chapter Twenty Eight
The three eerie women looked like they had been gardening in their yard, not standing in the path of a fast car. Their calm faces held hints of smiles and their gray eyes never left mine.
The liquid had worked its magic. I was on I-95, inside Victor’s car, with Micah and his bird, but without Morgan. Where the hell was Morgan?
I glanced back and found Micah struggling to sit up. “What’s happening?”
One of the Fates gestured with her white hand. She wanted us to come to them.
I wasn’t sure what to do. I had just escaped from Brock and his demons. I didn’t want to be trapped again. Besides, as far as I knew, the Fates owned me now. I had no idea what they would want with me.
She gestured again.
Micah held on to my seat and looked ahead. “What do they want now?”
I gulped down my fear and exited the car. With the little strength I had, I helped Micah, putting his heavy arm around my shoulders. The raven flew out, but hovered close.
“Where’s Morgan?” I asked as we neared them.
“Safe somewhere else,” the one on the right said.
“What now?”
“Now, you’re both safe,” the one on the left said.
I grimaced. Safe from demons, but not from them. Fates were the women who spun the wheel of destiny, which didn’t let me know if they were evil or good. I decided to be on the defensive, just in case.
“What will you do with me?” I asked.
“We were thinking about leaving this place before we need to interfere more,” the one in the center said. She extended her hand to me, and I squinted at it. “Nadine, your life is ours. If we wish to hurt you, we won’t ask for permission.”
She pushed her hand forward.
As I reached to take it, Micah held my arm. “What are your plans for her?”
“We’re not obligated to answer your question, Mitrus,” the one in the center said. “But rest assured we have no plans of hurting her. For now.”
I looked up to Micah and nodded.
He shrugged and I took the Fate’s hand.
The world around us revolved. I felt as if I were having one of those revealing visions again.
That sudden thought saddened me. I would never have another vision. Ceris had taken the gift from me. Yes, I had fought them at the beginning. After all, I’d thought I was hallucinating. That I was crazy. Insane. There were times I’d wished I didn’t have visions, but now that they had been taken from me, I missed them.
The scenery settled. We stood on a tiny island with white sand and rocky shores that fought against angry black waves that crashed and bellowed. The wind whipped my hair, and I turned my face. A simple cottage that looked a lot like the one the Fates had in the woods stood before us.
I gawked at the view. It was so peaceful, so comforting. “Where are we?”
“On a Croatian island,” one of the Fates answered.
I watched as the raven flew away. “Why did you bring us here?”
“To rest,” the one closest to me said, smiling shyly. “You two will stay here for a week or two.”
“What? Why?” I asked. “And my family? Raisa and Olivia will wonder where I am. I need to go back. And my job at Langone? It’s supposed to start tomorrow.” Wait. I forced my mind to slow down. I was sure the job at Langone had been arranged by Ceris. I didn’t want anything to do with it.
“You deserve it, Nadine,” the same one said. The others stood behind her and didn’t seem to pay attention to our conversation. “You deserve the job at Langone. Ceris found out about the position and told you. You got it on your own. If you had failed to get it, she would have intervened, but it wasn’t necessary.”
Well, that was a relief. I needed that job. I needed it to get into med school and to move forward with my life. “Then I need to go back.”
“The wheel of destiny has spun,” she continued. “Your job at Langone will start in ten days. Raisa and Olivia have been told you are on vacation. And your other friends and family are safe.”
Was this some kind of punishment? “What did I do to deserve this? I thought I had accomplished all Ceris wanted of me.”
“Yes, you did.” Her smile widened. “And this is not a punishment. This is vacation.”
She started walking away.
“Wait,” I called out. Since arriving, I’d wanted to ask them more about Victor, where he was and what would happen now, but had held on to my curiosity.
The Fate faced me. “Yes?”
Instead, I asked, “What about Morgan?”
“Morgan’s destiny is set.” She turned away. “Rest, child.” Her words were carried out by the wind. “We’ll be back soon.”
The Fates walked toward the darkness at the back of the island until they disappeared.
Even hurt and bleeding, Micah looked down at me, a grin on his pale face. “Alone at last.”
