Fate Forgotten (36 page)

She rubbed her eyes and let herself be coaxed into lying down beside him, her head on his shoulder. He turned the light back off.

“God knew I would love you, one day,” she said into the dark.

“Did he?”

She sighed. “There’s so much I never knew. Never understood. I wish I had known God, Adam. I wish I could know him now. Understand what he asks of me, what I’m meant to do.”

“Maybe this is how we’re supposed to know him. Maybe you’ve known him all along.”

I don’t understand.

He smoothed her hair where it tickled his face and hoped what he was thinking wasn’t just another delusion, another justification for what seemed so wrong to her. It couldn’t be another way to convince her to give him just one more night, one more morning, one more day. But how long could he sleep by her side before it was impossible to keep himself from touching her? How long could he have her in his arms without wanting to love her, too? He wouldn’t let it be, wouldn’t let her stay beyond his own limits. But she had a right to know, and something about it seemed so right. Like a truth that had eluded him for years, for millennia.

She had a right to peace, even if it only lasted a moment.

“Maybe God is love.”

Chapter Thirty-four: 1414 AD

Thor stood looking over the land he had protected and nurtured and watered and sunned and herded goats within. The village had grown just in the two years since Eve had returned to these lands and Ryam was exactly what he had hoped for her and her people. Her family. Even if he was insufferable at times.

Marquis DeLeon, proud of his title and DeLeon Castle.

He supposed it must have seemed like one. Ra had returned periodically to help with repairs. While the rest of the world had slid into dark ages and the Roman advances crumbled away around them, the DeLeons had flourished with the patronage of the old gods they didn’t worship. They’d kept the land that Thor had imbued with protection, and even expanded. Powerful in their own right, they had submitted first to the Carolingian kings, then the dynasties that followed, not involving themselves with the wars of either the Frankish state, or the schisms of the Church, just as they had avoided engaging in the old Roman politics.

He was putting it off. As if not meeting with Ryam would prevent it from happening. As if he weren’t running out of time. Athena would find Mnemosyne and then they would find Adam, and she would call for him, and he was bound to help.

Thor was the one who would speak to him for the others. Because he had already revealed himself and in theory, Adam would remember him. Because the Norse gods still lived in recent memory, more so than the others. The Norse gods were still worshipped.

He called the thunder as he walked to the edge of the forest, and then the lightning, while he stood at the edge of the field. The tree beside him smoked and he brought rain to put out the fire before it spread. Smoke still rose, but the flame was reduced to ember and Thor waited. Ryam had given him chapter and verse about the risk to his lumber the last time he had come.

Hooves pounded the damp earth, and a man came riding out from the manor. He assumed it was Ryam, wanting the high ground, and the opportunity to be able to look down on him from the back of his horse. He wasn’t exactly an arrogant man, but he appreciated having the upper hand. And he understood that he was only a man, and Thor was a god. More importantly, Ryam knew his wife was a goddess. He knew his wife was Eve.

And somehow, he had realized Thor loved her.

Ryam rode to the tree first, circling it, before acknowledging Thor with a stiff nod, and dismounting. Thor had stopped expecting the House of Lions to treat him with any deference, and as long as they kept a bed for him when he needed one, even if it was in the stable with the horses now, he didn’t care. As long as Eve was safe, he didn’t care.

“You’re lucky that one was rotting,” Ryam said.

The rain had turned into a mist, and Thor waved the last of it off as the tree stopped smoking. “Luck had little to do with it.”

Ryam smiled without humor and removed his gloves. The horse stamped and sighed behind him. “I imagine this is something important.”

“Have I bothered you when it wasn’t?” Thor asked, taking the horse in hand and stroking its nose, murmuring softly to calm it.

“He doesn’t like the thunder. Every time you come, it causes panic in the stables. My grooms complain bitterly about it.”

Thor laughed. “Would you prefer I come more frequently so they grow used to it?” But he glanced back at Ryam then, and his smile faded. “Your wife, Anessa is well?”

He nodded. “We expect our first child before winter. She assures me that the pregnancy will be easy.” Ryam glanced from the manor, back to Thor. “She tells me I shouldn’t worry.”

“You shouldn’t.” But he realized after he said it that he was lying. His entire reason for coming was to make Ryam worry. To alert him to the threat that was coming for her. “Not about the pregnancy. As long as she has good food and plenty of rest, the baby will be born healthy.”

“You know this?”

Thor shook his head. “I don’t see the future, Ryam. My powers in that regard are limited. But I’ve watched her bear children for more than two thousand years.” Including his own son. And even knowing she was capable, he had worried too. “She can’t be harmed, regardless. Not by the birth.”

Ryam slapped his gloves against his thigh. “I appreciate your reassurance.”

Thor looked back at the manor. He could feel her there, inside. And when he listened through the link they shared, he heard her humming. The same song she had sung for so many years. “There’s a threat coming to her, Ryam. The least I can do is keep you from worrying about the things that can’t hurt her.”

The man’s face stiffened, and his eyes hardened. “Why have you come?”

“Has she told you of her brother?”

“Anessa has no brother. Just that wretched sister, Aimee.” Even two years later, long after the threat had passed, Ryam was still bitter. It seemed Aimee had accused her sister of witchcraft after she found herself pregnant by one of the Papal legates. Bewitchment had excused them both of any guilt, placing it all squarely upon Eve.

“Aimee is no more her sister than I am her father. Anessa’s only true brother is Adam. Adam to her Eve. Until now, he has been without his memory. But the gods work to return it to him.”

