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He must have killed the third when I was focused on the kid. Pan took a step toward me, and I lifted my chin. “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I didn’t sign up to kill kids. Either you start explainingthat,” I motioned to the body in front of me, “or I’m out. You may be a god, but I promise you, I willnotmake for a pleasant captive.”
Storm clouds and hidden secrets were in his eyes when he looked at me, his expression unreadable.
“I’ll tell you what you want to know, but first, I need to give them a proper burial.”
I cleaned my blade on my shorts and stowed the weapon in my boot, then crossed my arms over my chest. I nodded. “We’ll bury them. But when the sun comes up, I want answers.”
Chapter5
Pan
It’s alwaysthe same nightmare.
The skies are red and filled with smoke. Trees are burning. Homes ablaze. Bodies litter the forest floor, a trail of corpses leading up to the white stone archway of Atlantis.
I am running. Racing. Trying to get to her.
The ground trembles and cracks appear. Sand and silt bounce on the surface as the land groans. Deep. Yawning. It sounds like thunder when it splits open. Dirt and debris slide into the cracks, pulled in as the crevices widen and grow.
Wings sprout from my back as I leap into the skies. Lightning forks through the clouds, scorching the air. The better parts of me, Flora and Fauna, morph from wolves to falcons. They flank me on either side, and we battle the wind and rain when it unleashes.
In the distance, across the city where buildings crumble, crack, fall—she stands at the great wall’s edge. Her dark blue hair is nearly black from the rain as she faces the open water beyond the city.
On the other side, the ocean churns. Like a sleeping monster awakened, the water begins to circle and pull away from the shore.
No. No.
I beat my wings harder. Faster. Urging myself to reach her in time.
Water rises. A tidal wave forms.
Ten feet. Twenty. Thirty. Forty.
Growing. Expanding. It blots out the last bit of light from the dual suns of Arcadia. Lightning flashes, painting an eerie, haunting scene.
The land shakes and the sea attacks.
“Kali!” I shout, my voice booming.
The figure on the wall turns.
Her electric eyes settle on me.
I can’t name the emotion if I try.
The wave hits. The wall breaks. Atlantis capsizes.
My eyes flew open.
The past faded as I stared at the suffocating stone walls. Anxiety filled me, not recognizing them as the sulfur-lined sides of my tomb. Gravel skidding caught my attention. I twisted, shifting my hand to claws.
My breath halted in my chest.
She slept on the slab of rock at the very back of the cave. Her fingers were threaded together behind her head and her dark blue eyebrows were drawn together, the skin between them puckered as if an invisible hand pinched her. Her feet moved restlessly, the hard soles of her boots scraping against the rock and sending tiny pebbles skittering off the edge.
I sighed.
She was the same as she’d always been on the outside, but inside—something was different. Kali never balked at death, be it an elder’s or a child’s. She certainly never helped give them a proper burial.
