Gaia Awakened

by Cassie Thorne

  Somehow, incredibly, part of the Summer Realm is overlapping with Paige’s apartment. Just like my lightstorm orb overlapped with the hellfrost rose I’m pretty sure sprouted in the Winter Realm because of her.

  How is any of this even possible? I desperately want to find out more about Paige. Hell, I want as much of her as she’s willing to give.

  But I shouldn’t be thinking about a human girl like this. I’ve been around for millennia, and my heart was pledged to Gaia long ago. How could it not be? The goddess saw the lightstorm within me, and she gave me purpose. I loved her with all of my heart. And she loved me even more. Whenever it was my turn in the Earth Realm, we’d spend every moment together.

  But there’s something different about Paige. When we kissed, her lips were like fresh strawberries on a hot summer day. Her scent was like the sweetest perfume breezing through a flowering meadow. Her skin was like the most erotically smooth silk that has ever existed. I can recall each of these sensations perfectly even now.

  When I try to remember what kissing Gaia was like, I come up with nothing. I loved her for so long and yet retained almost none of it. Maybe that was the problem, in a way. By the time she burned, she’d already been sleeping for millennia.

  I still loved her. I still would have died for her.

  But I no longer knew her.

  Gaia thought she still knew me, but I’d been alone for millennia while she slept in her glass casket. I’d done some things I wasn’t proud of and never told her about. I tried to manipulate humans in the Earth Realm to fight against Jasper. I made my own attempt at seizing more power than I should have. And worst of all, I didn’t protect the goddess like she believed I would.

  I failed to sit by her side day and night.

  I failed to notice when Jasper’s army broke through our defenses.

  I fucking failed her.

  I’ve been around since the dawn of mankind, and watching the goddess burn has been the worst experience of my entire life.

  I tell myself I’m searching for The Goddess Codex because I want to bring back the woman and goddess whom I love. But it’s not always easy to distinguish between love and guilt, you know? Sometimes I have the sneaking suspicion that I just want to stop carrying around the burden of fault with me. It doesn’t help that I’m so drawn to a human when I’m trying to fix what I did to Gaia.

  But Paige is so much more present. Real. She’s vibrant and full of magic and draws me to her like a moth to the brightest flame in all the realms.

  I’m starting to suspect Jasper wasn’t trying to kill us when he pulled us into the Winter Realm.

  He was trying to get to her.

  But Rowan directed me to Paige for a reason. She clearly doesn’t know where The Goddess Codex is, but she’s practically overflowing with magic. She’ll be able to find the spellbook. Maybe even already has it, though she clearly doesn’t realize it yet.

  Now if only she could stop being so stubborn when I’m trying to save her, we might have a fighting chance.

  “Femina suscitatum.” I lean forward and kiss Paige’s forehead, trying to wake her with a small burst of lightstorm.

  But something pushes into me instead.

  A memory.

  A naked couple is lying in a shallow pool filled with red rose petals. The man’s tongue is slowly circling the woman’s nipple. Her legs are locked around his waist, and he’s buried to the hilt inside her. Their bodies are slippery with water and sweat and fresh, pungent rain.

  I love you, he breathes, and I can hear his voice as clearly as my own.

  It is my own.

  I jerk back from Paige. What the fuck? That was a memory from my own past. That was Gaia and me, the first time she visited the Summer Realm after creating it.

  But the memory wasn’t from my perspective.

  It was from her perspective.

  Gaia’s perspective.

  I don’t understand how Paige could have one of Gaia’s memories.

  I need to know who she is.

  Now.

  Impatiently, I open a tiny portal to the Summer Realm and speak a summoning spell. In my own realm, the response would be instantaneous.

  But things being what they are, the Queen of the Summer Faeries is delayed by a few seconds.

  The air shimmers slightly and a woman the size of a bird flies out of the portal. Her verdant gown is woven from dandelion stems, and a golden crown is perched atop her lavender hair. I pretend not to notice that her translucent wings are flapping with a certain degree of annoyance.

