Son of Sun (Forgotten Gods (Book 2)) (15 page)

That’s when I knew why the little girl had brought me here. The highest scenes honored the gods. Altars ripe with sacrifice, the hands of mere mortals raised in supplication.

A great black bird swooped across the sky, his wings outstretched as he circled an altar. It was Chassan, an angel of death waiting to transport some poor soul to the heavens or leave them for darker forces.

Above the bird sat a sun, fat and happy in the sky, so large it took up the greater part of the wall.

I looked back to Anyi, wondering if she knew the truth about Chassan and me, or if this was just a child’s prized possession she wanted to share with her new friend. As my eyes met hers she smiled and pointed higher on the wall. My gaze followed her tiny hand, and when I saw the woman painted above the rest of the drawings, I almost fell over.

Instantly I knew her, though her face, I had never seen. Her buttery blonde hair fell to the ground in loose waves like the Sidhe. A flowing, blue dress hung from her shoulders, tied tightly at the waist with a length of blood red rope. Though the flames did not obscure her milky skin, I immediately knew Seraph’s figure from the pages of Sam’s book.

My body went numb as a hot sensation spread through me like wild fire. The world blurred black and white, and my eyes became incapable of sight. From the depths of a dark pool, a similar vision began to take shape—a young girl, hiding in the darkness, her flowing curls and intent eyes mirroring my own. The blood sizzled in my veins, hot and bubbling from the tips of my toenails to the ends of my hair as I watched myself twin begin to crawl out of the darkness that engulfed her.

But something wasn’t right. It wasn’t only the vision taking over my body, but something else entirely. Rising and falling under a power completely out of my control, my chest began to heave, just as Chassan’s did when he lost his grip and became the wild feral creature his magic unleashed. My spine stiffened ramrod straight, hard as steel, as if my body wanted to unleash want slept inside it.

This wasn’t magic I knew how to control. It was magic I feared. Desperately, I fought in my mind, trying to force the feeling away, but it kept growing up my spine, changing me as it went. There was only one thing I could remember that had ever broken the spell of my visions before. I had no idea if it would work, but it was the only chance I had.

Wanting to force the vision away, I drew in a deep breath, one so great it seemed too suck scaly shards of rock from the cave walls. Poor little Anyi scattered into the shadows as if she feared the world were about to fall down at her feet. Furiously, I shook my head, refusing to let my body lose control. Not now, not in front of Anyi. I couldn’t let her know the truth of what I really was. When my lungs could hold no more, I expelled the air from me in a scream so loud it echoed like thunder off the mountain tops and rubbed my throat raw. Anyi clasped her hands over her ears and cowered in the shadows.

Miraculously, it worked. My vision vanished. The sensation sweeping over my body calmed, and when I opened my eyes, it was just me and little Anyi. She peered fearfully from the shadows, while I stood bathed in a beam of light. Looking back to the cave painting, I fell to my knees, taking my head in my hands and shaking it helplessly. What was happening to me, and what did this woman’s image mean?

I was entranced, kneeling there, staring at a woman that was so much like me I had to wonder if it was some sick joke the little girl was playing on me. The curve of her face, the blush on her cheeks, even the determined, yet fearful gaze her eyes held, I recognized as my own. Chills grabbed my neck and tingled down the length of me.

Seraph. Was I looking on the face of my creator?

I didn’t have time to ponder the question. Feeling the weight of the world suddenly heave itself up from the depths of my stomach, and clutched my middle and ran to the far cave wall. Into the darkness, away from Anyi, where she couldn’t see what was happening to me. Not that anyone in a hundred foot radius had to actually
see
. From the violent retching sounds emanating from my throat, it was obvious every morsel of food left in my stomach was splattered over the cave floor where I sat, rocking back and forth to calm my body.

When it was over, I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand, and got to my feet, staggering weakly into the light. I brushed my hair away from my forehead, closing my eyes to try to still my thoughts. Like that would help.

When I opened my eyes, I found Anyi, prostrate on the cave floor at my feet, just as the servants had worshipped her the night before.

My heart stopped in my chest.

