What a Goddess Wants (19 page)

This story was getting worse by the minute. “How did she die?”

X shook his head, though she didn’t think he was refusing to answer. “The official story? One of Cal’s rivals for Juliana killed her in a jealous, rage so Cal killed him and left, giving up his post as a Watchman. I can count on one hand how many times Cal’s been back to Cimmeria since then.”

“You say the ‘official story’ like you don’t think that’s what really happened.”

“Depending on who you talk to, the story changes.” X sighed again and rubbed a hand through his hair. “It came out later that Juliana’s father, who was a member of the Elders Council, had bound her to Cal because he wanted to exploit Cal’s ability to travel though the planes without the use of the gates. Cal refused.

“The Cimmerians have strict rules against using the gates for personal gain, and Cal was a Watchman. He didn’t break rules, not ever. Since Cal now knew the guy’s plan, Cal was a liability. So Juliana’s father hired a Sentinel to kill Cal.

“Juliana stepped in front of Cal just as the assassin tried to take him out. No one ever knew if she did it to save his life or if she was an innocent bystander. After he killed the assassin, Cal nearly beat Juliana’s father to death. Cal’s never talked about it. Not ever. Not even to me.”

Her brain raced, full of scenarios about how that scene would have played out. If Juliana had been the innocent dupe, that would explain Cal’s white-knight syndrome. If she’d been involved in her father’s plans, that would explain why he hadn’t wanted to help her in the first place.

So many questions. Too few answers.

And—

Dear Goddess Thesan, I pray you attend the birth of my child. I ask for your blessing to keep my child safe from harm and to ensure his safe passage into this world.

The summons whispered through Tessa’s head, its strength a testament to the speaker’s dedication. There was no desperation in the request, only urgency.

The urgency of a first-time mother about to give birth.

“Lady Tessa, are you okay?”

She blinked up at X, who frowned at her from across the table. And when she smiled, his frown turned bemused.

“I’m fine, X. But we’re going to need to leave immediately.”

“What! Oh, no—”

“Aw shit, Tessa.” Salvatorus’s disgruntled growl made her smile widen.

“—you can’t go anywhere. Cal will kill me if you leave the house.” The look on X’s face wasn’t exactly fear but it wasn’t far off the mark, either. And he looked frozen to the chair.

Salvatorus, on the other hand, had jumped down and stomped into the front room, grumbling “Cal’s gonna have my ass” under his breath. But he didn’t say no.

She rose, and X’s expression turned panicked. “Lady, seriously, I’m not as strong as my brother. If you leave the safety of this house, I can’t protect you as well as Cal. Where do you need to go? Isn’t there some way—”

She laid her hand on his arm. “X, I know what Cal said, and I do realize what I’m asking. But I’ve been summoned and I will not disappoint Flavia.”

“Summoned?”

“Yes. One of the duties I still perform as the goddess Thesan is midwife. We need to leave for Hamburg immediately. A
gianes
at the Hawk Mountain enclave is ready to give birth to twins.”

Deliberately skirting around X, Tessa headed for the front room, where she knew Sal was getting ready to transport her and X to Hamburg.

“Come along, X. Flavia’s had a hard pregnancy and I don’t want her to worry.”

Behind her, she heard X sigh long and hard. “Lady Tessa, I’m begging you to recon—”

“The Hawk Mountain facility has safeguards of its own.” She refused to back down on this. “I doubt Charun even knows about it, and even if he did, I doubt his minions will be able to breach the security there. I must go.

“I am still a goddess of the Etruscan pantheon. I may not guide the sun into its position every morning as I once did, but I love my people. And I will not allow Flavia to deliver these babies without my presence.”

X straightened as if she’d kicked him in the ass, and a look of respect flashed across his expression before a smile curved his lips. He really was a gorgeous man.

Yet, seeing X’s smile only made her wish Cal was here by her side. She hated breaking the promise she’d made Cal that she wouldn’t leave here without him. And once he learned she’d left, he might refuse to return to her.

“X, please don’t make me renege on the promise I made her to be there.”

After several seconds of holding her gaze, X tipped his head back as his eyes closed, and he sighed. “You know I’ll never hear the end of this.”

Looking down at her again, he bowed slightly, arm across his waist, and then waved his hand for her to continue into the living room.

“After you, Lady. But when Cal gets back, please put in a good word for me. Maybe he won’t be tempted to tear me limb from limb. Maybe he’ll only take a few fingers.”

Chapter 8

Well, shit.

Cal stomped through the forest surrounding his cabin, heading for the oldest stand of trees on the property. The old oak there would be perfect for what he needed.

Even though the tree canopy diffused most of the light from the sun inching closer to the center of the sky, he wore jeans, leather gloves, and his lined sweatshirt with the hood shading his face.

Not ideal for the middle of August. Even though he didn’t feel heat—except for Tessa’s—he had to be careful not to succumb to heatstroke.

Where he was going, he wouldn’t have to worry about the sun. But until he got there, he couldn’t let any inch of his skin be exposed to its rays. The burn would be a bitch and he didn’t have time for setbacks. He needed to return to Tessa as quickly as possible.

“Jesus Christ, you sound like a fucking weak-ass sycophant. This is what you get for working with a goddess.”

But he knew that just working for her wasn’t the problem. He’d started to care for her.

“
Idiot
. You’re a fucking idiot.” He stomped on a branch in his path, needing to feel something break beneath his feet.

When Sal had zapped him back to his trailer, he’d immediately felt like he’d been kicked in the gut. He hadn’t wanted to leave her. He couldn’t shake the feeling that, as soon as he was gone, Tessa would be in danger.

