Sacrifice (12 page)

Victor was my superior.

Delia had restored his strengths and I bet he was here to let me know it. He was paying me this visit, which had better be short, so that I could do a little bowing before breakfast. I was in no mood for any of his pompous antics.

“I see you’re as good as new.” I eyed him and motioned for him to have a seat in one of the leather chairs.

“New
and
improved, Evander,” he said, remaining on his feet. “But that’s not why I’m here.” He looked me straight in the eyes. I sat down and waited for him to continue.

“My sister’s missing and she’s not at her usual hide out,” he said, spitting out the words with urgency.

“When did she leave?” I asked. My chest began to feel tight and I tried to conceal the intensity of the pain. Just the mention of her name left me in need.

“At some point in the night, I believe. I need to find her. Will you help?”

“Of course.” My words seemed rushed.

“I knew you would. She’s just as important to you as she is to me,” he said, chuckling lightly.

Twelve - Victor

Stay

“Where do you think she went?” Evander asked.

“She’s not where I thought she’d be, which is why I brought you along. Believe me, wherever she may be, you’ll be the first to know it.” I answered.

I watched Evander’s reaction. He tensed up and nearly halted completely in mid-step. His aura was giving him away. Strange thing, in all the time I had spent spying on him and Delia, I never once detected his aura heightening as it just did. Just talking about my sister sent him into a frenzy. If I weren’t so worried about Lia, I would have laughed out loud.

Evander didn’t disappoint. He was devoted. We would just have to wait and see to whom he was really devoted too. It was obvious that he was gripped by the same unrelenting yearning that I was and no matter what he thought or believed, he wouldn’t be able to fight it. Not even if Uncle Poseidon swam up from his realm, and handed Evander his Trident.

I counted on Delia, especially last night. I was certain that she would send the most powerful Ischero to find me. Evander didn’t have a  choice. He knew that Delia loved him and figured that I wasn’t much of a threat. Right. Luckily, he was devoted to the empire, or I would have been wolf’s chow.

There she was when he arrived. Just the way he had remembered her from his wet dreams. I almost exploded with laughter the other morning when I overheard him telling Delia about the dream. I realized that it was Evangelia, according to the description he provided. Sweet divinity, the sucker is already in love with my sister. He wants her more than he even knows.

Delia will be mine and she’ll want me just as bad. On the flip side, neither Evander nor my baby-sister knew that the gods would grab them and practically smash them into each other. What I hadn’t bet on was the gods working so quickly. I also didn’t prepare for the chance of Evangelia leaving.

The moment Lia sensed that I was in danger she came to my rescue. She had proven to be fiery enough. She sent those mangy beasts, asses on fire, racing out of the woods. I asked Lia to stay as she sat at my bedside last night. She was afraid of what the empire – the enormity of it, meant and her place in the family. I couldn’t blame the poor little thing. I’d kept her secluded for the majority of her life. She was never exposed to the entities I’d fought off. Lia had lived vicariously through my excursions and exploits. She spent all those years idolizing me and wanting to prove to me that she could be as I was – strong and powerful.

Drenched by Evander’s eight-foot walls of icy, spinning water and then seized by Delia’s bolt seemed to be an enormous weight on Lia’s nerves. I didn’t have time to prepare her now that our course has totally changed, actually reversed. I no longer want the kingdom for my own. It was obvious that Lia was in a state of confusion and she wasn’t sure of whom her enemies were anymore.

I’ve had a month to adjust to the dynamics and structure of the empire. For Lia it may take some time. She wasn’t ready to forgive them for sending our parents to perish in the Underworld. Lia felt that they would never understand what it felt like to grow up without a mother and father. Then of course, there was Evander. She was in no way emotionally prepared for the brutal desire she would have for him. Imagine never ever being in love or even in a relationship and then being overwhelmed by a raw and ferocious longing to be so close to someone. Lia had no idea what she was in for. I knew that bringing Evander along would lure her out of one of the numerous hiding places we had.

