chapter forty-One
Fear twists Dalton’s face. His eyes bounce wildly around, taking in the battle in front of him. I only notice the other three captives on the stage when Ares shouts, “Stop!” It’s thunderous. So loud it shakes the buildings surrounding the garden.
Everyone in the battle freezes, heads turn in Ares’s direction, then there’s a collective gasp.
Jane!
Beside her is Sid. Eyes closed and his hands stretched above his head, he’s tied to one of the rafters of the gazebo. His mascara is smeared, and his lipstick is a faded memory.
Jane has a terrified look on her face, her eyes shifting nervously around the crowd. She’s in scrubs. They must’ve grabbed her just as she returned home from surgery.
My mind is blank. I don’t care what happens to me. My entire life is on that stage. I can practically feel my heart shattering. I take off for Ares and Dalton. “No! Let him go!”
Someone grabs both of my arms. I think it’s Marek, but it’s not. Inanna holds me, her fingers digging into my skin.
“Stay still,” Inanna orders, then yells to the others. “Cease! He has Gaea.”
It doesn’t register who Gaea is; my only concern is Dalton. My brother. Best friend. I don’t even look at Jane. Nor Sid. I’m too distraught. I focus on Ares’s hand on Dalton’s neck.
Marek reaches me, the club in his hand stained with blood. By the confusion on his face, he doesn’t get what’s happening.
“My brother.” That’s all I have to say. He gets it.
“Shit,” he snaps and pushes his sweaty hair from his forehead with his free hand.
And it registers. Gaea is Earth, the mother of everything.
“If he can control Gaea.” Inanna turns me around, lets go of my arms, and faces me. “Get all her powers back. He will be master of all. Even the most powerful immortals. She could kill an immortal as easily as snapping her fingers. That fear will control us.”
Gaea is young. She looks twelve. She seems helpless to whatever Ares has planned for her. Then there’s Jane. She’s frail-looking under the hold of the god behind her. I do feel a pain in my heart at seeing her here. I love her even if she doesn’t like me.
“Put down your arms, leave or join me, I don’t care. If you don’t, Gaea will suck the air out of you.”
“We have to leave,” Inanna says.
I don’t have time to tell her I’m not leaving without Dalton. Ares’s eyes are on me.
“Bring me the Parzalis, Analiese,” he orders. “Or I will kill your brother.”
Lugh puffs up his chest. “You won’t touch him, or I’ll tear you apart.”
Ares’s grin widens. “Oh yes, I forgot. He’s your son. Had an affair with his mother, right? Kept it secret. You pretend you donated for his birth. Well, the cat’s out of the bag.”
Dalton’s gaze shoots to Jane’s frightened face.
My eyes snap to Lugh. He keeps his attention on Ares.
He lied to us. An affair? I hope Dad never knew. That would’ve torn him to pieces. I take two slow steps forward, and no one notices.
“This display by Ares will only ensure my father will join our side,” Bjorn says, grabbing Lugh’s arm. He leans over and says something in Lugh’s ear, and Lugh nods.
My stare meets Dalton’s fearful eyes. Tears drench my cheeks. I don’t know what to say.
What happens to Marek if I give Ares his Parzalis?
Inanna addresses the immortals on her side. “We go now and fight later. The risk of losing all of you is not one I want to take.”
“You heard her,” Horus says, weaving around the pairs of fighters. “Grab your things. We’ll meet at the compound.”
“I’m growing tired,” Ares warns, staring right at me. “Shall I just kill the boy, or will you give me what I ask? I’ll throw in the mother for good measure.”
My tear-filled eyes find Marek’s worried ones, and he whispers for only me to hear, “Give it to him.”
I’m not sure I hear him correctly until he moves.
“Run.” He pushes me forward and blocks Inanna.
I sprint for Ares and Dalton, his gods and goddesses moving behind me like a wall when I pass, blocking Horus and Bjorn from catching me.
When I reach the gazebo, I stop at the steps, reach into my purse, and yank out the burlap bag.
“Send them down, and it’s yours.” I hold up the bag and shake it.
He lifts an eyebrow at me. “Show me.”
I remove it from the burlap and hold it up.
“Good. Now bring it to me, and we’ll do a trade.”
