Coercion

by Tamara Hart Heiner

  She said it without emotion, very calmly, almost a little sadly. I cocked my head. “How do you know me?”

  The fleeting smile she gave me was definitely tinged with sadness. “We all know you. You and your sister. You’re the ones chosen to lead this battle.”

  Amy and Melissa had said that also. “Why do you think that?”

  “Laima foresaw it. She told me to do all I was capable of to help you succeed.”

  My throat clogged. “Why us?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. I didn’t summon a vision of your life.”

  The finger of Meredith’s funnel cloud dipped toward the ground, the clouds rolling back. The wind kicked back our hair, throwing grass and trash at us even though we stood hundreds of yards away from it.

  “That’s enough,” Ursins said.

  Meredith put her hand out and stopped the cloud before it became a tornado. Cars skidded to a halt in the street, flipping around or backing away. A van from the weather channel pulled over at the intersection, and a crew piled out. I glanced behind me toward the subdivision and noticed the humans gathering, filming the event or gawking open-mouthed.

  Ursins saw me watching them. “This event is definitely going to capture their attention.”

  I could only imagine. “How will Samantha get here? Where is she keeping her army?”

  “The funnel is an open doorway. We’ve invited them to us. Wherever they are, they can create a pathway and come out here.”

  My newfound knowledge failed me. None of what he said made any sense, and I was still trying to figure out which question to ask first when a beam of light appeared at the bottom of the funnel cloud, like a spotlight. It shone straight down to the ground, and tiny beings began dropping to the ground.

  I revised my original analysis. It wasn’t like a spotlight at all. It was more like a transporter beam from Star Trek.

  “Get ready,” Ursins said, and he moved into a fighting stance, reaching behind him and removing a long bow.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  I imitated Ursins, copying his fighting stance. But the way my weight shifted to the balls of my feet and how my arms moved up to protect my face, it didn’t feel like I was imitating at all.

  The tiny figures continued to fall to the ground like ants plummeting from an anthill. But they didn’t stop when they landed; instead they were instantly racing across the field toward us. And more were coming.

  Suddenly, the ground trembled like tiny micro earthquakes shook it. Or a stampede of elephants. Or a herd thundering horses?

  I couldn’t believe my eyes as hundreds of horses tore through the surrounding the houses, stopping traffic as they raced to the empty lot.

  A grim smile set on Ursins’ lips. “My horses. Go!” He pointed toward the figures, growing larger by the second, and horses whinnied, shaking their manes and bowing their heads before galloping forward.

  “First line of defense. Raganas!” Ursins yelled, redirecting my attention.

  My heart stammered in fear for Meredith. Several women lurched forward, whispering and drawing runes in the air. I did a quick head count. We had seven now, which was more than yesterday. At Meredith’s bewildered look, I pushed her forward also.

  “Just use your element. Take them down.”

  “Samantha’s people are going to die.”

  Of course. She was thinking of her vision. A hopeless feeling gripped me around my chest, constricting my heart and making it hard to breathe. Unless I got their souls back into their bodies, our only options to defend ourselves were to incapacitate them or take them prisoner. And then what? Tie them up and leave them in the bathroom of our hotel room?

  “Do your best to just knock them out,” I said, trying to ease my conscience as well as hers.

  The other raganas weren’t holding back. Fireballs burst through the approaching army, and my heart hurt as the human figures fell to the ground, some of them with flames burning their bodies. Lightning struck out of Meredith’s funnel cloud, collapsing more of the army. A wall of dirt sprang up in front of the approaching line and buried several others.

  “No,” Meredith gasped. “I can’t do it.”

  I didn’t blame her in the least. I wanted to tell everyone to stop also. Was Stephen in that army? Aaron? My head throbbed. He had to be all right. All of this was for nothing if I couldn’t save him. I didn’t even want these powers. I just wanted to live a life with Aaron.

