A light rap at Selena’s door dragged her out of the plush, oversized four-poster bed. She gave the thick white blankets a remorseful glance as she walked to the door and pulled it open. Cameron stood in the hallway, looking clean and rested and mischievous. He grinned at her but kept one hand hidden behind his back.
“This is so much better than Ukko’s hotel. Check it out.” He extended his hand and showed her a plate with a sandwich on it. Selena looked at it then lifted her eyes to meet his.
“It’s a sandwich.”
Cameron grunted at her. “Selena… it’s not a sandwich. It’s your half of the crawfish po-boy I promised you.”
Selena laughed and moved away from the door. “But I don’t have your half of the not-a-sandwich sandwich.”
Cameron waved her off and handed her the plate. “Apparently, the Dagda doesn’t need his magic Cauldron to keep everyone fed. He’s got a magic chef. And that’s so much cooler than a big pot anyway.”
Selena nodded and lifted the top of her po-boy to peek at the fried crawfish inside. “If only there were a football game you could take me to. I may graduate from caterpillar to butterfly sooner than you thought.”
Cameron smiled and pointed out her window and asked, “Does the sun ever set here?”
“Maybe we slept all night.”
“Maybe there is no night because if we’re not on Earth, we’re not rotating around the sun.”
“Then why is there a sun in the sky?” Selena countered.
Cameron looked out the window again and put a finger to his lip as he thought about it. Selena sniffed her sandwich because even though she obviously trusted Cameron with her life now, she didn’t necessarily trust his culinary tastes. She lowered the plate before he could catch her smelling her food.
“That’s going to get cold,” he warned her. “And maybe they need a moon god or something. I don’t know. This place is bizarre.”
“It’s a sandwich. Isn’t it supposed to be cold?”
“Po-boy,” Cameron corrected. “And the crawfish are better while they’re still warm.”
Selena sat at the table near the window where Cameron stood and braved a bite of the sandwich, which she reminded herself not to call a sandwich again out loud. Little bits of fried crustaceans dropped out of the other end, and she scowled at them and shot Cameron a this-is-a-stupid-sandwich look. “Why is this place so bizarre? You just said it was way cooler than the W in New Orleans.”
“Their ability to make whatever food you want appear is way cooler,” Cameron said. “The rest of the place is… weird. I know we didn’t sleep twenty-four hours, and the sun is still in the same place in the sky.”
Selena finished her second bite of po-boy, which she thought was a good sandwich but still a sandwich, and shrugged. “Ask Badb or the Dagda. I doubt their day and night cycles are some kind of godly secret.”
“It’s not just that…” Cameron said, but a knock on her door interrupted him. He crossed the room to open it and Badb, her golden hair swept up into a twist behind her head and wearing a long emerald dress that hugged every curve on her body, stood in the doorway. She pointed to Selena’s plate and told her, “Finish eating. The Greeks are here.”
Selena thought it was a good thing she didn’t have food in her mouth with Badb’s announcement because she would have choked on it. “The Greeks? Why do I have to be at this meeting?”
She could already imagine herself saying all of the wrong things and humiliating Badb and the Dagda, and worse, Cameron.
“Why wouldn’t you be there?” Cameron asked. “Besides, you want to become one of the Tuatha Dé. This is good practice.”
“Be bitter about her choice later, Cameron,” Badb said. “You’re going to be there as well. And they’re waiting on us.”
Cameron folded his arms across his chest and mumbled, “I’m not bitter.”
Badb shot him an and-I’m-not-stupid look then told Selena to just bring her sandwich since gods had a tendency to be impatient.
Cameron flipped her off for the sandwich comment.
Selena snickered and took one last bite of her po-boy, and made a mental note to thank Cameron for her fancy sandwich, then she and Cameron followed Badb through the wide hallway back into the cavernous hall, teeming with gods and goddesses she didn’t recognize. She slowed down as they stepped into the hall and the deities stopped talking amongst themselves, their eyes settling on Cameron then her.
