chapter Twenty Five
I told Victor and Micah which sign they should step into, then said, “But wait. We have to get in the circle at the same time.”
“In your vision, did you see what would happen?” Micah asked, eyeing the symbol before him. It had sharp lines, each one pointing to a different side.
I halted in front of my sign. It had curly lines. “Nope.”
“Morgan said this is the gateway to the Clarity Castle,” Micah said. “Perhaps it’ll take us there.”
And what would we do? Declare war on Imha just like that? I hoped that if the gateway took us somewhere, it was to a place far away from her.
“I don’t like this,” Victor argued. I rolled my eyes. At least he was already positioned beside his sign. It was composed of long, rounded lines and circles, similar to the Everlasting Circle symbol.
“Ready?” Both guys nodded. I took a deep breath and braced myself. “All right. Let’s do this.”
We stepped into the signs.
And an immense vortex of colors and power wrapped around us.
I saw a fourth figure approaching the circle and heard the guys’ grunts, then everything went gray.
***
I was surrounded by revolving smoke. It choked me and I gagged, nearly vomiting. Just when I began praying for it to stop, the smoke swirled into the shape of a room. A crystal room. With a crystal bed. Ceris sprawled on the bed, her body in a seductive curve. I looked around. Levi stood by the window, next to me, but obviously unaware of my presence.
“After thousands of years, you’re telling me you don’t love me anymore?” Ceris asked, an amused smile playing over her gorgeous features.
Levi shifted. His jaw went tight before he said, “You’ve changed. For many years now, you’ve been changing. Sometimes, I think I don’t know you anymore.”
Ceris laughed. “Love, you know me well. We’ve been together since the beginning of time.”
“You’ve changed.”
“But you saw my changes. You were with me through them.”
“But I don’t like how you’ve changed.” Levi turned to her, his clear eyes filled with disappointment. “You aren’t the sweet, selfless, and caring woman I fell in love with. Now, everything you do is motivated by self-interest. By the Everlast, there are occasions when you’re even cruel.”
Ceris got up from the bed. “Cruel, love? Me?”
Levi grunted. “Don’t pretend you don’t know. I see in your eyes when you’re pretending.”
“I’ve changed. So what? Everyone does.”
“We are not everyone. Our personalities and the way we live are the main rulers of our properties. You’re the patron of love, family, beauty, and marriage. But you’re not living by love, family, beauty, and marriage anymore.”
“A mother can fight for her family!” Ceris’s melodious voice gave out to a croaked shout.
Shaking his long, golden hair, Levi walked to the door. “A mother guided by love would find less destructive ways to fight for her family.”
The god left the room and Ceris wept.
The walls melted and were replaced by smoke. After a few seconds, the swirls of dark mist formed another image.
This time, I was in the crystal throne room. Ceris screamed. Imha and Omi stood still, as if paralyzed, on the other side of the room. The other gods cowered in the back. Shock crawled up my spine. I knew what I was witnessing. This was the moment right after Levi and Mitrus died.
“You!” Ceris spat out, pointing a finger at Imha. “You killed my love! You will pay for this!” Her eyes glowed red as she lunged at Imha, but she halted when the goddess of chaos pulled out a spike from behind her.
“I wouldn’t move if I were you,” Imha snarled. “Or you will have the same fate as your lover.”
Ceris’s eyes went from red to blue to dull gray. “By the Everlast, you planned this so they would kill themselves.”
Imha’s hysterical laugh raised the hair on my arms and the back of my neck. “Yes, dear Ceris, I did. And, you might say this was a good plan, wasn’t it?”
Ceris wobbled as if she were about to fall or faint. She reached behind her, but there was nothing to keep her up. Tears streamed down her face. “The Black Thorn. Are you insane?”
Imha tsked. “No, my friend, I’m just greedy, and I’ll go to any lengths to get what I want.”
“What is it you desire so much to kill for?” Ceris wiped away the tears. Her knuckles grew white from grasping her scepter so tight. To me, she seemed to be struggling not to cast a bolt at Imha.
“Power. Chaos. The world has been so calm lately.” Imha’s smile was intimidating. “Are you on my side?”
Gaping, Ceris turned to Omi, who remained standing, stiff and still, beside the delusional goddess. “You agreed to this? Are you on her side?”
Like the few times I had seen him, Omi’s clothes were crumpled and smeared with dirt and blood, and he ambled as if he walked on the deck of a ship being tossed by waves. He turned to Ceris, half of a smile covering his thick lips. “I’m with her.”
Ceris shook her head and retreated a few steps.
