Monsoons and Monsters: Godhunter Book 22 Read online

  “I always get blamed, even when I don't actually kill them,” I said in a conversational tone to Toby.”

  “That's what happens when you deal with crazy gods.” Toby shrugged.

  “How dare you, Tobadzistsini!” Gnas shouted. “You've sat beside me and drunk my wine. I thought we were friends.”

  “You dare to say that to me after you forced me upon Vervain?” Toby roared.

  “You know I play tricks on my friends,” Gnas huffed petulantly. “I didn't really harm you.”

  Yep; he was fucking insane.

  “You have no friends, Gnas,” Toby said coldly. “You'd betray your parents if it made for a good laugh. You have no loyalty and none of the softer emotions. And honestly, I don't know if it's the effects of the myths, if they changed you into something demonic, or if you were simply born that way—tainted by incest.”

  “Fuck you!” Gnas growled.

  “How did all of you get together?” I asked casually, as if we had all the time in the world to talk about it.

  “Fand was betrayed by her family and had nowhere to go,” Unk hissed. “She took refuge in my oceans, and was living among the sunken remains of Atlantis.”

  “The machines,” Re declared.

  “Yes; she found your machines,” Unk sneered. “And I found her. I offered her sanctuary. We became lovers, and then we started talking as lovers do; about our pasts—our dreams and our failures. She told me how she came to be banished from both the God and the Faerie Realms. She told me all about you, you horrid bitch!”

  “She's the bitch?” Lugh snapped. “Your lover was the one who stole a baby from his parents and lied to him for his entire life. She made the pantheon that accepted her complicit in her evil deeds; that's why she was banished!”

  “I don't believe anything you people say,” Unk growled. “I know what the Godhunter is capable of. She strides through our realm as if she belongs there; gathering our magic like seashells, stealing our lovers, and killing any who oppose her. You are a plague upon my people, Vervain Lavine, and I should be applauded for trying to eradicate you.”

  “How did you meet Eros?” I ignored her rant.

  “Eros came looking for us,” Unk huffed. “He was the one who figured out that your enemies should band together against you. He went looking for allies and was turned down by several gods before he met Gnas. Then my son brought him home to Iya and me. Once we decided to pursue our vengeance, Fand told us about the machines she found, and it all came together. Fate was showing us the key to destroying you.”

  “Um, I don't think so. The Fates happen to be friends of mine,” I noted. Then I said cheerfully, “Now, why don't you come out of there and surrender? If you make these gods break through your ward, they'll be awfully angry by the time they do, and you'll be as good as dead. But if you surrender, you'll have a chance to live through this.”

  “Only to be assimilated,” she snapped. “I'd rather die.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked her. “You don't think it would be better to be placed into the Spirit World with Iya?”

  Unk's eyes blinked rapidly, and her hands shook. The water wall trembled with her emotions.

  “Mother, no,” Gnas pleaded. “I'd rather be free of this life than tied to that territory for eternity.”

  “Iya was not assimilated,” Inyan interrupted.

  “What?” I looked at him in surprise as Unk's eyes went wide with hope.

  “He's my son,” Inyan said. “There were more options available to him as such. Instead of assimilating him, I confiscated most of his magic and imprisoned him.”

  I glanced at Re; it was similar to what he'd recently done to his daughter because of what she'd done to me. Actually, Re had taken all of Sekhmet's magic, making her mortal. But he hadn't imprisoned her, and he intended to return the magic to Sekhmet if she showed an ability and desire to change.

  “Iya will be imprisoned in the Spirit World until I see fit to return his freedom,” Inyan went on. “As his mother and son, I will offer the both of you the same option. Surrender to me now, and I will be merciful. Force me to break through your ward, and I will wipe your existence away completely.”

  Silence stretched on for two minutes as Unk and Gnas stared at each other. Finally, Gnas nodded to his mother, and Unk dropped the ward. The Lakota gods rushed forward and bound Unk and Gnas in magic-dampening shackles. Once the mother and son were restrained, the Lakota started to lead them away.