“No!” My throat raw and voice cracking as it echoed through the length of the cave. I took her arm and pulled her off the ground so she stood before me, wiping the dirt from her stark white gown.

Not knowing what else to do, I pointed to the picture, back to myself, and began shaking my head wildly, my hands crossing over each other as they flailed in the air to say the same thing.

A smile pulled at Anyi’s lips and her tiny hand rested lovingly on my cheek. Her other hand cradled my chin, closing my mouth that was gaping wide in fear of being found out. She placed a finger over my lips and shook her head, moving the same finger to her own lips and shaking her head again. It was her way of telling me she would never breathe a word of this to anyone.

Anyi turned and began walking back to the entrance of the cave. As her tiny feet shuffled across the loosened stones, she left me on my knees before the cave painting of a woman that was more mirror than art. This woman held the secrets of my past. Something that even Zeus himself had known to fear.

The fire was a pile of smoldering embers when Chassan finally walked through the door, his mood so heavy I could feel it. I didn’t bother to look at him, and he didn’t bother to speak to me. He simply slipped in through the hut’s door and put his camera equipment back in its foamed case.

My initial reaction, after seeing the cave wall, was to search the mountainside for him and demand to know what the painting meant, who the woman was, and why he hadn’t told me all of this last night instead of acting like a jealous boyfriend when I showed up in the blue dress.

Luckily for me, I’d had some time to think about it and realized my plan wasn’t so smart. If Chassan didn’t know about the painting and I asked him, it would surely make him question my origins. So far, Chassan had assumed I was Sidhe. And I had done nothing to correct him.

Seeing my likeness painted on a cave wall, heads above the lowly gods of the earth and sky, made the story of Seraph and the whole goddess-born-of-fire-theory seem more feasible. If Seraph was more than a myth, and powers of fire were as dangerous as I feared, my existence in this world was more precarious than ever.

Though she hadn’t realized it at the time, Ceila had warned me how dangerous my powers were, just as Dayne had the moment my hand entered the fire. There was only one thing the gods of this world agreed on—the element of fire must be destroyed.

I’d wisely decided to keep my mouth shut about the woman in the cave for the time being.

Chassan sat across from the embers on a fur covered stool, stoking a few flames to warm his hands.

“Sorry.” He spat the word at me, obviously having wrestled with our fight last night just as much as I had, and surprisingly enough, came to the same conclusion. Honestly, that argument seemed a million miles away after the eventful morning I’d had.

“Me, too,” I mumbled, casting a quick glance through the fire and meeting his strange golden gaze, which watched me with a mix of humility and self loathing. Uncomfortable under his scrutiny, I pulled at my fingernails, trying to think of a way to ask Chassan about the woman, without casting too much suspicion on myself.

“I went for a walk with Anyi today. She showed me another site like the one I found when we were hiking.”

“These mountains are full of them.” He nodded, his attention still on the fire.

“Was your father the only god worshipped in this area?”

“No, the mountains were full of Apus. But none rivaled the power of my father.”

“Could anyone match the power of your father?”

“A few, but they are long forgotten.”

“Forgotten gods?” I half laughed, unable to believe he had brought it up. “What do you know about Seraph?” My question seemed innocent enough, I hoped. Even Rhea knew about Seraph. Slowly, Chassan’s golden gaze rose to meet mine, his brow puckered into a dark line. Maybe the question wasn’t so innocent. I held my breath in fear I had said too much.

“What do
you
know about Seraph?” He answered, resting his elbows on his knees and leaning forward, his eyes darkening from gold to ochre.

“Rhea mentioned her.” I nervously tucked a blonde tendril behind my ear, shrugging my shoulders in a casual way as if my question were nothing more than a fleeting interest.

For a moment, he continued to study me, which made my heart beat go all ragged and wild. Until his gaze found the flames again, obviously believing that my interest in the forgotten goddess was innocent enough. Brushing a hand over his golden halo of hair, and rubbing at the back of his neck, he finally nodded, silently answering my question.

“I saw her once. Back before the last worlds ended.”

“Really?” I shot to attention, leaning into him, unable to believe I finally had concrete proof that she was real. “What was she like?”

