Amy Sumida - Tracing Thunder (The Godhunter Series Book 13) Read online

  I chanced another look behind me(I really didn't like all of those unknown gods at my back) and saw a stunning goddess with long black hair, straight as a pin, and piercing gray eyes like the glints off a sword's edge. Her features were sharp, including the harsh line of her lips, but then she smiled at me and her whole face softened.

  “Stop staring at her,” Trevor whispered into my ear. “That's Nemesis, the Goddess of Revenge.”

  “Oh, it's fine,” Morpheus patted my shoulder. He was sitting directly behind me. “She's my Aunt.”

  “Oh good,” I gave Nemesis a hopeful smile back. As in, hopefully she didn't want to kill me. Don't laugh. You'd be surprised how many gods I met who immediately wanted me dead.

  She seemed to understand and smiled even wider, showcasing some rather sharp looking teeth. I turned back around, unsure whether that smile was supposed to be reassuring or threatening.

  “It looks as though everyone's here, so let's begin,” Hades announced from the lectern. “I called you all together because it's come to my attention that Zeus has been denying all of you ambrosia unless you do his bidding.” There was an angry, murmuring assent but Hades held up a hand and everyone quieted. “I know some of you think that Poseidon and I knew about this but I assure you, we did not.”

  “I speak on behalf of Poseidon,” a moist looking man with gills in his neck and blue tinted skin, stood up. “He bade me come and give Hades our support, as he too swears to have no previous knowledge of Zeus' actions. The Tritons are here to stand beside you, Hades!”

  A cheer went up from several men and women seated around the moist man. The rest of the Greek gods seemed thoughtful, quiet. They turned their attention back to Hades but it was Persephone who spoke next.

  “You know me,” she said. “You know I would never have supported this. I went to my father and asked him to stop. He denied me, saying that we are all lesser gods!”

  She shouted the last bit angrily, surprising both me and those of my friends around me. We all glanced at each other with wide eyes. We weren't the only ones surprised either. The rest of the assemblage shouted back to her in varying degrees of anger and distress. Oh no, gods did not like being called lesser.

  “I, and I'm sure Poseidon as well,” Hades started again, once the roar died down. “Don't believe any of you to be lesser. We're all gods, all Atlanteans originally, and we should be standing together strong beside our pantheon brothers and sisters. We chose to set out together that fateful day. We watched Atlantis sink below the waves and held each other in terror. Then we found our courage and banded together to find a new land to live in. We found Greece together!” Hades pounded his fist onto the lectern and the gods cheered. “We claimed our place as gods together! There are no lessers here, even were you born after the great diaspora. You're all my family and I will not see you treated unfairly.”

  The Greeks stood and applauded Hades. I looked over to Azrael and exchanged impressed looks with him. Who knew Hades could be so motivating? Move aside, Tony Robbins.

  “This will stop!” Hades said after everyone found their seats again. “I promise you, I will do all in my power to end this but I need your help. If we band together once more, we can overcome this latest obstacle.”

  “What do you need from us, Hades?” It was a thin woman who stood and addressed him. Gaunt, with huge black eyes and carefully braided black hair. She had a simple Greek toga on, gray and belted. On the belt hung a large pair of scissors.

  “First I need you to agree to stand beside me, Atropos,” Hades said. “Then I want to know exactly what Zeus has been asking of all of you. Once we have that all recorded, I want you to immediately cease all activities done under his orders.”

  “Those are reasonable requests,” a young woman stood as Atropos sat. Her face looked as if it were smiling even though she wasn't. She had soft, rounded features, bright blue eyes, and golden brown hair that fell around her in a soft cloud. “But we need to know what your actual plan is to defeat Zeus before we commit ourselves.”

  “I'd rather not defeat Zeus,” Hades began and everyone started to shout again.

  A rough looking man with a beard, shaggy dark hair, and wild looking eyes, had been standing behind Hades in the shadows. He stepped forward and growled. The growl was unlike any I'd ever heard. It was low, deep, and menacing. Like the shine of predator eyes in the dark. An unknown evil focused on you, making every muscle in your body tense to run. The crowd of gods hushed.