  And then, right before my eyes, vadatajs burst through the wall of dirt, faces distorted and twisted. Their swords chopped the wall to bits. They did not run at us; they marched, lopsided and slow, as if nothing we did could stop their approach. Behind them the jackal men emerged, the long two-pronged staffs held in front of them like knives.

  Meredith exhaled. “These guys I don’t mind killing.”

  “Second line of defense. Kaukas!” Ursins yelled.

  With a roar that surprised me, the three hundred or so of them charged forward, their hands going to their belts. They pulled from them what look like conductors’ batons, but as they withdrew them from their belts, the batons grew, until they held pointed bayonets in their defense.

  Three of them converged on a vadatajs to my right, and after several slashes of their weapons, he went down. For a moment I felt a surge of hope. Until I saw how many more there were.

  Another emerged right behind his fallen comrade, and with a lift of his sword, he slashed through two kaukas. They collapsed to the ground, blood spilling from their torsos and staining the grass.

  I sucked in a breath, suddenly struggling for air. The vadatajs hadn’t just stolen their powers. He had killed them.

  From behind the demons, another enemy emerged: the humans.

  At the same time, a low buzzing filled my ears. I pulled on my earlobe, trying to clear my head, but it didn’t go away. I shifted and noticed a dark, shifting cloud moving toward us at rapid speed.

  “What is that?” I took a step backward as the black mass neared.

  “My bees,” Ursins said, steadying me with a touch to my shoulder. “These are the ones from my personal gardens. They drink from celestial nectar, and their stings can incapacitate even the demons.”

  The keeper of bees and horses. I remembered now. “You called them?”

  “They will give their lives for me. They only have one sting in them.”

  Sadness rang in his voice, and pride, but I thought of the mortals. “Will they kill the humans?”

  “Yes,” he said without pause. “Multiple stings will kill them.” His eyes met mine. “The humans are not the target, but when we are under attack, the bees will protect.”

  There was a challenge in his voice, and I remembered Trey’s words: Who’s side are you on? I faced forward, watching the black mass break apart and streak into the opposing side. Bile burned the back of my throat.

  The humans ran toward us, their faces blank behind their helmets.

  “Third line of defense: mortal goddesses and their protectors!” Ursins yelled.

  “Jayne!” Amy slid into position beside me, already breathless. “This is your chance to save them. Find their life path like I taught you. Alter what they’re about to do. Change their next steps.”

  “I haven’t been able to summon a vision yet,” I said, feeling sick and useless. “I don’t know how to change what they’re going to do!”

  “You have to try. Or else we have to stop them physically.”

  Translation: change their fate or take them down.

  I faced one of the soldiers racing toward me, smaller of stature and most likely a teen. I met his eyes but saw only blankness there. Could I even alter the destiny of someone not in charge of his own will?

  The boy did not tear his eyes from mine. He raised his staff as he got close to me, and I was forced to block the blow.

  “Ouch,” I said. But I had no time to even rub the spot where he had hit me before he was lifting his staff again. Where was Trey? Wasn’t he supposed to be p
rotecting me? And Beth? I poked my head around and spotted both of them locked in combat.

  The staff came down on the back of my head with a mind-jarring blow. I squinted against the tears filling my eyes. I turned around to face him, cursing my bad luck. I should be at school worrying about my next physics test. I grabbed the staff in the middle and had a tug-of-war with the zombie boy before I let go. He stumbled backward, crashing into the grass and knocking out two of his comrades in the process.

  I gave a grim smile, but my rush of victory was short-lived. The human jumped back up and lunged at me. This time, the other two joined him.

  I groaned within myself. Three at once? I bent my knees and grabbed the first staff that came at me. With superhuman strength, I yanked it away and shoved it into the stomach of my attacker. I spun around to fight the others just as a vadatajs lifted a sword to bring me down. My eyes went wide with alarm, and I smacked him upside the head with the staff.

  He didn’t die. I couldn’t kill him this way. But he did stumble and fall, momentarily losing his grip on his sword.

  The humans were still coming at me, and I panicked. Reaching down, and I grabbed the vadatajs’ cursed sword. Before I could second-guess myself, I plunged it into his gut.