  “Perhaps we didn't succeed this time, Godhunter,” Gnas said as he passed me, “but someone will. We've shown the gods that together we are strong enough to oppose you. They'll be coming for you now.”

  “You moron.” I rolled my eyes. “They've always been gunning for me, and you yahoos are not the first to team up against me. It's not like it's an original concept. Haven't you ever heard the saying: The enemy of my enemy is my friend?”

  “And Vervain has her own team,” Mr. T came up beside me. “She's not alone.”

  The God Squad spread out behind me and stared down Gnas.

  “A team that's more than capable of handling anything assholes like you throw our way,” Pan added.

  “Yeah; sit and spin, dickface,” Persephone flipped Gnas the bird.

  We all looked at Sephy in shock, especially Gnas, who was led away as he gaped at the Greek goddess.

  “Sit and spin?” Hades murmured to his wife.

  “I learned it from television,” Persephone whispered to her husband.

  “It was perfect, Sephy.” I hugged her. “Thank you.” Then I turned and looked at the God Squad. “Thank you all for being my friends and having my back. I'd be long dead if it weren't for all of you.”

  “Of course you would.” Horus sniffed, and Hekate punched his arm. “Ow! I've married an abusive woman.”

  “I'm making you a better man,” Hekate protested.

  “Yes; you most certainly are,” Horus admitted with a smile.

  “Speaking of being made into a better man,” Re said as he approached me. “I have some things I need to say.”

  The Squad and Archangels went quiet as the Egyptian God of the Sun dropped to one knee on the wet ground and took my hand. I gaped at him, and Re smiled serenely up at me.

  “Vervain, you have torn me apart and built me back up again,” Re said. “You loved me in the future only to deny me in the present. You challenge me and frustrate me, but you also strengthen me and bring forth the better parts of me. When I stand beside you, the world is brighter, and that is something unexpected for a sun god. You are my conscience and my guide; the example I try to follow and the voice of reason in my head. I thought that I was strong and honorable before I met you, and then you showed me what true honor and strength are. You've shown me what loyalty is, and beauty that goes deeper than this flesh.” He paused to kiss my hand, then rolled his golden gaze back up to mine. “And you have shown me how profound a connection of the flesh can be. I may be the Sun, but Heaven was out of my reach until the day I held you.”

  “Re,” I whispered. “Do you really want to do this here?”

  “There is no better place to propose to the Godhunter than at the site of a victorious battle.” Re smiled brightly and pulled a velvet box out of his pocket.

  I bit my lip, wondering where I'd put another ring. But then Re opened the box and revealed a lock of his silky hair. I swallowed past the lump in my throat. Re knew that he wasn't the first, nor would he be the last, but he was willing to compromise for me. I could take his hair and meld it into the diamond I already wore, adding Re to our sparkling family.

  “I love you, La-la,” Re said as he offered the box to me, “and I want to spend the rest of my immortal life with you. Will you be my wife?”

  I glanced at my other husbands, and they nodded their approval. Then I looked at Toby; his eyes were troubled, but when I locked gazes with him, he calmed. Toby smiled gently and nodded. I finally turned back to Re. He was staring at the men, the edges of his eyes crinkled in worry
. I squeezed his hand, and he looked back to me.

  “Your suit has been accepted, Sun God,” I said softly. “Yes, I'll marry you.”

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  The Wakan Tanka took their captives back to the Spirit World with them. It was a somber situation, which was a shame because I would have liked to have invited them to Pride Palace to celebrate my engagement with us.

  Craigor wanted to take Lugh straight back to Faerie, but Lugh wanted to hang with us a bit and join the party. So, Craigor had to accompany us to Pride Palace, where Lugh immediately mirrored his father, under Craigor's watchful eye. Cian was so relieved by Lugh's rescue that he gave his consent for Lugh to stay for my engagement party. Craigor pouted until I mentioned that this would be a great opportunity for him to see his half-goddess daughter, Aradia. He brightened, and then used my cell phone to call her while I went to mirror Arach.

