“I’ll kill you and take what I want!” Cirina screamed.
Shey stopped and closed his eyes. He blocked it all out. Commanding water and wind, lightning and thunder, in a wild storm would never stop Haru and Cirina. He’d trained with Caelan when they’d both started learning to use their powers. Caelan had told him about his first meeting with Kaes, where the God of Storms had tapped into deeply hidden emotions and showed Caelan how to feed them into a crazed torrent that nearly destroyed Sirelis.
It was tempting to let loose all the old pains and frustrations he’d bottled up for years. He could pour all that anguish and rage into a storm that would level Bellcairn, but he wasn’t trying to kill Cirina and Haru.
He shoved down all his emotions and forced them into a hard ball in the pit of his stomach. He chilled his heart and froze his soul until it was as if he felt nothing at all. He opened his eyes as Haru swung his head to Cirina. Before he could blast her with more fire, Shey lunged forward a step and waved his hand between them, envisioning the water that was at his command had turned to ice.
A frigid wind roared through the city, and a great crackling noise echoed through the streets as pools of water rapidly froze to ice. Raindrops turned white, and the gust of water he commanded turned into a wall of solid ice.
He’d done it.
He’d finally done it.
Prior to leaving for Damardor, he’d practiced for months, trying to get the water that so easily answered his call to turn to ice. The storms he’d conjured in the past were effective, but impossible to control. Once unleashed, they took on a life of their own, destroying whatever lay in their path, regardless of his wishes.
But ice was different. He was sure he could keep tight control over ice. Force it to bend to his will and not escape him.
Haru roared and blasted the ice with his flames. It melted, but Shey froze the water again, strengthening the wall that separated him from Cirina. Not to be thwarted, Haru crashed into the wall with his hefty body, smashing it to pieces. Great chunks of ice flew through the air and smashed into cars. Others slid across the street like mini-icebergs.
Shey gritted his teeth and swept his hand toward Cirina, wrapping her up in a cocoon of ice as Haru unleashed another ball of fire at her. This couldn’t go on. Shey’s arms trembled and his head was throbbing. He was running out of strength. He’d never used his powers in a fight like this.
“Haru, stop!” Adrian called, and Shey flinched. He wanted Haru to stop attacking the goddess, but turning his attention to Adrian didn’t seem like a good idea.
Pulling together his last shreds of strength, Shey prepared to create another wall of ice in front of Cirina. If he could block the goddess from view, maybe they could talk Haru down and get him to shift into his human form.
Yet, before he could create more ice, everything stopped. The ice and snow hung suspended in the air, glittering like tiny gems. The wind stopped howling and the ravenous thunder was silent. Even Haru was frozen mid-snarl.
“Goddamn it,” Tyche swore, shattering the suffocating silence. Shey snapped his head around to find that Tyche was still moving while Adrian stood frozen in time.
“What did you do?” Shey demanded.
Tyche frowned and pointed to Shey’s left. He spun to find a short, round man standing nearby in a bright-yellow raincoat and hat. A bushy gray beard covered most of his grizzled face, but there was a split where he grinned broadly at Shey. He looked like an old fisherman he’d seen occasionally at the end of the Sirelis docks.
“Who…?” Shey gasped.
Tyche sighed. “That’s Kaes, God of Storms. It appears you’ve caught his attention.” The God of Luck did not make this sound like a good thing.
Kaes cackled and clapped his weathered hands. “Look at you, boy! Look at you! I’ve never been so proud. That Caelan kid was useful enough, but he never exerted himself unless we pushed him. Gave him no choice. But you!” He held out his hands as if Shey were some kind of grand prize in a contest. “You’ve not only taken my tiny gift and excelled at it, but you’ve turned it into something beautiful and new.”
Shey took a careful step back, putting more distance between them. Kaes was happy with him now, but Caelan had warned him that Kaes was a mercurial god that was as likely to turn on him as he was to help him.
“Just think what you could do if I gave you an even bigger taste of my power. You could become a brand-new god yourself. Something this world has never seen. Crush that upstart in Erya who dared to court me before you. As a son of Caspagir, my power should have always been at your beck and call.”
Shey opened his mouth to say that he had no quarrel with Caelan and had no desire for more power, but Tyche jumped in front of him, attempting to shield Shey from Kaes with his much smaller frame. He threw out his arms to either side and leaned into Shey, herding him away from the newcomer.
“Fuck off, Kaes. He doesn’t need your powers to be amazing. He’s doing fine on his own,” Tyche snapped. “Why don’t you go cling to Tula’s skirts?”
Kaes dropped his joyous expression and glared at Tyche, who shivered but didn’t retreat. “Silence, tiny, useless godling. You had your chance at more power. You could have been one of us, but you walked away. Let Prince Shey make his own decisions. I think he’s going to prove much smarter than you.”
“He doesn’t need you,” Tyche said slowly, enunciating each word as if Kaes didn’t understand the language.
Shey dropped a hand to Tyche’s tense shoulder only to discover that Tyche’s entire body was trembling, and he didn’t think it was from the sudden cold he’d created. Tyche was facing off against one of the major gods, protecting him.
Kaes lifted his gaze to meet Shey’s eyes above Tyche’s head and smirked. “Oh, I think he’ll make the right decision. And as a gift…” Kaes gave the tiniest wave of his hand, and the ice cocoon holding Cirina disappeared along with the goddess.
“No! What did you do with her?” Tyche screeched.
“Where is she? Bring her back,” Shey demanded at the same time.