She wanted to back up into the hallway, to retreat into her room and hide from them all, even Badb. She’d assured the war goddess she would be willing to accept her fate as the next goddess of healing but there were so many expectations, so many hopes and aspirations among this group for who they assumed she would be, but she wasn’t at all convinced she could be this goddess. After all, she hadn’t even been able to heal Badb on her own.
Selena felt Cameron’s hand wrap around hers and she looked up at him. He offered her a reassuring smile then whispered, “See? Told you this place is weird.”
Selena laughed then covered her mouth with her other hand when her laughter echoed off the marble walls of the quiet palace.
The Dagda thought that was funny, too.
“Let’s sit,” Badb suggested. “Our druid’s prophecy is being fulfilled, and if we wish to retain the Otherworld, we must swear our allegiance to Selena’s safety first and foremost.”
“Hear, hear,” Athena agreed.
“What?” Selena squeaked.
Badb ignored her.
She pulled her to the long dark oaken table in the center of the room and Cameron followed her, still holding her hand, and Selena watched the eyes of the assembled gods and goddesses as they waited for her to sit down first. She wanted to turn to Cameron and tell him he was right: this place was weird. And it made her ready to go back to Earth.
Badb sat on her other side and her sisters approached the table, nearly indistinguishable with their golden hair also swept up into neat twists and their emerald green dresses that highlighted the kinds of bodies only goddesses possessed. Selena glanced awkwardly at her blue jeans and LSU t-shirt, a gift from Cameron, and pulled nervously at the neckline. She heard Cameron sighing and met his eyes, but he only shook his head at her then turned his attention to the Dagda who stood at the head of the table.
“Thank you, friends, for traveling here to meet Cameron and Selena, and for your quick arrival amidst the news that our enemies are assembling against us again.”
She heard grumbling at the end of the table amongst the Greeks but they were temporarily foregoing English to complain about the Norse and the Slavs.
“Question,” Cameron interjected.
Badb groaned and Selena smiled to herself. She was going to have to become one of the Tuatha Dé just to keep Cameron out of trouble.
“I’m worried about the Norse and Slavs, too, of course, but Selena and I can’t set foot on Earth without the New Pantheon hunting us down. And if Selena is really key to your success in this upcoming war, then Ukko is likely to switch tactics from trying to abduct her to killing her, right?”
Badb shrugged. “Not necessarily. Ukko may or may not ally with the Slavs again. Last time, there wasn’t even a United States, let alone a New Pantheon. He’s at the helm of an organization he controls that is becoming more and more powerful. I’m guessing he’s more likely to try to coerce Selena into working for him now. You know, offer her whatever she wants in exchange for her loyalty to him and his New Pantheon.”
Selena scoffed and shook her head. “He can’t give me what I want most anyway.”
Cameron raised an eyebrow at her, but Badb just nodded as if she already knew what Selena meant and that just made Selena blush. Yet again.
She hoped once she became a goddess this blushing thing would cease, because she was sick of it.
A Greek god Selena could only guess might be Poseidon, which surprised and scared her, leaned his elbows on the table and peered at the Dagda. “I’ve already had to give up the Aegean. I’m not giving up my sea here. If those bastards want it, they’ll have to kill me first.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re planning on doing,” Badb snapped.
Poseidon just waved her off.
“Another question,” Cameron interrupted again.
All of the gods and goddesses sighed and looked at him, some irritated, some amused. Selena squeezed his hand and bit her lip so she wouldn’t laugh.
“If people remembering you guys gives you power, why is it the Greeks are like… second in command here? No offense, Badb or Dagda… is it ok if I call you Dagda because the Dagda gets annoying after a while.”
The Dagda opened his mouth, but Badb didn’t let him speak. “Because we led the last war and we led the Greeks into victory,” Badb explained. “And today, we are still quite powerful because of our own destinies. Because of yours and especially because of Selena’s.”
Cameron nodded knowingly. “I believe it about Selena, but unless annoying the hell out of the Norse and Slavs has become an effective way to wage war, I’m not so sure about me.”
The Dagda laughed and told him he could call him Dagda from now on just for that.
Selena suspected he would have agreed to it regardless; the Dagda seemed to think Cameron was the most entertaining thing to happen to the Otherworld in centuries. Perhaps he was because nothing ever really changed here unless a bunch of pissed off gods decided to have a war.