  Normally, I wouldn't mirror Arach because I would be returning to the same time that I left Faerie. But so much had happened in such a short time, that I didn't think I should risk using my ring. So, I needed to speak to my dragon husband and let him know that everything was fine... and that I was engaged to Re.

  Arach took the news of my impending nuptials well, even better than the news that I wouldn't be using my ring to return to Faerie. He nodded his way through my explanations and then declared that a carriage would be sent to the Great Tree to meet the High Prince and Craigor in three hours, and he expected me to get into that carriage with the men. He would be waiting for me at the Castle of Eight. I gave in, and he gave me a soft smile before his face misted away.

  I went back down to the dining hall to celebrate with the family I had in the God Realm. Soon, the Intare, the God Squad, the Froekn (called in by Trevor), the Archangels, the High Prince of Faerie, his stoic guard, and the Goddess of the Witches were partying it up with my men and me. Oh, and there were a few other gods there as well.

  I was standing with Toby, discussing how we could proceed with us— with trying to integrate him into my life—when I noticed Re staring at me.

  “Excuse me a minute,” I said to Toby.

  He looked over at Re and nodded. “This is his night; you should be spending more time with him.”

  “Yeah, but I think there's more to it than that,” I murmured as I walked away.

  Re brightened as soon as I approached him, but his smile faded a bit when he caught my expression. I took his hand and led him silently through the crowd of our friends and family. Re had invited his family over to celebrate with us, and Bastet had even brought Sekhmet, who looked as if she were doing well in her new human life. So, there were a few Egyptian faces smiling at us as we passed by.

  I took Re out of the dining hall and then out of the palace entirely. No one had meandered out to the veranda-drawbridge yet, so it was quiet and empty. The murmur of the party echoed out to us, and the moon stretched its beams over the edge of the wooden deck. I went to sit on that edge, within the moonlight, and dangled my feet over the moat beneath. There were no vicious creatures swimming through our moat; it was just a channel leading off from our swimming pool. So, I felt secure enough to remove my heels and stretch my toes toward the water.

  Re took a seat beside me, doing the same with his shoes, and then studied my profile. “You have something you want to ask me?”

  “Did you propose tonight because you're afraid of my relationship with Toby?” I kept looking up at the Moon, giving him a moment to compose himself as well as an answer.

  “Perhaps it sped things up a little,” he admitted. “But you knew I was going to propose.”

  “And you said you would do it in grand fashion,” I reminded him.

  “Was that not grand enough?” He asked with surprise and maybe a bit of hurt.

  “It was plenty grand enough for me,” I reassured him. “I thought it was perfect. But it wasn't something I'd consider to be grand enough for you. Frankly, I expected to at least be wined and dined first, and be dressed in something nicer than drenched faerie velvet.”

  “You were as beautiful as ever,” he said. “And I couldn't resist. Especially when I had the perfect intro.”

  “Now, there's the man I know.” I chuckled. “The Sun God, Re, always loves to make an entrance.”

  “The Sun God, Re, makes an entrance just by stepping into a room,” he said pompously, and then cracked a smile.

  “I'm going to have to put up with this for eternity,” I lamented.

  “You're welcome.”

  “Seriously,” I whispered as I took his hand. “You know me. My love for Toby will not diminish my love for you.”

  “I do know that.” He took a deep breath and released it slowly. “And you know how much I've wanted to be a part of your family. Then Toby shows up, and my first thought was that I wasn't on the outside all by myself anymore.”

  “Until the others defended him,” I added.

  Re nodded. “Then I went right back to being the outsider.”

  “I'm sorry they made you feel that way.” I leaned into his side, and he slipped his arm around my shoulders. “I don't want you to feel like an outsider, and you're not one. You and I have something unique. We fell in love in another time; a future that will never happen.”

  “So, our history is a false future.” Re grimaced.

  “No.” I sat back and looked up at him. “Our history is untouchable. It's only ours. You and I are the only ones alive who remember it.”

  “I think I like your perspective better.” He started to smile.

  “Not only that, Re,” I went on. “We have that future, which we've moved into our past, allowing us to create yet another future together. It's like we were given more time than anyone else.”

