Chapter 2

 

 

 

Gaia was nothing like Sparrow had expected.

She seemed to have no self-awareness, no hint that she was special and nothing like the other people around her in Tilly’s Bar, where they eagerly drank something that tasted like poison and laughed loudly sometimes even though Sparrow could tell they felt none of the mirth they were displaying. Humans are curious creatures.

He held her close while she took heaving breaths, her tears dampening his shirt. She didn’t seem happy to see him at all. Rodil, the one who had knighted him after he won the Selection, had warned him that each Gaia had to learn anew who she was, so he’d known not to be surprised if she seemed skeptical for a moment.

A moment.

Most Gaia, Rodil had explained, recognize the truth when presented with it, as if their whole lives suddenly made sense. But this one, this Chloe, had completely dismissed him as if he were mad.

If Sparrow hadn’t known better, he might have second-guessed himself and considered that maybe he had come to the wrong woman. But she glowed unlike the rest, and his heart and body were drawn to her unlike any other. He could see her power, dormant beneath the surface but very much still there.

Chloe was his goddess, Gaia.

He only had to make her see.

Perhaps it was the vile substance she seemed to have swallowed large quantities of that made her resistant to the truth?

“Everything is going to be all right. I’ll protect you.” He stroked her back and long, reddish-brown hair. Even the murky lighting in the room couldn’t hide the richness of her being. Her hair seemed to hold strands of every shade, and hung thickly almost to her waist. A waist that wasn’t tiny or waif-like, but in perfect proportion to her bosom and her hips. Everything about his goddess seemed rich, nurturing, fertile. Just as he’d always been told Gaia was. The mother goddess of the earth and all living things was always gorgeous when made into human flesh. Each rebirth gave her a different form, but all were beautiful in their own way, he’d been told, and each was a rich as the soil and nurturing as spring water.

It broke his heart that she was in such despair, even though it made him happy to provide what little comfort she allowed him by crying in his arms.

“She’s had too much finally?” The man on the other side of the bar wiped the wood in front of them with a rag.

“Yes, I believe so,” Sparrow said. “I’ll take care of her.”

The bartender pointed at him. “Okay, but I’m gonna remember your face, so you’d better be on the up and up.”

Sparrow didn’t like his implication, or so he thought. He decided the easiest option was to let that go, even though he wasn’t sure what the man meant. “Very well,” he said, which probably wasn’t the right response judging from the confused look on the man’s face. He went to help another patron, so Sparrow patted Chloe’s back.

“Let’s leave here and get you plenty of water to drink. Perhaps it will dilute the—”

“I told you,” she said, sniffing loudly and straightening. “I’m not going to leave with you. I’m not that kind of girl.”

He cupped her cheek, gasping softly when she flinched at the touch. He hesitated, then pressed his hand against her cheek again. This time, she let him.

“I merely want to see to your needs, Chloe. You shouldn’t fear me—I’m at your service, Goddess.”

She scoffed and turned her head. “Cut it out. Your pick-up line’s lame.”

“Pick-up line? I do not—”

Her phone began playing music, a woman’s voice singing about taking back her life. Sparrow picked up the phone from the floor, but Chloe grabbed it from him and stood. She threw it down and stomped it with shouts of no, no, no, the heel of her shoe cracking the screen and bits of broken and crushed glass flying from it. It stopped making noise.

She put her hand on her forehead and swayed, so Sparrow put an arm around her to steady her.

“I’m fine. It’s just…too warm in here.”

“It is,” he agreed. “Let’s step outside and let the cooler air refresh you.”

She nodded, but her eyes were closed as he led her to the door and out. They stopped a few feet away from the door, where Chloe leaned against the brick and put both palms over her eyes. Sparrow stood in front of her, ready to reach out should she list to the side or fall forward.

“Please tell me what troubles you.” She did tilt a little forward then, so he put his hands on her shoulders. “I cannot bear to see you so distressed. Are you in physical pain? Because I can end that with a touch.”

She snorted, shaking her head. “Is that so? Well, I wish it were that simple, but physically, I’m fine.” Her words were harder to understand, one slurring into the next a bit more than before.

She dropped her hands and regarded him with the pale blue eyes Sparrow knew instinctively belonged to his living goddess. “You’re really good at this, though, y’know? It’s really easy to believe you actually care.”

“Oh, Gaia, I do care. Of course, I do. My whole purpose now is to care for you.” He touched her face again, but this time she didn’t flinch. Her lower lip trembled, and a fresh tear tracked its way down her cheek as she leaned forward. Not falling because of what she’d been drinking, but a slow tilt away from the wall and into his arms as her mouth pressed against his.

Sparrow’s heart soared, and he felt like he’d come home.