Page 6 of Married By Wind
“It’s a curse. As I told you, she trapped me with her magic.”
“You claim she is mortal, and you studied her but could not detect any magic?”
An inkling of discomfort made my heart beat faster. Had I made a mistake in bringing Ulika here and allowing the gods to judge her? Surely they meant her no harm. “No, even she cannot hide her skills from a god.”
“I will be the judge of that, but this lamp is dangerous. It contains dark magic. You should have driven her away or summoned us the moment the lamp came into her possession.”
I racked my mind, but I’d never seen Ulika with treasure. Plus, it was painful to haunt her every step, and I hated doing so when she did not know I was merely a breath away. “It all happened so quickly. She climbed the mountain and lit the flame before I could stop her. I thought she’d simply come to pray, and I don’t know when she found the lamp.”
“Excuses do not become you,” Justice rebuked, her tone cold. “If you did not feel the shift in magic, it was because you were not paying attention. You are a god with great power, but the lamp has its own magic, and you must meet its demands before it lets you go free.”
I frowned. “You speak as though the lamp is alive.”
“In a way, it is. There are rules of magic that even I cannot break, but I will bend them to your advantage.”
A weight left my chest. She was going to free me.
“There’s more. You mentioned the sand devils. You are the god of wind. We sent you to the desert to watch over it, and you let an abomination into the world that endangers the mortals. It is only fair that you remedy what you have done and find a clever way to get rid of them. You’ll find that if you’d been paying attention, you would have realized that the finding of the lamp and the coming of the sand devils are likely connected. Because of your actions, you and the mortal are bound together— she in finding the lamp and telling no one, you for setting the sand devils free. Both of you are to blame for this.”
A sudden protectiveness rose within me. It had been impulsive to bring Ulika here, wrong to ask the gods for help. I set my jaw. “What plan do you have? Because it sounds like you’re about to punish us.”
She did not smile. “Come, let me examine the mortal and tell you together.”
“Do not harm her,” I warned, all the while knowing the measure of Justice’s magic put mine to shame. She would do what she wished in her home, and whatever power I summoned would be futile against her.
“As if you care,” Justice said mirthlessly.
I crossed my arms, a sudden anger rising, because I did care. But if the gods discovered I’d fallen in love with Ulika, they would use that knowledge against me.
8
Ulika
At last their conversation ceased, and the woman faced me. “Come,” she beckoned.
It was a command, not a request, and I straightened, closing the distance between us.
Up close, the woman stood a head taller than me, stately, like the statues, with thick hair flowing around her shoulders. It caught the hints of light that entered the mountain, yet the exact color was ever shifting. Her eyes were deep pools that left me with the sense she was much older and wiser than her appearance and yet the secrets she kept were locked deep within the well of her mind. Like Vinn, she had a presence about her, and I assumed she was a goddess. She held out both hands and took mine in hers, pressing them together.
Her hands, like the air in the mountain, were cold, and a shiver went up my spine, not from the cold but from her touch. I had the uncanny sense some kind of transference was taking place.
When the goddess spoke again, she addressed Vinn. “She speaks the truth. She has no magic. It was a mistake.”
“And you will undo it,” Vinn said carefully.
“I will not undo what has been done. It would take great power to break this curse, but why ask the gods when you can break it yourself? Vinn, she made a wish. You must fulfill it, and then you’ll be free.”
Vinn’s jaw twitched. “I can’t use my magic. It is limited.”
The goddess held up three fingers. “You may use your magic three times, and then it shall be gone until the curse is broken. Furthermore, this is a lesson. Vinn, you are the god of wind; you go where you please, you blow where you wish, and you have no regard for anyone but yourself. You shall be bound to the mortal for the next three months so you can get a taste of what it is like to be them. It will help you consider the consequences of your actions before you are impulsive again.”
I gasped. She didn’t know that Vinn had already had a taste of what it meant to be mortal. I yanked my hands out of the goddess’s grasp, my tone sharp. “What do you mean?”
The goddess held up the lamp, examining it from each angle as though it was a rare jewel. “You shall be bound for three months, or until you meet the terms of the curse.”
Suddenly, it was hard to breathe. Spots danced before my eyes as her words sank in. Bound to Vinn for three months, to the man I dreamed of, who’d left without a word. Oh, how the gods played a joke on me. Was my life so amusing to them? I didn’t know if I could stand being so close to him only for everything to end. Again. “How will I know we have met the terms?”
The goddess raised three fingers. “When the sand devils are gone, the lamp will dissolve the bond. Vinn, your magic will return, and you, mortal, will be free to return to your life.”