***
The wind blew strong and cold, and I shivered. I kept my gaze glued to the spot where I had last seen the Fates until Micah shuddered against me.
“Let’s get you inside.” I helped him turn around and we slowly inched to the cottage.
Like the Fates’ house in the woods, this one was small and simple, with almost no furniture and no electronics. In the living room, the fireplace was lit. It would have been nice to stand there and warm up, but I had to drop Micah somewhere first.
Past a narrow doorway, we found a short corridor with four doors, two closed and two opened.
I pointed toward the door closest to us. “This one.”
Slowly, we made it inside the bedroom and I helped him lay on the bed. He was pale and some of the wounds had stopped bleeding, but now he was covered in dried blood and dirty. I took a few towels from the common bathroom off the corridor, wet some, then went back to the bedroom and sat beside him.
“I feel loved,” he joked with eyes closed, but smiling.
I dabbed the wet towel over his wounds, trying to focus on them and not on the muscles underneath them. “Shut up.”
For some reason, it hadn’t dawned on me that he was a god yet. After all we lived through, it was hard picturing him coming up with evil plans, helping Imha, and running around killing people. Wasn’t that what the god of death did? I shuddered.
Trying to lighten the mood, I said, “So, the raven is yours. Did you have to send it to scare the hell out of me?”
He chuckled, coughed, and then grunted in pain.
Not the answer I expected. “Sorry, don’t answer it.”
“It’s okay,” he whispered. “I knew you were special … because of your aura. So I sent it to watch over you … in case something happened.”
Understandable, but still a little creepy. If I had known it was his bird, I would have been flattered, not scared all of those times.
“Did you know you were special?” I asked before I could think and I felt heat on my cheeks when the corner of his lip tugged up. “I meant, did you know you were a …?” I couldn’t bring myself to say it aloud. I swallowed and tried again with a different word. “Did you know you were Mitrus?”
He pursed his lips. “No. I mean, I knew something wasn’t right. I knew I was different, but I had no idea this shit went this far.” He tsked. “It all makes sense now. After I killed those men in Israel, I accessed some part of my past, of my true soul, and some of my power seeped in. That’s why I could repel bats, why I liked the dark, and how I could see auras.”
“Yes, it makes sense,” I repeated, trying to absorb all the info. There were a million more questions I wanted to ask him, but I had no idea how to phrase them.
When I passed the towel over the cut on his eyebrow, he held my hand and opened his eyes to look at me. “Thank you.” He turned my palm over and kissed my wrist. A shiver started where his lips touched my skin, and ran up my arms. My heart lurched.
Quickly, I pulled my arm away. “You’re too weak. You need to eat something.”
“I don’t … think I can eat anything right now.” He closed his eyes again and inhaled deeply. “I just want to sleep.”
Trying to make no sound to disturb him, I tiptoed out of the bedroom and closed the door. In the bathroom I found a first aid kit. I picked it up and sat on the beaten loveseat in the living room with intentions to clean my wounds, take some Tylenol, and then find something to eat.
However, my eyelids felt too heavy. I gave in and closed my eyes for a second, relaxing my back on the loveseat and willing the sleep away.
***
I woke up on a squeaky twin bed. Confused, I looked around.
The simple bedroom was inundated by the sunlight streaming from the curtain-less window behind me, and I saw a bag beside the bed with what looked like some of my clothes inside. My shoulder was bandaged and most of my cuts were cleaned.
The memories of the previous day assaulted me, but I refused to be brought down by all that had happened. I just had to get through whatever test the Fates had prepared for me and then go back to my life. I would not think of Victor or Ceris. I would not.
I slid out of bed and peeked out the door. Across the corridor, the bed was made in the other bedroom, which meant Micah was up. I glanced down at me and my torn clothes. Better to take a quick shower and change before showing up like a beggar before a god.
Holy shit, I said it as if it were normal, but it wasn’t. My mind still couldn’t wrap around the fact that Micah was a god. The god of death, actually. Wasn’t he supposed to be evil? Didn’t he plot with Imha to destroy the world?
Okay, one step at a time. First, a shower.
