“The machine may have infected the condenser.” Re glanced at Odin, who nodded. “If it has, try to separate the infection from the condenser first.”
“I'll try,” I muttered as I closed my eyes.
I mean, how do you separate the magic of a god relic, made by the Fey, from the magic of a machine made under the instruction of a real god? If I were just going to destroy the condenser, I wouldn't have bothered. But I wanted to try Odin's plan of separating it from the other relics first.
Fear shot through me. The machine had established a bond with me. What if this strengthened our bond?
But then I felt it—the brightness of Faerie Magic holding something heavier and far more aggressive. The Fey worked with the elements, with Nature, when they wove their enchantments. They could draw upon the Nine Great Magics if they wanted to create a truly powerful item, but even that was working in harmony with their world. Forged with aggression, the machine imprisoned magic to function. The power within it was dominant. It had to be in order to control the god relics.
Excuse me, god relics and one fey relic.
How had I forgotten that the magic condenser had been a gift to Nuada from the Fey? He had fostered his relationship with the faeries while most of the other gods had drawn away. The magic condenser had gone to Odin after Nuada died. But as much as it tolerated my husband, it longed for the feel of a fey hand.
Faerie magic surged to meet me like a hound welcoming its mistress home. No, it was more desperate than that. The magic condenser knew of its entrapment and did not approve of the machine’s purpose. The machine acted against nature and therefore against the magic of the condenser. It took very little effort to separate it from the machine's magic.
I smiled as I went deeper, searching for the bond between it and the other relics. An anxious whirring came from the machine, but I ignored it. If we hurried, we could get this done before it affected the realms. I might even save the relics.
“Stop!” Hades shouted.
My eyes flashed open, and my hold on the condenser broke. It scrambled for me, but then the machine's magic surged back into it.
“Damn it, Hades!” I growled. “I just cleared the machine's infection from the condenser. It was working.”
“And it was killing my territory.” Hades pushed through my husbands and stumbled, panting, into the room.
“It was coming for Olympus as well,” Athena's voice came from the back of the corridor.
“And Duat.” Anubis entered the room with Athena. “It was lashing out at us.”
“How do you know it was targeting you?” Odin asked.
“It felt like acid in my soul.” Anubis looked at Hades.
Hades nodded. “I know what anger feels like, and that was it. Not just anger.” He looked at the machine. “Hate.” He looked up at me. “If a god helped to create this, he is not a good god.”
I shivered. It had never occurred to me that the powerful entity watching over me could be evil. The very nature of someone guarding another felt good. Even when the machine showed me the future, I didn't feel malevolence. But then it wouldn't show that to me, would it? Not when it wanted me tojoin it. And just because something is watching you, it doesn't mean it's watchingoveryou.
“If this god is evil, and he's chosen me for this, what does that mean?” I looked at Odin as I remembered how the machine had tried to invade my star. Or maybe it was testing me to see how evil I was.
Odin took my hand. “Everyone has good and evil in them. Perhaps it is true for real gods as well. And their creations. I think there were good intentions for this machine, but it has developed a life of its own, and, as any living creature would, it will do anything to protect itself.”
“I don't know, Odin.” Hades stared at the machine. “This was beyond self-defense. It felt like a vicious attack.”
“So, what do we do now?” I asked.
Odin looked around the room and then settled his peacock-colored gaze on me. “I don't know.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
We didn't leave Ala Mmuo. We couldn't. Not until we destroyed the machine. Instead, we gathered in the living room to brainstorm. As the gods offered suggestions and discussed them, I stared into the distance, seeing only the machine—replaying the events that had transpired. I had tried to dismantle it, and it had defended itself.
“It's learning,” Agwusi whispered, as if she had read my mind.
I looked over at her. Only I had heard her.
She was staring at Ty, but she spoke to me. “This is not what he promised. The machine was supposed to be a tool, not an entity.”
“A tool making decisions that affect souls,” I growled. “And using God Magic to do it. If your god is so damn powerful, why didn't he just make the machine withhismagic?”