“This is why you don’t screw around with the people you’re supposed to protect. Gods damn, Dad was right about something.”

His father had been harder on Cal than any other father had been on their son. Diritas had known Cal’s
Fata
blood would be a liability. Hell, he’d thrown it in Cal’s face every other day.

And Cal, like most sons, had wanted to please his father.

“Yeah, well, you know where that got you.”

Banished wasn’t the right word because he’d left on his own. Still, after what had happened…

He felt rage bubble low in his gut and squashed it back into the deep hole where he usually kept it. Anger wouldn’t do him any good where he was going. In fact, he may have to grovel or, at the very least, be civil to whoever met him on the other side.

Depending on who that was…

“You know, if you’d been born a pure-blooded Cimmerian, you wouldn’t give a shit about Tessa.”

He could tell her to go to hell, literally, and that would be the end of it. But for the second time in his life, he’d let someone get close.

“And you know how well that worked out the first time.”

Shit
. He really hated when he was right.

With a sigh, Cal stopped to get his bearings, squinting through heavily tinted sunglasses to make sure he was headed in the right direction. And spotted his target only a few feet in front of him.

Hell, someone could’ve jumped him and he probably wouldn’t have heard them coming. What the fuck kind of protector did that make him?

“
A pretty fucking bad one, that’s what.”

No, just one who’d fallen for the wrong woman. Just like his dad.

Yeah, and look at your parents now.

Shit and double shit.

Shaking his head, hoping to clear it at least for the time being, he closed the distance to the huge old oak tree that was his target.

The tree was at least a hundred years old and rose a good thirty or forty feet in the air. He couldn’t span its trunk with his arms, and when he pressed his ear to the bark, he heard the sweet music of nature pulsing through the tree’s core.

The
Fata
blood in his veins, so despised by purebred Cimmerians, had given Cal an unexpected talent none of the other Cimmerians had, one many wished they did. And had killed to have.

Yeah, he really didn’t need to be thinking about that right now.

Typically, a traveler had to pass through specified gates throughout the world to get to Cimmeria. Those gates were few and far between, making them easier to defend and harder to find.

But not Cal. He could build a shortcut to Cimmeria, which floated in the mist between the planes of existence, or between this earth and the other realms such as the Greek deities’ Mount Olympus, the Mayans’ Xibalba… and the Etruscans’ Invol and Aitás.

Cimmeria’s unique position gave the Cimmerians leverage over those who lived on the other planes and wished to use the gates to travel back and forth. About a millennia earlier, the Involuti, the founding gods of the Etruscans and those from whom all other Etruscan deities were descended, had made a pact with the Cimmerians: Shut down all access to the gate to Invol, and you would never want for anything. Guard the gate with your lives, but never reveal its whereabouts under penalty of death.

Cal had never questioned why the Involuti had brokered that deal and had never cared enough to ask. He only knew that the pact had never been broken.

At least not until now.

Taking a piece of chalk from his pocket, Cal stepped in front of the tree and kneeled at the base. With the chalk, he drew the shape of a rounded door on the oak’s trunk. He made sure to start his chalk on the ground before drawing it up and over the bark and then bringing it back down to the ground.

He’d already taken off his boots and socks, making sure the tops of his feet were shaded. Then he curled his toes into the soil at the foot of the tree, the entire soles of his feet in contact with the dirt. Placing his hand in the center of the outline on the bark, he closed his eyes, gathered his will, and pushed open the door.

He felt the rough bark of the tree trunk swing back, away from him, and without opening his eyes, he stepped through into the void.

Even though he’d braced himself, the displacement from one plane to another was a shock to his system. It felt like he’d pulled his body through a sieve, each molecule having to break apart from the others and reform on the other side.

He fell to his knees, gasping for air, his stomach rocking. If he’d chosen to travel more than a hundred miles to get to the nearest gate, he wouldn’t have had such a severe reaction. Of course, he hadn’t been to Cimmeria for several years so maybe the reaction was worse because of that.

When he was finally sure he wasn’t going to toss the contents of his stomach, he took a deep breath, feeling the clean air of his homeland filling his lungs. Damn, after so many years of living on earth, where the air was constantly polluted with noxious fumes, this was… well, this was like breathing in a little bit of pure ecstasy.

He knelt there for a few minutes, letting the dew on the grass seep into his jeans. When his stomach settled, he shook his head and stripped off the hooded sweatshirt, leaving it in a ball by the tree he’d connected to from earth. He’d have to use the same tree to get back.

Looking around, he noticed that not much had changed since he’d been there years before. Too damn long ago.

He wanted to stop by his parents’ home and at least say hi. But the circumstances under which he’d left made that difficult, and he’d only managed to get home twice in the past eight decades. If anyone saw him—

“I see not much has changed for you, Caligo.” The mocking voice came from above. “Let me know if you need a hand up, boy.”

Fuck. Just… fuck.

Even without turning around, Cal knew exactly who stood behind him.

Drawing in a deep breath, Cal pushed to his feet, even though he could have used another few minutes on the ground. Minutes he didn’t have because he needed to get back to Tessa as soon as possible.

With a concerted effort at a neutral expression, he turned to face the guardsman behind him. Cal bowed his head just enough to pass for respect. “Greetings, Elido.”

Broad as a bus, with a right hook that could send a man flying at least twenty feet—and yeah, Cal knew that from personal experience—Elido had the dark hair and sharp features that were so markedly Cimmerian. He could have been a poster boy for the entire race.

Eli smirked and leaned on his staff, as if Cal didn’t warrant being on guard against. Not that Eli thought of Cal as a friend. Not anymore.