I look up at her, and this time she squeezes my hand.
“There is nothing evil inside of you. You’re simply…human. You’re flawed. And that’s okay.”
I don’t know why I’m shaking. “I don’t think I can do this. I don’t think I can fight the gods or protect my friends.”
“You can,” she tells me.
I feel like something inside of me is crumbling, and the knowledge makes me tense. If that thing crumbles, I don’t know what it’ll unleash.
“You called. You said you needed to talk to me. Was it about you quitting?”
She stiffens and pulls her hand from mine, her eyes wide. “No.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
Time stretches between us as her eyes fill with tears once more. “Vampires.”
My entire body stiffens.
“They came to the house looking for you. Your parents were out of town, but they wouldn’t leave until we told them where you were. They…they killed everyone in the house except for me. I used my powers to hide, but I heard it all. I saw it all.”
“Julie.” I sound like a boy when I say her name.
“They know you’re here. The servants broke…” Tears pour down her face. “They’re going to come and find you. They said they didn’t like you sniffing around looking for them.”
I collapse back against the seat and stare out into the rain. The faces of our dozen servants flash through my mind. They were a loyal bunch. A good bunch. And now they were dead because I failed to protect them.
“It wasn’t your fault,” she says.
But I know it is. I squeeze my eyes shut, fighting my rage. Fighting not to come undone.
The god’s voice inside of me whispers, “That was cowardly. There was no justice in their actions. Give me your oath. Give me your oath, and we’ll destroy them together.”
“No!” I don’t realize I’ve shouted it until Julie wraps me in an embrace.
My entire body shakes. “Where will you go?”
Julie answers slowly. “I don’t know.”
My mind begins to turn. “Do you like the ocean?”
She nods against my shoulder.
“I have a little house along the beach in California, left to me by my grandmother. It’s in my name alone. Go there and live. Be safe. I’ll send money when I can.”
She draws back from me. “Are you sure?”
I nod and touch her face softly. “I’ll always take care of you, as long as I can.”
“I know that,” she tells me.
I give her the instructions to reach the house and text the caretaker, letting them know to expect her. When everything is arranged, we sit in silence once more, both of us knowing that this could be goodbye forever. Both of us knowing that I might not have the strength to fight the god inside of me.
“You’ll be careful,” she says, drawing the words out.
“Always,” I promise her.
We hug again, clinging to each other like lost leaves in the storm. And when she pulls back, her gaze holds mine. “I didn’t mean to say that Izzy was a problem. She is as much a victim to this as you are. And I know that you love her, that you’ve always loved her. I just meant that all of this was fated to happen.”
I force a smile. “Well, it seems like the best thing I can hope for is to smash the gods down inside of us and live a decently normal life. Damn immortals.”
Julie gets the strangest look. “Why not just kill them?”
“Immortals, remember?”
Her brows draw together. “Van…gods can be killed.”
I don’t breathe for a long minute. “No, they brought godslayers who can trap us away again with the gods, like what happened before. But no one has a way to kill them.”
She leans closer to me. “Van, they trapped them away because they didn’t know better, but there is a way to kill them. But only you guys can do it.”
“How?”
“It’s as easy as defeating them. You have to use their powers against them. Only the power of gods can destroy them. But you have to be careful. The people who did this to Izzy, they weakened her so the gods could use all of you. They’re out there, and they want the gods to be reborn. They want them to take over.”
I shake my head. “So we have to use our own powers to--”
Her gaze goes behind my head, and her eyes widen. “You have to run now, Van. Go back to campus.”
I look behind me and see nothing. “Julie--”
“Run, Van. Run now.”
I start to shake my head. “If there’s something--”
She reaches across the car and throws my door open wide and the wild storm enters. “Go now, or we’re both dead!”
The terror in her face makes me move. I leave the car, slam the door behind me, and she shifts the car into drive. I watch for half a second as she turns her car back the way she’d come, and then I do as she said: I start running.
But even though I shouldn’t, I look back as I race for the school. I sense more than see someone in the shadows of the woods watching us, and I know deep in my heart they want us dead.
Turning back, I run faster, faster than I’ve ever run before. My feet seem to shake the earth, and I feel like a god racing on a new world. Power flows through me in a way it never has before. Not as something wild and uncontrollable, but as a part of me, like it burns in my veins.
When I reach campus once more, I wait until the gates open to let another car out, and I rush in before the guard can spot me. On campus, no one is out, everything is silent.
Not knowing what else to do, I run until I reach that hill, and I stare down once more at the blackened pits. When I close my eyes, I can feel it once more. The magic of the gods flowing through this place.
These pits and these bones were no accident. Someone is preparing for a ritual.
I can feel it. But what is the ritual for?
And which of my friends is not who they think they are?
I think of what Julie said. Could we really kill the gods inside of us by using their powers against them? I feel Tyr tense within me, and I smile.
The god is afraid.
Which means she was right.
My smile widens and I lift my arms to the fury of the storm.
Maybe we were fated to become the gods.
Chapter Fourteen
Izzy
When Mr. Time stops his car in front of my house, the rain washes out the windshield. He reaches into the backseat and tries to hand me a compact black umbrella.
The gesture makes me smile. “It’s all right, I’ll brave the storm.”
He smiles back at me before I jump out of the car, and I run into the house.
As soon as I manage to slam the front door behind me against the rainstorm, my smile dies on my lips.
I push open the door to Aiden’s room without knocking. He’s at his desk, and he jumps to his feet.
“Izzy,” he says, relief evident in his voice as he crosses toward me. His feet are bare, and his t-shirt clings to his broad shoulders above his nicely-fitted jeans. He looks adorable.
Which doesn’t stop me from poking a finger into his hard chest. “What the hell are you and Van up to?”
He stares at me, guilt flashing across his face before he offers me that cocky grin. “I can’t think of anything in particular, although we--”