“Cameron,” Athena said, “we saw what you were capable of against Quetzalcoatl. You’d never even held a spear before. Do you really undervalue yourself so much, or is it only that you don’t want to be here?”
Cameron blinked at her then shifted awkwardly under the scrutiny of all of those deities watching him. Truthfully, Selena wanted to hear his answer, too, but she didn’t like that they were making him so uncomfortable.
“Why is my fate more important?” she deflected. “If we can’t find the Cauldron in time, I may not be the healer you even need. I had to get Cameron’s help just to heal you, Badb.”
Badb shot the Dagda a warning look, and he quickly closed his mouth again. Cameron must have noticed because his fingers reflexively tightened around her hand, his distrust of the gods and their games growing the longer they sat in this hall and listened to the half-truths they told.
“Selena,” Badb said gently, “you could have healed me on your own. Of course I appreciate Cameron’s willingness to help save my life. But the power is in you. The only reason you faltered is that you doubted your own strength, and when a god is filled with self-doubt, he weakens himself. If you don’t learn to trust yourself and your abilities, you won’t realize just how remarkable your gifts are. You don’t need the Cauldron to transform you into a more powerful deity. It’s already in you.”
“That’s the first thing I’ve heard yet I fully believe,” Cameron added.
Selena shook her head and slunk lower in her seat. All those eyes. And they were just staring at her. Cameron attempted to rescue her.
“What about Asclepius? Isn’t your healer still around?” he asked the closest Greek god. Selena had no idea who he was. She hoped he wasn’t Asclepius.
“No, Asclepius was a demigod but his knowledge of healing allowed him to evade death for a long time. But Zeus killed him, remember?”
“Oh, right,” Cameron said. He looked down the table at the assembled Greeks and asked, “Is one of you Zeus?”
The Greeks glanced at each other then eyed Cameron with the same what-is-wrong-with-this-guy expression so many other gods had given him recently. “No,” Ares finally answered. “Zeus was killed before the last war. His brother, Poseidon, has taken his place at the head of our pantheon.”
“Just wanted to make sure before I said that guy was a real…”
“Cameron!” Selena hissed. “You’re going to get us killed! Knock it off!”
Cameron’s eyes sparkled mischievously, and he grinned at her. “What? I was just going to say he was a real player. Ukko’s got nothing on Zeus.”
Badb rolled her eyes and rubbed her forehead. Tears trickled down the Dagda’s red face as he shook his head at the man who had apparently decided to become the jester of the Irish court.
“Keep it up, Cameron,” Selena warned. “One day, when we find that Cauldron and I’m on this pantheon, I’ll put you to work in the kitchen making me sandwiches while I rain out all of your football games.”
“You can’t rain out the Saints’ games because it’s an indoor stadium, and you’re not a weather goddess anyway. And you don’t need to become one of the Tuatha Dé to convince me to make you whatever you want.”
You. I just want you.
Selena stared at the table and tried to shrug it off. “The Dagda controls the weather. We all help each other out, right?”
“Can we please talk about the Norse and Slavs?” Athena groaned.
“You’re going to have to get used to this,” Badb warned. “They never stop.”
Cameron nodded and said, “Totally my fault.”
“And we do sleep,” Selena added.
“But not together,” Cameron said.
“Making it weird again.”
“Then I fit in here. That’s… not where I was hoping this conversation would go, actually.”
“Are you sure you found the right demigods?” Poseidon asked.
“Yes,” Athena answered for Badb. “I saw them both in that swamp. Believe me. They’re the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
Cameron’s fingers tightened around her hand again, but Selena didn’t like the way they were talking about them either. She may have placed her trust in some of these gods but not all of them. And she still suspected Badb knew more about their destinies than she was letting on.
A god sitting across the table from them leaned back in his chair and picked up his chalice, because apparently in the Otherworld, people still drank from chalices, and nodded toward Badb. “An immediate plan seems simple enough. Just accompany them to Earth as soon as you can all go to search for the Unbreakable Sword. Once you find it, bring it back here. Then you can begin your search for Nuada’s heir.”