As I thought, I felt much better in a clean pair of jeans and a long-sleeved gray tee and my black boots.
I walked into the living room, holding my breath, expecting to see Micah somewhere. I frowned at the empty area and entered the kitchen next. There, seated around a wooden kitchen table, were the Fates.
I froze at the door as one of them gazed at me and smiled.
“Hello, child,” she said. I swallowed, but couldn’t find my voice or anything appropriate to say. “You’re probably hungry.” She pointed to the counter behind her, covered with bread, fruits, cheese, juices, and several other goodies. “Help yourself.”
Slowly, I walked in, grabbed a plate, and picked some of the goodies. “Where’s Micah?” I asked as I leaned against the counter.
“Mitrus is walking outside,” the same one answered. The other two seemed to be meditating or simply not in this conversation. “He needs time alone to think.”
Didn’t we all need time alone to think?
I put my plate on the counter and took a deep breath, gathering courage. “What is going to happen next?”
The Fate smiled. “You’ll stay here and rest. Soon, you’ll go back to New York, to your classes, and to your new job.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know, but I can’t answer your question.” She lost the smile. “My sisters and I can’t share our knowledge. The only thing I can tell you is that Levi and Mitrus will go on quests to find their scepters so they can become full gods again, but that you already knew.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“You don’t need to worry,” she said, standing. She walked to the coffee machine on the other side of the kitchen and took a steaming mug from it. With a new smile, she handed it to me. “It’s not mochaccino, but it’s coffee nevertheless.”
Still a little wary, I took the mug from her. “What don’t I need to worry about?”
She looked into my eyes deeply, intensely. “About you. About us. We won’t harm you.”
“I wish it was easy to believe,” I whispered.
She patted my shoulder. “You will.” She turned and sat back between her sisters. “Now go. Mitrus is outside and he wants to talk to you.”
That startled me and I almost dropped the mug on the floor. I sipped from it, left it on the counter, and rushed out.
I opened the front door and the chilly wind whipped my hair around my face. I held on to it and looked around. It was easy to spot him. Standing tall on a rocky parcel about forty or fifty feet from the cottage, Micah kicked the rocks around with his hands tucked inside his dark jeans pockets and his shoulders stuffed under the black shirt.
I smiled, noticing he wasn’t wearing black pants for the first time since I met him. But as I took the first step toward him, I erased the smile from my face and frowned. I had to remember he was not who I thought he was. I had to remember he had done bad things and probably would do more.
He turned to me as I approached him, his rough face serious and totally handsome with his hair messy because of the wind.
“Hey,” I began, hoping my voice was steady, unlike what I felt. “Did you want to talk to me?”
“Yes,” he said, but didn’t go any further.
Honestly, I had no idea how I should behave in front of a god. I was worried I would say the wrong thing and he would cast one of those magical bolts and strike against me. Being a mortal, they were certainly fatal to me.
“What is it, Micah … uh, Mitrus?”
The corner of his lip tugged up. “Micah. Call me Micah, please.”
I suppressed a snort. As if it would be easy to get used to this. “All right. Micah, what is it?”
He took his hands from his pockets and crossed his arms across his chest. “I’m leaving.”
“Excuse me?”
“I asked the Fates to take me away from here.” The muscles on his jaw ticked, and his neck looked strained. “I wanted to go while you were sleeping, but they wanted me to ask you for something first.” He pressed his lips together and I tried to process the information. He extended his shaking hand to me. “Your touch. Please.”
I gaped at his hand. Seeing he was shaking and probably in pain, I almost grabbed it with eagerness, but the I’m-being-used feeling returned and I held on to what little pride I still had.
“You’re leaving. So, what are you going to do when the pains get worse? Come knocking on my door?”
He averted his eyes. “Not if I can help it.”
Ouch. His admission that he wanted to stay away from me hurt more than I thought it would.
I retreated a step. “Well, you can start enduring them right now then.”
Swallowing the enraged tears that were threatening to roll down my cheeks, I turned my back to him and walked away.
“Nadine,” he called me.
I ignore him and kept on walking to the cottage.
He caught up with me, grabbed my arm, and pulled me so I was facing him. His black eyes shone with something I couldn’t read.
