Page 14 of Faithless
“I don’t…I don’t know.” I ran my fingers over my scalp, still unnerved by the sensation on my brain that came from a god speaking to me. “I’m glad I’m not hallucinating, I guess.”
No one laughed. At this point, I was starting to wonder if mental illness would’ve been an easier outcome.
“What…do I even have to do?” I scanned the room, looking at each of my five parents. “What did you guys do?”
They all exchanged looks again, that silent communication between partners that had known each other for over twenty years. With a pat on his shoulder from my mom, Reaper got up from the floor and returned to the couch. My mom squeezed in between him and Shadow.
“The gods we had bonded to us in different ways,” Reaper began. “Hades, a god of death, chose me. He came to me in the form of a Doberman.” My father paused and laced his hands together before continuing. “And I…reaped for him. I carried out kills on his command. In exchange, he protected me from death. Even though there were times where I gotveryclose.”
“He protected all of us,” Jandro added. “Our bonds to him were different, but I’m certain he had a hand in all of our survival.”
“Freyja bonded to your mother.” Reaper angled his head toward her.
“I heard a kitten crying,” Mom said, just above a whisper. “And I found myself tied to this beautiful black cat in ways I couldn’t explain.”
“What did you get out of it?” I asked.
“Freyja is a goddess of love, healing, and fertility. All of us, and every patient I worked on, healed rapidly from their injuries. I had some skills back then, but Freyja’s guidance was…intuitive. I justknewwhat to do.” She gave a small smile to Shadow next to her, who returned the look. “I think she was a bit of a matchmaker for us too.”
“She was,” he confirmed. “But Freyja was also a goddess of death. I don’t know how exactly, but she worked with Hades in some sense.”
“She did,” Jandro confirmed with a nod, his eyes unfocused, his mind somewhere else.
“Horus is a sky god. He never talked to me much.” Gunner had his elbow propped up on the arm of the loveseat, his gaze out the window. “Not until later, but I could see through his eyes. Falcons have binocular vision, and it was great for battlefield tactics.” His smile in my direction was almost sad. “If I miss one thing about those days, it’s the sensation of flying.”
“Horus also gave me my sight back.” Shadow absently scratched the long scar cutting through his brow, eyelid, and cheek. His eye underneath the scar was white, while the uninjured eye was dark brown. “Even improved my vision so I could see better in the dark.”
“Is that how you always caught me sneaking to get cookies out of the kitchen at night?” I asked.
He grinned. “Yes.”
“You got the dad-vision turned up,” Jandro added.
Soft chuckles rose from everyone, but the humor was short-lived. We all fell back into a pensive silence. The situation felt too grave for cracking jokes.
“So Astarte is going to give me…some special ability?” I asked. “It doesn’t even sound like this god likes me very much.”
“Seems like it, but we don’t know what that’ll be,” Mom said. “Everything we had was slightly different.”
“What kind of animal vessel is that anyway?” Jandro muttered. “A pigeon? What a shit bird. If our girl’s gotta go out there, she deserves an eagle or some shit.”
“It’s a dove,” Shadow informed him dryly. “There’s lots of symbolism attached to them.”
“Whatever. Same thing as a pigeon. Fucking rats with wings.”
“Says the guy who calls his chickens ‘magnificent swans’,” Reaper muttered.
“My girlsaremagnificent!”
“Guys, can we focus?” Mom cut in before looking at me. “What else can we answer for you, sweetheart?”
Silence fell again as they all waited. It almost felt like they were expecting something from me.
“I don’t know, like…” I spread my hands, shaking my head as I looked toward the ceiling. “What do I do? How do I deal with being chosen by a god? I don’t even know what to ask!”
“It’s a lot to take in,” Mom said. “But it will become clear to you.” The answer felt placating. Patronizing. It was a non-answer, and that only made me more frustrated.
“So Ihaveto do this?” I asked in the silence that followed. “Like Astarte said. It’s the path I’m supposed to be on?”