“Are you on my side?” Imha repeated her question, her voice resonating through the crystal walls. “I won’t ask again, Ceris, so be smart.”
“I’m smart. And I’ll never join you.” With that, she cast a magic wall before her and ran to the exit.
The wall crumbled when multiple purple and red bolts hit it, but she was already gone.
“After her,” Imha shouted.
Dozens of demons appeared from the shadows of the room. With piercing shrieks, they set out after the goddess of love. Giant bats flew out with the demons. One soared over my hiding spot and I looked up, suddenly seeing the creature as I’d never seen them before. These weren’t bats. Demonic faces were hidden behind a bat disguise.
Before I could see more, the scene changed.
I was inside a dark cave and I could hear heavy rain falling outside. Ceris was beside me, kneeling before a pink bonfire. Her tears mixed with the dampness of her hair and clothes. Her pain was visible through her eyes and in her shaking body.
Poor Ceris. She had lost the man she loved and now was on the run from a powerful and mad goddess. Despite my ghost state, I reached out to her.
Everything turned to clouds again. Seconds later, the fig cleared away, and I was in a dark and noisy bar, filled with several men whose narrowed eyes glanced sideways every few seconds, who laughed and clanked loudly for nothing more than a poorly told joke.
In the corner behind me, Ceris was seated at a table across from the Fates.
“I felt it,” she said, as quietly as she could with the loud sounds around them. “I felt this immense power, like an explosion of pure life.” Her blue eyes were huge and gleaming. I could see a smile ready to burst out of her lips. Her hands moved as if by their own volition. “Please, please tell me.”
“Tell you what, child?” one of the Fates asked.
“I’ve been crying for seven years,” Ceris almost shouted. “Please tell me I can stop crying.”
“Why were you crying, child?” another one asked.
“Stop it,” she hissed, clenching her fists. “Why do you take me for stupid? You know exactly what I’m asking.”
“Please, Ceris, make your question clear so we can decide if we’ll answer it or not.”
Ceris took a deep breath, as if getting ready to step onto a stage. “Is Levi alive?”
The Fates united their right hands and closed their eyes. A few seconds later, one of them answered, “Yes.”
She put her hand over her chest, and she started panting.
Oh God, really? Levi was alive? Ceris had said she had been crying since his death—for seven years. We’d been living under the darkness for thirty. That meant this vision was one of the past. Twenty-three years had passed since this occasion. Where had Levi been this entire time? Why had they not been united?
“Where is he? Where has he been?” Ceris struggled to stay upright. I could feel her need to bolt after Levi. If I’d learned my man still lived after all those years, I would have the same desperation.
“No, child,” one of the Fates said. “He’s been dead for the past seven years.”
“Pardon me?” Ceris asked.
A waiter pushed his way between her and the Fates, and asked if they wanted anything. Ceris shot him an angry glare. When he backed off, she returned her focus to the other women.
“Levi was dead,” another said. “What you experienced was his birth.”
“Birth?” Ceris closed her eyes for a minute. “Please explain.”
One of the Fates leaned closer. “Levi died when the Black Thorn pierced him. However, his spirit found its way back. A few days ago, he was born into this world.”
“Born? You mean, as a baby? A mortal baby?” Shock drained Ceris’s face of color when the Fates nodded. “By the Everlast! What should I do now?”
One of the Fates smiled at her. “Now, you wait.”
I had even forgotten I was having a vision when the scene changed. Now, I was in a playground, watching a few children play while their parents stood close by, chatting.
“They cannot see us.” A voice came from behind me. I turned to see the Fates. I froze, thinking the words had been directed at me, but Ceris stood beside them, watching the children play.
“Isn’t he beautiful?” She smiled, her gaze focused on a cute boy, who was yelling he was Superman. “His birthday is coming up. Six years.”
Then it hit me. Oh God, that was Levi? He looked like a regular boy, a human child.
“You shouldn’t have looked for the boy, Ceris,” a Fate reprimanded the goddess. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I couldn’t stay hidden knowing he was out there unprotected. I had to find him. And, after almost six years of looking, I found him. I’m amazed at how strong his aura is. How he pulled me to him.”
“Be patient, Ceris,” another one said. “I can see you’re anxious to help the boy. He’s too young yet.”
“I know,” the goddess said. “I’ve been thinking,” she started, finally turning to the Fates. “Levi is back. And Mitrus?”
The Fates kept their gazes on Levi. One said, “He will be six the same day as Levi.”
“No,” Ceris muttered, shaking her head. “But he is the one who caused this mess! Tell me where he is and I’ll kill him right now!”
“You know you can’t. Or shouldn’t. We need to restore the balance. That will only be complete if Levi and Mitrus return to us.”
