Goddess Choice Page 7

  I knew Keenan was watching when he let out a wail as I grabbed the hilt. I had planned on using blood magic but didn’t think this would be the way it would happen. Instead of the feeling of magic flowing through me, all I felt was dizziness. I blinked my eyes and tried to keep them open but it wasn’t working, my efforts were in vain.

  My body sagged to the dirt and my eyes closed on their own accord.

  Chapter 10

  Crawley

  I blinked my eyes open and swore under my breath. They felt worse than the rest of my body. I sniffed hard and regretted it. No wonder my eyes felt like shite. I was lying face down in the dirt but I wasn’t exactly sure why. I had let my beast take over a while ago and I shouldn’t have come back to my senses just yet.

  I blinked again but harder, trying to clear the grit and came face to face with an arm pulling itself across the ground in front of my face.

  Well, that was new.

  I definitely didn’t remember that and my beast was far away in my subconscious, nowhere to be found.

  “Guess that’s what it takes to kill you, just a little poison. Hades will gladly take you as a replacement for me. Just a few more hours...” The voice trailed off as another voice got closer.

  “I’m not letting you kill her!” I knew I wasn’t hearing right because the voice sounded just like Keenan’s. I didn’t know if I could even move or it would be appropriate for me to do so. I still wasn’t sure what the hell was happening until a whisper caressed my skin.

  “I don’t know if you can hear me, Crawley…” Jessa. “But if you can, I need you to wake up and slice my palm…”

  Well, that’s a strange request. Okay.

  I knew she was on the other side of me but I didn’t know what I was dealing with still. I took my chances and turned my head toward the direction Jessa’s voice had come from. Her eyes were closed and I could immediately smell her blood in the air.

  There was a blonde, zombie? With her arms raised in the air toward my brother.

  Had Hades frozen over? Were we in the underworld? My brother had come to my rescue? Seriously?

  Keenan was swinging something around, knocking zombies over as they popped through the dirt but they were steadily gaining on him.

  I reached inside of myself to find my beast and it was no use. He was off playing hide and seek and I wasn’t playing.

  Jessa looked lifeless next to me so her request seemed dumb and unreasonable but I did it anyway, I didn’t know what she had up her sleeve. It had been so long and I didn’t know what she was capable of.

  My beast was nowhere to be found, that meant no super talons. Even in my human form, my teeth were sharper than normal. I put her hand in my mouth and bit down right between her thumb and her pointer finger. I immediately tasted copper and felt my beast starting to rumble back to life.

  Blood thirsty, bastard.

  Even though he was there, he wasn’t coming forward. I knew the risks of him coming back and figured that had to be it. He had never failed me but he had also never been present so long I didn’t remember anything.

  Jessa’s eye snapped open, locked on mine but there was no iris left. Her eyes were gold, molten gold and I couldn’t look away. They were terrifying. I finally pulled my eyes away and checked her palm. It was closed tightly and blood was pouring from it. As it dropped to the ground, it made a hissing noise and disappeared into thin air.

  The bodies of the undead started to fall as Keenan was fighting off three of them and more were coming his way. Their bodies sunk in the dirt like quick sand and soon they were no more. I looked back to the blonde to find her sinking as well, but much slower.

  She snarled at me. “The dagger was supposed to prevent blood magic! Oh well, the poison will do its job soon enough!” She screamed as the ground swallowed her up.

  I finally found my strength and pushed myself up into a sitting position, my body felt foreign, that was for sure. Keenan was by our side now and picking Jessa up. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of that but I also felt like I was moving in slow motion. Keenan was saying something but all I could hear was the blood rushing in my ears.

  Keenan waved his hand in front of my face and I somehow snapped out of it. “Can you climb?”

  Climb the walls of this prison? Ha, no. I had tried.

  “You’re insane if you think we’ll be getting out of here by climbing.” My voice sounded rough, gritty; like the dirt that had been in my eyes.

