Gods of Chaos (Red Magic) (4 page)

What had happened to me? I crossed the room to the bed and snuggled down under the thick, white comforter. I hadn’t been eating very much lately, true, but I hadn’t felt like eating ever since Rochelle died. I didn’t realize how much my body had changed since Halloween.

Burrowing under the blankets, I wondered what else about me had changed.

Before I succumbed to sleep, I heard my cell phone buzzing in my bag. I crawled out of bed, shivering, and pulled it out.

“Hello?”

“Hey, sweetie. Did I wake you?” Mom sounded so normal, her voice almost made me cry.

“Um, no. I was in bed, but not asleep. I’m sort of wound up.”

“I bet the detour shook you up a bit.”

You have no idea.
“Yeah. But I fly to Edinburgh tomorrow.”

“That’s good.” She paused, and even thousands of miles away, I could tell she was choosing her words carefully. “The sooner you get there, the sooner this will all be done.”

I crawled back into bed, taking the phone with me. “I hope so. But Mom, what if I don’t find the other Red?”

“You said your dreams point to Scotland. Trust your dreams, Lena.”

“Right. It’s just … things aren’t what I expected.”

Mom paused. “Is everything okay?”

I sighed, remembering Pele’s flashing eyes. “Yeah, sure. I have a feeling this will be harder than I thought is all.”

Mom didn’t say anything for a minute, and I yawned loudly.

“Look, Mom, I should—”

“Your father wants to say good night.”

I stared at the phone, surprised. “What?”

There was silence on the line, and then Dad chirped a greeting. “How’s Iceland?”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I’m not here to sightsee, you know.”

“I know that, but you’re there, so you might as well make the most of it.”

“I’m leaving tomorrow. But Dad, it’s late here. I really ought to try and get some sleep.”

“Oh, sure. Of course.” He sounded hurt, but that was silly. “Just be careful, sweetheart.”

“I’ll be fine.”

I wasn’t so sure I’d be fine, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. I didn’t want to risk a lecture, or worse, a fight about me giving up and coming home. Mom and Dad had been surprisingly chill about this trip, but I had a feeling that they would try to order me home at the first sign of danger. There was no point mentioning the woman on the plane or Pele’s visitation; it wasn’t like they could do anything to help. I was on my own.

“Night, Dad.”

“Good night, Lena.”

When I hung up the phone, I felt a strange lump in my throat. Staring around the vast hotel room, I pulled the covers up to my chin and snapped my fingers. The overhead light shut off, and the bathroom light dimmed until it cast a warm yellow glow into the room, like a nightlight. My thoughts were racing, but I knew I’d be worthless tomorrow if I didn’t get some sleep, so I began counting backward from one hundred. I was out by the time I hit twenty, and I was immediately plunged into a bizarre dream. It started out like my regular recurring dream of the flaming cavern, but then it shifted.

A man was lying on his back on the tip of a twisted stalagmite. His hair looked like fire. There was something familiar about him, but I couldn’t place it. In the dream, a woman was standing beside him, holding a bowl over his face. Something kept dripping into the bowl. The slow dripping sound filled the cavern, and I stared at the strange man.

“Is that the Red Witch?” His voice was harsh from disuse, and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. He called out again, and I stepped toward him.

“I am a Red Witch,” I answered. His smile twisted his face as if he were in pain, and he crooked his finger in my direction.

“I have an offer for you, little one.”

Wary, I shook my head. “I’ve had enough offers.”

He barked a laugh. “Offers from goddesses, yes, but have you had any offers from a god?”

I moved closer to him. “Who are you?” I asked in my dream.

“I am the Twisted One. I am the Red One. I am Loki, Lord of Chaos.”

I took a quick step back. “I’ve had enough of chaos.”

“It is your vow: you cannot escape chaos, and where there is chaos, there am I.”

The woman spoke softly to Loki. “The bowl is filling, husband.”

He gripped her arm. “Stay just a minute, sweet. Let me speak my piece first.”

“It will fill soon.” She glared at me, but she stayed where she was. Even in the dream, I didn’t have a clue what was going on.

“I will speak plain, then,” Loki sighed, “and dispense with my riddles. You and I could help each other.”

“How?” I was skeptical, but something inside me was listening to this god.

“I am stronger than the other Red gods. I can even bring Hecate down. I can make sure she doesn’t harm you.”

“But what’s in it for you? Do you expect me to take you as my patron?”

He cackled. “Silly girl. Bargains do not have to be that binding.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I can protect you, but only if I am free. You must set me free.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“Husband,” the woman said urgently, “I must empty it.”

“Wait.” He gritted his teeth but she shook her head sadly.

With one swift movement, she whisked the bowl away from his face and hurried into the shadows. Loki screamed out in pain.

“It burns! After thousands of years, it still burns! Haven’t I suffered enough?” He cursed and wept, thrashing about from side to side, and I saw that not only was he balanced on the rock, he was bound to it. This god of chaos was a prisoner.

