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But during the struggle, I noticed something: when Ilena cried out, Ukinim’s good eye rested on his mate for a good second before returning to me, and Ilena had stopped tormenting the woman when I injured Ukinim.
I’d just discovered their weakness.
They paced and stalked until they had me in the corner where they’d set upon the woman. I had one bone left to defend myself.
Ukinim bared his teeth as he snarled and leapt. I cringed at the sight of his paw swinging toward me. I lifted the bone high, hoping it would offer some defense, but just as his claw was about to reach my face, I suddenly flashed to an entirely different location.
I stood next to a tall tree in a field of grass and white flowers. The full moon hung in the sky above me. I spun around, trying to figure out where I was, when an owl hooted above my head. I jumped backward, grabbing my bleeding forearm.
The owl flew down to a lower branch.
“You’re Ahone’s messenger.” I tried to keep the bitterness from my voice.
“Your journey is almost complete.”
“Does that mean you’re going to kill me?”
The owl hooted, then said, “Neither I nor Ahone will kill you tonight.”
“There are so many things wrong with that sentence,” I mumbled, raising the bone I still held in my right hand. “Are you here to give me Ahone’s symbol?”
“You have one more task on your journey.”
“And then what?”
“And then you will be rewarded.” The owl’s eyes penetrated mine. “Some things are merely illusions. The beautiful becomes ugly when the scales of sleep fall from your eyes. The ugly becomes beautiful when you look for the truth.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
“The dream world is shifting again. Ahone saved you from Ukinim, but he can’t save you from where you are going now. That is up to you and how you use the resources you’ve been given.”
I blinked and suddenly I was on an island. The moonlight glittered off the rippling waves. I was on the sound and not the ocean, I realized. My pajamas had been replaced with a flowing white skirt that blew around my legs and a gauzy white shirt that hung open, exposing a white bikini top. The wound on my arm was gone.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment with great anticipation.”
I spun around to face Okeus. He stood on an embankment, watching me with a patient expression.
It was my day of reckoning.
I froze, my heart slamming into my rib cage.
He smiled, and his face lit up with a beauty I hadn’t expected. The last time I saw him—the night of the ceremony—he was wearing a loincloth, but tonight he was dressed in jeans and a fitted T-shirt that covered a well-developed chest and muscular arms. His raven hair had been long on one side and short on the other, but tonight it was all trimmed closer to his head, the breeze tousling his dark waves. Okeus was the manifestation of masculine perfection.
He held his hands out and chuckled. “Not what you were expecting?”
“No.” I had to force the word out, my fear stealing my breath away.
“There’s no need to be afraid, Ellie.”
He used my name. Every other spirit and god used one of my titles. Never my name.
“Why not?” I asked, walking backward, drawn instinctively to the water. “The last time I saw you, you threatened to torture me for hundreds of years.”
He walked over and offered his hand as I entered the sound. “I spoke in haste, Ellie. Before I had a chance to think. You’re perfectly safe.” But the sentence sounded unfinished—the “for now” was unspoken but understood.
I refused his hand, crossing my arms under my breasts. I stayed in the water, taking another step into it. Now it reached my calves, and the edge of my skirt was brushing the top of the waves.
“I wish to start over.”