  “I came down here on a rope.”

  “What about Jessa?” I asked.

  “I would imagine she fell in. That’s the way it looked.” Keenan rolled up Jessa’s pant leg and the zombie’s words made sense.

  “She’s been poisoned!” I shrieked.

  “I know, I need to see the damage before we try to make it out of here.”

  It was a clean cut but blood was flowing from it rather quickly. It would be easy to stitch up but I didn’t think Keenan had thought that far until he pulled out a sewing kit and rolled up his sleeves. That was when I noticed the thick, black band around his wrist.

  “Nice ink.”

  Keenan rolled his eyes at me and tried to clean Jessa’s wound as best as he could. I didn’t trust that the zombies wouldn’t come back, I stretched myself out to my full height and rolled my neck. It was tense and sore. When I rubbed my hands down the back of my head, I felt a large knot and wetness. I couldn’t remember what happened, there was no telling what my beast had done.

  I surveyed the areas the creatures had come through but they seemed solid and closed. I stomped on one for good measure.

  Nice, solid ground.

  When I was done making my rounds, I knelt down next to Keenan and watched him finish the last stitch on her leg. The bleeding had stopped for the most part but she still wasn’t conscious and that was what I was worried about. My beast came to the surface again to sniff Jessa and sure enough, the poison was strong.

  But her skin was glowing, it looked like she had bathed in soft, golden glitter. It was radiant and that’s how I knew her body was fighting it off. She was a strong little goddess.

  She had survived so much and fought so hard with the big dogs, that she had every right to be classified with them. But that wasn’t what made her radiant on the inside. It was her humanity that did that. It was the compassion and humility that she had that made her a goddess. None of the other goddesses could compare, even if they were full-blooded, because they weren’t human. They didn’t have a fraction of what this woman had.

  “Crawley, earth to Crawley.” I blinked a few times to get out of my head. Keenan was still holding Jessa and he had a weird look in his eye.

  My beast came forward stronger than ever. Jealousy flooded my veins as my bear growled deep from my chest. Something had changed between them while I had been stuck down here. Something had happened and I wanted to know everything or I thought I did. I didn’t know if my bear would be able to handle too many details if it included romance.

  He would shred Keenan apart and carry Jessa off to a cave or something insane like that. I was hardly in control lately and I didn’t trust another change.

  “We need to get her back to my cabin.”

  “That’s not going to be possible without a portal.” I knew he had no problem summoning the cabin before but we were in different territory. Zombies had just been a reality… That said enough itself.

  “My magic down here is muddled, I’m sure that was intentional in order to keep you trapped but we can always try something a little stronger.” Keenan moved closer to me and motioned for me to take Jessa. My bear almost purred at the contact. She laid lifeless in my arms and I felt useless. I had missed so much. She had lost so much weight, under her eyes were hallow and I could see scars peeking from the neck on her sweater. Apollo hadn’t taken it easy on her.

  Keenan hissed and my attention snapped back to him. He had a knife in one hand while his wrist was dripping blood. “Blood sacrifices almost always work. Here’
s to hoping.” He closed his eyes and chanted under his breath, just as the air started to shimmer behind his back.

  Well, that’s a cool trick.

  I wished I had that kind of magic but then I remembered how he had said it was a sacrifice. All sacrifices came with a price. Just a little blood wouldn’t do it.

  Keenan squeezed his eyes closed, as if in pain. I watched his wrist close up, like the skin had stitched itself back together then something started to happen. A thick black cord started to encircle his blank wrist and I knew.

  This wasn’t the first time he had used blood magic and that was his punishment until the Gods or the Fates deemed it necessary for a harsher punishment. I didn’t see the punishment in it, it looked badass.

  Keenan’s brow was still furrowed when he opened his eyes. “I can’t carry her through, I’m not strong enough and I don’t want to lose her in there.” Keenan fell through the portal as soon as his words were spoken. I followed suit.