  He stopped moving, and his red eyes went gray. I yanked it out and swiveled to face the humans on my flank.

  They advanced on me, taking swipes at me with their staffs. One of them pulled a dagger from his belt.

  My heart raced. I had to defend myself. But I did not want to hurt them.

  The first stepped up on my left, and I jammed the staff into his throat, thrusting him backward. Don’t die, I pleaded, cursing myself for being such an ineffective goddess of fate. But I couldn’t worry about him, because the one with the dagger was taking cheap shots at my arm. Chances were all he needed to do was scratch me, and I’d lose my powers.

  I pulled the sword back and stabbed at his dagger. He came at me again, and I spun and parried, battle moves kicking in. He lifted the dagger high. I ducked and rolled, then flipped around and thrust my sword into the back of his leg.

  It was meant to cripple him, but as soon as I removed the weapon, I knew from the amount of blood that I’d done more than that. It gushed outward, coating the leg of his jeans.

  “No!” I cried, something crumpling within me.

  He collapsed to the ground, not trying to rise again.

  “No!” I sobbed out the word, tears choking my throat, and I fell to my knees beside him. I dropped the sword and pressed my hands to his wound, trying to ebb the flow of blood.

  The third man came at me with his staff, but I grabbed it from him and walloped him in the temple, knocking him unconscious. Then I turned my attention to the dying human in front of me. My shoulders shook with my tears, and I took his hand, staining it with his own blood. I stared into his eyes and tried to summon a vision. I didn’t even know if he was a youth, but I had to do something.

  “This isn’t how you’re supposed to die!” I cried. “Not by my hand!”

  He stared emptily up at the sky. Who was he? Had he been someone’s husband? Someone’s father? Someone’s boyfriend?

  His fingers were stiff in mine, and his breathing stilled. I had killed him.

  “Jayne! Jayne Lockwood!”

  My name bellowed across the battlefield, so loud that everyone paused their motions. I lifted from the ground, trying to draw breaths against the horrible pain in my chest.

  Jumis stood directly beneath the funnel cloud, arraigned in brilliant gold armor. Something tugged at the back of my stomach, something instinctive. He was beautiful, but he was more than that. He was gentle, and compassionate, and tender.

  I hardened my heart. “Not to me,” I whispered.

  And then he lifted an arm and pointed to a soldier locked in battle with three kaukas. They stood unmoving, two kaukas with staffs lifted to knock them into the back of his neck, and one of them with a dagger extended and pointing at his belly.

  “This war is raging around you, Dekla, and you have the power to stop it! Do something!”

  I was in no mood for this. I clenched my jaw, my fists trembling. I took several steps forward, and nobody stopped me. Both armies had frozen.

  “I can’t!” I screamed at him. “If I could, I would have already!” I wiped angrily at the tears that rolled down my cheeks. “You’ve picked the wrong Dekla!”

  Jumis stepped up to the soldier. He placed his hand on top of his head and gave a sharp jerk. I cried out, terrified he’d just broken the man’s neck, until he lifted the helmet and dropped it onto the grass.

  “Aaron.” I uttered his name without thinking, despair rising in me.

  “Save him, Dekla,” Jumis said. “Only you have the power.” He closed the distance between us. “The battle still rages. The moment I release you, you’ll be swept back into it. And he will die, like all of these other humans unknowingly sacrificing their mortal existence because you’re not strong enough to stop Samantha.” He halted in front of me. “I’m trying to help you.”

  “Help me save Aaron so I can be with him?” I raged. Because I knew that wasn’t true. I knew Jumis far better than that. “This is not about me. This is about what you want.”

  His hand snaked out and grabbed my wrist. “I want you. That’s all I’ve wanted, for a thousand years. You wanted me too, you’ve just forgotten. I’ll give you everything. Your powers, your memories, I’ll even save Aaron. I’ll fight by your side, and Jods and his entourage will crumble to the dust before us.”

