Chapter Twenty-Seven

“WHAT DOES THAT mean?” Evaria asked, taking the words from Briar. She moved from the wall and crawled across the floor to sit beside Briar. She started to reach for her, then her hand retreated. Briar was terrified to look at herself in a mirror.

But she knew, she knew before Nilaja spoke, exactly what it meant because she could feel the change within her. The call of the world beyond the veil, something she still could not access, but she could hear the winds. The whisper of the universe. The rush of magic that was now a living thing inside her. Connections to the Gods ran like invisible threads from her, just waiting for her to tug and get their attention.

And she knew this place, the golden lake, was now a Gods Spot. Nilaja had told her they would bring the Gods back and they had done just that, channeling it all through Briar.

“The Gods will walk amongst the world now, free to come when they want, not just when they are summoned with blood. I know…I know you didn’t want it, Briar, but it was not your call to make.”

“And it was yours?”

Nilaja nodded. “I am the God of Change, a Deity of the beyond. It was always my call to make, it is why I was created. You will be remembered, Briar. I have protected you because there will be no denying that destroying Eliana was the right thing. Humans will look on this lake in wonder. I will speak for you.”

“You never spoke for me!” Fury raged inside Briar and red magic lashed her skin like flames. “I didn’t want this!”

Soren moaned and sat up, looking around, his silver eyes wide. He moved away from Bastianna’s barely breathing body and Jenia’s remains and closer to Briar. “What happened to you?”

She reached up and touched her face. “Nilaja happened.”

“You’ll come to understand in time. This is how it was before Eliana, how it should be. We tried to fix it the wrong way before, but you had magic too. It was always doomed to fail; I am surprised it did not happen sooner. This way, whatever ills are left from her in the world, we will be able to fix them. People can summon who they need more easily. Magic will grow. It will be better.”

“I don’t believe you,” Briar said, finally standing. Every inch of her body ached like she had been beaten and she supposed she had. “I believe you think you were correct, but I don’t believe it will be better.”

She had once believed in just that, desperate to find the truth of the Gods, but they no longer brought her solace.

“I pray you will come around.”

Briar snorted at the irony. There was a mirror across the room and she walked toward it. She could not make sense of her reflection. It was her, tall and blonde and green eyed but…she was perfect. Inhumanly perfect. Disgustingly perfect. Every sign of her life was gone. Her hair was shiny and thick, free of split ends. The bags under her eyes were gone. The little smile lines that had just begun to form were smooth.

“You had no right.” She ran her thumb over her lips, smooth and unchapped. She turned, blinking away the tears that had started to form. This was not her body. She wanted to be herself again. “Nilaja, you have to know this isn’t what I wanted.”

Surprisingly, the Deity was also crying, golden tears running down their own perfect face. “I am…so truly apologetic, Briar. You are right, doing this to you was unkind, all you’ve ever wanted was a place in the world. But…” They took a step closer to Briar. “You will be good at this. You will be a go-between for the humans and the Gods and, darling, there is no one better. I would trust no one more than you.”

The notion that Briar was selfless and ready for this responsibility was outrageous at best. She knew who she was, she knew what was in her heart, and it had never been altruism. “What if I don’t want to do it?”

“No one will force you to speak for the humans.”

“But will someone else if I don’t?”

“Not in the way you will be able to. No one else will be able to pull on the magic of the Gods Spots to summon us at will. That magic belongs to no one but you right now. There may be more conduits to come in the future. You are free to wait on them.” Nilaja smiled.

“Didn’t you say the Gods are free to move through the world at will now? Why would we even need to summon them?” Soren asked.

“Because being free to visit and actually doing so are two different things. People may need us when we are not here, and instead of drawing their own blood they can call on Briar. And she will have the power to choose, to decide which of us answers. She will learn our ways, what we are each suited to. She will be the thread that binds us to this world. And her magic will be greater, growing greater still as she learns to heal, to help. In time she will see.”

Evaria stood, placing herself between Briar and Nilaja. “That was not—”

The room exploded, or at least it seemed that way. Darkness filled the space, broken only by shafts of moonlight. The whole lake turned dark and there was sadness. Briar couldn’t explain it, but grief seemed to radiate from—whatever had appeared.

Soren and Evaria scrambled toward her and she did the same, until she clung to them in the dark.

Then the light returned and she found Ivian crouching over the stolen body that had once belonged to his daughter. Stars and space rolled around him, glittering and dying at his feet. His tears fell silver and hissing onto the body. “No, this cannot be.”

“Ivian, we will speak away from here,” Nilaja said, golden magic sparking on their fingertips. Their body was tense, poised like a predator ready to strike.

“We had a plan,” he growled.

“To bring her back? Ivian, we have tried it. Look at what she did. We were created to protect the humans, the universe, not our mistakes.”

He stood and shadows followed, swirling around him and cloaking his feet. “A mistake? She was my daughter, a child of the Gods. She was never a mistake.”

