As I peer out over the rocky shoreline, my Otherworlder detail makes quick work of covering our tracks and hiding the Crushers, securing our hideaway. The rest of the army—what’s left of our numbers—is stationed near the tree line of the Great Woods, just miles away. I only bring my select unit to the den. Although now I’m wondering if that was a wise decision, trusting any of them with the knowledge of my secret home.
I suppose it doesn’t matter. Once this task is complete, I’ll kill them. Simple enough.
With my thoughts resigned, I kick a jagged limestone rock from my path and head toward my fortress—my home away from home in the trees.
From a distance you’d never know a treehouse soars among the giant sequoia trees. I smile to myself; treehouse is such a poor word. Each sequoia, with its massive trunk, supports a room, and the branches connect in the middle to form the foundation for which holds three glass-encased levels. In simple, it’s brilliant.
I never brought either parent here. This was my place. Tonight would’ve been the first. Anger lodges in my throat with a hollow ache. I’m again furious with Kal, myself, the dark goddess—because I faltered, and my mother is still with them instead of here, where she should be.
Kal had to have known that was, initially, why I tried to sack the palace. Other than to steal her empress’s relic, of course. After my father’s untimely death, there was nobody to tell me what I could and couldn’t do about my sanity-challenged mother. Once I know she’s safe, my mind will be free to plot more nefariously for Bale’s rebirth and Kal’s demise.
Human weakness…
Bale’s taunt rings in my ears. I’m completely aware that my feelings for my mother—just like the lingering affections I have for Kal—ultimately weaken me. It’s why I need my mother safe, and Kal eliminated.
I stop at the ladder of my fortress and shake my head, then knead my temples. My brain is so full of endless thoughts and plans and women it feels as if it’s bursting through my skull.
Grabbing a wooden rung, I hike myself up and begin the climb. As I clear the first level, the wind sends my hair sideways across my forehead, prickling my skin with tiny grains of sand. I love the sensation of being so close to the ocean. If I only allow my thoughts to center on that, for now at least, I might be able to sleep.
I haven’t had a good night since I slept beside Kal in our Otherworlder cell.
“Curses,” I mutter as I move through the entryway and past the open windows overlooking the shore. My mind will never stop. Never. Not until…
Kill her. Then you’ll have your peace.
I halt at the narrow stairway leading to my loft.
And why does the moon goddess desire Kal’s death so badly? Of course I thought I had the answer—that it was obvious. Kal could ruin things for Bale. But how? Truly, other than killing me and Bale having to find a new vessel, why else would the Nactue leader be such a threat?
After tonight, the goddess should see for herself that Ka
l has no intention of ending me. Kal’s too love sick, too tormented over her lost prince. Although, Kal’s good nature didn’t spare any opponent she came up against in the Cage. She tried, but the liquid fire burning in her veins demanded destruction.
I stop. And notice the goddess is curiously quiet for once.
A slow smile curls my lips as the answer dawns, and I’m surprised at my own idiocy. I lean against the bark of the sequoia running through the middle of my den and chuckle. Though I should be doing anything else, the knowledge of what I’ve just stumbled upon lightens my mood.
“You have much to fear from the sly Nactue leader, don’t you?” I chide the dark goddess. “It’s not my death you worry over, is it? Well, you do worry about finding another vessel, but that would hardly burden you, would it?” I shake my head. “No. Kal has something of yours…something you must, yourself, destroy. To know the threat is vanquished.”
When she doesn’t respond, I have my answer. I know the truth.
I pondered this angle while trapped in the Otherworld. It’s something Kal feared…and would barely admit that fear to me. I don’t understand all the details, but it’s the only thing now that makes sense.
Kal’s “accident” at her father’s hands all those years ago was anything but. No, the goddesses, their realm, their world, their rules…it’s all prearranged. Calculated. Designed.
I wish I would’ve paid closer attention to my lessons about the goddesses. Truthfully, Perinya was moving past the old ways even when I was a kid, and I’d planned to further her progression to a new order when I took the throne. That is, or was, before I met Kal.
Grabbing ahold of the first rung, I make a mental note to have Lake gather books and documents in the morning. Anything he can find around here about the history of the goddesses. I need to study up. Because if they banned one of their sisters, they had to have planned for her attempted rise to power again.
Hell, they should’ve seen it before they tossed Bale out. They’re all-powerful, right? I enter the loft feeling lighter, calmer than I have since I left the Otherworld.
I’ll soon have information, and possibly a bartering chip with my dark goddess.
? 8 ?
Kaliope
“WHERE’S BAX?”