Immortally Ever After (27 page)

There was a great gasp among the crowd—mortal and immortal—as Mars, god of war, rose up. He wore ancient Roman battle gear. Thick black hair cascaded down his back. Thunder rolled and the clouds spat rain as he snarled.

“How dare you?” His voice boomed. “How dare you stand against the gods?”

Oh, shit.

His face held rage, violence. “Your lives are insignificant. You have no power to change the future. You exist to do our bidding and
you have failed.
”

For a moment, nobody moved. Galen took my hand, his fingers tightened against mine, and I had the cowardly urge to sink into the ground.

But running wasn’t an option anymore. The gods had me. There was nothing I could do, other than sacrifice. And hope my friends would be smart enough to get out of the way.

Then a young blond-haired god pushed his way out of the front lines to the left. An angry red scar sliced the side of his face and spikes jutted out from the rondels on his shoulders. For a moment, I thought he was one of Mars’s enforcers, the one who would arrest me, take me, do whatever the hell they were going to do to me. But my heart nearly stopped when I realized who it was.

Dagr, god of fear. I’d rescued him from an enemy camp, tried my damnedest to save him from the Shrouds. I’d had him in my ICU where he’d talked about wanting to be a hero.

This wasn’t the way to do it.

He stood directly in front of me, rivulets of sweat running down the sides of his face, and I waited for the axe to fall.

“No one touches her!” he declared.

The gods let out a collective gasp and I would have done the same if I’d had any breath left. This god—one of them—scooted Marc out of the way and stood beside me. He was so close I could feel the power radiating off him. “Hell of a way to make an impression, doc,” he muttered.

It warmed me. It inspired me. And it scared the hell out of me because Dagr had just taken this to an entirely new level. I had no idea what the gods would do to me now.

Dagr was the one who’d escaped us all those months ago and found his girlfriend, the virgin goddess of hope. Well, I heard she wasn’t a virgin anymore.

Then I saw her—Cavillace. The raven-haired goddess stood behind Mars, with a baby in her arms. The little one was the god of peace. And with them on opposite sides, I doubted poor Dagr had ever gotten to meet his child.

Tears filled his eyes as she stepped around the god of war and ran to us. She embraced Dagr. He held her tight. Then pulled away tenderly, as she let him hold his baby for the first time.

The gods stood facing us, thunderstruck.

I knew the feeling.

We should have been fighting by now.

Instead, we had hope. Literally.

“Okay,” I said, having no clue what to do next.

Galen watched in stunned surprise. Rodger was handed the god of peace while Dagr put a lip-lock on his girlfriend. Holly stood grinning like a fool. And me? I had friends.

For so long, I had thought I was alone in this world. It was easier that way, to refuse to believe anyone else could care about me. I thought it would hurt less to live like that. But I was wrong. I needed these people. We needed each other.

“What is this?” Medusa slithered up next to me. She scanned the battlefield, the asps on her head twisting and hissing. “The battle should have started by now.”

I stared at her for a second. “What are you doing here?” I knew gorgons recovered from birth well, but she was carrying a battle-axe and she had her baby strapped to her chest.

“I am defending you,” she said, placing herself between me and the gods. “Why are they staring at us?”

“Get back,” I said, reaching out to touch her shoulder and then thinking the better of it. “Not with Emma.” We didn’t know what the gods were going to do. We couldn’t risk a baby.

Medusa glared at me, as if I dared question her parenting skills. “You try finding a sitter at the last minute.” She hoisted her axe onto her shoulder. “Nothing will touch me.” She tossed a glance at the people behind us. “I can’t make the promise for the rest of these fools.”

They might be fools, but they were my fools.

The gods were smiling now, which was a pretty good indication they’d come up with a fantastic way to axe the entire lot of us.

Everyone was looking to me for answers, but I had none.

Mars glared down at us. “You are nothing. You are dust under my sandals. Even if you turn against us, you will never defeat us in battle.”

Lighting streaked against the sky and the ground under us buckled. Dragons soared overhead.

“Bring it on!” Leta screamed behind me.