“Aonghus, only you would make it sound so simple,” Badb scolded. She sounded like a mother scolding a child, much the same way she often reprimanded Cameron or Selena.
“Aonghus,” Selena whispered. “You’re a love god.”
Aonghus smiled at her and sipped from his chalice. Selena pulled her hand away from Cameron’s and touched it to her cheek. She wished she could disappear.
“Don’t worry, Selena,” Cameron said. She thought his voice sounded bitter again. “I don’t see a bow and arrows over there. You’re safe.”
Selena shook her head quickly as she stared into his beautiful chocolate brown eyes. She’d hurt him when she’d only wanted to protect him. “No, it’s not that…”
“Doesn’t matter,” Aonghus interrupted. “Finish your lovers’ quarrel later.”
“We’re not lovers,” Cameron interrupted.
Aonghus waved him off. “If you say so. Badb, there’s nothing wrong with my plan because it’s the only thing we can do. They will live here where we can better defend them, and you can search Earth for our treasures at times that it’s safer.” He turned his pale blue-green eyes to the Dagda and begged, “Father, just tell her.”
“That’s about as much of a plan as I have,” the Dagda admitted.
“Oh,” Aonghus added, “and give him the Spear already. The traits of both Lugh and Cú Chulainn. How could we lose then?”
“No!” Selena shouted at him. “If Badb hasn’t already told all of you that isn’t going to happen, then take it up with her. But leave Cameron alone.”
Something impish and knowing flashed behind the love god’s eyes, but he shrugged and dropped the subject and held up his chalice. “Our friends have brought us their best wines. Don’t let it go to waste.”
Selena pulled her chalice closer, but Cameron just stared at his. She wasn’t sure what his expression meant, but it pained her and she bit the inside of her cheek to focus on anything other than crying for the man whose future she wanted to save, even if it meant alienating him from her forever.
“I don’t drink,” he mumbled. “And I’m going to take a walk. You can give me the Reader’s Digest version later.”
Cameron pushed his chair away from the table and left the hall, his footsteps echoing off the marble as the room fell silent again. She heard Badb sigh, but Selena kept her eyes on the chalice in front of her and occasionally sipped from it to appease her own pantheon as well as the guests she didn’t want to offend. She was sure Aonghus was right and this wine was unparalleled, but she couldn’t taste anything. Her mind and body had become numb.
She picked out pieces of conversations as they floated past her, variations of Aonghus’ plan to somehow allow Selena and Cameron enough time on Earth to accomplish an impossible task while keeping them safe from both the alliance of Norse and Slavs as well as the New Pantheon. They had enemies everywhere now, and even the Otherworld would become dangerous as soon as the Norse alliance decided it had the support it needed to wage a second war.
And they most likely would strike soon in the hopes the Treasures of the Gods remained hidden, and the Irish pantheon remained weakened as a result.
Selena pushed her chair back and stumbled to her feet. Badb immediately stood up, too. “I’m going to take her outside for some air.”
Badb wrapped her hand around Selena’s arm and led her toward the back of the palace, although Selena wasn’t drunk. She wasn’t even tipsy. But Badb probably already knew that anyway. The war goddess always seemed to know more than she admitted. Badb pushed on a heavy wooden door and the warmth of the air in the Otherworld washed over them, a pleasant tingling on Selena’s skin. She couldn’t help wondering if she would feel sensations like these the same way once she accepted the Dagda’s Cauldron. Maybe that’s why the gods had such voracious appetites when it came to anything of which mortals would eventually tire: eating, drinking, sex. Perhaps nothing satiated them anymore because they couldn’t feel anymore.
Selena pulled her arm free from Badb’s loose grip so she could bend down and take off her shoes. She wanted to feel the grass beneath her feet, even if the grass here didn’t behave normally. Badb watched her quietly then reached out for Selena’s shoes. “I’ll leave them by the door.”
“He’s going to hate me,” Selena said softly. She remained sitting in the grass, running her fingers through the blades just as she had when she and Cameron had inexplicably transported themselves to this world on their own.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Selena. He loves you, and there’s nothing you could ever do that will change that. But I know what you’re doing.”
