Page 12 of Faithless
“What did you say?” I demanded. “Agod?”
An oversimplification but one that will do,Astarte commented.
“You’re a god?” Shadow looked like he wanted to wring the dove’s neck and serve it up on a barbecue. “And you’ve chosenourdaughter?”
That is correct.
It was so strange to hear a voice inside my head, especially knowing now that it wasn’t a product of my own brain.
“Why? We did our part,” Jandro growled, also staring murderously at the bird. “Why are the gods coming for our children now?”
Times change. Situations change. There is unrest that must be quelled, and I need a human.Thishuman.
Reaper stood up, and everyone’s eyes swayed to him. He’d been quiet since the whole thing started, observant and calculating. As the Steel Demons president, his word was once law. If anyone could make this situation go away, it would be him.
“Our children are not sacrificial lambs for your causes,” he told Astarte with a deceptive amount of calm. “Our sacrifices to the gods have already been made, ten times over. You have no right to come in and use our daughter for whatever game you’re playing.Weaccepted our bonds and did our duties so that our children would be safe. The war is over, and like Jandro said, we did our part.”
Yourwar is over, yes. But this is no game. Another war is brewing under all of your mortal noses. It grows out of control, day by day. If I wait as long as your gods did, it will be too late for humanity.
Yourgods? What the hell did she mean by that?
Before I could ask for clarification, Shadow jumped to his feet. “Then let us go instead. Rori, she…” he trailed off, gaze falling to me. “She doesn’t know about all of this.”
Obviously,I thought, still feeling completely in the dark while everyone else argued with this bird-god.
Your time has passed,Astarte said.You’ve had your days to prove yourself, Son of the Sisterhood. A new generation must step up to the mantle.
Shadow froze, his whole body going rigid like a block of wood. “What the fuck did you call me?” he demanded, a viciousness in his voice I’d never heard before.
Next to him, my mother wrapped an arm around his bicep and her lips went to his shoulder, as if to comfort him. That or to prevent him from actually killing this bird, which he seemed intent on doing.
Aurora doesn’t know about that either, does she?The dove made a soft cooing sound.Leaving children in the dark does them no favors. Humans always seem to forget this.
Reaper stepped closer to the dove, his nose mere inches away from its beak. “Rori was never supposed to meet gods. You were never supposed to interfere with our lives again. Hades, Horus, and Freyja said they wouldn’t!”
None of this seemed real. I felt like I was watching some strange alternate reality, my life playing out in a bizarre, fictitious version of the real thing. Hades and Freyja were a dog and cat we had when Daren and I were kids. Horus was a trained falcon that belonged to Gunner around the same time. I knew they were named after gods in ancient myths, but they weren’t actual…
A memory hit me so hard it took my breath away. No, it was a dream. A memory of a dream I hadn’t thought about in years. But it crashed to the forefront of my mind as vividly as ever.
I was around twelve years old and dreamed I was in a desert. There was nothing but dry, sandy earth and scattered bushes around me. There were mountains far away in the distance, and I remembered feeling hot. A scorching, dry, oppressive heat like I was inside an oven. Each breath felt like I was inhaling sand.
“Miserable, isn’t it?”
I turned around to find a man standing a few feet away, when I had been alone moments before. He looked like a younger version of my dad Reaper, with brown hair, green eyes, and a warm smile.
“Who are you?” I had asked him.
“I’m Daren,” he’d said. “It’s nice to meet you, Rori.”
“That’s my brother’s name.”
“Yeah, you kinda got my brother’s name too.” He’d smirked, charming and teasing.
It clicked for me right away. I had seen flashes of him in dreams before, but never photographs or anything. My parents had told plenty of stories about him, though.
“You’re myuncleDaren.”
“That’s right, kiddo.”