With a blink and a splash that left no trace, another God appeared. Briar knew he must be Bruelle, the Water God. He was fair, with blond curls and fine, sharp features. As beautiful as the others. “Ivian, my dear friend, she was a mistake. That does not mean you did not love her but she hurt and broke everything she touched. She was not well. She never would have been.”

This was surreal. It could not be happening. There was no way Briar was in Evaria’s lake house, surrounded by Gods. This had to be some sort of insanity. Perhaps she was in a coma or had died and this was all the final flash of her brain. How could it be real? A conduit? Another Gods Spot?

Soren’s fingers tightened around her hand, ice cold. The urge to flee filled her body, but where would she go? She didn’t want to run again and this was not Eliana, daughter of the Gods, this was Ivian himself and she had killed his child. She looked to Ansel’s body, the spot she had been avoiding. His corpse was still flecked with the remnants of the golden magic that had covered this place. Briar was glad for it, imagining it meant he had found peace. Nothing like Bastianna, who still lay unmoving on the settee.

A rumble of pure fury brought her gaze rushing back to the Gods. Ivian was looking right at her, the darkness of the universe thick around him, stars swirling and blinking out in the abyss. “Human girl, how many times did you call on us? And yet you moved against us.”

Evaria trembled beside her but Briar tried to keep her shoulders back, her neck straight. She would not die cowering. “Your daughter cursed us. She killed my aunt. I look at you and I do not see evil, but there was nothing else in her. She could not live.”

“You overstep.”

“She speaks the truth,” Bruelle said, puffy silver-tinged clouds floating around him. “Look around, the world has bent to her, another Gods Spot. Look at her as well, flawless, touched by true magic. You need to go home, mourn your daughter.”

“No!” he screamed, and the three humans flew back and splashed into a pool of water far too deep for the inside of the lake house. For a moment Briar thought she must have flown through the window, fallen into the lake itself, but then the water was gone and all that was above her was crown molding.

The God Ivian stood over her and icy darkness ran across her body. “You are not fit to be the conduit. You…you think you are fit to speak for all of humanity? Have you seen the world, the state of the humans? You live in a tower above the rest, you have never struggled, you have never wanted, you don’t speak for them. You want and take and destroy. The tears that have been spilled over you could fill the lake you have defiled. You have reveled in bullying and hate. You have dined at tables full of excess, fed by those who could not afford to eat that night.”

“Shut up!” Soren let go of her hand and stood, not quite as tall as the God whose night and stars lashed at him. “How can you stand there and judge her? Whatever misdeeds she has done are nothing when compared to yours. You are so selfish you allowed humans to be cursed, to die, to suffer, all so your daughter, the true abomination, could live thousands of lifetimes. Nothing Briar has ever done will compare to the horror you have wreaked upon humanity.”

“My daughter is dead!”

“Good!” Evaria said, though she still trembled beside Briar. “Your daughter should have never been.”

The world exploded around them once more, darkness and pain, a roar of wind, and Briar was moving through the air again. This time she did crash through glass, which shredded her skin. Sticky blood ran from her, coating her arms.

She landed hard. Her head knocked against the rocky shore and she could feel each pebble that embedded itself in her skin. She could not stop her body as it continued to tumble toward the water, or the figures of her friends beside her.

Magic wrapped itself around her limbs and she stopped moving. The pain receded and when her vision stopped spinning, she found herself unblemished, her cuts healed and her skin once again perfect. Something pale green shone around her like a bubble, and it took her a moment to realize what she was seeing.

Lorcus stood between her and the blown-out library of the lake house. He’d surrounded Soren, Briar, and Evaria in some sort of cage, a dome of light and magic. Other Gods were there; ones Briar did not recognize and some she could guess at. Across and around the lake other people had come out. They stood on their decks and on the shore, their faces a mix of curiosity and terror.

Briar’s heart skipped a beat. Her stomach dropped. In the midst of the rubble Nilaja and Ivian battled, neither of them getting the upper hand. Blood dripped, unearthly and glowing, from Nilaja’s nose and their split lip. Ivian’s face was contorted with what had to be grief because tears slid down his face.

“Ivian, you cannot best me,” Nilaja said. “What are you trying to do? Look around, no one is coming to aid you.”

“They aren’t aiding you either. She was loved. She was loved.” Darkness exploded out of him again.

And was quickly stifled by golden rays from a brown-skinned Goddess, her hair so long it pooled on the ground. “We do not want to hurt you, sweetness. We can feel your pain. We mourn her too, but you cannot do this.”

“The human will pay,” Ivian said, turning toward Briar.

Her body went tense and the green dome around her crackled.

“I will not allow you to touch her,” Lorcus said, putting one hand on the barrier. “This is not what you want. You know the consequences of unduly harming a human. Leave. Calm yourself away from here.”

“Do you think the universe will not find me justified?”

Consequences? Briar did not understand what was going on. She had no idea what the rules of the Gods were and she had never heard anything about them having consequences. Everything she’d read or encountered had led her to believe the Gods were above laws and rules.

Nilaja moved before any of the Gods could answer. Golden bindings wound themselves around Ivian. He struggled against them but several Gods stepped forward, placing hands on Nilaja. Their magic was a song that drifted across the lake.