“And when will this happen?”
“Be patient,” a Fate said.
Ceris puffed. Then her eyes bugged. “His scepter? What happened to his scepter?”
“Lost. It’ll be crucial to find his scepter once he remembers who he is.”
“You see, child,” another Fate said, “his body is human, while his spirit is of a god. His body won’t hold for too long and only the scepter will transform him into a full god again.”
“What will happen to him?” Ceris asked, anxiously observing the boy as he played.
“You will see.”
Something told me I knew what would happen to him, but before I could think it through, the smoke wrapped around me. When it dispersed, I found myself on a sidewalk in a town. I stood in front of a furniture store beside Ceris. It seemed nobody could see her again, since people scuttled past her—and me—without glancing or bumping into either of us.
I followed her attentive eyes. Inside the store, a couple and an old man spoke with a salesman. Then, Ceris glanced to our side, toward a tall man. She approached him and whispered something in his ear. His eyes bugged, becoming glazed, as if he’d been hypnotized. He marched to the furniture retailer.
Ceris turned her back to the store. Once more following her gaze, I saw a young boy inside an electronic store across the street. He reached for the door, about to leave, but Ceris wiggled her fingers and the store’s door slammed shut. The boy pushed against the door, but it didn’t move. He called someone to help him. Some adult tried to open the door, but it stayed locked.
Behind us, three gunshots popped loudly. My heart lodged in my throat and I jumped. I turned to find out what had happened, but the setting altered once more.
As expected, I was again beside Ceris. This time we stood in an alley, observing a group of young men leaving a swanky club.
With his back to us, a tall guy talked animatedly to another guy with dark hair. The dark-haired guy walked around a car and invited the tall one for a ride.
Ceris wiggled her fingers in the guy’s direction.
“You know what?” the dark-haired guy said. “I want to be alone. Get a ride with someone else.” He got into his car and peeled out of the parking spot, leaving his tall friend to stare after him, his hands shoved in his pockets and his shoulders hunched high, as if he were perplexed. The tall guy still stared at the retreating car when, out of nowhere, a van turned the corner and hit his friend’s car, which exploded upon impact.
Next to me, Ceris seemed unaffected as the giant ball of fire grew.
The tall guy staggered back, and then turned around. But before I could see his face, the surroundings melted in smoke, placing me somewhere else yet again.
With Ceris by my side, I was in front of a cozy white house in a nice neighborhood. I wondered how such a place existed in a world like ours. As if answering my mental question, two armed guards walked past us, patrolling the streets. We were probably inside one of those closed and protected subdivisions that had become trendy since the darkness took over.
From the front door, a tall guy came out. It was dark and I couldn’t see his features, but for some reason, I believed he wasn’t a stranger. This had to be the guy whose friend blew up in a car, but a few years older.
He grabbed keys out of his jacket pocket and walked to the black sports car parked in the driveway. He stopped and pressed a hand to his forehead, closing his eyes, as if a headache had come over him.
Ceris pointed to him and his cell phone rang.
“Hello,” he answered, gritting his teeth.
“Hi, baby. It’s me.” I gaped at Ceris. She was the one speaking, but her voice was different.
The guy smiled through his pain. “Hey, hon, what’s up?”
“Could you do me a favor?” Ceris asked.
“Anything,” he answered.
“Pick up my prescription at the pharmacy before coming over?” she asked, sounding like someone else. “I really need it.”
“All right.” The guy opened the car door and slid inside. “See you in fifteen?”
“I’ll be waiting,” she said in that fake voice.
As the guy backed the car out of the driveway, she pivoted. The image before us switched. Now, we faced a fancy apartment building. From one of the windows on the second floor, I could see a beautiful blond girl around my age. She was dressed up and wore makeup. She kept leaning out the window, looking outside, as if waiting for someone.
A train whistle caused me to put my hands over my ears, but it wasn’t a train. It was a huge tornado and it was coming for the building—fast.
My breath caught, and I was about to run to help the girl get out of the building.
Before I could take a step, the world revolved around me, smoke coiling around me, and I found myself outside the Fates’ cottage.
The door was open and I felt compelled to peek in. Inside, Ceris took off her cloak and sat in an armchair across from the Fates.
“I need help,” she started. “Levi won’t make it alone. He has no idea what is happening to him.”
The Fates shook their heads. One said, “You altered his future too much already. You should stay away from him before Imha senses him.”
“Please!” the goddess begged. “He will die soon. His pain is increasing. His body won’t hold his soul much longer. He needs help. Let me help him.”
“It’s not our choice, Ceris. We can’t interfere directly. Neither can you.”
