I fed it everything I was feeling: heartache at finding out that my parents had given their lives for me; anger at Giovanni and Jameson’s trick; uncertainty about my future and where we went from here; and the nagging worry that time was running out for all of us.

  I teleported across the room, and for once I landed on my feet exactly where I wanted to be. My palms smacked against a muscled chest on either side of me. “Enough!” I shouted. “I’ve had a really rotten day. I need pj’s. Then food and a bed. Preferably a boatload of chocolate somewhere in the middle of all that. If one of you douche nozzles doesn’t get me those things soon, I’m going to be a hangry little Chosen that goes nuclear on both your asses.”

  Bennett ripped off a hanging piece off his shirt to wipe away the blood on his face. I was pretty sure he was covering up a smile, but he had the sense not to let me see it. Jameson wasn’t as smart. He laughed. That fucknugget actually laughed at me. My fist landed on his jaw, backed by my eager powers. His head snapped back, and he fell to the floor with a thud—out cold. Click must have taken this as his sign because he left his holster on my leg to draw a bag full of cocks on Jameson’s cheek. My laughter was a bit on the crazy side. Yeah, I was going to hell for being the worst parent ever, but Click was right—the guy really was a dickbag.

  Grayson and Giovanni walked over to look down at the unconscious Kyrion. They eyed me warily and with surprise.

  “Why does no one take me seriously when I threaten them?” I huffed. “When the drama queen wakes up, tell him I said next time to start off with chocolate and conversation. I’ve had too many people attacking me. Surprises make me twitchy.”

  21

  Why we were up at the butt-crack of dawn, I had no idea. Especially when we had only teleported back from Sicily a few hours ago. There had been so much to discuss after our trip, but we had all been too bone-weary to tackle it right away and had agreed to talk about it later on today. Grayson knocked on my bedroom door when the sun was still only a faint notion on the horizon, saying, through the door, that my presence was requested.

  I lay in bed staring at the ceiling as tears slipped from the corners of my eyes. Sleep hadn’t come easy since every time I closed my eyes my mind kept conjuring up images of my parents on the deck of our ship clasping hands and saying they were doing this for me before they jumped to their deaths. Bennett had tried to comfort me as we made our way back down the elevator in the House of Light last night, but I was so angry with him. He had not only known about my grandfather but had left me out of decisions that had to do with my life. And I couldn’t help but wonder if he had known my parents had been murdered. I wanted to hunt Bennett down and tie him to a chair until he gave up all of his secrets.

  A knock sounded at the door again, and Lydia stepped inside. “My lady, the weapons-master has asked that you and Kyrion Bennett come to his shop.” She shifted uncomfortably as I continued to stare at the ceiling not bothering to hide my wet cheeks. She’d likely never seen a Kyrion—or one in training, anyway—cry before.

  “Go now,” the ghostly voice of Calidora whispered near my ear, her cold presence jarring me from my cocoon of grief. “Time is short, Chosen.”

  My gaze shifted to her picture above my bed and a torrent of emotions swamped me. I jumped to my feet and ripped the painting from the wall.

  “My lady!” Lydia shrieked in horror.

  “Leave me alone,” I shouted stumbling backward over the bed with the heavy painting in my hands as Lydia cowered against the mirror, calling for help. All of my insecurities and doubts became tangled with the pit of guilt and grief eating away at me. “Do you hear me, Calidora? Just leave me alone. I’m not you or Selene. I’m a human-raised substitute that will never be your equal.” I sobbed as the weight of everything threatened to break me into little pieces. “My parents—”

  I tripped over the blankets with a cry and fell face down on the bed. The painting slipped from my hands hitting the floor with a loud crack as the frame broke. My stomach sank as I saw who stood inside my doorway. Selene and Guide Athan observed me resolutely as if they had known all along that I was unfit for this world. Grayson gave me a sad look filled with sympathy and worry. But it was the disbelief and pain on Bennett’s face that made me want to crawl into a hole.

  “Bennett,” I whispered, reaching out for him.

  He turned away and left the room without a word.

  Selene stepped forward to take charge, but I pulled the blanket to my chest and said quietly, “I want you all to leave.”

  “Lia, you have lessons—”

  “No, Selene,” I cut her off. “I’ll go to Mark’s as requested but there will be no lessons today. No training. No dresses.” I made eye contact with each one of them. “I tried to be what you wanted but I can only be me. Starting now.”

  Grayson ushered the morose crowd out of my room and bent to pick up the painting before I stopped him. “Leave it. I’ll meet you downstairs.”

  I got dressed and sat on the floor staring at the painting. “I’m sorry, Calidora.” Gods what a mess I had made of this bond-mate-Kyrion thing. “Now you know. I’m not as brave or tough as I pretend. Everything that has happened since I touched that stupid invite for the Games has been piling on me as if the gods want to test how much I can take. Finding out my parents were murdered last
night—that they gave up their lives for mine—was the last straw.” My head dropped into my hands. “I was broken before your son found me, and I’m even more broken now. I don’t know what I have to offer to Bennett or your people, but I’m still going to try. I just can’t do it living in your shadow anymore.”

  I felt the weight of every one of those rocks that had been piling on me as I tried to piece myself back together and move on from this morning’s disaster. A cold hand smoothed down my back and for the first time Calidora called me by name. “Lia, child, you are not broken. The gods challenge all who are capable of greatness. It is a testament to your strength that you keep trying.” That cold hand gripped my shoulder. “You are the warrior-queen my son and our people need. You walk in no one’s shadow, my daughter.”

  A sob caught in my throat. “I wish I could have met you when you were alive.”

  “As do I, daughter, but I am here with you now as are so many others that believe in you.” Calidora’s voice began to fade. “Go do what you must, but beware, daughter, the enemy is closer than you think, and a great darkness draws nearer every day.”

  I could see now why Calidora was so beloved. I stood and picked up the painting, wincing at the damaged gold frame. At least the painting itself seemed mostly unharmed. A small black velvet draw-string bag fell from a hollowed-out part of the frame when I lifted it.

  “Hurry, my lady, the Kyrion is preparing to leave,” Grayson informed me telepathically.

  I shoved the bag into my jeans pocket and hurried downstairs where Bennett was waiting. Our not-so-merry band exited the mansion and walked along the silent streets toward the center of the city. Bennett walked far ahead and hadn’t looked at me once since I had joined the group. My eyes burned, and my body felt heavy with fatigue from lack of sleep and the emotional upheaval. Goose bumps pebbled my arms as a chill breeze cut through the morning air.