  I wavered, telling myself to stand strong. “I’m starting to remember on my own. I’m getting the power.”

  “You’ll never get it back fast enough.” His voice whispered over my head. “You know it. By the time you get it back in a month, in a year or ten, this battle will have ceased for another century. How many people will die before then? How many lives will you take?”

  His words stabbed my heart. I clutched my chest, aching.

  Jumis glanced over his shoulder at Aaron. “Let him live, Dekla.” His voice took on a tender tone. “I know you love him. I accept that, and I offer this to you. Let him live.”

  I stumbled toward Aaron and stopped in front of him. I stroked his face, those eyes that were once so blue now black and expressionless. “What will you do if I agree?”

  “I will remove his body from this battlefield immediately. It is the only way I can guarantee his life.”

  “And then what?”

  “You will have access to your memories. Whatever you need to know, you’ll find it.”

  “And you and me?” I said, bringing the conversation back to what really mattered.

  He cocked his head at me, and although a part of me hated him for his manipulation, another part of me sighed at the empathy in his eyes. “Come to me when this battle is over. You will remember how.”

  I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

  He extended his hand. “Do you swear?”

  A chill ran through me, and I swallowed hard. “What am I swearing to?”

  “To follow through on the commitment you made to me a thousand years ago. To be my wife.”

  When I did not immediately respond, his eyes darkened. “I am not saving this boy’s life for my benefit. If you ask this of me, I ask that of you.”

  I closed my eyes. No other option presented itself to me, and I didn’t have time to delay. I opened my eyes. “Okay.”

  His hand shook in front of me. “Swear it.”

  “On what?”

  “On your mortal soul.”

  Sounded awfully ominous and trapping. My hand trembled as I took his. I realized it didn’t matter what I thought because he knew I would try to get out of this, which was why he was making me swear. And if I couldn’t get out? Was I willing to do this? For Aaron? For all of humanity?

  Yes. I was.

  His fingers tightened around mine, sending a current of comfort through my skin. “It will be all right, Dekla,” he said.r />
  I clung to those words, that feeling. “I swear it.”

  “On your mortal soul.”

  “On my mortal soul,” I repeated.

  A rope shot upward from the ground, winding itself around my wrist and then around his. It glowed bright white for an instant, burning me with heat, and then sank into our skin and vanished, leaving only a gold tattoo entangled around my wrist and fingers.

  He released me. “It is done.” He closed his fist and then opened it, revealing the ball of fire he’d tempted me with before.

  I didn’t snatch it, not yet. “What is done?” My heart hammered in my throat. “We’re not married now, are we? Because I’m in high school, and my mom would kind of have a cow.”

  He made a noise in the back of his throat that was undeniably a laugh. “No. Not yet. There will be an official ceremony.”

  I hid my relief. Forcing back my misgivings over what I’d just done, I wrapped my fingers around the little ball in his hand.

  What happened next was so instantaneous that I didn’t even have the chance to react. I threw back my head as memories rolled over me. They collided in my mind, brilliant, fast, as vibrant as if they’d happened yesterday but with the hue of history, the veracity of ancient fact.

  The three of us stood on the ash-covered meadow, Karta, Laima, and me. The cries of the dying echoed in my ears, the pain of the cut-off lives pounding in my heart. We put our hands together as three sisters. Ragana stepped over, the wind picking up her silky hair and whipping it around her face, though I didn’t know if it was a wind she had created or a natural one. She placed her hand over the top of the three of ours, and I closed my eyes while she murmured.

  A fire started in my navel, pushing outward, expanding to my limbs until it exploded from me, from my fingertips and my head and my ears, from every piece of me. I lost the ability to stand. My hand slipped away from my sisters, and I couldn’t even keep my eyes open as I smacked into the ashen grass beneath us.

  Laima’s plan had worked. The pieces of my soul were still shooting out of me, and I felt my body, my perfect, immortal body, aging in moments what should’ve happened over centuries. I gasped for breath, and a hand stroked my forehead.