Goddess of the Rose (38 page)

She thought Asterius was the most magnificent thing she had ever seen.

He lunged and struck, and Selfishness was writhing on the ground, sliced tentacles spurting dark blood in a scarlet arch across the roses. Envy clinging to his back, Asterius lowered his head. With one blindingly swift movement, he impaled the fallen Dream Stealer, and at the same moment he reached around, plunging his claws into the base of Envy's spine. Both creatures' bodies shivered and then they, too, disappeared into clouds of blood-colored smoke.

“Again, Aeras!” Mikki commanded.

Aeras called the north wind, which banished Envy and Selfishness far into the ancient forest.

“You interfering bitch!” Hatred shrieked at Aeras.

Like a viper, he struck at the Wind Elemental, but Mikki was quicker, shoving Aeras out of the way. The Dream Stealer collided with the Empousa instead of her handmaiden. Mikki felt a searing line of pain explode across her shoulder and arm as she went down beneath him.

Then Hatred screamed. His body bowed as Asterius clawed his back to scarlet ribbons. With a terrible snarl, the Dream Stealer wrenched Mikki from under him. He spun around, holding the Empousa before him like a shield.

Instantly, Asterius checked his attack.

Hatred hissed evil laughter. “Why do you hesitate, Guardian? I am shielded from your rage by only a weak, mortal woman. Are you not willing to sacrifice your Empousa, even to rid the realm of hatred? I supposed that's hardly surprising. I seem to recall you have a weakness for Hecate's High Priestesses.” The creature rubbed his groin against Mikki. “Not that I blame you. Her fruit is ripe and sweet.”

Asterius's growl lifted the hair on her arms and the back of her neck. His voice was that of a deadly predator. “I will make you suffer for an eternity for touching her.”

“I think not, Guardian. Instead, you are going to open the gate for me, and I am going to pass through it unharmed.” The creature began pulling Mikki before him as he backed toward the rose wall. “If you get too close, I will play Destiny and slice her throat right now.” He pressed the point of one jagged claw against Mikki's neck.

“This is not finished between us,” Asterius snarled, moving carefully with the Dream Stealer and his hostage to the gate. “If it takes an eternity, I will make you pay for touching her.”

“Hatred is never finished, Guardian. You should know that by now.” He halted, his back to the gate. “Now open it for me, and I will return your Empousa to you, though I would enjoy having her entertain me for a while.” Hatred bared his teeth at the Guardian as he bent so he could flick his tongue out and taste the High Priestess's salty-sweet neck.

And that was it. Mikki had had enough. More than enough.

“Oh, hell no!” she yelled, driving her thumb into the bulging, insectlike eye that he had been foolish enough to get close to her.

The Dream Stealer's scream of pain was deafening, and he hurled her from him, but not before Mikki felt his talon pierce her skin and the rush of wet heat that followed the wound. She grasped her neck and fell to the ground, watching through a haze of pain as Asterius picked up the writhing creature and bent his evil body back farther and farther until the Dream Stealer's spine was broken with a sickening crack. Asterius lifted Hatred and threw him over the rose barrier.

Then he was on his knees by her side, crying her name, touching her face, stroking her hair.

She tried to smile at him.
It's okay. It's not your fault. I let them in.
Mikki thought she was saying the words aloud, but she couldn't seem to make them come out. Then her four handmaidens were suddenly there, too. They were crying—even Floga, who Mikki thought hadn't liked her at all. She wanted to comfort them, to tell them she wasn't afraid and to ask them to please treat Asterius nicer because she knew, without any doubt, that she was dying.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

A
STERIUS refused to lose her like this—not to Hatred—not when Mikado had brought love, desire, kindness and acceptance, everything that was Hatred's opposite, into his life. He lifted her in his arms and faced the distraught Elementals.

“Let us take her to the fountain, Guardian. There we will wash her clean and then lay her in Hecate's Temple, where we will offer prayer to the goddess for her soul,” Gii said through her tears.