“She was…” he paused, searching for words with his eyes cast upward. “...timeless. She had pale skin, fresh as fallen snow. Bright eyes, like the sun itself burned behind them. You knew by looking at her, her time on earth was fleeting. Her aura was way too pure. And the people loved her way too much.”

What?!?

For a handful of lost seconds, my brain was frozen. An empty feeling washing from my head to my toes. This wasn’t what I expected at all. Not that I expected anything. Maybe a few anecdotes passed down through the generations about her existence. But Chassan having seen her with his own eyes, made her so real it felt as if she were standing in the shadows behind me, whispering in my ear. Hope, awe, and cold fear fought each other in my brain. Confusing me too much to know what to think about his revelation.

“Where...where did you see her?” I finally forced a few words from my swollen throat.

“Here. In these mountains.” He glanced out the window to a vista of rugged mountain peaks. I hung on his every word, so much so, that without even realizing I was doing it, I pulled my chair over beside him, not wanting to miss a single world. “But not for long.” He shook his head and turned to me, biting his lip as he thought. “Seraph was a loner. She never mixed with our kind. Just floated around the world. Always searching. Never finding.”

“Is she still here?” I returned to inspecting my nails when his gaze fell from the window and back to me, aware that my interest was way past casual at that moment.

“No. Her magic could not have survived the worlds ending.”

“Why not? Your’s did.” I shot back defiantly, knowing that, if the stories were true, Seraph’s magic was way stronger than a sun god’s.

“Yes, but the worlds ended because of her.” Chassan stood, smoothing his hands down his pants, and moved to retrieve the coffee pot from its shelf.

“What?” I wrinkled my eyebrow, staring at his back with curious eyes.

“You don’t know the story?” He cast a confused look over his shoulder, coffee pot in hand.

“No.”

He nodded his head as he thought, placing the metal pot in the flames to warm what was left. Taking his seat beside me, he began.

“You obviously know she was the daughter of Hera and Hades, blessed by Zeus in Hera’s womb, but banished to the underworld when he learned she wasn’t his?”

I nodded my head, mouth hanging open in anxious fascination.

“When Seraph came of age, her magic ripened into a power too great for even Hades’ walls to hold. Tired of living in darkness, she enter our world.” He pressed the back of a few fingers to the coffee pot, testing its temperature. “When Zeus learned she had escaped, he ordered the gods of this world to destroy her. Inti and Danu refused. Everyone who met Seraph knew she didn’t have the malevolent spirit Zeus insisted she did.” Satisfied the coffee was warmed, he poured it into two cups, offering one to me. I took it to warm my fingers, too intrigued to bother drinking.

“Zeus refused to believe it was safe for her to remain in our world. Fearing what her power might unleash, Zeus called the water from the deep and the cold from the poles, freezing the entire world in order to destroy her.” Chassan took a long drink from his cup, peering into it when he pulled the cup away.

“You mean he created an ice age—destroyed everything—just to stop her?”

Chassan nodded gravely.

“The world was already changing, even then. The time of the gods was all but gone. There was a small area around the equator where life survived. But it wasn’t much. And Seraph couldn’t have hidden from him there.”

“Why did he have to kill her? She obviously wasn’t dangerous.” I shook away the cold chill that crept up my back, realizing what fate awaited me if my theory was right.

“
She
wasn’t dangerous. But her magic was. Fire is the one element that cannot be contained. It takes the elements of earth, air and water, fighting together, to keep fire at bay. If that kind of magic had fallen into the wrong hands, the world would have ended anyway.”

“Would you have killed her?” I asked in a voice way too high to be my own.

“Magic like that can’t exist, Faye. It doesn’t matter how beautiful the vessel. Poison is still poison, and Seraph’s magic would have shattered the world.”

Hot coffee splashed over our shoes when the cup slipped from my shaking hands and clattered to the floor. Immediately bending to clean it up, my hand brushed against Chassan’s as he stooped to help. His touch felt like warm bath water, chasing the chill from my bones, and radiating up my arm.