  “Hold, Cerebus!” Hades held up his hand again and the man faded back into the shadows behind the lectern. “I mean that I have no intention of killing Zeus. I do have every intention of stopping him and if that means we have to go to war with him, then so be it, but I think that once he sees the power we hold together, he'll give in to our demands.”

  “I don't think you know Zeus at all,” a man called from the upper seats and everyone laughed nervously.

  I glanced up and saw that the guy who'd spoke was dressed in modern casual wear; jeans and a T-shirt which read: Original Wino. He had dark, unruly curls halfway to his shoulders and a mischievous look to him that reminded me of Pan. He was very beautiful, kind of hard to ignore actually, but a little too feminine looking for my taste. He was seated between an older man with large equine ears and a voluptuous woman with long, dark curls hanging around her shoulders.

  “Zeus is not unreasonable,” the older man with the floppy horse ears stood up and I was surprised to see that he had horse legs to match. He swayed a little on those legs and I realized with surprise that he was drunk. How was that even possible? It took me tons of alcohol to get drunk now. I frowned as he continued. “But he is very proud and... and...,” the man's face went blank as he stared off into empty space.

  “Silenus?” The self-proclaimed wino stood up and took the horsey guy's arm. “Is it a vision?”

  Everyone went silent, even more quiet than when Cerebus had growled.

  “There are two prophecies at work here,” Silenus started to speak again. “One given long ago by the Light and now one is given in a time of Dark. The Daughter of Dragons will rise and on the apex of her flight, she will grasp the Thunderbolt. Only then can she fall back to earth. Only then can she ground the power and restore the Nine. Give too soon, take too much, and all will be lost. Protect her and guide her flight or she shall burn Olympus to ash.”

  “Oh poop,” I whispered as Silenus fell back into the younger man's arms.

  “No,” Trevor ground out. “It can't be you. It's not you.”

  “Does anyone know who the Daughter of Dragons is?” The wino had settled Silenus into his seat and then stood to address the crowd. “That was a weird one but at least we have the dragon thing to go on. There can't be too many of them left. Just the few we saved. I wasn't aware that any of them had children though.”

  Hades and Persephone both looked pointedly at me. I shifted my eyes up to theirs with a sigh as I felt the weight of Greek gazes settle on me from all directions.

  “Vervain,” Hades finally said, when it became apparent that I wasn't going to do or say anything myself. “You know it must be you. Do you have any idea what that all meant?”

  “No,” I whispered and then cleared my throat and spoke louder. “It sounds like things need to be done in a specific order but I've no idea what those things are. I mean, gripping a thunderbolt? That doesn't sound like something I want to do.”

  “You must know something,” the wino started walking down the amphitheater steps toward me. “We know that you need to help us defeat Zeus before you restore the Nine. So what were you planning on doing that had anything to do with the number nine?”

  I scrunched up my forehead in thought. Nine. There was my triple trinity, that was a nine pointed star but it was complete. That was kind of the point of it. Then Faerie flashed through my mind. The Nine Great Magics. It was the only “Nine” that I could possibly restore but how was I going to restore the Great Nine and why did it even need restoration? I
t didn't make any sense.

  “Vervain?” The man was standing in front of me now and I could feel Azrael and Trevor tensing beside me. Kirill actually stood up and positioned himself a little in front of Trevor, arms crossed like a bouncer. The wino barely spared him a glance, focusing his deep purple eyes on me.

  “I'm sorry, do I know you?” I asked to try and lighten the mood. “Cause you're sure being free with my given name.”

  “I'm Dionysus,” he extended a hand and I shook it automatically. “I apologize. I thought the situation was dire enough to dispense with civilities.”

  “There's always time to be polite.”

  “Vervain, please,” Hades groaned. He and Persephone had come to stand behind Dionysus. “He's right. When Silenus prognosticates, he's always accurate. We need to know what the Nine could possibly be.”

