Mark of the shadow, p.29
Mark of the Shadow, page 29
My bones shook with the power of his voice, and I nearly peed my pants. What was I doing? Fear and doubt crept in as I surveyed the god. He was massive, towering over even the Sentinel. His thick brown hair fell in waves to his shoulders and his piercing blue eyes seemed to see straight into my soul. His clothing was ornate, lined with gold. It reminded me of the clothes men wore in the history books. The ivory shirt he wore was unbuttoned and untucked so that his chiseled abs were visible for all to see his strength. He was beautiful and terrifying at once.
“Bring her forth, now!” he bellowed.
Except for Krinle and Triana, the Torch were on their knees, making it easy for two Sentinel to grab me from Triana’s grip.
“How dare you think to even speak my name, you insolent mutt!” he snarled, the handsome features morphing to disgust.
“Kill me if you must, but I deserve answers.”
“Yes, she does, brother.” A jaw-dropping woman draped over his shoulder, her green eyes like a tiger’s, shining and inquisitive. I didn’t need to be told who she was. The knowledge of her screamed through my being. Marinasta, goddess of seasons. The reason for my existence.
“She deserves nothing. She is a mongrel who needs to be killed. And these traitors need to be punished. Triana, you brought an outsider into my realm. You will die with her.”
“My lord—” Triana started.
“Silence!”
“This is the most excitement I’ve seen in eons, Farinthion. Why is it this insignificant mortal is in our realm and that she still lives?” another god asked. I glanced around, seeing that six of them now stood before us.
This was what I’d wanted, but now that I faced the gods, I wasn’t so sure I hadn’t made the wrong decision.
“Because she is no mere mortal,” Marinasta said. I looked at her, pleading with my eyes that she do something.
Her red silk dress swayed languidly with her movements as she sauntered to me. She wore her long black hair piled atop her head, long curls of red through it, some cascading down, having freed from the rest.
“She is a masterpiece.”
With her words, my wings burst open. The gasp among the gods was audible, but I couldn’t tear my eyes from her. “Do what you came here to do, child.” She brushed her lips across my ear. “Free us.”
“Marinasta, what is the meaning of this?” Farinthion boomed.
She swiveled toward him.
“You did this, didn’t you?” he accused, the veins on his forehead standing out.
“I did,” she snarled. “I am tired of being torn from my brothers and sisters! You and Harperia forced us here, ripping us from them. She is my solution.”
Her words confirmed Callum’s suspicions, leaving me with mixed emotions. Anger that she had indeed used me, but pity for the pain I’d heard in her voice when she’d spoken of the other gods.
“And she will die!”
I heard Triana behind me, her voice in a whisper as she recited the spell. My back itched, the itch turning to a burn as the gods argued. With their escalating tempers, the realm became unstable, or perhaps it was the spell, or even a combination of both. I couldn’t tell. My body was ablaze with pain that wracked my every cell. A scream tore from me, the argument stopping as the gods turned to me. The Sentinel stepped back, and power coursed through my body like electricity that needed an outlet to escape.
“That’s it my child,” Marinasta cooed.
“What have you done, sister?” Farinthion roared.
“Righted a wrong and united enemies.”
I looked at Farinthion, unafraid. “My parents did not die in vain, and you will no longer punish Torch and Shadow for your own misgivings.” The power fled my body, taking over my senses as he lifted his hand to strike me.
I whispered a goodbye to Callum in my mind, closing my eyes as the power engulfed me and the magic of the gods barreled toward me.
Chapter 25
CALLUM
Something jarred me awake, and I reached for Harmony, only to find her side of the bed empty. Sitting up quickly, I looked around the room for her.
“Callum!” Helios burst in before I could figure out where she’d gone. “Something’s happening. The gods have summoned the Sentinel. My internal alarms are going off, and I can’t find Triana.”
I scrambled up, snatching my clothes and dressing as I ran to the window. The sky looked like it was bleeding, trails of mauve cutting through the moon’s beams. The clouds were so black I couldn’t see them.