  “What is it now?” Queen Titania asks sharply.

  The Summer Faeries have more magic than any of the other creatures in my realm, which makes this tricky. Titania never misses an opportunity to accuse me of wasting her time. If I say the wrong thing, I could easily have a miniature uprising on my hands.

  It’s hard work, ruling over Faeries who don’t care for deities.

  Especially demigods who started out human.

  “Took you long enough,” I say, grinning.

  “Let’s skip the usual pleasantries,” Titania says, rolling her eyes. “Who’s the human?”

  I don’t waste any time. “According to Rowan, she knows where to find The Goddess Codex.”

  “Seriously?” The Faerie drifts over to Paige curiously. As she examines the human girl, her expression shifts from one of mild displeasure to sudden interest. “Holy hell, Aidan. I can sense four types of magic inside her. Everything except earthwater.” Her wings give an excited flutter. “Where did you find her? Are you sure she’s a filthy human?”

  “Full human,” I correct her.

  “I know what I said.” Titania’s expression is carefully neutral. “So what’s the deal you’re proposing?”

  I’ve adopted a somewhat unusual approach to ruling over the magical creatures in my realm. Unlike Jasper, I don’t control them. Unlike Tria, I don’t let them run wild. And unlike Rowan, I don’t value them more than people. I just try to convince them to be good, you know? No need to cause more pain after what happened in the war against Jasper.

  These creatures were willing to die for Gaia.

  A lot of them did.

  So now, whenever I need a favor from one of my creatures, I use a summoning spell to ask for what I need. And I always offer a fair and valuable gift in return.

  The last time I dealt with Titania, I gave her a bottle of perfume from the Earth Realm. In exchange, she and her Faeries caught some mindless fish and clams and cooked a birthday meal fit for a king.

  Or, you know, a demigod.

  “I need you to find a memory spell for me,” I say to her. “One that can reveal what happened to a person’s mind. Paige remembers something that didn’t happen to her, which means someone’s been fucking with her head.”

  “Language, Aidan.”

  I sigh. “Messing with her head.”

  “And in exchange for this memory spell?” she asks me.

  “I’ll bring you a basket of fresh strawberries. Each one perfectly ripe and larger than you’ve ever seen.”

  Titania narrows her eyes, judging whether I’m being serious. I haven’t permitted strawberries to exist in the Summer Realm since Gaia died. The goddess adored the red berries like they were ambrosia. Sometimes we’d joke it was the only reason she kept visiting me at all.

  After Gaia’s death, strawberry plants kept sprouting up around the realm, as if expecting her to visit again.

  Well, they were fucking wrong.

  When the strawberry plants started to grow outside my castle, I found myself wading through a moat of red fruit on a regular basis. In a burst of rage, I destroyed every last strawberry plant in the Summer Realm. Now, anyone who attempts to sneak in a strawberry finds the fruit transformed into a tiny red lizard whose sole purpose is to make their life a living hell.

  So if I’m offering to give her strawberries, Titania knows it’s a matter of life or death. Even I didn’t realize how serious I was until this very moment.<
br />
  “Deal,” Titania says, alighting on Paige’s shoulder. “I’m interested in knowing who the human is myself. But are you sure about this, Aidan? I’ve only seen that look in your eyes once before. It didn’t end well.”

  She’s referring to the day Gaia burned. Titania was the one who found me soaring over the wildest mountains of the Summer Realm in dragon form. I’d ventured deep into territories brimming with wild magic and untamable beasts I hadn’t faced in centuries. These were places where even I might find myself in danger.

  The Queen of the Summer Faeries risked everything to deliver Tria’s message to me. But she had to fling magic at my scales until I would listen.

  Winter found her.

  Come quickly.

  By the time I understood, it was too late.

  Gaia was burning.

  “You know this is different,” I say, clearing my throat. “I haven’t lost control of myself. I just... feel responsible for Paige.”