Selena swallowed and focused on the burning pain in her throat for a few seconds before she could answer her. “I have to. If I told him the truth, we both know he’d be more likely to take the Spear even though he wants nothing to do with this world or the Tuatha Dé. I can only tell him if he changes his mind because it’s what he wants.”
“He wants you, Selena.”
Selena shook her head and blinked away tears then forced herself to her feet. “As a demigoddess. A mortal. Not as one of you.”
Badb sighed again and slipped off her own shoes, throwing them by the door next to Selena’s. “Let them argue for a while. In the end, we’ll do what we think is best anyway.”
“Then what was the point of this meeting?”
“Oh, we have to make everyone think they’re part of the decision making process. But when it comes to you and Cameron, I’ve always been in control and they know it.” Badb grabbed her hand and Selena let her lead them through the soft grass toward the first hillock behind the palace. It tickled her feet and she turned to see if they were leaving footprints, but just like the last time, the grass looked undisturbed.
“Why are you in control over Cameron and me?” Selena asked, turning back toward the hillock. She scanned the horizon for Cameron but didn’t see him. A burning pain in her chest reminded her he was probably trying to avoid her.
“Because you are our future, and I am the guardian of the Tuatha Dé. We were never the largest pantheon in the world, Selena, so we mourn each loss deeply.”
Selena watched the grass under her feet for a while before asking her about the Dagda and his own story because his presence on Earth didn’t match the myths she’d studied. “I thought Cethlion killed the Dagda. But that’s obviously wrong, too.”
She thought she noticed Badb grimacing, but maybe she’d only imagined it, or maybe she’d only squinted against the sunlight. “You’re right. The Dagda is obviously alive. The Irish had no written language either, Selena. When monks began writing down the stories of the Tuatha Dé, they changed some things by accident and some stories they changed intentionally, like our entire race becoming fairies that hid in the hills.”
Selena smiled and playfully pushed Badb as they ascended another hill. “Oh, come on. I totally believe Noah has descendants in Ireland. They’re most likely the ones who transformed you into a fairy.”
Badb laughed and rolled her eyes at the monks who had massacred her history. “And they left a bunch of us out. We’ve kept those who have largely been forgotten alive because our pantheon never died out and was at least remembered in folklore, but we have dozens of deities even you may know nothing about.”
“How are the Tuatha Dé so powerful then? The Greeks and Romans wrote about their gods, and their mythology has gone through so many periods of renewed interest, I’d think they were invincible by now.”
“There aren’t any Roman gods. They’re the same gods as the Greeks.”
Selena sighed and rolled her eyes. “I realize that. But the Roman humans wrote histories and theologies.”
“It’s more complicated than memory, Selena.”
“Well, I’m still kind of surprised the Greeks aren’t the ones in charge here.”
Badb snorted and stopped on top of the hill. “Having a lot of gods doesn’t necessarily make a group more powerful, just as having fewer doesn’t automatically make them weaker. Look at the Norse. Their pantheon is small but powerful.”
“And the Slavic gods are bringing in other pantheons to fight with them, right? Ukko is Finnish so he must have allied himself with the Slavs for a reason.”
“Ukko and the few remaining Finnish gods allied with the Slavs because they thought they would win. They were led by the Norse, and he assumed that alliance was stronger than ours. That’s why we have no reason to think he’ll automatically ally himself with them again. He owes them no allegiance.”
“No,” Selena agreed, “he has his own pantheon again and it’s quite powerful. What does he need this place for?”
Badb laughed again and turned Selena around slowly. “One day, Child, this will belong to you as well. All gods want to control the Otherworld, Selena. We can’t help it. It’s a part of us, and it will become a part of you. I think Ukko will wait to see what happens with this war then use the New Pantheon to fight the victors, hoping they are weakened and battle weary.”
“It’s like Cameron said. Ukko’s not stupid,” Selena murmured.
“I wish you would talk to me about him.”