  “And we need to protect her,” Sephy said the words I'd been dreading.

  Not that I minded people helping or trying to protect me but I'd had enough arguments with my men over being “safe” that I dreaded what protection entailed. I couldn't stay home and just wait for other people to handle my business. I needed to get out there and get it done. That wouldn't be happening under their form of protection.

  “I have plenty of protection,” I patted Trevor's leg when he started to growl. “Obviously.”

  “Carus,” Azrael leaned into me. “Could it mean the Great Nine Magics?”

  “What are the Great Nine Magics?” Dionysus practically pounced on it.

  “It's the power of the Faerie Realm,” I sighed. “And it hardly needs restoring. I don't see how it could be that.”

  “That must be it,” Dionysus made an exclaiming gesture with his hand. “So stay away from Faerie until we handle Zeus. There! All settled.”

  “I'm not going to stay away from Faerie just because some drunk dude said I should,” I sputtered. “And how is he drunk, by the way? And where can I get some of whatever he's been drinking?”

  Dionysus' mouth dropped open and he stared at me like he didn't know whether he should strangle me or thump me on the back. He chose to do neither and instead started laughing boisterously.

  “Look, Godhunter,” he said when he stopped laughing. “Stay out of Faerie until we settle this and I'll give you all the wine you want.”

  “Really?” I lifted a brow at him. “You realize we own a nightclub,” I nodded my head toward Trevor.

  “Oh, damn,” Dionysus laughed. “Moonshine, right? I love that place. You know, we should work something out.”

  “Dionysus,” the lady that had been sitting beside him, had come down to join us. “This is hardly the time for a business deal.”

  “Of course,” he smiled and drew her forward. “This is my wife, Ariadne. Ari, meet Vervain, the Godhunter.”

  “And the Daughter of Dragons?” She lifted a dark brow at me.

  “Yeah,” I sighed. “That too. Hey, you're the one who gave Theseus a clue, aren't you?”

  “Yes,” she laughed, “quite literally.”

  “I've always loved that bit in the story,” I nodded. “How a clue is another name for a ball of string... which is what you gave him to get out of the labyrinth. So you gave him a clue. Brilliant!”

  “Yes,” her face went serious. “After he killed my brother.”

  “The Minotaur,” I frowned. “Was he really a Minotaur?”

  “Well he could be a little bull headed sometimes,” she smiled fondly. “But no, he wasn't that kind of monster.”

  “This isn't the time for discussing the past either, darling,” Dionysus said to his wife.

  “Right,” she huffed a little laugh. “You know how I get about those old stories, Di. Everyone thinking Theseus was some kind of hero when he was just a traitorous git.”

  “Without whom we'd never have met.” Dionysus stroked the hair back from her face.

  “Di?” I asked with a little chuckle. “As in, Princess Di?”

  “No,” Di lifted a brow at me. “As in what you're gonna do if you refer to me as a princess ever again.”

  Trevor started to stand but I grabbed his arm as I laughed. Dionysus hadn't said it in a threatening manner, he was simply teasing me back and I enjoyed a god who could take a joke and dish it back.

  “He didn't mean anything by that,” I patted Trevor's arm as he settled back in his seat. “Sorry, Dionysus, we've had some close calls lately and it's made everyone a little touchy.”

  “Yes,” Dionysus' face went grave. “I heard you had some bad dreams.”

  “You could say that,” I shrugged. “Look, why don't we continue this meeting as planned and then we can come back to this prophecy thingy.”

  “Prophecy thingy? If I speak it, it shall come to pass!” Silenus had roused himself enough to declare his outrage, then fell back into his chair and promptly passed out.

  “And if you build it, they shall come,” I rolled my eyes. “I know how accurate prophecies can be but I think we may be overacting just a little. Forewarned is forearmed and now I'm armed, as it were. I know to not do this other thing before we finish things with Zeus. Sounds simple to me.”

  “I think it's a little more complicated than that, Carus,” Az slid a strong arm around me and I felt his tension through his skin. He was worried.

