“I saved your mother,” he crooned, his voice soft, placating. The way you might speak to a child who was getting upset over ghost stories. “She was incomplete when I visited her. I only wanted to ask about you.” He smiled, the gesture almost gentle. “I was curious, that is all. I wanted to know what made you special, but she barely seemed to know anything about you at all. I killed her, but I fixed her, don’t you see? She’s better now. And I let you have her back, didn’t I?”
There was no reasoning with that level of crazy. I should have guessed that he would be insane; a god who killed children just to keep his own power was not a benevolent sort of god. I had to try, though.
“She’s not better,” I told him. “You need to understand that most of the things you’ve done to ‘improve’ the worlds have only served to hurt them. Don’t you care about your creations?”
Obsidian eyes examined me; he almost looked curious. “How are you alive, Willa Knight?” He disregarded my questions as easily as he disregarded his creations. “I was watching you. You died. And then you were no longer in my vision. So, tell me, how this is possible?”
I opened my mouth, but the words died on my lips as he continued. “Your mother told me you weren’t special. She was very insistent about that. She seemed to truly believe that there was no way you could have had the Chaos power. She called herself the lowest of the dwellers, and placed you right alongside her. You were supposed to be nothing more than a burden. A mistake. A blight on Minatsol. So, explain to me how you have been hit with Rau’s curse, skewered by Cyrus’s blade, and retrieved from the imprisonment realm … and yet here you stand. Still alive.” He finally pulled that unnerving gaze from me, letting it rest on the Abcurses, who were at my side. “How do you command such powerful gods? The power within you, how was it given to you?”
There was no right answer. I knew that. He was just playing with me before he struck, because his intentions were to kill me—along with everyone else who wasn’t an Original God. He must have needed something from the lesser beings. The weaker sols and the dwellers who posed no threat to him. He must have needed their worship, their beliefs, otherwise he could have just destroyed all beings on Minatsol instead of trying to pick away at the strongest. I just needed to stall long enough to figure out what to do.
“You’ve been so easily fooled,” I blurted out.
Real smart, Willa. Insulting him would definitely stop an attack.
I hurried on: “Siret has been using Trickery to convince Rau, and all of the gods, that I have a Chaos power. He even tricked Rau and Cyrus into thinking that I died that night. My mom was right. I’m nothing special.”
Someone made an angry noise beside me, and my heart warmed, because I knew that there were at least five people here who disagreed with Staviti and my mom.
Staviti took a step closer. He was about ten feet away now. “And, yet, somehow you managed to take Rau from me.” He flicked a hand toward the god who was still on the ground, unmoving. “One of my creations. One I do care about very much.”
Interesting. My words before had registered with him, even if he did choose to ignore them.
“It’s time you felt the same loss,” he announced, his tone cold.
His entire demeanour had changed, and now I felt the threat that he presented. I felt it right to my core. He was about to attack. I tried to figure out how to protect my boys, power swirling inside of me with more force than I’d ever felt. Heat was already pouring out of me. I’d just taken a step forward when a scream rang out. It was not the woman from before, but a new cry of pain. Emmy flew through the air, stopping just before Staviti, hovering there, her face a mask of pain and suffering.
“This one is precious to you,” he said, almost conversationally. “This is one you treasure. One you will mourn more than the pathetic mother who has no love for her daughter.”
For a brief click, I wondered if I should pretend not to know Emmy. Pretend that she meant nothing to me. But in almost the same instant, I knew that would be a futile endeavour. Staviti knew so much about my life. He had been studying me, trying to figure out the riddle of who I was.
He knew how much I loved my sister.
I released my hold on the power inside. My skin was awash in flames, because for Emmy, I didn’t care if Staviti knew about my powers. For Emmy, I would burn Minatsol to the ground.
“If you hurt her, I will never stop hunting you down,” I told him, taking a step forward. Five gods stayed closer by, or as close as they could without getting completely incinerated. “I will kill every single god you created. And when I’m done killing them, I will kill you.”
I meant that. With every fibre of my being.
“I’m offended,” said an amused voice off to the side of where I stood with the Abcurses.
I pulled my gaze from Emmy long enough to find Abil, relaxing against what remained of a half-destroyed wall. “And here I thought you enjoyed my company, daughter-in-law.”
I blinked at him, some of my fire dying off as I tried to figure out what he was doing there, and what he was talking about.
“You just threatened to kill all Original Gods,” Siret informed me.
“We all say things when we’re angry,” I muttered, turning back to Staviti.
He was still holding Emmy’s prone figure in the air before him. “All Original Gods except Abil and Adeline,” I added, the fire flaring to life around me again. I took another step forward. “Let. Emmy. Go.”
When it came to my family, I no longer feared death. For them, I could be brave.
Staviti’s eyes flicked across to Abil. And then to the five Abcurses around me. Then they returned to me. “Trickery … can it make fire like this?” he snarled. Losing control for the first time. “Are you really nothing more than an insignificant being who happens to have some very powerful friends? You need to understand that a debt must be paid. I will take the debt owed me and then return to Topia. Do not rest easy, however. I will be back, and I will finish what we started here this sun-cycle … in a more opportune setting.”
All I heard was take the debt owed.
I leapt forward, letting my powers free, urging them to wrap around his legs. I could burn a god, I already knew that. I was too late, though. Before my fire could touch him, Staviti had turned his hand, and with a crack, Emmy’s neck twisted at an unnatural angle, her face falling still.
A scream ripped from me, followed by another as I continued to charge. I saw nothing but the Creator. I would kill him if it was the last thing I ever did. He doused the flames that had leapt out ahead of me, but he would not be able to douse me. The power was within, and I would push it all out until he was no more. Just as I dove at him, however, a strong and unnatural wind blew me to the side. I crashed to the ground with a hard thump, extinguishing the flames almost immediately, as I had nearly landed on Emmy’s body. Rolling over, I wrapped myself around my sister, holding her close. A flash of white drew my attention, and I realised that it was Cyrus.
Sweet gods on the mountain. He was glowing. His entire figure bore such a white light around it that I almost couldn’t stare directly. He attacked Staviti, energy flinging from him and slamming into the Creator, knocking him down. He didn’t stop there, his feet hovering from the ground as he glided forward, his face devoid of any emotion except wrath.
He gripped Staviti around the throat, hauling him up and holding him in the air in front of him.
“You have broken the balance,” Cyrus said, his voice deep and echoing. “You will pay for your crimes.”
His head swung toward me, and I was suddenly locked in the gaze of a pair of blinding white eyes. “Emmy?” I heard the question in that one word.
I shook my head, pulling her closer to me.