“She is not dead,” he said and snarled a warning as Gii tried to approach him.

“Not yet, but her wound is mortal; soon her spirit will be in Hades' Realm,” Nera said brokenly.

“No! It is not her destiny to die today!”

“The Fates have deemed otherwise,” Aeras said softly.

“Then I defy the Fates!”

“Guardian, what will you do?” Floga asked.

“I will claim my birthright.” Carrying Mikado's limp, bleeding body, he began to brush past them, but Gii's soft hand on his arm made him pause. When he glared at her, she met his eyes unflinchingly and said, “How can we help you?”

He hesitated only a moment. “Come to the temple. Perhaps the power of the elements will help my plea reach Cronos's ears.”

Without waiting to see if they followed, Asterius rushed to Hecate's Temple, his hooves striking thunderously against the white marble path. He tried not to think about how still Mikado was and how much of her blood soaked their bodies. The beast simply ran.

He took the temple steps three at a time and then drew himself sharply to a halt in front of Hecate's sacred flame. Asterius dropped to his knees and gently placed Mikado beside the flame. He heard the handmaidens hurry into the temple after him. They quickly took their places, surrounding him in their familiar circle.

“Does she still live?” Gii asked.

Asterius looked down at his love. Her eyes were closed and her face was colorless. Blood still pumped freely from the long, slender slash that dissected her neck while her chest rose and fell in shallow pants.

“She does,” he said.

“Then do what you can, Guardian. We do not want to lose another Empousa before destiny requires it,” Gii said.

He lifted his eyes to meet hers. “Then summon your elements and form the sacred circle.”

“You love her, don't you?” Floga said suddenly.

His gaze swiveled to Flame. “I do.”

“And are you going to save her just to steal her away from us?” the Fire Elemental asked.

“On Beltane the realm's Empousa will meet her destiny. I give you my oath on that,” he said.

“Even though you love her?” Aeras asked.

“Not long ago you watched me battle Selfishness. It is not the first time I have faced that particular Dream Stealer. This time I was victorious. I will not sacrifice the dreams of mankind for my own needs ever again.” He looked back at Mikado and gently touched her cheek.

“You are not a beast,” Gii said softly.

“I am,” he said without looking at the Earth Elemental, “but I am also a man, and Mikado's love has made the man the stronger of the two.”

“Then the four elements will help you save your love.” Gii nodded at Aeras. “Begin, Wind.”

The Elemental threw her arms wide. “I call Wind to the sacred circle!” Instantly, the air began to stir.

Like an electric chain reaction, Floga flung wide her arms, embracing her element. “Come to me, Flame!”

“Water! I call you to attend me!” Nera cried.

“Earth! I call you to complete the circle and to magnify the powers of our Guardian who we shelter within,” Gii said.

Asterius felt the power of the elements sizzle across his skin. He bowed his head and raised hands stained with his lover's blood. In a voice magnified by Wind, Fire, Water and Earth, as well as by the beast within him, he shouted to the faraway reaches of the heavens.

“Cronos! Great God of the World and of Time—Titan divider of the heavens and Earth—Father! I call you by your ancient names as well as by the one my blood has earned me. I have lived for ages, and never before have I asked anything of you. Not acknowledgment or power. Not love or acceptance. But today I call upon you by right of birth and ask that you grant me the power to save this mortal. Her life's thread has been cut before its time—her string is not yet unwoven to its end.”

The sacred flame stirred, and within its flickering light a man's face appeared—ageless, but well lined, as if it had been chiseled from young rock by time and experience. It was a face he would have recognized anywhere, for it mirrored his own so completely.

“Father,” Asterius said, bowing his head.

The Titan did not acknowledge Asterius. Instead, he jerked his chin at Mikado. “Is this the mortal you would save?”

“It is.”

“She is Hecate's Empousa?” Cronos said.

“Yes.”

“Then her salvation will be only temporary.”

“She has not lived her allotted time. It is not yet Beltane,” Asterius said.