Slowly, my eyes fell to where our hands met, and my brain lulled a little. Seeing Dayne’s bracelet circling my arm brought a fuzzy memory back. One where he held my hand as we walked in a field of waist high grass. My head felt overwhelmingly full in a glorious way, and it wasn’t until Chassan grunted with disgust that I realized what was happening.

“Get out of my head!” I yelled, jerking my hand away, and pulling it protectively into my chest. I flopped back against a stool, fixing him in a seething gaze.

“Trust me, I have zero desire to see stuff like that.” He snarled his lip in disgust and wiped his hands on his jeans. “Are you ready?” Chassan asked impatiently, tossing the rest of his coffee into the fire. It hissed against the burning embers, and he strode to the door.

Releasing a loud, frustrated sigh, I stood on slightly wobbly knees and took the small pack Chassan held out to me. If nerves could kill, I would have been dead already. Seeing my likeness painted on the cave wall was unnerving enough. Hearing Seraph’s unlucky story, and heading into the wilds of Peru with an angel of death to begin unleashing the powerful magic that hid within me was quite possibly suicidal at best. But this was my path, and I had resolved that fear was no longer going to be my master.

By all accounts we
were nothing more than two wildlife photographers, hiking into the forest to get a few prized shots. When we were out of sight from the village, Chassan picked up speed, beginning to run.

I followed, gaining ground until we were running through the woods at a pace faster than I had ever run through Mission woods. Through the forest we flew, passing trees and leaping over vines instead of cutting them away. Chassan never asked if I could keep up, and I didn’t give it a second thought, following along behind him at the pace of a fighter jet. The woods whirred by, our progress so fast I couldn't even hear the constant call of birds from high atop the canopy of green foliage. Everything was a blur except for Chassan ahead of me, the only thing moving quickly enough for me to focus on.

In no time, we were at the top of the mountain, about a hundred yards shy of where the mountain's snow cap began. A field of slick black rock rose in razor sharp ridges to the summit. No human could breath at such elevations, and we had to be well out of eye sight for what we were about to do.

“Do you remember the night you found me?” Chassan asked, his back to me as he laid his camera pack on a stone.

“It’s hard to forget near death experiences,” I spat at his back, crossing my arms as I rolled my eyes, remembering how grouchy he had been that night.

Chassan turned to me so quickly I didn’t see the movement, only the result, and rolled his eyes at my adolescent response—making fun of me and making a point. He succeed on both accounts. My indignant reaction was nothing but stupidity or immaturity on my part. After all, I had been the one dumb enough to wake up a sleeping sun god. I immediately dropped my arms and sighed in surrender as he circled me.

He continued tracing a path just inches from me, his intense golden stare feeling as if it was capable of staring right through my clothes and skin to the very innermost parts of me. Feeling totally exposed—something I hated—I quickly crossed my arms back to my chest, but the pouty look was no longer on my face. Satisfied he had my total compliance, he raised his eyes back to mine and nodded his head in a told-you-so sort of way.

He stopped his pacing, standing in front of me, legs spread wide like elite athletes do, and crossed his hulking arms over his faded blue t shirt before he began again.

“You were born with all the power you will ever possess. Whether you had found your way back to the Sidhe or not, it would have awoken when it was ready.”

“You mean, if I hadn’t been raised as a human I would’ve already been able to do all this?” My mouth hung open and my hands fell to my sides again, totally aghast by what he had just said.

Chassan only nodded, his eyes going flat when I interrupted him. He sat, chewing on the inside of his cheek impatiently until I nodded an apology for interrupting him.

“In order for you to control it, you must embrace it. Something you are too afraid to do.” Distracted by something, he raised his gaze to the sky, carefully watching a few birds circle the mountain’s peak.

“Are you crazy?” I spun on my heel to face him. “I’ve traveled thousands of miles and risked my life countless times to get here. It doesn’t get anymore
embracing
than that!” I flung my hands in the air to emphasize how ludicrous the thought was, and get his attention back on me.

“No.” He shook his head, his gaze lingering on me as he clasped his hands behind his back like one of my college professors, and began to stalk around a ring of hip high boulders dotting the slope. “You have come here expecting to have someone tell you what to do, when the power was yours from the beginning.”