  “If we don't guide her flight, she'll burn Olympus,” a woman stood and came over to us, accompanied by a large, white dog with brown spots. “That sounds like something we need to talk about now.”

  She was muscular but in a feminine way, wearing jeans and a leather bodice that did great things for her small chest. Her brown hair was cut into a modern style, falling only to her shoulders in soft waves. Her eyes were puppy dog brown but her face was strong. She had a bow and a quiver full of arrows across her back and that dog looked like it would kill at her command.

  “I think Vervain is right, Artemis,” Hades held a hand out to her. “We shouldn't let this distract us from our original plans. Let's hear what everyone has to say about Zeus first and then we can discuss this prophecy further. Maybe after it's had some time to ruminate, we'll be able to come up with a plan to tackle it.”

  “Do you really have the power to burn Olympus to ash?” Artemis set her dark gaze on me and her dog focused on me as well.

  “I doubt that,” I laughed into the stunned silence. “I think the prophecy was either being metaphorical or it was talking about someone else.”

  “You mean the other remaining dragon-sidhe female in existence?” Odin was sitting on the other side of Azrael and had been watching it all with patience and steady eyes. Now it looked as if his patience had worn out. “Let's not waste time over that, Vervain. The prophecy is about you but I do agree that we need some time to think it over before we discuss this in depth with the entire Greek pantheon.”

  “Well it's hardly the entire pantheon,” Sephy gave Odin a petulant look but she couldn't hold his steady gaze. “There are quite a few gods who are remaining loyal to Zeus.”

  I think we were all still getting used to Odin's new appearance, which had actually changed a couple of times recently. First, he died saving my life. Then I brought him back and put him into Griffin's body, so he looked like Griffin for awhile. Then he regained his magic and altered that body a bit. So now he was as big as he used to be but blonde instead of brunette and the harsh edges of his old features had been softened by Griffin's pretty boy face. Oh, and he had two eyes now, which I thought was the best change of all.

  “And Athena is one of them of course,” Dionysus continued as he looked around angrily. “Let me guess, Zeus' favorite daughter doesn't have to do anything nasty to get her immortality?”

  “That's not it at all,” drawled a blonde man who was lounging in his seat as if he didn't have a care in the world. “Athena doesn't need to be coerced. She'll do whatever Zeus tells her to, ambrosia or not.”

  Artemis glanced at him and rolled her eyes. I looked back and saw that he was surrounded by a bunch of trashy looking women,
mini skirts and bustiers all around. He had hair down to his shoulders, styled in a way that was meant to portray his apathy toward appearances in general but ended up portraying exactly the opposite. He was wearing jeans torn in strategic places, a Rolling Stones T-shirt, and a flannel over all that. He had big black boots on his feet and big silver rings on his fingers. He looked like a damn rock star. From the '90s.

  “My brother,” Artemis said to me when she noticed my perusal. “He thinks he knows everything.”

  “I know enough,” the rock star stood and flung back his hair in a practiced maneuver. Twelve women stood with him. The whole lot of them came over to where I was still seated. Why did everyone have to walk over to talk to me? “I happen to know quite a bit about you, Godhunter,” he said with a saucy grin.

  “Great,” I looked over him and his retinue. “And I know nothing about you, Kurt Cobain.”

  “I'm Apollo,” he held a hand out to me, completely ignoring what I'd thought to be a perceptive joke. “A pleasure to meet you, Daughter of Dragons.”

  “Oh that's just what I need,” I shook his hand, “another title to keep track of.”

  “At least it's not Mother of Dragons,” he winked at me. “But then that one's taken already.”

  “She vill be Mother of Dragons someday,” Kirill said cryptically.

  “Maybe,” I hissed at him and his lips twitched. “Someday in the far future.”

  “What's this?” One of Apollo's perfect blonde eyebrows lifted.

  “Nothing,” I waved his interest away. “Can we all get back to our seats and start this meeting again? I mean come on,” I gestured to the women surrounding Apollo. “You couldn't walk ten feet without your entourage?”