And a great war cry went up from the armies.

chapter twenty-four

“Get the babies out of here!” I ordered. I didn’t care if they were immortal. Hadn’t I just seen that even high gods could die?

Rodger handed the baby back to Cavillace, but she wasn’t listening to me at all. She’d spotted the other new mommy. “She has so much hair!” the goddess said, admiring Emma’s full nest of asps. She held out the child of peace to meet the child of the damned. “Baby!”

Cavillace smiled. “See how she wriggles so vigorously.”

Medusa nodded. “Yes, well, she does take after her mother.”

The babies reached for each other. That was all it took for the child of the damned. Emma squealed in delight.

The sky crackled as portals fired up. Bundles of color spun on all sides of the armies and even in the lines. Soldiers shrank back from the whipping energy and light. The portals whirled harder, expanding outward until dozens upon dozens of them hovered just above the desert floor. Each of them could easily fit an entire squad at a time, plus dragons, centaurs, and any other kind of war beast.

They were beautiful.

They churned, hot and red. And I swore I could hear the gods, the heavens, and both armies let out a collective gasp.

I couldn’t believe it myself. The portal in the minefield had been weak, solitary. These were enough to move an army.

A million eyes turned to me.

But I hadn’t done it.

“Medusa?” I said, still trying to wrap my mind around it.

The gorgon shrugged. “So she likes other babies.”

Right. Sure. I let it go. Because right then, I knew how I needed to take my stand.

I’d be willing to bet my life that every soul on this battlefield would rather drop weapons and leave. I knew I wanted to go home.

It took me a second to find my voice, but when I did, I turned to Leta. “Can you get a message out?”

“Yes,” she rumbled. “Are you ready for the battle to begin?”

Her and battles. “No.” Tears filled my eyes and I felt my throat clog. I needed my bronze weapon for something else. “Tell them they can go home.”

The dragon was speechless. Another miracle. “I don’t understand,” she stammered.

“I’m done here,” I told her. The armies had raged. I’d faced the gods. And now? “I’m going home.” If the gods wanted to smite me, they’d have to follow me to New Orleans. “Anyone who wants to stay and fight can have at it. The rest can go back to their families. The portals will take them where they want to go.”

Leta’s eyes swam with tears.

I placed a hand on her shoulder. “Tell them they are free.”

These warring soldiers were good people who had been trapped for too long. My friends too. The gods were willing to see each and every one of us die to prove a worthless point in a senseless war.

But not anymore. We deserved to go home. All of us.

She nodded and began to broadcast. I turned to Rodger, who threw his arms around me. “I can go home! I can see Mary Ann. She won’t even know I’m coming!” His eyes darted from portal to portal. “Are you sure this is going to work?”

“They can take you anywhere you want to go,” I told him.

But he was already talking to himself. “I can put the kids to bed tonight. Gabe’s been reading this Smile story about braces. He has to get braces.” Rodger snarfed, half crying, half laughing. “I’m going to have to pay for braces.”

Soldiers on both sides of the Great Divide left their battle lines and began walking across the divide. A half dozen at first, then more. They greeted old friends, or simply offered a hand to people just like them, who happened to have been drafted onto the other side.

A few of the minor gods began yelling out orders to cease. Some went as far as to grapple with soldiers crossing the lines, but there were too many of them and it was too late.

The portals whooshed as soldiers began going home.

I hugged Rodger.

He patted me on the shoulder. “You’ll make it out to California, right?”

“Sure,” I told him, hugging him one more time, squeezing him tight. “Get out of here.”

He winked and headed for the nearest portal. He gave one final wave before he stepped through.

“Halt!” Mars bellowed. “By the power of Zeus, I command you to take up arms!” A smattering of a cheer went up somewhere, but that could have been from the entire company of centaurs who charged through a portal at once. “Who is with me?” Mars bellowed, holding his sword in the air.

No one.

Mars lowered his weapon, staring right at me.

A bolt of lightning shot from the night sky and Zeus himself descended. Even the troops at the portals hesitated and craned their necks to see the king of all the gods. Word was, he hadn’t even picked a side. He just liked the fighting.