“I can’t leave him there,” she insisted, her clear blue eyes shining with unshed tears. “He’ll die. And this time, since he’s still mortal, death will be forever!”
“You can’t help him,” another Fate said.
Ceris closed her eyes and buried her head in her hands. After a few silent moments, she let out a loud sob, and then stood upright. “Then I’ll find someone who can.”
As she left the cottage, the scene changed once more.
Under a thick tree with heavy leaves, hidden from prying eyes, I was seated on a park bench beside Ceris.
The Fates came out of a hiking trail and entered a small, veiled clearing, approaching Ceris.
“I’ve found who can help me,” the goddess exclaimed, barely containing her enthusiasm. “She’s beautiful and kind. He won’t resist her, I’m sure.”
“Why do you insist on jeopardizing his safety?” a Fate asked.
“Levi’s not safe alone.” Ceris raised her melodious voice. “He suffers. He needs my help. I cannot bear watching him wilt away.”
“And what is your plan?” another Fate asked.
“As if you didn’t know,” Ceris said as a Fate shrugged. “I want to make a deal with you.”
“Go on,” a Fate said.
“I’ve found the girl Levi will have feelings for. Now I have to make her useful. I ask you to give her your most precious gift.”
“And what do we get with this?”
She smiled. “Her soul will be mine. It’s inevitable. Love for her family rules her life, which makes me her goddess. She will fall in love with Levi and will do anything to protect him. Once Levi remembers who he is and doesn’t need her guidance anymore, I’ll give her soul to you.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that,” she said. Her eyes were eager and expectant.
The Fates joined their right hands and closed their eyes. For a few seconds, they remained still.
Seconds later, in unison, they said, “We agree.”
Ceris jumped up and laughed in relief. After thanking the Fates, she left.
Then, the Fates turned to each other.
“Ceris has no idea.”
“No, she doesn’t. She thinks the girl is ordinary.”
“Will we tell her?”
“No. Why spoil the fun?”
Before I could make sense of it, the scene changed.
My head spun, and I wasn’t sure if what I saw were visions, things that happened in the past, if it was my mind playing tricks on me, or if I was truly living these moments.
I closed my eyes, trying to gain equilibrium against the swirling thoughts that inhabited my brain. When I opened my eyes, I nearly screamed.
I was facing myself.
The other me hurried to an airport luggage claim area. I looked around, realizing I was in the JFK terminal. This had to be the day I first arrived in New York. The day my visions started.
I watched as the other Nadine twirled a strand of her long hair while impatiently waiting for her bags to appear on the track.
Inside myself, I felt a pull. Frowning, I followed it and looked back. Ceris was hiding in the crowd. What was she doing here? My curiosity made me stop watching the other Nadine. I followed the goddess, who retreated to a less populated area. When she was sure she was alone, her features changed. Her elegant white gown gave away to a neat suit, her pale skin acquired a slight tan, her long, white-blond hair shrunk to her chin and grew yellow. Her clear blue eyes became clearer, almost silver.
My knees gave away and the air flew out of me, as if a long-nailed claw had punctured my lungs.
Cheryl. Ceris had become Cheryl.
Who was now walking to the luggage claim area, her eyes on the other Nadine.
The walls of the airport terminal melted away; a black cloud took me back to the Fates’ cottage just as Ceris came in.
She took off her cloak from around her. “He is here.”
“Who, child?” a Fate asked, rocking and knitting.
“You know who. Mitrus. He has been following the girl.”
“Fascinating,” the Fate by the fireplace said.
“He found out the girl can heal his pain,” Ceris yelled, then added in a hushed whisper, “I still don’t understand how she can do that.”
“Interesting,” the reading Fate muttered without taking her eyes from her book.
“Actually,” Ceris said, then halted and stared at the fireplace, “what is interesting is that he knows something is going on. What’s more, he can sense auras, I know it. Thank the Everlast mine is always concealed, otherwise he would have sensed me and known I’m not human.”
“He’s not entirely human either,” the Fate stirring the kettle by the fireplace said.
“His body is,” Ceris whispered. “Which means he could be killed.”
“Ceris,” the one knitting called out. “We already discussed that. Don’t kill him. Levi may be the balance, but the circle needs every one of the gods to function by the Everlast law.”
“I know.” The goddess tapped her long finger over her chin. “But I have to do something. He can’t stay here and mess with my plans. He can’t be near the girl.” Her eyes seemed focused on the fire. “I wonder how he can tap into his powers. He isn’t strong enough, but he has some tricks. Seeing auras is one of them. Repelling the winged demons is another.”