Selena scanned the fields around her again, and even though they were still alone, she shook her head. She recognized that she was growing to love this goddess, but she also knew her well enough now to know that she would try to change her mind about telling Cameron she loved him. And she refused to manipulate him into accepting their damn Spear just so they would have their next sun god.
“So what’s up with this place? It was daytime when we arrived here, Cameron and I both slept for a while, and it’s still daytime. The sun hasn’t even moved.”
“You’ve already been told that time passes differently here,” Badb answered.
Selena stopped walking and stared at the goddess, trying to wrap her mind around just how much time had passed on Earth since she and Cameron had arrived in the Otherworld. “How long have we been here?”
Badb shrugged. “I’m not sure. We never really know until we go back to Earth. It could be a few weeks or a few hours.”
“But when we were here last time, Quinn said only thirty seconds had passed. Didn’t you do something to make sure we were brought back to the same place and time?”
“I sent you back to the same place. How you and Cameron managed to get back to the same time, I don’t know.”
“Badb!” Selena exclaimed. “God, you’re so full of shit sometimes!”
“I told you to cut that out,” Cameron warned.
Selena jumped and looked over her shoulder where Cameron stood behind them, his arms folded loosely over his chest, pretending to scowl at her. Selena crossed her arms and pretended to scowl back at him.
“First of all, don’t sneak up on people. It’s not nice. And secondly…”
“Wait,” Cameron interrupted. “What if one of you isn’t a people? Does that make it acceptable?”
“No. And secondly, she’s trying to make it sound like we somehow managed to bring ourselves back to almost the exact moment we left Earth when we were healing Justin. If this isn’t a good time to invoke some nameless god, then when is?”
“Never, because it usually ends up in one of those gods trying to kill us. And, seriously, Badb, that’s lame even by godly standards of lying.”
Selena nodded and turned her pretend scowl into a real scowl as she looked at Badb now.
The goddess threw her arms in the air and insisted, “Why would I lie about this? Lying about my affair with Cú Chulainn was worth the trouble, but this?”
“Didn’t you kill him for rejecting you?” Selena asked.
“Hey!” Cameron interjected. “I don’t like where this is going.”
Badb waved a hand at him. “It’s not true. After Cú Chulainn’s death, his enemies spread lies about him, saying that the only reason he always succeeded in battle was because of my help and that when he rejected me, I turned against him.” Badb paused then pointed to her head. “I also don’t have red hair. Don’t believe everything you read.”
“And that was before Wikipedia,” Selena added.
“You know,” Cameron said, “you’re not funny either.”
Selena smiled at him then remembered why they were standing at the top of a hill rather than sitting at the table inside with the others and stared embarrassedly at her bare toes in the grass.
“What?” Cameron asked. “Ok, I take it back. You’re funny.”
“You kids are going to drive me crazy,” Badb muttered.
“To be fair, it’s a short drive,” Cameron said.
Selena snickered, and Cameron grinned at her, that sexy mischievous grin that made her watch her wiggling toes in the grass again.
“You two walk back when you’re ready. I’m going to make sure the Dagda isn’t in a literal pissing match with Poseidon again,” Badb told them.
“Ew. Gods are gross,” Selena said.
Badb shrugged at her and waved her hand toward the palace. “You think that’s bad, you should’ve been around when Zeus was still alive.”
Cameron shook his head as he stared at the palace. “There’s not a single likable quality I’ve ever read about that guy.” He paused and grinned at Selena again. “Assuming I can trust anything I read, even if it was in a book.”
“Oh, you can trust most of what you read about him,” Badb said, her petite nose wrinkling in disgust.
“He hit on you, didn’t he?” Selena guessed.
“I’m a woman. Of course he did,” Badb laughed. “But I’ve always had a fondness for Irish lads.” She winked at her then headed back toward the palace.
Cameron waited until she was halfway back before leaning closer to Selena and whispering, “We need to figure out how to get more Irish lads up here.”
Selena giggled and wanted to reach for his hand, but she couldn’t help feeling like everything had changed between them and none of it had been his fault. She was the one pretending not to love him so he wouldn’t feel compelled into accepting a future he couldn’t change once he’d taken the Spear. But that wouldn’t stop him from blaming himself.