“And there’s that.”
“Triana took Harmony to The Sect,” I said, my heart twisting into a million pieces. “Harmony is facing the gods.”
“I think so,” he answered.
“Fuck!”
I stormed past him, slamming into Slate as he ran down the hall.
“What’s going on?”
“Harmony. That’s what’s going on.” I was angry and devastated at once, my hands trembling at the thought of losing her.
Belkair rushed down the hall. “Callum!”
“I know.” I turned to Helios. “I need you to take me to The Sect.”
“You know I can’t do that. Shadow don’t cross the realm veil, neither do Torch. It’s forbidden.”
“It’s forbidden for Harmony to exist, yet she does,” I argued. “It’s forbidden to take an outsider into either realm, yet Triana just did that.”
“I can’t take you into The Sect.”
“No,” Belkair said. “You’ll take both of us.”
The hall shook as thunder echoed through the land. I glanced over at Belkair.
“You go, I go,” he said. “I didn’t get to fight for Landon. I’ll fight for his daughter.”
“Can I go?” Slate asked, and we all shot him a look. “It was worth the ask. Can I do anything to help?”
I thought about it. Mortals were no help with the dealings of the gods, but there was one thing they did well. One thing the gods listened to. “Pray. Pray to the gods, especially to Marinasta and Seranik, pray they protect Harmony. Get your sister and every person on this property to pray to them. Call everyone you know. Pray like the gods are raining their terror down upon you because that’s what they’ll do to her.” I grabbed Helios by the shirt. “Take me to my girl, Helios.”
“Fuck, I can’t believe I’m doing this. Hold on.” He reached out and took both our arms. Unfurling his wings, he took us to the realm of the Galere gods. Enemy territory. Discomfort washed through me, and I shrugged the strange sensation from me as we landed in a storm that battered us from every angle. At the center stood Harmony. Her wings were wide behind her, and power spilled from her. She looked like a prism of magic, gold and ebony streams of it flickering around her. And across from her stood the Galere gods.
“We’re too late,” Helios said.
I’d never seen the other gods, but I recognized Farinthion instantly. He had his hand out, his power drawn and aimed at Harmony. As it fled his hand, a goddess jumped between them, the power hitting her and sending her tumbling past Harmony. It could only have been Marinasta. She landed among the Torch. Chaos ensued, the other gods screaming at Farinthion, the Torch and Sentinel breaking rank and backing from the madness. Marinasta slowly picked herself up, her green eyes falling on me. She gave me a breathtaking smile, her voice filling my mind.
Watch how magnificent she can be.
Wrenching my gaze from her, I looked at Harmony. So much light and shadow encased her that I could barely see her, but I sensed her presence in the very air that filled my lungs, her touch in the way it sat on my skin. There was a quiver in the air, followed by a series of cracks.
“No!” Farinthion bellowed.
Marinasta had made her way back to them, her eyes beaming with excitement. “Yes, brother. It’s time.”
Anger disfigured his face, the veins in his neck prominent with it. He was every bit as terrifying as Harperia was. “I will not face her!”
“You will! And you will make amends and stop stewing in this half of what was once a united realm.”
As they fought, the sky behind them fractured, splintering into too many pieces to count, the pieces exploding in one final massive boom. Marinasta’s voice seeped into my head again.
Go to her.
Harmony was teetering. The magic had slammed back into her, causing her wings to coil in pain. I ran, shoving everyone aside until I reached her just as her body went limp. I caught her, folding her into my arms.
“Callum,” she rasped, clinging to my chest.
“Shhh, I’m here. What have you done, sweetheart?” I asked as the Goddess' shrill shriek cut through the fray.
“Farinthion!” she screamed from where the veil that separated the realms had shattered. The veil was indestructible, or so I’d always been told. A wall of impenetrable magic that separated this realm from ours. A second veil stood as a barrier between the land of the gods and that of the mortals. Nothing had ever breached a veil since the time the gods had erected them, but now the sheer volume of Harmony’s power had shattered our veil, making me doubt it was as strong as the one that kept the realms of the gods from the mortals.