“What do you think happened?” the one by the fireplace asked.
Ceris tapped her chin. “I don’t know. I can only think of one thing. He is the god of death and the dead. Perhaps he saw someone die.” Then she gasped. “Or he killed someone! That’s it! That would explain it. Accidentally, he performed the act that bound his properties and now he can feel and do things he can’t explain. Oh, it makes sense now.”
“Tell us what is in your mind,” the reading Fate asked.
Ceris smile turned wicked. “I’ll create a diversion. He can sense auras? So be it. He will sense the strongest aura around. That will also give a false lead to the others.”
“Be careful, child,” the one by the fireplace said. “There are things that happen because they should.”
“No,” Ceris yelled. “Mitrus is too close to Levi. He killed Levi once; he could do it again.”
“Trust the Everlast energy, child,” the knitting fate said.
“I do trust it, but that doesn’t mean it cannot use some help every now and then.”
The scene changed. I found myself inside Morgan’s office in Jacksonville. He was standing up and looking rather hypnotized. Beside me was Ceris—disguised as Cheryl.
Looking deeply into his eyes, she said, “One of the gateways to the Clarity Castle is Cathedral Rock in Arizona, a place of pure power. A couple will come to ask about it, and you will help them get there. You will do whatever you have to. You will sacrifice anything, even your life to aid them. After helping them, you will forget about the gateways. Do you understand?”
Looking like a zombie, Morgan nodded.
Shadows rose from the ground and revolved around me, taking me to yet another place.
The goddess and I stood beside an incredibly blue lake inside a rocky cave. The ceiling was low and full of sharp points, though the overall extent of the cave seemed large. I couldn’t see an exit and that made me nervous. The smell of wet moss was strong, but it died out as soon as Ceris ignited a log, creating a bonfire beside the lake’s bed.
That was when a whimper made me turn. I saw a young girl seated against the cave’s wall. Her mouth was gagged, and her wrists and ankles were tied by a shiny pink thread.
The girl was terrified. Every time Ceris moved, she recoiled and whimpered.
Ceris approached her and whispered, “I’m so sorry.” She put her hand over the girl’s chest. For a few seconds, the girl squirmed with wide eyes, trying to get out of Ceris’s reach, but soon she stopped and seemed petrified.
Ceris’s hand glowed. Slowly, the girl’s chest opened.
Bile filled my throat and I gagged. My knees buckled and I sagged against the wall, wanting this vision to end.
But it wouldn’t end. The girl’s chest opened fully and her heart appeared from inside the gap. The bloody mass floated forward, guided by Ceris’s power. The heart kept coming until it rested over Ceris’s palm. The girl’s lifeless body slid sideways.
Ceris took the girl’s heart to a steel plate that hovered over the pink fire. Then, she repeated the procedure over the girl’s arm, grabbing one of the bones of the lower part. She placed the bone with the heart over the plate. Ceris focused on the heart and bone, and in her eyes was a heinous shine. What was happening to her?
Oh God, I wasn’t witnessing this. No, no, it could not be true. Wasn’t Ceris the goddess of love and family? Where was her heart now?
Ceris grabbed the bone and pushed it through the heart until it looked like a nasty and gruesome chicken leg—the bone inside the meat. She deposited it over the plate, and then using magic, she guided the plate over the lake. With a wave of her hands, the plate sank into the lake, taking the bone and the heart with it.
An intense dark light shone from where the plate had disappeared, blinding me for a second. Ceris chanted some incomprehensible words, holding her scepter tight.
It didn’t take long for something to rise from the water: a Black Thorn.
Smoke ascended from the shadows of the cave and covered me. I screamed as a piercing headache shredded the inside of my skull. It felt as if my brain were being stabbed by thousands of needles. Through the black wall, some spots of light surfaced and grew, clearing my sight and bringing me back to Grandmother Rock.
I was kneeling inside my sign circle atop the rock. The wind whipped up and a cold fog brushed against my skin.
Ceris had her hands over my forehead. I kept screaming at the pain; it was as if she were extracting my soul with her long nails. I felt it from my toes, my knees, my thighs, my abdomen. I put my hand over my chest when it passed over me there, as if I could hold it in. My eyes wide open, I observed the goddess drink from me. Then the pain passed through my throat and my forehead, finally leaving me as it was absorbed by Ceris’s skin. I fell.
I gasped as the pain went away. I gaped at Ceris’s elegant retreating form, wondering why I wasn’t dead. I thought she had been sucking my soul and killing me.
“There.” She halted in the center of the circle drawn on the ground. Her white gown ruffled in the wind. “I gave you the gift. I also took it away.”