Salvaged Soul (The Ignited Series Book 3) (9 page)

Once again, sleep eluded me as I tossed and turned most of the night. Come morning, I didn’t care how much—or how little—rest I had gotten the night before. Pure adrenaline had me pumped and raring to go with the sunrise.

In addition to Jared and me, the small team climbing the mountain included the other two leaders and their two top soldiers. The two European guys spoke with thick French accents that made it difficult to understand them, but I understood enough to determine that their names were Pierre and Louis. They appeared bored with the feat before us, though looking at the mountain from the edge of the village, I imagined we were in for something far from boring.

The Australian guys, named Callum and Seb, were much more excited. Perhaps a little too excited, and maybe even a little oblivious to the magnitude of what awaited us. Still, they were much more fun to hang out with than the French guys.

We signed up for a self-guided tour so that we didn’t have to explain anything to an unsuspecting tour guide. They couldn’t help us anyway. Though every one of them had been all over that mountain, looking for the entrance to the home of the gods, none of them actually knew where it was. 

No one did. Not even the team leaders were told exactly where to find it. We were walking blind. Our only instruction had been to climb to the base of Mytika’s Summit. That was it. Where we went from there was anyone’s guess.

It took us a few hours of fast-paced steady hiking to get there. It was obvious from where we stood, with the summit still a several-hour climb above us, that we weren’t going any farther without some serious climbing gear . . . or godly intervention.

Jared dropped his backpack to the ground with a sigh, and moved to stand under the shade of a small tree. The trees had dwindled in number and in size during the climb, to the point that now the amount of rock greatly outnumbered the amount of foliage. Right now, that lone tree off the side of the trail was our only sanctuary, and the rest of us followed Jared there, seeking refuge from the unforgiving sun.

I withdrew a bottle of water from the backpack I had purchased that morning just for the hike, and downed half of it in one gulp. Then I dumped a little on my head, but it did little to cool me down.

“Now what?” Seb grumbled.

Jared stepped out from under the tree and walked around in a wide circle. He appeared to inspect the rock walls that surrounded us, though it was anyone’s guess as to what he was looking for.

“The entrance to the
Hall of the Gods
is at the base of Mytika’s Summit,” he mused quietly as he ran a hand over the gray stone. “There has to be something around here . . .”

“We split apart?” Pierre stammered in broken English. “That what Americans speak it?”

I squinted at him as I tried to determine what he was gibbering about.

Jared apparently had no trouble interpreting him, and nodded. “Yeah. We’ll split up, cover more ground. Nathan, you’re with me.”

The look I shot Jared let him know just how I felt about walking around, looking for something none of us would know on sight. But, I supposed Frenchie was right—splitting up and searching for
something
was about our only option.

As I fell into step beside Jared, he said, “This is all you, man. I might be a natural leader, but you’re the nature freak.” He waved his arms out in front of him, as if shoo-ing me away. “Go. Track the gods down.”

I shot him a look that said,
‘you’re an idiot’
. “Yeah, because I’m sure the gods would leave obvious footprints in the dirt for me to track.”

Jared shrugged when he realized I had a point. “Well, then look for signs of a hidden door or something. I don’t know. You have a better idea?”

“You think the gods aren’t already aware that we’re here?” They were probably all sitting around, watching the cameras in their high-tech security room and laughing at us.

“Another good point,” Jared mumbled as he fell behind me.

The trail narrowed as we rounded a large rock formation, permitting only one person through at a time. Since I was in the lead, I was the first to see her.

Perched on a boulder, head cocked to the side in amusement, was a sight that could only be described with the word,
apparition
. She was real, I was sure of that, but her form looked . . . fuzzy and incomplete, like she was a hologram produced by a defective laser.

Or a goddess in-between realms?

I recognized her immediately, and my jaw dropped in awe. After all, she was the source of the very tracking expertise we were discussing.

Artemis.