  I had traveled through portals a lot as a child, they didn’t have much of an effect on me anymore. I landed on me feet in Keenan’s kitchen. Keenan was nowhere to be found. I imagined he had escaped to his study by now to deal with whatever he was going through with the blood magic. I laid her down on the couch and overlooked her body. She was so small. She wasn’t the same Jessa that I had found months ago. She was frail but somehow harder. I wanted to kick myself for not being able to be there for her but I also knew that she needed to fight Apollo herself and she wouldn’t get anything out of me doing it for her.

  I traced a scar along her neck before she shot forward and gasped. “Where am I?” She looked around slowly before her eyes landed on me. “Crawley?” She looked me over with disbelief before her eyes got wide. “Why are you naked?”

  I glanced down at myself, embarrassed. I had been so long without clothes, that I had forgotten what it felt like to actually wear them.

  I pulled a throw pillow over my crotch and gave her a sheepish smile. It didn’t get more awkward than that. Our first actual conversation in months and I was butt naked.

  “You found me when I was a bear, didn’t you?”

  She nodded her head before eyeing me suspiciously. “You charged me. You didn’t know who I was.”

  I was afraid of that. “If you hadn’t come when you did, I probably wouldn’t have come back. My beast was getting stronger and stronger, sometimes there isn’t balance and just have hope that he will let me return to my skin.”

  She didn’t say anything but scooted closer to me. She pushed my long hair from my eyes and rubbed the beard sprouting from my jaw with her fingertips. Her eyes were curious before she threw her arms around my shoulders. Her shoulders shook as she cried softly. I had missed her too but I didn’t understand where the emotions where coming from.

  I considered the poison for a moment.

  I wrapped my arms around her and held her tightly, almost as if I was holding her together. I had no idea what she had been through.

  I pushed her back a little to look into her bright eyes. “Hey, it’s alright, it’s going to be alright. I’m not sure what happened back there while I was out but I know that you can get through anything. You’ve made it this far and that is something. That is powerful. That is you.” I wiped my thumbs under her lashes and held her face while she searched mine.

  “Where’s Keenan? Is he okay?” Whatever spell that had us wrapped up in the moment, broke.

  “I’m not sure, I was more worried about you.” I pushed her hair from her face and searched her eyes once more.

  She frowned. “How did we get home?”

  “Blood magic.” At my words, her face fell. She looked like she couldn’t breathe. I didn’t understand what the matter was.

  “Oh, no!” She jumped from the couch and stumbled to the back room where Keenan’s study was. She tried to open the door but it was locked. When she pressed her body against the door, it shot her off of it into the opposite wall. Her head hit the wood first and her body crumpled to the ground. She looked up at me with tired, sad eyes.

  I rushed to her side. I had been in her shoes many times when I was stubborn and didn’t know much about magic. I had tried many times to get into that room, my curiosity always winning and my body losing.

  The door swung open and Keenan stood tall in the doorway. His eyes held no emotion. He knelt by Jessa’s side and grabbed her hands. He helped her stand but there were no emotions behind his actions. He was wearing a thick, long sleeve shirt that covered his new markings.

  Jessa pulled at his shirt. “Are you okay?”

  He nodded to her and his face softened but not by much.

  “Can we talk alone?” Jessa asked Keenan. Her eyes were pleading when finally, Keenan nodded again.

  I guessed that was my cue to find some clothes. I trudged up the stairs almost grudgingly. I had no right to be jealous, I had been gone so long and they were pretty close. They had managed to get to know each other and gain a relationship that we hadn’t gotten the chance for. There was no telling just how deep their relationship had gotten with everything they had gone through together.

  Keenan had been there to help and fight by her side, while I had been stuck in a hole. A damn hole. What a man I was.

  Chapter 11

  Jessa

  I tugged on Keenan’s sleeves. He didn’t make eye contact with me. I didn’t know what I was trying to achieve by making him speak with me alone but I needed to know he was okay.

