Page 36 of A Witch Out of Time
Chapter 29
Marena
“Has she found it yet? What do you see, Rena?”
I sighed as, yet again, Veles interrupted my scrying with his demands. “For being an ageless god who has watched countless civilizations rise and fall over eons of time, you are incredibly impatient.”
The god muttered something under his breath before petulantly flopping down onto his elaborately carved walnut throne. I’d purchased the Elizabethan chair for him at an auction a few hundred years ago during one of my routine trips to the land of the living. Veles had pointedly stopped making regular contact with humans centuries ago, so I often brought back souvenirs to remind him our people were out there. Even if they’d mostly forgotten us.
While any traditions associated with my name were more pastime than sacred ceremony nowadays, I appreciated those who still burned or drowned effigies of me. This ancient ritual was still performed to mark the end of the dark days of winter, the victory over death, and the welcoming of the spring rebirth. It was such an achinglyhumanthing—to hope for better times while existing in less than ideal conditions.
How can I not fall in love with the fragility of it all?
“Anything?” Veles cut into my thoughts again, and I stifled a smile. As much as the god was annoying me with his pestering, he was the closest thing to a father I had in any realm. Regardless of whether or not he wanted to claim that parentage. My mother had been the consort of both Veles and Perun over the millennia, so either could be my progenitor. But I’d always felt more at home with Veles and in the underworld; closer to those who saw death not as an end, but a beginning.
“Vasi is currently cycling through the various hardships she experienced in her human life,” I calmly replied. “The physical and psychological violence she experienced at the hands of her stepfamily. The sorrow of when she sat by her mother’s side as she passed on to the Nav. Her doomed marriage to the Tsar and losing the royal baby. She is now reliving her exile from the palace, on her way to bury her only child and enter the world of the supernatural.”
“Yes, yes, we’re already well-aware of her sob-story,” Veles muttered disinterestedly. I frowned. He was so focused on our savior returning to the surface that he was missing the point of the journey she was currently on. Vasi needed to reclaim the blessing she’d lost so she could find healing—not only for her Rider but for herself. Only then would she be powerful enough to reverse theDevouring’sdamage so the veil between the Nav and the world of the living could be repaired.
I returned my gaze to the lapis sphere, although there wasn’t much to see. If Vasi had figured out what this blessing was, she hadn’t voiced it aloud yet, and I was unable to read her mind from this distance. A traitorous thought suddenly occurred to me, born from sheer desperation.
What if I read Veles’ mind instead?
I’d promised the god many moons ago I wouldn’t purposefully delve into his thoughts, and until now, I’d never felt the need to. The two of us spent so much time together we practically finished each other’s sentences. However, something changed between us a few decades ago—right around the time my mother disappeared.
She’d been growing distant for a while, ever since the mysterious Devouring started sweeping through the ancient Russian forest where so much of her power originated. It was as if pieces of her were vanishing as well. And her inability to locate the cause—paired with Vel’s disinterest in helping—only further infuriated her. I could still remember the night she left us, the cryptic comment about how it was time to take fate into her own hands.
In the morning, she was gone.
Veles had raged so intensely, I feared he would burn down the Nav and take the human world with it. Another epic confrontation with Perun confirmed my mother had not returned to the god of thunder, so Vel ventured to the surface. A few years into his search, he claimed to have found her, but she quickly eluded him and there’d been no sign ever since. I’d never asked for more details than what he readily gave me, but now I wondered if he was hiding information that could help us.
Buried so deep he’s hidden it from himself.
“Why did you instruct the Yaga’s hut to bring Nox and Vasi to the ocean?” I casually mused, as if I were only mildly curious. “There were other access points closer to Matthew’s Facility, which would have gotten Vasi and Nox here faster…”
Veles tensed, and satisfaction shot through me at my cleverness. I knew the last place he’d seen my mother was a Russian fishing village along the Barents Sea. I also knew he had a personal grudge against Nox’s father from before Nox was born. Whether or not Veles realized it, me triggering him in these ways would bring old pain swimming to the surface, ripe for the picking.
“Maybe I wanted to torture Nox by touring him past where his grandmother died,” Veles sneered, although the defensiveness in his tone was palpable. “I enjoy making him wonder when I’ll call in our debt.”
I nodded with feigned interest, although most of my attention was focused on rifling through his memories before he noticed I was in there. A sudden flash of my mother’s image made me swallow my gasp. She was quickly replaced by Matthew’s face twisted with rage, and an older woman I vaguely recognized…
Oh, no…
“What exactlyisthe deal you made with Nox?” I hesitantly asked, my creeping dread thoroughly eliminating any finesse as I started to put the pieces together. “Why are you so invested in torturing this particular human?”
Veles’ fiery eyes snapped to my face the same instant I felt the vault of his mind slam shut. He didn’t comment on my violation, only coolly surveyed me as he replied. “Our priority is for Vasi and her Riders to fix the damage to the earth while we locate Mokosh and restore the balance. Anything else is unrelated.”
It’s all related, and you know it!
As if sensing my impending interrogation, Veles slowly rose and moved closer, his enormous frame towering over me intimidatingly. “Remember, Marena, the Nav is not your home. Your existence here is because of my gracious hospitality and I could just as easily relinquish it if you proved to be no longer useful.”
I glared up at him as rage unlike anything I’d ever felt coursed through my veins. “You wouldn't dare cast me out after all this time!” My voice was shaking, although I stood my ground.
He chuckled darkly as he turned and swept toward the door. “I do what I need to do, goddess, and I eliminate whoever stands in my way. I’m sure yourfatherPerun would gladly take you back to the heavens...where you belong.”
Chapter 30
Nox