“What did this to her?” the Titan asked.

“The leader of the Dream Stealers, Hatred. I would not have her die from that creature's touch.”

Cronos shifted his attention to his son. “Hatred has killed her, and you want love to save her?”

Asterius's jaw tightened, but he nodded. “I do.”

“Love . . .” Cronos chuckled. “I am surprised by your weakness, Guardian.”

“I have learned that love is only weak when it is selfish,” he said, a clear challenge in his voice.

Surprise flashed over the Titan's face. “You remind me of your mother.”

“That is probably because she, too, understood the weakness of those who love selfishly.”

Cronos frowned. “I am not accustomed to being insulted when my aid has been asked.”

“I meant no insult. I only spoke the truth,” Asterius said quickly.

“Regardless, I grow weary of this conversation.”

“Cronos! Forgive me. I did not—”

“Silence!” The flame flickered madly, and the floor of the goddess's temple shook. “I have not finished. I grant your request. You may share a piece of the immortality that lives in your spirit with the priestess. A very small piece, mind you. It will steal her from Hades' realm only this once. But know that there is a price for the spark of immortality you share with her. Even after she dies, she will carry that piece of your spirit. You will only feel whole when she is beside you, and your spirit is whole. When she no longer walks this realm, your heart will be empty and your days filled with loneliness. Think carefully before you make this choice.”

“I have already made my choice. The cost is something I knew I would pay if I allowed myself to love her. I accepted it then. I do not mind accepting it again for her life.”

“Very well then, it is your birthright to ask a boon of me, but do not trouble me again. You chose Hecate, and it is the goddess you must beseech in the future.” Without another word, the Titan disappeared from the flame.

Asterius looked down at Mikado. His father had granted him the ability to save her, but how? He had to give her a piece of his immortality—a piece of his spirit. And then he knew. Slowly, he bent forward and touched his lips to hers. As he kissed her, he willed her to live—to share what he offered her and to accept him all over again.

Mikado stirred and sighed softly against his mouth and then she opened her lips and their kiss deepened. When Asterius finally pulled away, her eyes were open and she was smiling up at him.

“She lives!” Gii cried.

And then the handmaidens were laughing and crying together as they closed the circle and rushed to their Empousa's side. Mikki sat up and blinked in confusion, not sure where she was or why Asterius knelt beside her and was holding her hand right in front of the Elementals. She looked around. They were in Hecate's Temple? That wasn't right. She wasn't supposed to be here, she was supposed to be checking the rose wall to make sure that—

And it all came rushing back to her.

“The Dream Stealers!” she gasped, trying to get to her feet but finding that she was so light-headed that any abrupt movement made the temple pitch and roll sickeningly around her.

“Shhh,” Asterius reassured her. “All is well. The Dream Stealers have been banished from the realm.”

“I'm so sorry.” She looked frantically from Asterius to the handmaidens.

“Empousa, you need not apologize. Dream Stealers are masters of manipulation. We should have prepared you better,” Gii said, crouching to take her other hand.

“Yes!” Nera nodded her head a little frantically, as if that could convince her Empousa. “How were you to know the cunning games they play?”

“But I let them in. They told me that—oh, God! The things they made me think and feel! It was horrible.”

Aeras smiled through the tears that washed her cheeks and touched Mikki's hair reverently. “You were very brave, Empousa. You took the blow Hatred planned for me.”

Mikki had forgotten all about that. She frantically looked down at herself. She was covered with blood. How could anyone lose so much blood and live? She remembered the pain in her shoulder, but when she looked, she saw nothing but bloody skin. And there had been something else . . . something much worse . . .

Her eyes widened, and she felt a wave of dizziness. He'd slit her throat. She had been dying. But now she was very much alive. Slowly, she lifted her eyes to meet her lover's.

“It's over now,” Asterius said.

“I was dying,” she whispered.

“No. I could not let that happen,” he said.

“He saved you,” Gii said with a little sobbing hiccup.