I don’t move.
“I can break his neck now and take it from you,” he says.
His tone is dark, makes a chill slither up my back, but I stay strong. “I’ll shatter it before you can.”
“Okay,” he says. “We trade at the same time.”
“Release my mom first, and then I’ll bring it to you.”
Ares smiles. “You’re a tough bargainer.” He looks at the god holding Jane. “Release her.”
The god’s hands drop away from Jane, and she clambers down the steps, stopping at my side.
Before I can take my first step up, Jane grabs my sleeve. “No. He’ll kill you.”
I search her eyes. She’s scared for me. “I have to. For Dalton.”
She lets go, and I ascend the stairs. I look at Sid, beaten and hanging there from the beam. His chest rises and falls, and I’m releived he’s still alive. I reach the top.
My hand shakes as I reach the Parzalis out to Ares. “Release him.”
“Ana, watch out!” Marek shouts.
The god who was holding Jane snatches the Parzalis from my hand.
The smile on Ares’s face turns into a sneer. One that dries up my blood and sucks the air out of my lungs. It all happens in slow motion, and I’m caught in the same speed, unable to do anything. Unable to stop him.
Ares twists Dalton’s neck and releases him.
Dalton lands on the wooden planks of the gazebo with a thud.
“I said I’d release him. Didn’t say alive.” He cackles, turns, and motions for his immortals to follow him. “Kill the mom. The Keeper. And bring the girl,” he orders two gods and a goddess as he passes them.
Jane screams from behind me.
“No! Dalton!” I dash to him, dropping to my knees bedside him.
“Don’t touch him.” Jane’s voice sounds frantic.
The bones in his neck are jagged and pressing against his skin. His face is peaceful. Like so many Saturday mornings when I’ve gone into his room when he’s sleeping to wake him.
I know what you’re thinking, Sid said to me once. That you’ll never bring someone back from the dead. Isabella thought that, too. Think about it, would you bring your father back if you could? Someone you love.
My heart is crumpling inside my chest. It’s like Ares reached in and wadded it up and threw it away. There’s nothing there now. Just a hollow space.
And the tears run down my face, across my cheeks, over my nose, into my mouth. I’m drowning in the dark sorrow pulling me under.
“No,” comes out, barely audible. But he’s so young. Images of our past flash through my mind. All our talks and fears. Our laughs and frustrations. Dreams. We experienced them together. What would life be without him?
I’m suddenly cold.
Lonely.
I can’t let him go. I can’t never see him again.
He’s lonely.
He’s cold.
I can’t let him go.
I pull Dalton into my arms and rock back and forth with him.
A breath hits my collarbone, and I glance down at him.
His eyelids flutter. Jane falls to her knees on his other side and tugs him out of my arms and into hers.
A swarm of death’s-head hawkmoths swooshes around us. A murder of crows darkens the sky. I stand and glare at the immortals rushing Marek. The moths attack and pelt them, multiplying until I can’t see the immortals within the storm of wings. They bury them, suffocate them.
Ares. I’ll kill him.
I flip around and charge across the stage and down the other set of steps. The moths are with me, flying overhead, turning as I turn around a hedge. He’s there. About to exit the gate. Grasping Gaea with one hand, the Parzalis in the other.
“Ares!” I want to rush him. Smother him. Kill him.
The rage burns through my veins like the tar lake in Pazuzu’s eyes.
The moths feel my emotions. They multiply and race for Ares, striking him. Gaea falls to the ground, and so does the Parzalis.
Gaea screams and covers her head.
Ares can barely move in the yellow-and-brown hurricane, but he pushes forward, Gaea and the Parzalis forgotten. He struggles to get to the door of a waiting Mercedes. He opens it, collapses on the seat, and slams the door. The vehicle speeds off.
I can feel the moths trapped in the car with Ares. Swatted. Slowly dying.
My legs are unstable. I can barely walk on them, but I manage to cross the distance between Gaea and me. She takes my offered hand, and I help her stand. The Parzalis is heavy when I pick it up. Gaea says something, but I can’t hear her. I can only hear a loud thrumming in my ears.
What just happened?
Dalton.
Ares broke Dalton’s neck. He died. I brought him back.
I brought him back.