“Vi! You’re alive! I didn’t know if it would work! How?” Her eyes raced over her friend, thrilled to see that she looked normal.
“I’m not totally human, apparently,” Vivienne said. “You remember me talking about my mom? Apparently she was a Sila, an Arabic spirit. Like a Jinn. My parents met when my father was working in Egypt.”
Diana’s mouth dropped open.
“She couldn’t stay in the mortal world with me. But because I’m only half Sila, I can. Though this changes everything about my life.”
“Wow.” Elation and confusion buzzed through Diana. “I’m so happy for you. You’re going to have to tell me all about it. But now, I have to go find Cadan.”
Vivienne nodded.
Esha said, “I’ll take you.”
Diana nodded gratefully and squeezed Vivienne’s hand. She turned to Andrasta and said, “Thank you, Andrasta. For everything.”
“It was a pleasure. Thank you for calling on me. I don’t get requests to come out of Otherworld often.” She beamed and Diana smiled back.
Diana turned back to Esha. “Okay, let’s go.”
Warren watched with relief as Esha and Diana disappeared. Damn, it had been a long month. The last two weeks of fighting with Esha on top of everything else hadn’t done him any good.
He looked up at the woman standing in the corner. She didn’t look nearly as goddess-like as Aerten. Her clothes were less ethereal and more like those of a field soldier from long ago. Her breastplate was leather rather than metal. He was relatively young compared to others in this world. This woman looked like she had been around a lot longer, despite the fact that she physically looked to be in her mid-twenties.
Since it didn’t seem like she had plans to disappear anytime soon and she was looking vaguely ill, he figured he’d better offer her something.
“Can I get you a cup of tea?”
She nodded eagerly. “Absolutely. I love tea. We don’t have it in Otherworld.”
“Vivienne?” he asked.
“Sure,” Vivienne said. She walked over to the couch and sat.
“Where is the boy?” Andrasta asked.
“Maximus? He’s at the orphanage.” Warren handed her a cup of tea and gave another to Vivienne.
“Not a mortal one?” Andrasta said, aghast.
“Nay, he would no’ do well there.” They still had no idea what the kid could do, if anything. “We have a small one here at the university that will raise the children of Mytheans who are killed.” There were a couple dozen kids in all, but he never really went over to that side of campus.
“Is he doing all right?” Andrasta asked.
“Hasn’t spoken. They think he may be in shock.”
“Well, he’s been in hell for millennia. He also just lost his father.”
Warren grimaced. That had been the downside of Diana’s plan, though he’d agreed that she had to kill that bastard Paulinus. And bringing the boy back had been the right thing to do.
“Do you have any idea what he might be now that
he’s out of hell? Mortal? Mythean?” He hadn’t really had time to ask around much, but anybody he’d spoken to hadn’t known. Hell, she was a goddess, so maybe she had an idea.
“No, I’m sorry,” Andrasta said. “My powers are really only limited to the Celtic faith. I don’t know much outside of that.”
Her fingers whitened where she gripped the arm of the chair. Her pallor was more pronounced than it had been just moments ago.
“Hey, are you sure I can’t get you something? You’re not looking very well.” He reached out.