Three Years Later

I stood in the middle of a white room. Room may be an overstatement. It seemed more like a limitless white space.

Click, click, click. Like dress shoes on marble.

Heart hammering I whirled around; but there was no one there.

I turned back, face almost hitting his chest. I gasped, stepping back and looking up.

Eternal. The Death God.

“Good to see you too, Emma,” he smiled though it strangely kept his face expressionless, like the marble his shoes clicked on. At least he was still calm, “Did you think I wouldn’t keep tabs on you, we did have a deal.”

“You said to try, but he didn’t become sole anchor, the deal’s over.” Please don’t kill me. Could he even kill me here? Wherever here was.

“Yes, try. You didn’t.” He paced around me, I turned to keep him in my line of sight, “You ran away. I’ve been following you for the last three years hoping that you were coming up with a plan of attack, but it looks like you were just…running away.”

“You don’t understand, he will never be sole anchor again, not even for me.”

He cocked his head, studying me. His eyes felt like they would bore holes in my head.

“Say that you’re right, if you’re not willing to give that route a try then there is another way, this one’s harder.”

Harder than making the Prince, the co-ruler of the gods, wrest full control from the Princess, the other co-ruler, and take over a task he loathed for the last three thousand years? Great.

“How?”

His eyebrows rose, “Oh my! You’re willing to give it a try? What inspired you” suddenly his nose was touching mine, “the imminent threat to your life?”

I swallowed, “Just tell me.”

“Gods come in pairs, don’t know why or how, most of us have forgotten much of everything before the appearance of humanity, but all gods are half of a whole. The Prince and the Princess, your friend the Blade has the Shield,” a television appeared over his shoulder, showing a Scandinavian woman walking down a street somewhere in Europe, that same blank stare every god had as a preset expression. “She’s in Europe so I doubt you’ll be meeting anytime soon. I have the Ethereal, she--”

“Ethel? She’s like you?”

“Not anymore, when the gods realized that we had the power to kill them they gave us a choice, give up that power and depend on them as our anchors or be banished…” he swept the area with his arms, “here.”

“Ethel can kill a god?” my jaw must have hit the floor.

A twitch appeared on his brow, “Oh do you know this story or would you care to pay attention?"

I smacked my mouth closed and took several steps back, not that it would help if he went crazy on me.

“Good,” the twitch subsided, “She was like me but given the choice she decided to follow the herd and give up her power, while I was banished to…” he looked around, “my own piece of paradise.

“She can take back her power and free me--your job is to convince her that she wants to.”

“Oh,” that was worse than dealing with the Prince. At least he liked me.

“Oh,” he closed the gap between us in two steps, “in case you wonder how real my threat is,” he took a lock of my hair, running it between his fingers. I finally frosted the last three inches of my hair again a true blonde, “I like this dye job, pretty,” and he pulled.

“Ah,” I yelled and woke up.

My head burned, I touched my scalp, it felt warm.

I looked at my fingers, turning on the bedside lamp. Blood stained. Great. So much for being just a dream.

At least I was learning to keep my nightmares to myself. Usually Heala would be running in trying to calm me down by now, with Lightning grumbling behind her.

We were staying in adjoining rooms in the grand Maybourne Beverly Hills hotel in the sunny and very beautiful Los Angeles, California. Okay, technically Beverly Hills I guess.

I lay back down, not shutting off the light, not like I was going to get any sleep anyway.

Three years on the run. Germany, Haiti, Sahara Dessert (not an easy place for someone without superhuman healing powers), even New York City for a short two weeks.

Still Ethel didn’t betray Heala and Lightning to the others. The other gods replenished their shortage of Worshippers and, I assume, slaves. The only good news was the Prince did keep his promise of no human killing. People still hid and ran when they saw gods but even the fear was abating. Gods were treated more like celebrities than a threat.

Morning bloomed over the L.A. skyline yet I was no closer to an answer to my new dilemma.

A knock on my door and Lightning yelled, “We’re going down to breakfast, joining us?”

“Yeah, give me a minute.”