She took a deep breath and reached for his hand anyway and he let her hold it in the same innocent, protective way he’d always held her hand, both to keep her near and to reassure her she wasn’t alone and he wouldn’t abandon her.
“I’m so sorry, Cameron. About what happened inside with Aonghus. That’s not what I was worried about. It’s just… all these gods around us. I’m not used to it. It’s overwhelming and it seems like half of what we thought we knew by studying mythology turns out to be misleading or even wrong.”
“Hey, you have nothing to apologize for. I’m the one who acted like a jerk. I should be apologizing.”
Selena sighed and eyed the castle because she’d known he would do this, assume all the blame when he’d done nothing wrong.
“Come on,” he said. “I want to show you something. This is pretty amazing.”
Selena followed him up a different hill and they crossed over several more, each covered with the same soft, bright green grass that tickled her bare feet but didn’t crush beneath her weight. They passed a thin brook with water so clear Selena could see the pebbles on the bottom, brightly colored like gemstones that gleamed and sparkled beneath the gently rippling waves. Cameron stooped down by the edge and picked up one of the stones that resembled a ruby and handed it to her.
“Here, you like red,” he said, smiling at her again and her heart caught in her throat.
“How did you know?” she whispered.
Cameron shrugged a shoulder at her and wiped his hand on a leg of his jeans. “Because I pay attention. And every time we’ve passed a woman on the street with a red handbag or a storefront with a red dress, you slow down just a little to admire it. You’d look killer in red, by the way. Which I mean in a completely non-creepy-I’m-not-being-weird kind of way.”
One corner of Selena’s lips curled into a half-smile as she teased him. “Got it. So what you’re telling me is red leather.”
Cameron arched an eyebrow at her and told her she’d just made it weird. “And that’s my job,” he added.
Selena slipped the red stone into her pocket and looked downstream. “Is this what you wanted to show me?”
“No. This is awesome, but what I want to show you is even more awesome. And if I weren’t a little worried about getting smote by some asshole god over here, I’d go check it out.”
“We’ll probably be ok. I think the smiting gods are all busy with their pissing contest, which I never thought was an actual thing.”
“True. In that case, let’s go risk getting smited.”
“Smote,” she corrected.
Cameron waved her off and grabbed her hand again as he led her up a hill, where the water from the stream inexplicably flowed upward. “See? This place is strange.”
Selena nodded and resisted the temptation to stop again so she could collect more of the rocks from the riverbed. Some of them reminded her of sapphires and emeralds, and she could already envision collecting them in a glass bowl in the bedroom she would apparently be sending quite a bit of time in.
“Cameron? One of the reasons I was asking Badb about time here and on Earth is that they want to hide us here, but we have no way of knowing how much time is passing back home. What if we accidentally wait too long and Nuada’s heir dies because a hundred years have passed? What if we wait too long and your family…”
Cameron inhaled slowly and pointed to the top of the hill. “We’re almost there, and then we’ll be able to see it.”
Selena eyed him carefully as they made their way to the top, but he was clearly trying to avoid looking at her now. “Why do you do that? Why do you change the subject every time I mention your family or you start talking about them?”
Cameron glanced at her and bit his lip, but she had told him so many stories about her Aunt Tara. Why would talking about his own family make him uncomfortable? Especially since he’d already told her he’d always been close to them, and he had a loving family?
Cameron stopped before they reached the summit and looked at her, his dark eyes searching hers, and he inhaled another slow, deep breath. “You want to know why I hate the gods, Selena? You’d asked me before you left for Atlanta, and I spent two days kicking myself for not telling you, even though I don’t know if it would have changed your mind. But they’re the reason I hate them. For as long as any of us can remember, we wanted nothing to do with them or any other demigods, and the most we knew about our ancestry came from the human side. Oddly enough, I think I do have some Greek in me, but human Greek.”
“Cameron,” Selena sighed.