Behind them, Bastianna started to stir. Her face was pale and she moved languidly, backing away from the fighting Gods.

Bruelle stepped forward until they stood only inches away from Ivian’s snarling face. “I am so sorry for everything you have lost but you have seen the damage an unchecked God can do. We cannot allow it. We are bound to protect them. Stand down.”

With a roar, Ivian lashed out, getting one arm free of his bindings. Shards of darkness shot toward Briar, shattering the dome. She braced for impact but Evaria launched herself in front of her.

Briar screamed along with several of the Gods. She grabbed Evaria’s shoulders. The darkness had slashed across her chest and now it swirled inside it. Her eyes were open but glassy and blood bubbled from her mouth.

“I am…so dreadfully sorry.” Lorcus knelt beside her, and petals fell like tears from him.

“Save her!” Briar screamed.

“I will try. Blood. I’m sorry. I need the blood.”

Briar reached until her fingers found something sharp, a piece of broken glass, and she dragged it down her arm. Locus wrapped his fingers around it, smearing red down her arm, and his other hand rested on the swirling darkness where Evaria’s heart should be.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry. Evaria, please. Don’t die. Please don’t die,” Briar begged, stroking her dark hair. There was blood, so much blood. Behind her there was still shouting and the flashes and rumble of magic but Briar did not look.

Pale-green magic mixed with the darkness, driving it away and leaving only a horrific wound. “You will be the conduit?” Lorcus asked.

And Briar knew it was not a true question but what he needed to save her. A plea from the speaker of the humans. Instinctively, she knew what to do. “Yes,” she nodded, placing her hand over his. “She is important, a leader. Save her. I implore you.”

She started to glow bright and gold, hot enough to burn, though her skin did not char or sizzle, yet the heat radiated from her, moving the air. Magic ripped through her, ravaging her and her body shook with the effort to stay conscious, but she held her hand in place. She could feel the human world, all the pain and horror, but through it all one pain stood out. Evaria’s, her desperate grasp at life. Briar threw everything into it, unsure of how to wield this strange new magic but begging it to work.

Evaria’s wound started to heal, skin and muscle and sinew stitching itself back together. But it wasn’t the same, Briar did not need medical training to know this was nothing human. When the healing was finished Evaria’s chest had a pale glow and her eyes were changed—bright-green irises flecked with gold.

“Briar…”

“It’s okay, Evie. I’m here.”

But Lorcus stood too quickly for everything to be okay, his fists balled. The petals dropping from him were brown and wilted.

“Ivian!” he screamed, his voice booming across the water. Screams sounded from the neighboring houses. “Look at what you have done!” He reached down and pulled Evaria up as though she were weightless. He cradled her to his chest and she gasped at the connection.

Briar knew what she must feel, all the magic running through her body, but Briar was so tired. She’d never hurt like this. She was weary. Beyond just the physical pain, she was desperately exhausted, but she saw no way out of this, not until Ivian was under control.

“I did not mean to hurt her.” Ivian stepped out of the crowd of Gods surrounding him, his voice wavering. His shadows started to recede.

“You meant to kill the conduit in revenge for protecting the humans. You meant harm and you enacted harm. Ivian…this is…”

“No.” His head shook.

“Ivian, I can feel it,” Lorcus said, fear in his voice. “It’s coming.”

“No.”

The ground shook and the sky turned dark. Gray clouds rumbled, appearing out of nothing. The golden waters started to churn, washing upon the shore like ocean waves. Lightning struck and even the Gods shouted, backing away. The people who were watching screamed with them, many retreating into their houses.

“No,” Ivian said again, falling to his knees. The ground cracked at the impact. “No.” He clawed at his face, drawing purple blood. “No, she hurt her. She hurt my daughter.” When his hands fell his eyes were no longer silver but a swirling black void. He pressed his palms to the ground and collapsed.

“Shit,” Nilaja said, turning toward their brother. “Get them out of here, Lorcus. He will wake in moments and his wrath will be unending. Flee!” they screamed to the humans around the lake. “Tell everyone a God has fallen.”

Goose bumps rose on Briar’s skin though she did not know the true meaning of their words. Thunder cracked overhead and rain began to fall, splattering the ground with blood-red drops. Screaming started in earnest as the rain stained everything around them.

Ortus stepped away from the crowd, his crows squawking on his shoulders. The silver-ringed black of his eyes reminded her of what she had just seen in Ivian. But even though he was the God of Death, there was still something warm in his gaze. Nothing like the endless abyss that sat under Ivian’s eyelids. “Go to Lillia’s house. She is descended from a conduit. Her magic is strong against the Gods. I will be in touch but for now…trust in her.”

Briar nodded, pushing herself to her aching feet. She put out a hand for Soren and dragged him up. “What does this mean? A fallen God?”

Nilaja rushed forward. “You must go before he wakes.” They pushed a piece of hair out of Briar’s face. “You are the conduit now. We will be in touch. Oh, darling…you were right. You deserved none of this. Now go!”