“Why are you dismantling the armies?” he boomed.

Mars snarled while Menhit’s mouth opened and closed like a caught fish.

“They will not fight anymore,” she finally said.

Zeus sighed. “Then you will fight,” he told her.

The Chinese god behind her frowned. “It is no fun to be stabbed or shot. We could die.”

“They will not obey,” Mars ground out. “And if we smite them all, then there will be no one to fight.”

I turned to Leta. “Are you broadcasting this?”

“Loud and clear,” she said.

That’s when it hit me. The gods needed us—the humans, the shifters, and the demigods who fought for them. Only we’d been subjugated for so long, we forgot
we
held the power.

There was no epic battle if we refused to fight it.

“We can smite her,” Mars said, pointing at me.

I froze.

“And make her a hero? A legend?” Zeus bellowed. “No. The healer will live a piddling, mortal life and die in obscurity.”

That sounded great to me.

“This war is over,” Zeus declared. “We have fought well.”

Leta gasped and there was a great rattling as the collars began dropping off the dragons.

One by one, they shifted back into their human forms. The joy, the relief was palpable as they were brought back, whole and unharmed.

The gods watched Zeus, clearly unsure of what would happen next. Hell, I didn’t know either.

The Chinese god crossed his arms over his chest. “Clearly, we have planned this all along.”

“Yes,” the feathered goddess said, gathering steam. “This was obviously a test to see if the people would stand behind us and our chosen healer.” She pointed a finger at me and I wasn’t about to argue. She threw her hands up in the air. “The people passed! The healer can live!”

I couldn’t believe it. I looked to Galen, relief flooding me. These gods were insane, but I didn’t care. I might actually get out of here.

A cheer went up from the gods. It was echoed by the troops, but for an entirely different reason. They were cheering as they formed lines to the portals and left the gods and their war behind.

Jeffe clapped a bottle of nail polish into my hand. “Here. This is yours.”

It was my I’m Not Really a Waitress. I waggled it at him. “You won this fair and square, buddy.”

He shrugged. “Yes. But I cannot fit it anyway.”

It was then that I saw the sphinx had crammed all of his poker winnings onto a hospital gurney.

“I thought I would use these things in the afterlife, but now I can take them home.” He beamed. “That is good because in my country, it is customary to bring presents after a long time away.”

I hugged him and rubbed his back, startling the sphinx. Still, I was pretty sure I’d heard him purr.

Grinning, I let him go and watched him amble toward the nearest portal.

“Look at this.” Galen nudged me. I followed where he pointed and saw Kosta down on one knee in front of Shirley. Now that was one wedding I wouldn’t miss.

Marius clapped a hand on my shoulder. “I’m going to take care of Thaïs before I leave.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I told him. “It should be my job.”

The vampire’s long mouth turned up in a grin. “You’ve done enough.”

I couldn’t help but smile back. “Thaïs is going to be pissed when he wakes up and there’s no more fighting.”

“Then that will be my reward,” Marius said, before he grew serious. “Thank you, Petra. And you,” he said, shaking Galen’s hand.

“Are you ready?” Galen asked.

“Yes,” I said, dodging the celebrating troops as we made our way to the nearest portal. Soldiers I didn’t know, from both sides, were thanking us and clapping me on the back.

They didn’t understand. I hadn’t done it. They had.

Thunder rolled as Zeus surveyed the rapidly emptying field. They had no armies. They had no support. All they had was delusion.

The god raised his hands to the sky, throwing off thunderbolts. “It is to the benefit of all that the gods declare peace.”

No one was listening. We’d already made it so.

As I neared the portal, I saw Klotho.

She treated me to an approving nod. “I love a well-woven cloth.”

I smiled and gave her a bow.

I turned to Galen and saw the love and the warmth in his eyes. “I love you,” I told him, kissing him, holding him, savoring the feeling of having this man with me. Of knowing I could have a life with him at my side.

As armies collide, the healer shall leave this world forever.

And so the prophecy came to pass. When it was our time, we too stepped through the portal, and into our new life.

chapter twenty-five

A few weeks later …