“When I was little, my father took my brother and me fishing near one of the same bays that one of those dads and his son disappeared in. And he told us why we should never admit what we are, why we should never be proud of it. Think about it: every problem in this world throughout our history can be traced back to religion, and the gods never did a damn thing to stop it. They let people get slaughtered in their names. They sometimes encouraged it. They let people starve while they sat in their ivory towers and gorged themselves. Why would I be proud of belonging to that history? And why would I want to become a part of it?”
“Oh,” Selena breathed.
“And what if it changes…” Cameron shook his head and pulled on her hand as he nodded toward the top of the hill. “We’re almost there. You know Irish mythology, so you can tell me if it’s safe for us to go breaking and entering.”
Selena forced her eyes away from their hands, still clasped together, and focused on the smooth surface of the hill. He’s going to hate me then, too. He’s convinced I’ll be just like them. Think, Selena. Think. Put words together outside of your head.
“I’m pretty sure it’s never safe to go breaking and entering,” she finally said. Those weren’t the words she wanted to say, but she had no idea what else she could say because Cameron may be right. How could she possibly know if becoming a goddess would change her? Worst of all, what if it changed her love for him?
“You seem pretty important to these guys. They probably won’t kill you,” Cameron responded.
“Still an expert at calming me down.”
Cameron nodded and said he was adding that to his résumé when they got back home.
They stepped onto the top and Cameron pointed to a different hilltop with a clear palace sitting on top, its walls reflecting the sun in gleaming fractals of brilliant light.
“The glass castle,” Selena gasped.
“Well, yeah, that’s what I was thinking, except I don’t know what that is.”
Selena’s gaze drifted away from the sparkling castle to the cerulean sea, its waves quietly splashing against the rocky cliff. “It’s where Balor supposedly imprisoned his daughter, Ethniu, because of a prophecy that her child would grow up to kill him. And I’ll give you one guess as to who her child was.”
Cameron sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “So, my great-grandmother a million years ago was locked away inside this tower because my great-great-grandfather a million years ago was trying to prevent her from getting pregnant and giving birth to Lugh? Told you the gods were a bunch of assholes.”
“Not that it matters, but Balor was Fomorian, not one of the Tuatha Dé, and the Fomorians are often depicted as a bunch of assholes because they were the enemies of the Tuatha Dé. There’s a glass castle in Arthurian legends, too, but those stories combined Celtic mythology with Christianity, so maybe it’s the same place.”
Cameron grabbed her hand again and began to lead her down the hill. “We walked this far. Let’s go see if we can find Sir Gawain.”
“If there are a bunch of knights sitting around a round table who decapitate us with their swords for breaking into their castle, I will never forgive you.”
Cameron nodded. “Wouldn’t blame you.”
Selena reached into her pocket and pulled the clear red stone out, holding it in her palm to show Cameron. She grinned at him and said, “Let’s throw it. When else will we have the chance to live out an adage?”
Cameron laughed and told her to put the stone back in her pocket; he didn’t really want to get killed by a bunch of drunken knights. The soft green grass of the Otherworld gave way to a rockier terrain as they ascended the cliff as well as the hard gleaming white marble just like the paths they had stood on when they arrived here for the second time. Only this marble didn’t form a path but surrounded the castle, reflecting the sunlight so that it filled the glass palace, illuminating it like a dazzling lighthouse, either beckoning or warning those approaching that something portentous was near.
They approached the side of the castle and peered into it, but it seemed mostly empty: no knights, no tables or chalices or cauldrons. There weren’t even stairs to ascend to the upper floors.
Selena searched the side of the castle for a door, but couldn’t find one of those either. “Somebody must have gotten bored and made a huge piece of art. There’s no way in this place.”
“Yeah, this kicks up the Otherworld to a whole new level of bizarre.”
Cameron let go of her hand so he could shield his eyes from the sun and look into the castle again. Selena mimicked him, stepping closer to the glass wall so she could study the interior. Movement in her peripheral vision startled her and she looked around the large main hall for the source of it, but the castle seemed just as empty as before. She was about to ask Cameron if he’d noticed anything moving when a translucent ghastly figure appeared before her, banging angrily on the glass wall. Selena screamed and stumbled backwards, falling onto the hard smooth marble ground and hitting her head.
The last thing she heard before she passed out was Cameron calling her name.