“I am the god, Mithra,” Mithra answered.“And you are not welcome in this reality, lost god.Leave.Now.”
“You mean nothing to me,” the lost god mused.“I am that which existed before, I will be that which exists after you have burned to dust.”
Mithra laughed.“Return to your hole.This reality refutes you.Nothing holds you here.You are forgotten.”
The ivory mask tipped precariously to one side.“I have been remembered, God Mithra.I have been summoned by my spell, locked, and power, latent.”
“You have no hold here.”
“I do now.These small creatures have gnawed through my chains, chains now consigned to oblivion.”
“Those creatures are mine.”
“You tire me.”There was a huge sound, like an ocean pouring off a cliff.
Mithra threw up his hands as if to ward off an attack.
And disappeared.
I reached for Lula, and she scrabbled backward to me, the book clutched against her chest.
The lost god drifted forward away from us, filling the space Mithra had just occupied.
“Small creatures,” the lost god said.“You have called upon my power.You have dared wield my magic.”It turned, the mask unreadable.
“Shall I reward you?Or shall I punish you?”
“You will do neither, Ryt.”Cupid strode out of the sky.He was still in god form, a warrior in golden armor with huge white wings.“These souls are under my protection.”
“Connection, destruction,” Ryt said.“You still walk this realm?”
“Longer than you, lost one.There is a war.”
“There is always a war.”
“You are not a part of this war,” Cupid said.“You are not needed here.”
The mask tipped as every part of it flowed from one form to another: wind, water, fire, stars.
“The small creatures called me.Stole my fire.”
“They cast the spell you wove into the spell book of the gods.As is their right.”
Before, I hadn’t been able to see eyes in the mask, but now those eyes—large and yellow and alien—focused on me and Lula with painful intensity.
I could not look away, even though it felt like every nerve in my brain was being plucked one by one.
“What are they?”Ryt asked.
A raven winged down from the roiling sky, then Raven, the god, stepped out of its form.
I’d never seen Raven in his god power, not really, not fully.But now, oh, now, he was magnificent.
A warrior, a king, a hunter, a wise man, a fool, black feathers etched with galaxies flowing from his arms and his hair, the light of the sun burning in one hand.
“They are the only thing that will assure your power and magic will never be used without your blessing again,” Raven said.“Time has shattered and opened many doors, Ryt.But this path is closed to you.Closed by me.”
More movement behind us, then Abbi was at my side, her hand on my shoulder.