  Titania snorts. “You feel something, all right.” She raises a tiny hand glowing with lightstorm. Magical creatures lack the need or ability to speak spells, though they generally aren’t as powerful. “Want me to wake her for you?”

  “Go ahead.” I take Paige’s wrists, feeling her pulse. “But any sign of mischief and I’ll spike your strawberries with alcohol. The hangover will last for months. It’ll be the Midsummer’s Eve Catastrophe all over again.”

  Titania sighs and fires a marble of lightstorm into Paige’s temple. “I’ll let you know when I find the spell, Aidan.”

  As the Queen of the Summer Faeries flies back through the portal, I keep my eyes trained on Paige. Now that the human girl is about to wake up, my mouth has suddenly gone dry. What if she doesn’t trust me? What if she refuses to listen to me again? What if she runs away and gets killed by Jasper?

  And out of nowhere, the worst thought of all even though it makes no sense: What if she doesn’t remember?

  Chapter Five

  Paige

  I open my eyes, gasping for air, my fingers tangled in Aidan’s shirt. We’re kneeling on the floor of my apartment with our bodies facing each other. His hands are gripping my wrists tightly, and my chest aches like I just watched Summer die again. My blood is scorching as if I’ve touched a live wire. But I haven’t touched anything else.

  I’ve only touched Aidan.

  Everything in my apartment is somehow covered in wild flora. My living room with the piles of books and the yellow twill couch. My kitchen with the mismatched barstools Willow gave me after she moved into her tiny downtown studio. My wooden coffee table with the ink stain in the shape of a heart that formed after Summer’s funeral.

  It’s all bursting at the seams with greenery and wildflowers, as if the artificial plants from the Dragon’s Tale have overgrown through the air ducts to take over my apartment. It would be incredible, maybe even gorgeous, if it wasn’t so weird. Gardenias and red roses and forget-me-nots are perfuming the air around me, while green moss and sprigs of lavender carpet the hardwood floor.

  I’ve returned to find myself in a paradise.

  It’s not my paradise.

  Aidan says something to me, but I can’t understand his words. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear we just used magic to teleport ourselves out of another world.

  But I do know better. Despite what I thought I saw, all I did was let him take my hands and convince me to say a few words in Latin.

  This world doesn’t have anything like magic.

  If it did, Summer would still be alive.

  His body wouldn’t have burned up like dry twigs in a fire.

  I wouldn’t have moved into the apartment above the bookstore.

  I wouldn’t be kneeling here right now, barely able to breathe, feeling the exact same way I did after he died.

  But magic doesn’t care if I believe in it or not. A torrent of raw power is rushing into my blood anyway, as if trying to consume every part of me. It’s spreading like fire through my veins, untamed and beautiful and ravenous beyond my control. I really don’t want to electrocute Aidan, but I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

  It’s too much magic.

  I can’t contain it all.

  I’m going to shatter into tiny bits of light like fireflies imitating stars. Splinter into bolts of lightning like a storm on Midsummer’s Eve. Transform into a supernova and explode again and again in the night sky. My moment of passing will last for all of eternity while I remain a fragment of light in a fading constellation, never able to fall back down to Earth.

  This is it.

  This is the moment I fulfill the prophecy and die.

  “Steady now.”

  I tremble as the words slide through the pain, smoothing the sharp edges and easing the agony. It’s Aidan but at the same time isn’t. His voice reminds me of Summer, of a life I stopped letting myself remember a long time ago.

  Images flash through my mind, one by one.

  A vast ocean crashing against a rocky beach.

  A soft meadow with blades of grass rustling in the wind.

  A dark thunderstorm rolling through a hot sticky night.

  A man kissing my naked breast underneath a flowering tree as he fills me with everything I ever wanted.

  Warmth.

  Pleasure.

  Ecstasy.

  Love.

  “Summer...” I breathe.

  “What did you say?” Aidan’s voice is sharp, as if I’ve been thinking out loud. He’s staring at me with a look of suspicion in his eyes.

  I pretend not to hear and instead bury my fingers deeper into his shirt, not wanting to let go. He’s my only anchor in the world right now.