“The gods move in mysterious ways, I suppose.” Ryam took back the reins of his horse, and it snorted, tossing its head. Picking up the anger of its rider. “Much like Anessa.”

“Anessa guards her secrets.” Part of him was glad. She could not be that deeply in love with Ryam if she did not even tell him about Adam.

Ryam glared at him. “After what nearly happened because of them, I can hardly blame her for that. Nor do I have any intention of prying out of her anything she does not wish to share freely. She’s earned that much from me, and more.”

“Do you really think I’d ask it? Do you really think I want her with anyone who would try? Care for her. Protect her. Love her.”

“She’s safe here, Thor. I have seen to it.”

“It is not enough that she’s safe here, Ryam. These lands grant their own protection. It’s when she walks outside of them that she’s at risk. Adam is a cruel man who cares only for himself. He will not hesitate to use her for his advantage. To abuse her.”

“What does he look like? When will he come?”

Thor gripped him by the shoulder, using the contact to sear the image of Adam in Ryam’s mind. The eyes were the most important, the only feature that wouldn’t change. “Your family was made to protect her, Ryam. From him. That was Reu’s vow, for himself and his sons. Adam is never to touch her, never to hurt her again.”

The muscles along Ryam’s jaw twitched and Thor imagined he was grinding his teeth. “Our purpose is limited by what she allows us to do, Thunderer. If she does not return to us, how can we keep her safe?”

Thor shook his head, releasing Ryam. “I wish I had the answer.”

“It would be a great help if you did.” Ryam stroked the neck of his horse. Thor felt his resignation, followed by determination. A sweeping calm. This was why Ryam was her husband. Why Ryam had been the right choice to care for her. Because he did what had to be done. In the face of uncertainty, he always rose above fear. “I trust you’d prefer I not tell Anessa.”

“I’d prefer that she did not live her lives worried and waiting. Afraid. It may not even be this lifetime.”

Ryam nodded. “As long as I live, she will at least be given that much peace.”

“My thanks, Lord DeLeon.”

Ryam looked up at him, and his face was lined by the weight of it all. By the truths he held and must keep. There was so much he could not share with his wife, so much he must shoulder alone. Thor looked away first. Ryam was a Lion. This burden was part of his birth. And he had Eve.

Thor closed his eyes and reached for her, feeling her standing at the window, looking for her husband. Missing her husband.

Ryam had Eve’s love.

“If it’s to be done, now is the time,” Thor said. Adam was being held against his will, tied to a tree. He kept struggling against the ropes.

Athena had found him in German lands. “So you’ve said. And you still stand here. Would you prefer if I spoke to him?”

He shook his head and stepped out from behind the trees.

Adam stopped struggling, and stared. “Who are you? What do you people want from me?”

Thor crouched down in front of him. He looked small tied up that way, but the fury in his eyes was unmistakable. “We hope to be your friends. Or at least not your enemies. We can tell you who you are. Give you back everything you’ve lost.”

“As far as I can tell, what I’ve lost is my freedom. I want to be let go.” And there was that compulsion, that power. Just like Eve, though it lacked her subtlety. “Untie me.”

Thor grinned and let his eyes burn. “No.”

Adam’s eyes widened, his face pale, but Thor wasn’t sure if it was because he had refused him, or because his eyes were white with lightning. “Who are you?”

“We’ve met before. Several times. Before Rome fell, we had a talk beside a fire. In this very forest. Your son was Alaric, the man who led the Goths into Rome and sacked the city. I’ve always thought that was the straw that broke the camel’s back, for the west. Though the forty days you spent as pope did nearly as much damage.”

“You’re lying.”

Thor snorted. “I wish I was. You have no idea how much I wish it were all a lie. That you didn’t live. That you didn’t exist. But you do, Adam. You live to spite us all.”

“That isn’t my name.”

Thor stood up and walked to the fire, throwing another branch onto it. “Have you read the Bible? The book of Genesis? The creation story, about the first man, and the first woman.”

“Adam and Eve.” He sounded annoyed. “Everyone knows the story. Is that what you brought me here for? To talk about religion? I don’t believe in God. I don’t care about any of it.”

Thor laughed. He didn’t mean to, but he did. Losing his memory had done nothing to erase the man’s arrogance. “You told me that before, too.”

He turned back to Adam, and reached for the storm overhead, blotting out the stars.

Lightning forked through the sky, drawn directly into his body. The warmth of an old friend, familiar and energizing. It crackled and spider-webbed over his skin, over his clothing, and lit his eyes again with white fire.

Adam screamed, and Thor smiled. That was another reason why he had been chosen to speak on behalf of the gods. Adam was afraid of lightning. Thor didn’t know why, but he had noticed it time and again.

“Let me know when you’ve changed your mind, Adam. We’ll be waiting.”

Athena cut the ropes that held him to the tree and he stumbled and fell, then climbed back to his feet. He looked from her to Thor and back again. As if he wasn’t sure he was really being let free.

Thor pointed in the direction of the road, where his horse and his things were waiting for him. Adam ran.

Athena frowned as she watched him disappear into the trees. “Are you sure this is the best way?”

“It has to be his choice or Memnosyne will have no hope of returning his memory. Tonight he’ll have the dreams that keep haunting him, and realize we were telling him the truth. He’ll come back to us for answers and agree to whatever we ask for.” He looked up at the sky, stared at the stars winking through the dispersing clouds. Prayed to Eve for forgiveness. “And then he’ll betray us, and Michael will be too busy trying to keep him from Eve to start another movement for the True God in the East. There will be no third prophet, Athena. Ask the Norns to read the runes tonight, and they will tell you. By this act, we’ve changed everything.”