I debated whether to tell them about Eternal all through my shower, the walk down and breakfast.

How did we afford staying in a five-star hotel and eating out in one of the most expensive cities in the country? Heala did private healing, Lightning worked out a system and helped her. And I? To my embarrassment, I lived off them.

Easiest thing for me to do was let them get on with their lives. Heala could set up an actual practice, Lightning could run it, and Ethel would leave them alone. L.A. was perfect for them, full of rich people who could afford her kind of healing, not that Heala was so stuck up she would only heal the rich.

I was the only reason they were still running.

“You didn’t wake up screaming for once,” Lightning commented, “Have a good dream?”

I winced.

If I wasn’t so selfish, or keen on staying alive, I would let them go.

Instead I smiled and said, “Yeah, I met Prince Charming and we lived happily ever after, too bad it was just a dream.”

Heala smiled, “He’s out there, don’t worry.”

Yeah, I know. He’s also a psychotic god who wants to make me his pet.

Heala went to work after breakfast, I tagged along mostly not to feel like a complete leach.

By the afternoon we hit the beach. And though it was crowded and noisy my muscles still melted under the burning sun. Lazy days.

I stared at the cloudless sky and bright sun through my sunglasses. This is the life; no worries, no responsibilities.

“Good news. I haven’t heard any rumors of gods or Worshippers following our trail. We may actually be able to settle down,” Lightning smiled. God, how long has it been since I’ve actually seen him smile.

No god but one; I felt like a snake. I should at least tell them the truth.

Still I kept my mouth shut.

We watched the sunset off The Pier, a new restaurant on the pier with one of the best sunset views in the city.

“Hey,” Lightning and Heala exchanged a look, “We’re going to go on ahead, the check’s taken care of but they have directions to add whatever else you want to the bill,” he took Heala’s hand and they left looking very much in love. Who wouldn’t be jealous.

My view was obscured but a three piece suit, an expensive suit, “May I join you?”

I looked up to find a familiar Asian man waiting for my answer. Where did I…?

“Emma, say that would be lovely.”

The Blade?

“You’ve met him,” he said sitting down and called over a waiter.

“Same tab?” the waiter asked.

“No, start a new tab for me, put the rest of her drinks on it.”

My mind still whirled as I took in the exchange. The waiter walked away none the wiser.

“Emma?”

“That was pretty good. Na--The Prince never made a very good human,” I blurted.

“My Katana taught me. I found the disguise useful at times,” he watched me, “Eternal, you’ve met him.”

“I died, he’s the only one who could bring me back. Why did you ask him to?”

The Blade smiled, “Because now, I believe humans say, you owe me.”

I started, “What can I possibly do for you?”

The waiter brought our drinks, the Blade sipped, “I’ve never understood the attraction of alcohol, tastes like decay to me, but to be accepted as a human one must drink it,” he shrugged.

I almost lost it. Did every god adopt that as their gesture of choice? “Just tell me what you want,” I snapped.

“You convinced Eternal to bring you back, now I need you to convince him to bring my Katana back.”

I realized what made him sound inhuman. His voice never changed. It wasn’t just monotone, it was emotionless.

I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. I will never be free, because one god took an interest, I will never be free of them. “And how do you propose I do that?”

He shrugged again, I wanted to rip my hair out. “You’ll think of something, you’ve proved good at surviving.”

“And if I refuse?” I couldn’t handle any more gods expecting things from me.

He looked me in the eye, “Prince has stopped looking for you, for your safety. Princess will not look for you to maintain the truce. Whatever happened at the Parthenon rattled both of them into playing nice. But if I were to return with you,” again that damn shrug.

The Parthenon. They were scared. Maybe if I told the Blade the truth he would be scared too. Except that won’t solve my Eternal problem. And what if he took me back so I couldn’t try to free him.

Ahh! I needed to scream. I looked around the restaurant, it was packed with people chatting and laughing. My vision clouded, stupid public place.

“And how am I supposed to ask him?” That was the wrong question, I knew it the moment it was out of my mouth.

“You die.”