As I watched Evander now, ascending the light tower –Lia’s most cherished place to go to when her mind was cluttered and she needed the scent of the ocean to clear it, I realized that her choice of sanctuary had everything to do with him. She needed to be near the water. She longed for him, unknowingly. It all made perfect, divine sense. Evander and Lia are a union, as Zeus had intended. As expected, the water had always calmed her. Fire always yields to water.

“Why would she come this far out to the ocean?” Evan asked, eyeing me cautiously as if he thought I was up to something sinister.

He couldn’t be thinking that I wanted to throw him off of this tower. What sense would that make when he would land and be the water before he even felt the first drop merge with his body.

“Lia always loved the scent of the ocean, the rush of the waves, and spending time here had always seemed to put her mind at ease,” I said. “Is she here?” I asked, kicking a pebble in the sand.

“Yes. I can… feel her aura,” Evander answered, turning away.

“Just through that door.”

“I know,” he said as he looked over his shoulder and at me. Even after a whole month, he still didn’t trust me. I sighed and waved my hand away at him. Evander opened the door and we glided up the long stairway to the top of the lighthouse. He stepped into the lantern room and the view was enough to take your breath away, if you were into the whole dark raven hair and crystal eyes thing. Apparently, Evander was. He stared at my sister as if she was the last drop of water and he was deserted in the Sahara.

Lia turned away from the window, appearing shocked at first. She stared at Evander. Her eyes – as clear as prisms, could disarm any man. Evander was proof of that. He couldn’t steer his gaze away from her.

“You found me,” Lia said stiffly, gazing at Evander. She couldn’t seem to stop herself from staring at him either. She seemed relieved and apprehensive all at the same time.

“Your brother guessed you’d be here. I just couldn’t understand why,” Evander said, taking a couple steps toward her.

“My brother should let me mind myself,” Lia muttered, glaring past Evan and practically scorching me.

“Lia, you promised you’d stay,” I argued.

“I told you I needed time, Vickie.”

“No Lia, you said you would
stay
,” I countered.

“No, what I said was that I would
try
and I did. Really, I tried, but I couldn’t stay… there.”

“Darling, I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll move us into our own house. We belong there. It’s our home, Lia,” I pleaded. She could be so stubborn and now was a perfect example.

I wanted her to understand that her happiness was very important to me and that she would be happier living out in the open as she should be – a beautiful demigoddess. At some point Evander had left the lantern room. I guess the boy couldn’t take her heat.

“How can you say that, Vic?” Lia asked and I thought I saw tears in her eyes. “It’s not our home and hasn’t been for more than ten years. Nickel City stopped being our home ages ago. I don’t want to go back there.”

Lia turned her gaze back to the shimmering waters of the sea. She took a deep breath, taking in the strong smell of the salty water. I loved my sister with all of my heart. Somehow, I had to get her to understand that this was the only way we could survive. I was willing to do anything in order to make the transition as easy and as painless as possible.

“You can go to her. I won’t be mad at you,” Lia said over her shoulder. Her words hurt. I would never abandon my sister. Suddenly, the feeling of guilt swirled around in my gut as if I’d eaten bad fruit. I could never be asked to make a choice between Lia and Delia. Why couldn’t I have them both? 

“Don’t do that. You know this is about us and only us. Nevertheless, there won’t be an
us
without them, all of them. I want this. We are very much a part of the empire. We are Ischero, Lia. It is all we are. The members have embraced me and they will do the same for you. Our parents were not at fault and the empire is aware of that fact,” I explained, brushing her cheek. I couldn’t take it when Lia cried, which wasn’t often which meant that she was terrified.

“I want you to be happy Vickie. You won’t be until you have her. That’s why I said that you should go to her. You love her. You always have. Even when we were just children. It was Delia this, and Delia that. Nothing about that has changed. She is the center of your universe and you are hers,” Lia said, sniffling.

While I listened to Lia reminisce about my childhood crush, I realized that she was the real grown-up and that she was the most selfless person I knew. The guilt was beginning to overwhelm me and swallow me whole. How could I have taken such a risk? She was much too important to me.

“And Evander is yours,” I said, raising her chin up and wiping her tears with my handkerchief.

