Page 55 of Deathless
“I’ve gathered more devotion in decades than you have in millennia. My people called me forth because theyneededme. Where were you during the humans’ Collapse? Didn’t your sons and daughters need you then?”
“You’re as short-sighted as a child,” Astarte sneered. “You know nothing.”
“And you,” the Dark Mother raised a bloodstained finger to point at Santos and I, “are too late, old gods. I’m what today’s people need. I’m creating a new world.”
“This world is already here,” Astarte replied. “And it doesn’t need you.”
Right then, my control was yanked away. Astarte had been true to her word that she’d only control me when necessary, and that time was now.
I lost all feeling in my limbs, all sense of space and balance, though I could still see and hear. Energy hummed through me, creating a pulsing pressure that wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
Tezca had gone behind Rori, Santos’ form visible over her shoulder. I lost track of Devin and Hudson and could only hope they were handling the other women as planned.
Rori took off running at an impossible speed. Astarte surged after her, the trees whipping past us in a blur, as if we were in a moving car. Tezca was on her as well, nearly on her heels. In a puff of dark smoke, Rori vanished.
“Are you tracking her?” Astarte immediately asked Tezca.
“Yes.” The jaguar god stilled, only turning Santos’ head as if to listen. After a few moments, he drew one of Santos’ machetes and hovered his free hand over the blade, muttering something under his breath.
He held the weapon out toward Astarte, and I watched my own hand hover over the razor-sharp blade. My mouth moved and made sounds that I couldn’t begin to decipher. The pulsingenergy that I’d felt before seemed to find an outlet through my palm and went into the machete.
Internally, I started to panic.Don’t kill her. You said you wouldn’t hurt Rori!
This will not harm her physical body, the goddess answered me.This will sever the connection between them. Rori’s parasite will be forced to leave and no longer maintain a physical form.
Relief filled me, but only briefly.Rori will need to regain control for this to work,Astarte went on.It only needs to be for a moment so we can seize the deity and cut it from her, but Rori has to be aware of herself and fight like hell.
She will, I insisted.She’ll do it. I know she can.
Astarte was quiet for a while.I only hope there is enough of her left to fight. I will give you control of your voice. Tezca will do the same with Santos. If she hears you two, it might rally her strength just enough.
And if...there isn’t enough of her left? To fight?I was terrified of the answer but still had to know.
We can still extract the parasite, but the vessel will have to be destroyed,Astarte answered gravely.Aurora will die.
“I found her,” Tezca announced before I could reply.
He made some kind of gesture in the air, fingers curling into a fist, and then made a pulling motion with his whole arm. Rori’s form appeared before us again, and the two gods taking us for a ride didn’t hesitate.
With inhuman strength and speed, they each took an arm and pinned her to the ground.
The Dark Mother kicked and thrashed so hard, she was creating a human-sized crater in the ground. Pushing and fighting to get free against two other gods gave her the strength of an excavator in a human woman’s body. Tezca and Astarte used that same superhuman strength to keep her down.
Now,Astarte instructed me.Use your voice to reach her.
“Rori!” I called out. “Rori, it’s me. It’s Torr. I know you’re in there, creep.”
My woman’s body surged hard against her restraints. She kicked a leg out and hit me in the thigh. The force of it would have broken my femur if I didn’t have god-armor on. Astarte dropped my leg on top of Rori’s pinning her down flatter.
Keep trying,Astarte encouraged.Keep talking to her.
“Come back to us, paloma,” Santos urged, his voice aching and desperate. “We need you.” Bravely, he lowered down to Rori’s struggling form, brushing his forehead against hers. “I need you.”
The Dark Mother spit in his face. “Fuck you,male.Get away from me!”
“Rori!” I yelled to draw her attention away from him. “I know you’re not weak. Take back control of your body right the fuck now.”
Something flickered in those empty black eyes, and another surge of pulsing energy filled my limbs.