“Please, heal me,” he said through gritted teeth. Without warning, he cupped my face with his hands and the cold jolt spread through my skin.
With his mouth open, he tilted his head back and took it from me. I could feel it—something powerful, something energetic—transferring into him, as if I had an unlimited supply of whatever it was especially made for him.
I didn’t think he noticed, but he pulled me closer to him and, when he leaned forward with his eyes still closed, I gasped—not because of the energy he drank, but because of his strong body brushing against mine, his sandalwood scent playing with my senses.
His forehead rested on mine and I held on to his elbows for support. A few seconds later, he let out a relieved sigh and opened his eyes. They didn’t have that strange shine anymore. Still, they were magnetic and I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t even move away. And Micah seemed relaxed where he was too.
His eyes still on mine, he slid his hands down my neck and my breath caught. A kiss on my forehead surprised me, but not more than when he let go of me and put several steps between us.
“Thank you,” he said.
It was my turn to cross my arms. “You’re not welcome.”
He nodded, looking at the ground.
Without any more words or a look back, he walked away, to the beach on the farthest corner of the tiny island.
And I couldn’t stop looking at him.
The Fates walked out of the cottage toward me. Two of them continued their path past me, toward the beach, but one of them halted by my side.
With her eyes on Micah, the Fate said, “Mitrus asked to leave for your own good.”
I stared at her. “I don’t understand.”
“He knows he isn’t a good man, a good god. He also knows your heart is a good one. Because of that, he wants to stay away from you.”
Oh. He wanted to stay away from me because I was good, because he only associated with the likes of Imha and Omi. No wonder he wanted to leave. He would probably go running to the goddess of chaos, even after she betrayed him.
My gaze found him again. He stood on the beach with the Fates, his back to me. I still couldn’t believe he was evil.
The Fate’s hand squeezed my shoulder. “Take care of yourself, child. We’ll be back soon.”
She strolled down the beach and halted beside her sisters. Then, the Fates joined hands, forming a circle with Micah in the middle. A second later, the four of them were gone.
And I was left alone.
Acknowledgments:
The statement that it takes a village to write a book is truer than most believe.
First and foremost, I want to thank my husband—for believing in me, for supporting me, for putting up with me, for pushing me to be better, for allowing me to dream while awake ... and for loving me. I also thank our daughter, just because she’s ours, and she’s cute and smart and funny and a bunch of other adjectives a mother can think of.
I can’t thank my parents enough for also believing in me. Thank you. Thanks to my entire family: my brother, my sister-in-law, my niece, my mother-in-law, Chico, and the rest of the Grutzmacher “clan.”
I mentioned my former teacher, Mariza Perobelli, in the dedication. I’ve been writing since that project (I was 13 years old). The day I decided to give this writing thing a serious try, I promised myself I would dedicate my first novel to her. I don’t know if I would have come across writing if she hadn’t “introduced” me to it. I believe I would, but now I can count many more years of practice and experience. Thank you.
I want to thank my two “Megan”: Susana and Rafaela. Thank you for reading any stuff I write, for encouraging me, for asking for more (the best thing a writer can hear!).
Then there is Jani Grey, my non-Megan reader. Thank you, Jani. I’m very lucky to have found her, and, even though she lives far away from me, I know she’s a true friend.
A special thanks to my NA Sisters: L.G. Kelso, Carrie Butler, Summer Lane, Jaycee DeLorenzo, and Victoria Smith. And to Bailey Kelsey too, even though she isn’t a part of the NA Alley anymore.
To the crazy-chicks Magan Vernon, Chelsea Cameron, and Alyssa Rose Ivy. Thanks for answering thousands of questions about self-publishing and encouraging me to do this.
To the people who made this book better: Rochelle French, Aimee L. Salter, Kim Wollenburg. Thank you for your insight, for believing in this story, and for encouraging me to stick with it.
There’s also Danielle Crabtree. Thanks for doing such a great job with editing. And Sarah Hansen and her mad cover design skills. I love her covers, and this one is no different!
Last but not least, thank YOU, for reading my book. I hope you like it!