  I planted both of my palms on either sides of his face and forced him to look at me. “How bad is the pain?”

  “It’s manageable.” He muttered.

  “Your eyes tell a different story.” I cocked my head at him.

  “I feel like I should be happy and grateful that he’s back.” Keenan turned away from me and confusion took over.

  “Crawley?” I asked, confused.

  “Yes, you found him and I’m overjoyed but I’m so confused. Now what?” He shook his head before he turned away from me.

  “I’ve been thinking the same thing but I’m sure Apollo will have more things to draw us out for. He’s just getting started. If he finds out how I put Gemma back to rest he’ll keep forcing my hand until he knows just how powerful I am.” I pulled on the end of my hair.

  “That’s not what I mean.” He let out a sigh.

  “Okay… Then what do you-” My words were cut off by Keenan pressing his lips to mine. Shocked was an understatement. He pressed me against the door and threaded his fingers through my hair. He paused against my lips, waiting for me to return the move but I just couldn’t.

  I turned my head to get some air. I had seen both of our feelings heading in that direction but I hadn’t had time to think on that before I had left. I hadn’t had time to think of what had even happened to me, romance had been the last thing on the list. Hades, I was sure it wasn’t even on the list.

  “I can’t remember what happened to me in Apollo’s prison. I can’t even begin to think about this or what is going on and Crawley is here. Crawley is back. I didn’t come in here so that you could stake claim on me. I came in here because I care about you and the blood offering you made.” I tugged on my hair again as Keenan backed away from me. His eyebrows were drawn together and the rest of his face was unreadable. “I care about you but this is too much.”

  I pressed my back against the door and stumbled from the room. I was out of breath and felt like I had run a marathon. I should have seen it. I should have seen his interests becoming stronger, there should have been some type of warning but I had been so consumed with finding Crawley that he could have thrown all the signs at me and I wouldn’t have seen any of them.

  Speak of the devil.

  Crawley sat with his legs crossed on the couch dressed in sweats. I blushed when we made eye contact.

  He quickly stood up. “Are you alright?”

  “Yes, never been better.” I touched my lips thoughtfully and regretted the move immediately. Crawley’s eye
s zeroed in on my lips and his eye narrowed, suspiciously.

  “Your heart is beating out of your chest and you’re sweating like a madman.” He leaned back on the couch, narrowing his eyes.

  “Just a misunderstanding is all.” I said, nervously.

  Crawley pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and shook his head. He didn’t believe me but I wasn’t lying. It had been a misunderstanding for the most part but for the other small part… I had wanted to enjoy it. I had wanted him to kiss me.

  I scrubbed my hand down my face in frustration. Time to retreat.

  As I was half way up the stairs I heard Crawley call out. “What happened to you? Where did the scars come from?”

  “I don’t know, I can’t remember.” As I made it to my room, I made a silent vow to myself that I would in fact remember and that the Gods wouldn’t take my agency away again.

  I avoided them both the next few days. Crawley wanted to pry and Keenan wanted to grovel. I wasn’t up for either of them so I was content with being alone. I knew that Crawley needed to go home and spend time with the people that had missed him.

  I miss him.

  I tried to shake away the treacherous thoughts but it didn’t work. My mind was right. I had missed him. I hated to admit it, he had been so obnoxious.

  I pulled my hair into a loose bun and tried to focus on the book in front of me. I had pulled it from Keenan’s study while him and Crawley were away.

  Blood Magic and its consequences.

  I couldn’t concentrate on it. All the words blurred together and all the information in the book was too familiar. Blood magic required a sacrifice, either your blood or blood of the innocent and that’s where it became too much for me and all the words started to float away. I flipped through a few more pages, bored. It was no use. My thoughts were treacherous.

  My mind either wandered to what had happened to me in the prison or Crawley pacing down stairs, waiting for me to say goodbye. I was being selfish, I was being rude, locking myself up here like this but I felt like I didn’t have much of a choice.