“Harperia!” Farinthion boomed back.
Harmony leaned into me, and I held her tight, terrified of the repercussions of what she’d done. To my left, Belkair stood. To our right, Helios and Triana. The other Torch followed their lead. The Sentinel looked at us warily, questioning their commander’s new allegiance.
Harperia disappeared, then reappeared closer to us, the ground quaking as sparkles of gold penetrated the air at the impact. She left a distance between her and Farinthion. The animosity between the two was palpable. It sat like a thick cloud in the air. “You have brought down the barrier I erected so I would no longer have to see your ugly, cheating face again!” I’d never seen the Goddess so angry. Anger distorted her features, her usual beauty hidden behind the ire she spouted. The blood-red dress she wore accentuated it. The color seemed to seep into the ground below her feet.
“I have done nothing!” He pointed to Harmony. “This spawn has destroyed it.”
The Goddess honed her sharp eyes on Harmony before they flickered to me and to Belkair. “You will all suffer for your betrayal. And you,” she sneered at Harmony, “you die now!”
I shoved Harmony behind me, seeing the other Shadow behind the gods, the Guard gathering as well.
I knew I had one chance to keep Harmony from Harperia’s grasp, and it was a slim one. “You won’t kill her,” I said, my arm behind me and wrapped tightly around Harmony, pressing her body into mine. “You killed Landon, and we stayed silent in fear. They killed Trinity, and the Torch remained silent with that same fear. Harmony is not to blame for being anything more than she is—the true beauty of what you have created. The blend of Shadow and Torch, bound as it should be. No longer enemies, no longer adversaries, but alive in Harmony.”
“He’s right, sister,” Seranik said, stepping forward. I tried not to react as the odd sensation of his power skirted over my spine. Harmony shivered behind me, pushing herself further into my back. As terrifying as Harperia and Farinthion were, there were a few others, like Seranik, who even the bravest of us avoided. “You and Farinthion started this, dividing our family, splitting us, and for a long time, that was fine. We sided with you, they sided with him. But it’s been eons.” He moved toward Marinasta and took her hand. The dichotomy between the two was striking. She was like a light to his darkness, and I wondered how the two had found themselves in love.
“We want peace again,” Marinasta continued for him. “This child is an example of what it looks like when all of us are one. Just as the mortal world is. We created something amazing, a world, a people, and yet this feud has corrupted that beauty. It has turned what should have been celebration into something rancid, festering for all this time, spawning demons from that corruption.”
“Marinasta and I love each other,” Seranik said. The gasp from those around us was loud. What he had admitted went against everything Harperia and Farinthion had built with the factions of warriors they’d created. We were enemies, as were the gods in each realm. Two gods from enemy realms could not be in love. “We want to bond, and we cannot when you keep us separated, your dispute a constant gulf between us.”
“Bond?” Harperia said, her expression softening. I had to catch my reaction, afraid she would notice and turn her attention back to Harmony. My jaw clenched as I kept it from dropping. Bonding was the ultimate show of love between two gods. It was rare and something I’d only read about. The word held as much power to the gods as fated held for us.
Seranik nodded, squeezing Marinasta’s hand. “Yes.”
“You’ve been sneaking behind our backs?” Farinthion groused.
“What other choice did we have?” Marinasta said. “We tried breaking through with fating the Shadow and the Torch, but you killed them. This child was our last hope.”
“You had a child do what you were not brave enough to do?” the Goddess snapped, her tone acidic and matching the sour expression on her face.
Harmony moved from behind me, but I kept my hand around her waist, fearful of letting go. “I’m not a child,” she grumbled, and I squeezed her closer.
“You are to them,” I whispered to her. “Even to me, you’re still young.”
She glanced at me, trickles of power still flittering in her blue eyes.
“You would not have listened to us. She, however, caught your attention,” Seranik replied.
