Who would do that? I racked my brain. Then I remembered the Blade whispering, “And where is my Katana?” They were lovers?

“Ah, I see the wheels start moving, you may not be as dense as you look.” I looked up to find him leaning across the desk, inches from my face. Instinctually, I leaned away.

“There are far more gods that take human lovers than you realize, most just do it for the power of being with someone they view as beneath them,” he rose to pace, “Not Blade though, he was 'in love', so is Prince,” he looked at me out of the corner of his eye, quirking an eyebrow, “You see why I had to meet you.”

“Why would he pray for me?” I asked.

“That’s what I want to know!” Eternal threw his hands in the air and plopped back in his seat. “She came through here, Katana, lovely girl. I could see why he fell for her, intelligent, beautiful, calm. You, on the other hand…”

“It must be because of the deal the Prince made. For all humanity.”

“But his human is dead, why would he care?”

I shrugged.

“Hmm, he wants me to send you back.”

“Can you?”

He exaggerated a sigh, “Of course, I’m the death god.”

Hope sprang, “Then hurry, please, the Prince could give up if he thought I was dead.”

He smirked, “I said I can, I didn’t say I would. What do I get in return?”

“What do you want?” I asked cautiously.

His smile widened, “I thought you would never ask. I want my freedom.”

I could only gape at him.

“No you can’t free me but the Prince can, if he becomes sole anchor and you can ensure that he does.”

“I can’t promise that,” I squealed.

“You could move on to your afterlife,” he shrugged. The gesture was starting to really annoy me.

The wall behind him moved to reveal a television screen. The picture was nothing but static at first, then cleared onto the Parthenon. The Prince was cradling my body, my head reattached.

“He can heal the physical, but he can’t replace the soul. That’s my department.”

I rose walking to the screen. Grief stricken, that’s how he looked. God, he really cared didn’t he.

The Princess stood behind him, arms crossed, tapping her foot.

“When was this?” I turned.

“Still going on, he hasn’t moved for hours,” Eternal’s face went flat, I had come to recognize the lack of emotion to be a god’s way of expressing emotion. What he felt watching the screen, though, I couldn’t say.

I couldn’t leave things the way they were. I looked Eternal in the eyes, “Fine, if you let me go back, I will do everything I can to set you free.”

His eyes widened, turning red. I cringed. “Done, we have a deal,” he said.

I couldn’t breathe.

I grabbed my throat, staring at him. He simply looked back.

I was dead, how was I asphyxiating now?

As my vision started to go black, Eternal said, “In death, we are all mortal, ironic really.”

I woke with a gasp. My neck hurt…really hurt.

My vision cleared and I looked into the Prince’s colorless eyes. He stared at me for a moment, then scooted back dropping me in the process.

Really?

I slowly sat up, my body felt like lead, if metal could feel pain.

“How? I don’t have the power to return the dead,” the Prince stood away from me as if I grew ten heads. Actually that probably wouldn’t surprise him.

The Princess walked up, “The Ethereal?” Was that fear?

“No, she had forsaken that power when she agreed to anchor herself.” The two gods stared at each other before turning to stare at me.

“All right, if the Eternal has taken an interest in our fighting, I suppose it is time to end it. We will not kill nor support the humans, and we will be anchors together,” the Princess’s eyes never left me.

The Prince turned to stare at her, “You’re being rational.”

She looked back at him, “Well if you had to be exposed to this unceasing headache for the last three thousand years I suppose we’re even.”

Like magic, at her words the gods began to appear, by ones and twos and threes. Heala ran to me, “Are you all right?”

Lightning glowered from behind her. Ethel looked at me, her face expressionless. I think I was starting to figure out what that meant.

I opened my mouth to reply, half afraid that having my throat torn out would make me mute. “I think so, I think I died.”

“You did,” Lightning huffed, “Ethel did her projection thing where we saw the whole thing.”

“How long was I dead?”

He shrugged. God I hated that gesture. “An hour, maybe a little more.”

Eternal lied. What else did he lie about? I looked in the direction of the Prince and Princess, I couldn’t see them because the gods made a giant wall around them. But I guess I lied too. The Prince will never be sole anchor again, and I certainly wasn’t running into a crowd of gods to try to stop them.

“We should leave,” Heala said as she checked my injuries, “We can get back to the ranch.”

“And put all of them in harm’s way again,” Lightning shook his head.

“I promised to stay with him,” I said.

“That was before you died, doesn’t death nullify all contracts?” Heala raised an eyebrow.

Lighting laughed, “I don’t think it works like that.”

“But it made her human,” Heala applied her power to my wounds, which we all just realized hadn’t healed.

We stared at each other, my blood on Heala’s hands.

“How--?”

Lightning scrambled to help me up. “Ethel won’t rat us out, we should get out of here.” Heala kept applying her powers, for which I could kiss her, I had forgotten how painful pain was.

“Where would we go?” Heala asked.

“Somewhere remote, there will be fewer gods,” Lightning answered.

“No, we’ll be easier to find, we all look alike to them, we’ll be safer in the crowds of a city,” I argued.

“Let’s at least get back to the states before we argue,” Lightning snapped.

“But I’ve always wanted to see Greece,” Heala grew wistful.

“How about Germany?” Lightning suggested, “I know some people there, where we can hide while we figure things out.”

“Okay,” Heala wasn’t hard to convince, I rolled my eyes.

We walked down the hill but the city seemed abandoned, we saw no cars or people. I guess they knew this was god central right now.

“How are we going to get past the border?”

Lightning raised an eyebrow, “We’re Worshippers to them, you really think they’re going to try to stop us?”

Good point. Except me, I was no longer a Worshipper. I thought I’d be happier.

We borrowed the nearest parked car, Heala gave it a jolt and we drove down abandoned streets.

“Do you know where you’re going?” I asked.

“No, ooh, but I think this car has GPS,” Heala smiled, wistful and innocent again.