I felt myself sliding out of the dream, and Loki called out, “Just make it seem as if the world is ending! Then I will be free, and I promise, I will come to your aid.”

I woke up drenched in sweat, a feather pillow clutched tight across my face. What in the world had that been about? I had always listened to my dreams, but since my declaration of Red magic, it seemed that I dreamed more vivid and disturbing things than I ever had before.

I glanced over at the glowing green numbers on the nightstand. The clock said it was close to four a.m. Too jostled to sleep, I got up and padded over to the hotel desk. My tiny laptop was where I had left it last night, and I turned it on. As it booted up, I thought back over the details of my dream, but they were beginning to fade. Hastily, I grabbed a pad of hotel paper and a pen and began to scribble down everything I could remember.

I shuddered as I recalled Loki’s screams when the woman had removed the bowl from his eyes. What was all that about? And could he really help me? I shivered at the idea. He didn’t seem like the kind of god I wanted to work with, but then again, I didn’t have a lot of options.

Quickly, I connected to the hotel’s wireless and opened a search engine. A few clicks later, I was reading about Loki. What I found horrified me.

According to one site, Loki always liked to prank the other gods, but he went too far one day and caused the murder of the god Baldur. The gods punished him by binding him and sending a serpent to drip poison into his eyes. The woman I had seen in the dream could only be his wife, who stayed by his side in his torture and caught as much of the venom as she could to spare him the pain.

But, just like in my dream, sometimes the bowl would fill. When it was being emptied, the website said, Loki would thrash in pain and fury. His movements were thought to cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. I swallowed even though my mouth was dry.

Loki had been right about one thing: nothing short of the end of the world would release him from his prison. And I didn’t like Ragnarok, the Norse version of the end of days: mass chaos, unmanageable natural disasters, and the deaths of many gods.

I had reason to believe that mythology was a lot closer to reality than most people knew, and I didn’t want to be around when the world flooded and Loki escaped from his cave. And yet that seemed to be exactly what he wanted: he’d asked me to free him.

I drummed my fingers against the desk, frowning. Why would I free such a dangerous god? The Internet referred to him as “the power of fire bound,” and that wasn’t something the world needed. I had good cause to know and fear the power of unbound fire; she’d been in my room a few hours ago. Did I really want to be responsible for turning another crazy god loose on the world?

On the other hand, Loki had offered to help me. And from my brief Internet research, it seemed like he might be powerful enough to do what he had offered. At least, he might be that powerful if he were free. I just had to make it seem like the world was ending.

I buried my head in my hands. I’d been a Witch all my life, but I hadn’t realized just how complicated magic could get until this year. All the gods and goddesses of chaos were starting to get on my nerves; first, they had courted me, trying to get me to choose one of them to be my patron, but now they were just out to get me.

I’d tried the whole patron thing with Aphrodite; it hadn’t exactly worked out.

I’d unbound myself without meaning to, but since I’d been given the chance to turn back that decision, I was hesitant to vow myself to any other gods. I knew Mom had a patron; she made no secret of her relationship with Demeter. Dad never talked about having one, and most of the other people I knew seemed to think taking a patron was old-fashioned. I’d pledged myself in desperation, but now that I was free again, I wasn’t too keen on working with another Red god, particularly one like Loki.

I sighed, thinking about Aphrodite. She had saved me from Hecate, not to mention a trucker who wanted to get in my pants, and I hadn’t even talked to her since I broke my vow. I had tried to explain, but I still didn’t understand how I broke that vow. She hadn’t killed me yet in some freak perfume accident, so I didn’t think she was mad, but I had no way to really know.

Suddenly lonely, I crossed to my bag and dug out the little copper mirror that Aphrodite had given to me when I first dedicated to serve her. I’d tried to give it back when our bond was broken, but she had implied I might need it. I didn’t know what good the mirror would do, but it occurred to me that it might be a way to contact my former patron. If she wasn’t mad at me, maybe she could help.

Concentrating hard, I stared into the shiny glass. My eyes began to cross and it was like I was seeing through the mirror. At that moment, I whispered a prayer to Aphrodite to reveal herself to me. I closed my eyes for an instant, and I heard the rustle of fabric behind me. Cautiously, I turned and opened my eyes.

Instead of the beautiful blond goddess I’d been expecting, I was facing a tall woman who looked like a warrior queen. Her brilliant red hair cascaded over her shoulders, and her torso was swathed in a shining breastplate of gold. Her green eyes reminded me of my cat, Xerxes. I gulped at their fierceness and clutched the mirror to my chest.

“Who are you?” I took a cautious step back, trying to put some distance between me and this new goddess.

“You summoned the goddess of love, did you not?”

I started to shake my head, then stopped, confused. “I was looking for Aphrodite.”

The goddess waved her hand dismissively. “What makes you think you can call to one of the Greeks? You are across the world from their land.”