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“Yes, exactly. Unworthy mortals, clawing at the things that rightfully belong to divinity? What of Mjölnir, or the Aegis?” I made sure to catch her gaze as I spoke again. “What of the Imperial Regalia?” From out of the corner of my eye, I saw Carver stifle a grin. So he approved. I hid my own smile. See, now that I’d mentioned the jewel, blade, and mirror that signified the very essence of Japan, artifacts handed down to humanity by Amaterasu herself? Now it was personal.
The outline of the goddess’s body wavered, like the air over a hot desert. She was getting pissed. Perfect. Her cheeks burned, but not with the rosiness of flirtation. She bit her lip, pouting, her nose wrinkling, then burst out.
“Fine. Fine! But I demand something in exchange.” She studied us individually, her eyes narrowing. “No, I demand something from all of you. Time. I will have your time. There are things even I don’t know, that I can never see by light of day. And you will reveal those mysteries to me.”
She lifted her hands, and the faint sound of something sliding or scraping caught my attention. Three panels set in the crystal walls around us lifted open. Where the hell had they come from?
Amaterasu pushed her fists into her hips. “Well?”
Gil shrugged and ambled off towards one of the exits. Carver gave me a meaningful look, then nodded at one of the panels, which was the one he wanted me to take. I didn’t know how he could tell the difference. He gave the goddess one last glance, performed a bow and a quick flourish, then disappeared through his own exit. The panels slid shut, leaving no trace that there had been any openings to mar the seamless perfection of the crystal walls.
Amaterasu tapped her foot. “You. Boy. The mouthy one. Go.”
“I’m going. Sorry. Here I go.”
I don’t know what I was expecting, exactly. Maybe I thought that walking through the doorway would take me through a tunnel, or maybe I thought it acted as a portal to another section of her dimension. But it was just like any other doorway, and as soon as I stepped through I found myself in – the exact same room as before.
What the hell? It was the same chamber, with its crisp blue sky, its perfect clouds, its towering crystalline walls. In the center of it all, like the flame in a lantern, stood Amaterasu, still tapping her foot, hands at her waist, like an impertinent teenager. I was caught in some bizarre hall of mirrors. I whipped around, thinking I’d made some sort of mistake, but the gap in the wall was gone. Instead I saw my reflection, and that of Amaterasu watching me with mounting impatience.
She snapped her fingers, beckoning for me to come.
“Okay, geez. Relax, I’m coming.”
Her face twisted up even harder.
“So,” she said. “You think this Viridian Dawn is going to do more damage, do you?” She pulled out her cellphone again, then started tapping at the screen. “I’m searching and nothing’s coming up. Never heard of them.”
“You get wifi here? Lucky.” I thought of the hideout, and how this was probably the most compelling argument I could get for convincing Carver we needed the internet. Honestly, if a sun goddess could get a signal in her domicile –
I scratched at the bridge of my nose. “I mean, there’s a reason you agreed to parley with us on the matter. There’s a reason you split the three of us up.”
Her eyes slitted. “You have a smart mouth. But I can’t say I dislike that about you, shadow boy.”
I froze. “You – you’ve heard of me, have you?”
She dangled her phone in my face mockingly. “People talk. And so do gods.” She smiled bitterly. “And gods are people, too.”
“Of – of course they are.”
“And I haven’t heard anything about this Viridian Dawn of yours from the grapevine.”
The grapevine? Charming. Maybe Dionysus was keeping things hush-hush.
“What I find interesting about this,” she said, “is that your master was so brazen about bringing you into my home, knowing who and what you are.”
I ruffled my hair with one hand in frustration. “He doesn’t know what I am. Hell, I don’t know what I am.”
“Lies,” she hissed. The glow of the lantern fire grew brighter, more fierce. I didn’t have to look very closely to see that the tips of Amaterasu’s hair were burning with little flames, never consuming or harming her, just a visual and mildly terrifying manifestation of her displeasure. I needed to tread carefully. “There’s a filth building inside of you, and it threatens you and everyone around it.”
I sighed. “You know, eve
ryone tells me that. I can’t even get a date. Last person I kissed washed her mouth out right after. Can’t a guy get a break?”
I didn’t think it was possible but Amaterasu grimaced even harder, the twist of her mouth making her eyes smolder like a pair of suns. She held her arm out, and in place of the cute little cellphone in her hand was a sword. A katana, specifically, masterfully crafted. Also it was on fire.
Fuck.
Chapter 12