“I don’t know how I feel about that,” she said shyly, as her face flushed with color.

“It’s what the gods always intended and the only way we’ll be blessed by them.”

“I don’t know if I trust the gods. They have yet to prove themselves as far as I’m concerned and so has
he
. He loves Delia very much. I can feel it,” Lia said, motioning to the door.

“Don’t worry about that. He loves you more. He just doesn’t know it yet. He’ll choose you,” I promised, what I had no right to, but I did it anyway. I couldn’t help being a bastard at times. That trait had been passed down by one of the most vicious gods there ever was.

“I’m just not sure that I’m ready to live amongst a bunch of members, whom I don’t know.”

“It’ll take some time, darling, and I won’t pressure you. Just give it some time and if you still feel out of place amongst our own then we’ll make arrangements for you to reside elsewhere.”

“Really?” She beamed, and for the first time in the last twenty-four hours, she looked happy. Then she looked sad again. “What about you? Will you come with me?”

“We’ll see. But for now will you try?”

“Yes.” Lia smiled timidly, and her eyes sparkled.

“I promise Lia,” There I go promising again. “and Evander isn’t that bad. Actually, his devotion to those he loves is unparalleled with any other Ischero I’ve come across, not including myself, of course.”

“So now you and Evander are chums?”

“Chums? Never.” I sneered, and then chuckled lightly. “However we are on the same side and will fight for the same cause. Plus there’s a bonus,” I said, chuckling. “he has to address me as his Lord.”

“Really? He agreed to that?” Lia asked.

“He has too. It’s like an Ischero law,” I said, and winked at my sister.

“He has to call you Lord at all times?” Lia asked quizzically, and then she let out a contagious giggle. I loved to hear her laugh. She reminded me so much of our mother when she did.

“Well, maybe I’ll give him a break on the weekends,” I said, as Lia’s laughter rippled down the long flight of stairs to the shore. Evander was waiting at the foot of the stairs, looking at us both with a questioning eyebrow.

“My sister will be joining us after all.” I couldn’t control the muscles in my face and grinned.

“If that’s what Evangelia wants,
Vickie
,” Evander chuckled. It was a good time as any to knock his teeth out of his mouth.

“Very funny. That’s
Lord Victor
to you, water boy,” I scolded.

“Call me Lia,” she said. Evander gulped and nodded. I watched how Evander looked at Lia and it was as if my baby sister reached into his chest and wrapped her delicate hand around his heart. He was all hers.

Evander turned around abruptly, and headed to the exit door of the lighthouse. Lia went for the door at approximately the same time and noticed Evander heading for the door as well. She anticipated them bumping into each other – a chance of touching – something she desperately wanted to avoid. Suddenly, she jolted back hard. I slammed into her from behind, just as Evander turned around, and Lia landed right in his arms.

It was the longest three seconds of their lives as they both realized, for the first time, the true power of the gods.

Time. All we needed was a little time.

Thirteen -
Cordelia

Time

The warriors swore not to breathe a word of what they found. In fact, I told them to say that my parents weren’t found, if they were ever asked. After the meeting and my disciple had gone, I summoned my parents. After a few moments, I realized something was wrong. Their hearts never appeared, just the emergence of empty domes floating in the air.

I was shocked and felt paralyzed where I stood in my library. How could this be? Surely they weren’t stolen. I was under the impression that they only could be summoned by me. Obviously, I was wrong. It was then that I truly believed what my disciples reported. I would have never guessed in a million years that my parents were to be buried in the future.

Of course, the shock of learning their whereabouts had not faded. I guess their missing hearts was the answer to the question of how they were resurrected. I needed to know who resurrected them. As far as I knew, I was the only Ischero with the power to resurrect another being. Now that I knew where they will be, I had to figure out how to bring my father and mother back home.

I needed air. The lush garden was one of my favorite places to think. I sat on the polished stone bench beneath the Linden trees. I found the information impossible to fathom. This is not how I had expected things to develop. I pictured the warriors returning, and me, bringing my parents back to life. Simple as that. Now everything was complicated.