I found her now. Lady Saphira was a little on the short side for an all-powerful goddess, but what she lacked in physical size, she made up for in presence. A cluster of gods had formed around her, and it was growing. There was something about her that drew people to her.
“What can you tell me about her?” I asked Stash.
“Lady Saphira is from a small but respected family with a vast network of alliances, many of them negotiated by Saphira herself. As you can see for yourself, she is very popular. She has an uncanny talent for always knowing just what to say to everyone. That’s the main reason she has so much support to join the council. I believe her talent stems from her strong, highly-adaptable shifting magic.”
“Strong shifting magic. Like Valora.”
“That makes her an ideal fit to take Valora’s place and become the next patron goddess of shifters,” said Stash. “Another reason Saphira has managed to amass so much support is a key political alliance with her now-fiancé Lord Eros.”
I followed Stash’s gaze to a god with a soldierly stance. Even his black suit looked more like armor than evening wear. A dagger was strapped to his belt and a band of small throwing knives to each arm, but I hardly noticed them. My eyes were inevitably drawn to the massive sword on his back, which looked big and sharp enough to cut through a dragon, or slash the top off an ancient redwood tree. Eros must have always attended the Lords’ Gala armed to the teeth because no one else was gaping at his impressive armament. Seriously, I counted more weapons on him than on any of my comrades in Heaven’s Army, and I was fairly sure Eros had a few more weapons that I couldn’t see.
“In other words, Saphira and Eros have pooled their resources with the goal of landing a seat on the council,” Stash told me. “Lord Eros has pledged all his supporters to her. And with that, Lady Saphira has more support than any god here, even more than Valora.”
“It sounds like she has this Choosing in the bag,” I commented.
“Perhaps,” he said. “But the night is still young.”
“Who’s that man standing next to Saphira? The one with arms as thick as tree trunks and eyes that burn like watchtowers.”
“That’s Calix,” he told me. “And he’s somewhat of a legend. Long ago, he served as a soldier in Heaven’s Army, but now he serves only Saphira. He’s her bodyguard, teacher, and trainer, sworn to protect her at all costs. Lady Saphira has studied under Calix her whole life in order to prepare her for this day, the day that she will claim her destiny.”
“Very melodramatic. You should write speeches,” I told him.
“I’ve thought about it.”
“But for a burly fellow such as yourself, there are more jobs wielding a sword than wielding a pen?”
He chuckled. “Yeah. People see me and think ‘front line’, not ‘fits well behind a desk’.”
I snorted. “What did you mean about Saphira claiming her destiny?”
“From what I hear, her family has been trying—and failing—to ascend to the gods’ council for millennia. So when Saphira was born, her mother decided her daughter would train day and night her entire life to be the perfect goddess.”
“The perfect goddess,” I repeated. “Talk about a lot of pressure.”
“She is up to the challenge. If she wins the Choosing. She has competition. Someone else really wants the job.”
I followed his gaze to an auburn-haired goddess. She was tall, and even beneath her fluffy ballgown, her form was lean and muscular. She had the eyes of a hawk and the air of someone who wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty.
“That’s Lady Coralia,” Stash told me. “After Lady Saphira, she’s the member of the lower nobility with the most support.”
“She doesn’t look like a very nice person.”
“She isn’t,” he confirmed. “Coralia believes the council has been too lenient with the gods’ subjects. She wants to curb freedoms and force devotion.”
“She sounds like a real treat.”
“And yet her views appeal to many of the gods, those who believe they need to be less generous with ‘lesser beings’.”
“Like mortals.”
“Mortals are the beginning, but far from the end. Coralia and her supporters believe no one but the gods should possess magic. They don’t believe in giving it away.”
“She wants to dissolve the Legion of Angels?”
“She doesn’t just want to dissolve it. She wants to hunt down and kill each and every Legion soldier. Because, according to her, they should never have been given magic to begin with.”
This was getting better by the second.
“Including the angels?” I asked.
“Especially the angels. Because angels, with all their magic, are in the best position to challenge the gods.”
“If she believes that, then she can’t be a fan of either you or me.”
“She’s not.”
“How do you know so much about her?” I asked him.
“I have seen into her soul.”
Right. I’d forgotten Stash had that power. All gods—and angels too when they grew powerful enough—had a few special abilities outside the usual battery of spells and magic.
I hadn’t yet displayed any truly unique abilities myself, well unless you counted my penchant for chaos. From my glowing hair that mesmerized vampires, to my power to compel monsters, every ‘special’ power I had was just an extension of Siren’s Song or Vampire’s Kiss. So did that makes me nothing more than the end solution of a magic equation between my father the God of Sirens and my mother the Demon of Vampires?
I really didn’t want to think about it.
“Luckily for us, it doesn’t look like Coralia will win the Choosing,” I said.
I had enough problems as it was without worrying about some fanatical deity coming after me and everyone I cared about.
“Yes, luckily,” Stash agreed, but he was watching Coralia with obvious trepidation.
So I watched her too. The goddess was walking toward the water lily fountain, her bubblegum-pink ballgown swooshing as she moved. Every step was calculated, every footfall landing precisely where she intended it to be.
She was at the fountain. She was reaching toward one of the flowers...no, her hand landed on the stone rim. Her foot set down beside it. Then the other. She hopped across the water, onto the mermaid sculpture at the center. She was climbing onto the mermaid.
“What the hell…” I glanced at Stash.
Coralia’s soul must have been shining the color of pure evil right now because he looked like he was bracing for one catastrophic explosion.
“Lords and ladies, gods and goddesses.” Coralia’s voice penetrated the chatter, silencing them all at once. “We have gathered here tonight to choose one of our own to challenge Valora, to ascend and become one of heaven’s Seven. Most of us have come here in good faith, bonded by loyalty and shared virtue.” She nodded at a cluster of gods and goddesses, presumably her supporters. “However, others have come here with only darkness in their hearts and lies on their lips.” Her head snapped to Saphira, and she unfolded a very long, very damning finger toward the other goddess. “Lady Saphira has lied to you all. She is not what she seems. She is neither perfect nor loyal. And she has committed the most deplorable sin of all: she has lied to those who call her an ally.” Coralia’s eyes honed in on Eros. “She has betrayed you, Lord Eros.”