  “We've been blessed,” he whispered.

  “My memories of us were the only ones that affected this time.” I laid my hand over his heart. “Think about that. How powerful is our love that just the memory of it within me, brought it to life within you?”

  “Memories can be powerful things,” he whispered. “Look at how quickly they brought back your love for Toby.”

  “That was an outside influence,” I chided him. “And those memories were shared. I influenced you with only my own recollections, and I didn't even have them all. No one else was affected by my memories of that future. No one else experienced it with me. And you didn't just see what I saw, you pulled that future back through me and gathered all of our memories—our full story that I'd been missing—and then you gave them to me.”

  “So, you're saying that I'm special.” He smirked.

  “I'm saying that what we have is special,” I corrected. “Don't make this into a joke, Re. That's my thing.”

  “Never.” He went serious. “You will never be a joke to me. I love you more than all the magic I have. You are my magic, La-la.”

  “I love you too, Sun God.”

  Epilogue

  Unk and Gnas were depleted of most of their magic by Inyan, who left them just enough to keep them immortal. As the first god in the Lakota Pantheon, Inyan could not only manifest things, but could also draw upon the magic of all of his fellow Lakota gods. The Wakan Tanka imprisoned Iya, Unk, and Gnas together in a portion of the Spirit World, then sealed it off indefinitely. It was more than they deserved, in my opinion, but I'm also a firm believer in second chances.

  The Atlantean machines, both of them, were destroyed by Re. He had helped create them, so he was the best one to engineer their demolition. We all breathed a sigh of relief when they were gone. High King Cian was especially relieved, and he was supremely grateful to get his son back. But the best homecoming Lugh received wasn't from family; it was from Isleen.

  I went back to Faerie right after my engagement celebration, along with Lugh and Craigor. The royal carriage was waiting for us, as promised, and Arach was waiting on the steps of the main tree of the Castle of Eight, along with the High Royals, when we rode up. Isleen was also there. As soon as the High King and Queen
had finished greeting Lugh, the High Prince had gone to Isleen. She had looked at him for two seconds before launching herself into his arms. Lugh carried her into the castle, and neither of them were seen for two days. Arach and I had to leave Isleen behind so we could return to Castle Aithinne.

  Back in the God Realm, Toby and I have been taking things slow. We've had a few dates, but he hasn't moved into Pride Palace. He has a home with Naye, and he'll probably keep living there. Plus, there's Doba to consider. Nick would not be happy if I brought a dog into the house. And I liked to keep all of my men happy; even my feline ones.

  Re and I began to plan our wedding. It was awkward at first. All of our friends have already attended my combined wedding to four of my other husbands, and I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to have another huge ceremony. But Re is, and always will be, the diva in our relationship, and he is insisting on having a big wedding. He hadn't proposed as grandly as he'd planned, so he wasn't going to skimp on the actual ceremony. He is driving us all a little crazy with it, to tell the truth.

  Azrael, though, has the patience to deal with Re. He had the patience to deal with anything now that he wasn't collecting souls anymore. I had worried that he might grow bored with the lack of responsibility, but Azrael has blossomed without the weight of the scythe upon him. He loves being able to spend time with Lesya and me, taking us on trips or just lazing about at Pride Palace. But he also loves having the opportunity to foster a hobby. The Angel of Death has never had the time for frivolous pursuits. Now, I was teaching him to paint. The guy is a natural. Azrael has always loved the arts. So, his talent isn't all that surprising to me. He's observed enough famous artists in his time—and carried enough of them to their afterlives—that I would have been more surprised if he hadn't picked up a thing or two.

  My other husbands are happy as well, despite the annoyance that is Re. Things have settled down, and we are able to enjoy our lives together once more. Lesya is the center of it all when I'm in the God Realm, but my twins rule my time when I'm in Faerie. Occasionally, my lives cross over, and I bring Lesya to play with her brothers in Faerie, or Arach brings the twins to Pride Palace. Those are the very best moments; when my family is complete, and I'm missing no one. But even missing people can be a good thing; it forces you to remember those who aren't with you, and then it draws you back together again.