They’d used her, used her parents, even used me for their own gain. Such was the way of the gods, and there was no questioning them, no matter how angry it made me. They were selfish and too powerful to question. Harmony’s life still hung in the balance, and we were all walking a tightrope, waiting to see if the meddling Seranik and Marinasta had done would make any difference. And even if it did, there was no guarantee Harmony would live. All I could do was hold my breath and pray they would protect us now that Harmony had broken the veil. They hadn’t protected Landon and Trinity, so there were no guarantees.
Harperia looked at Farinthion and I could see the emotion in her eyes, eyes that had been emotionless and cold since the day she’d first granted me an audience with her. I clutched Harmony tighter as Farinthion’s stance softened.
Harmony drew in a sharp breath, and I glanced at her, searching for something wrong. Her mouth formed a subtle oh as her eyes moved between the two, her mind piecing together what the rest of us knew.
“You were in love,” Harmony said, and my grip on her increased, unsure of what Harperia’s reaction would be.
There were uncomfortable coughs, and the other gods backed away. All of us knew the truth of the feud between the gods. The reason Blight and Sect existed. The feud between Harperia and Farinthion. The mortals, however, remained in the dark, and that included Harmony.
The Goddess looked around. With the wave of her hand, we were no longer in the open. We were in a larger version of the hall where the gods met. Dust covered the stone chairs which showed the wear and tear of eons of neglect. She’d left the other gods, the Shadow, Torch, Sentinel, and Guard. Everyone but me and Harmony.
“There was a time,” Harperia said, her fingers drifting over the back of a chair, “when we ruled the world in peace, one united front.” Her eyes grew dark, power spilling from her and I held Harmony close against me, not liking where this was going. Our advocates were no longer with us. We were prey, sitting in the open for a vicious predator who could turn on us at any moment. “That time lasted well into the first centuries of the mortals,” she continued. “We relished the lives we’d created, the world that flourished below us.”
I wasn’t certain that gaining insight into the way of the gods boded well for our fates, but I didn’t want to interrupt.
“But that time was short,” she said, her expression souring. “My happiness shredded, my bliss obliterated, until I erected the new veil separating the other half of our family from us. Two new realms created, two sets of gods, one ruling The Blight, the other The Sect. And do you know why?”
I did: a falling out between Harperia and Farinthion, a violent one that sparked a war between the gods, the world below thrown into chaos until the gods divided. They had created Shadow and Torch to clean up the mess.
“Because Farinthion couldn’t keep his dick in his pants, finding favor in a whore goddess who should have kept her hands on the gods in her world instead of stealing mine!” Her roar shook the room. Shards of stone from the ceiling above rained down on us.
Harmony let out a muted cry, and I pulled her into my arms, protecting her from the falling debris and from the wrath I knew was coming. As much as she was trying to put on a brave face, her body was trembling. I needed to get her anywhere but here. The Goddess was unstable on most days, and this was pushing her even further over the edge.
I didn’t know what to say in response to her admission. We’d known of the falling out, but none of us had known the impetus. That her anger at Farinthion had started a war that divided the gods showed just how unhinged she could be.
“She wasn’t a whore, Harperia.” Farinthion stepped from the shadows and Harmony jumped. I moved us back a few steps, not sure what was about to happen, but certain it wasn’t something good.
“You bastard,” the Goddess hissed, forgetting we were present.
I took the moment to usher Harmony into a corner, as the two gods began a heated argument about whatever goddess had dared seduce Farinthion. It didn’t give me confidence to hear Harperia say she’d chased the goddess from our world and hunted her to this day. She was vengeful, and that didn’t help our cause.
“I need you to stick with me, stay close and follow my lead, understand?” I whispered to Harmony.
She looked up at me, her blue eyes holding confusion amid the fear. “Callum—”
“We need to get out of here. Her temper is unstoppable. I’ve seen her in action. You know those storms that wipe out entire cities? Tsunamis, tornados, hurricanes? That’s Harperia. We need to flee now,” I said, my tone commanding. An argument between two gods was dangerous enough. One between the Goddess and Farinthion could lead to another war and most certainly to our deaths.