  But Aidan tightens his hold on my wrists, yanking me impossibly close to him. “What did you say?”

  I tilt my head away, refusing to answer. “Nothing.”

  I really don’t want to talk about Summer right now. If I let myself remember what things were like before he died, I’ll start crying and never, ever stop. How do I even begin to explain there’s a black hole inside of me that can never be filled? It can’t ever be filled, because Summer can never be alive again. That’s just the way it works.

  He burned to ashes.

  I watched it happen.

  Telling someone won’t change any of that.

  Aidan has this intense look in his eyes, though. His gaze is glinting with some kind of emotion I can’t identify, and it looks like he’s practically about to breathe fire. “I need you to tell me. Please.”

  I swallow hard. “Only if you tell me why there was a dragon.”

  “That dragon was Jasper,” he says hoarsely. “A goddess named Gaia created four seasonal demigods a long time ago. We all have the ability to transform into dragons.”

  Before I can point out how ridiculous that sounds, Aidan reaches down and grazes his thumb across my lower lip. His touch does something to my body I can’t understand at the moment.

  No, that’s a lie. I do understand it. I just don’t want to admit that someone other than Summer is making me feel this way.

  I could lose myself in Aidan’s eyes, easily, and never find my way back.

  I’m kind of terrified I might have lost myself in him already.

  “Do you believe in magic now?” he asks me.

  “I don’t know.” It’s the most honest answer I can find.

  Aidan nods. “Watch carefully. This is lightstorm magic.”

  And so I watch. I watch as he generates a ball of electricity in his palm. I watch as he tosses the ball at the ceiling, creating a miniature thunderstorm that rains onto the kitchen counter. I watch as he waves a hand at a red rose hanging from a lamp and it blossoms to the size of a watermelon.

  I watch as he touches a finger to my forehead and the apartment disappears.

  A bedroom filled with smoke takes its place.

  Two years ago, Summer is sleeping on the mattress next to me. His breathing is slow and even, and his figure is curled up agai
nst mine like a large cat. I can’t make out his exact features in the darkness, but I remember this night and I just know it’s him.

  As I reach out to touch his face, to remind myself of him, he opens his eyes.

  We stare at each other for what might be an eternity in another universe.

  But in our universe, in our reality, it’s only a second.

  “Fire,” I whisper.

  But Summer, who’s already in motion, doesn’t hear me. He’s too busy climbing out of bed, slamming the door shut, yanking the sheets from our mattress. I desperately want to get up and help, but I can’t seem to do anything other than watch.

  As Summer knots a makeshift rope around the bed, I try to tell myself that I’m dreaming. But I can taste the smoke coating my tongue. Hear the sirens going off in the distance. Feel the tears streaking down my face.

  This is more real than I can bear.

  “I’m sorry, Paige,” Summer says to me. “But you have to climb through the window now.”

  What? No. He can’t be serious. I’ve always been terrified of heights. No matter how many times he’s asked me to ride a rollercoaster, or hike up a mountain, or dine on a balcony, I just can’t do it. All I keep thinking about is what it would feel like to fall to the earth with every part of me broken.

  Sometimes I wonder if I haven’t fallen already.

  “I... I can’t.” My voice is pathetically weak, but he hears me anyway.

  “It’s all right.” Summer briefly touches his lips to my forehead. “I know you can do this, Paige. For me, okay?”

  He carries me out of bed and plants my feet by the window. But it turns out I’m a freaking coward, just like the lion in The Wizard of Oz. My heart is failing me. I’m too scared to move. A terrible frost is sweeping through my veins, transforming my blood into ice.

  I’m frozen.

  Summer finally realizes I won’t be able to do this after all. He grabs my waist and turns me around to face him, as if we’re about to have sex on the windowsill. But he doesn’t even so much as kiss me. Instead he securely loops the makeshift rope around my waist before hoisting my body through the window, gradually lowering me through the night to safety.

  But it takes time. So much time.