Though I expected nothing less of a goddess, her natural beauty, combined with the charisma that radiated from her, was an overwhelming combination. Enough to stop my feet beneath me so suddenly that Jared plowed into my back with an
‘oomph.’

She slid off the boulder with a small smile, and a gracefulness that would put a dancer to shame. “You are the two I am looking for,” she said. Even her voice sounded like softly strung harp strings to my ears.

I stood, transfixed. As Jared came to a stand beside me, I saw that he too was in awe. I didn’t doubt that we looked like a couple of pimple-ridden prepubescent boys watching their first peepshow.

Our reactions didn’t faze Artemis. With a wave of her hand, she said, “Come with me.”

I started forward as Jared said, “There are four others with us.”

Artemis glanced over her shoulder, but didn’t stop. Her long tan robes nearly covered her sandal-clad feet. Though they moved beneath her, she appeared to float along the trail. “The two of you will suffice.”

We followed closely behind her as we navigated the steep terrain. I cast Jared a concerned look when I saw what lay in front of us. Sure, a vertical rock wall might not have been a problem for an
immortal
goddess, but there was no way Jared and I could climb it. Not without some climbing gear.

“Stay close to me,” Artemis instructed.

I didn’t know what she was talking about because I assumed we would be stopping. There wasn’t anywhere left to go but up, and that wasn’t happening unless we grew wings. But then she walked into the rock wall. . .

And then the wall wasn’t really there anymore. It was, sort of, but in a blurry kind of way. Sort of like Artemis had appeared at first. Now, she was solid, standing on the other side of the blurry wall of stone. She turned to wait for Jared and me. Right up until the moment I passed through the wall unscathed, I expected to make hard and painful contact with rock.

Artemis smiled at the amazement on our faces, and kept walking. We were on a trail in this realm too, but it was covered in a thick fog that enveloped us. I could only see a few feet in front of me—just enough to keep an eye on Artemis. I felt Jared at my back, staying close, as we followed her.

Seconds turned to minutes, and the fog thickened until I couldn’t see my own feet, but I dared not slow down for fear of losing track of Artemis. My foot hit something hard and unforgiving, forcing me to lurch forward. Throwing my hands out in front of me, I connected with more stone.

“Step up . . .”

Though I could no longer see her, I could hear her. In front of me. And a little higher . . .

I lifted my foot, finding the first step, then another, and climbed through the fog until she came into view again—six inches from my face. Jared’s hands were all over my back like a blind lab rat trying to find the cheese at the end of a long tunnel. At this point, I didn’t care how stupid we looked, and I reached behind me to grab a hold of his shirt as I ascended the stairs after Artemis.

Though I had no way of knowing just how high we were, I knew we were high. The air felt thin, I had poor balance, and I just
knew
. And still we kept climbing.

I imagined that we were ascending to the top of Mytika’s Summit . . . from inside the mountain? It was a difficult concept for me to grasp, and I assumed there would be a few more things in the coming minutes that I would have a hard time believing.

“Close your eyes now.”

I did as Artemis instructed. That didn’t stop me from wincing from the sudden burst of bright light that assaulted my eyes through my eyelids. A hand came down on my shoulder, stopping me from taking another step.

“Take your time, and open your eyes when you’re ready.”

“I think I’m blind,” Jared muttered from beside me.

I used my hands to shield the light as I slowly—very, very slowly—opened my eyes. Even then, I looked down at my feet until my eyes adjusted.

Finally, I looked up, and took in a sight that belonged in a high-budget fantasy movie. Not real life. Even seeing it with my own eyes, I couldn’t believe something this spectacular could exist in the world without being computer generated.

We stood on a balcony at the top . . . of the inside of the mountain. Its rocky peak towered fifty yards above us, but that was nothing. No, the truly phenomenal sight lay beneath us.

An entire community had been chiseled out of the odd cone-shaped structure created of stone. An elaborate network of stairs connected the balcony on which we stood to the bottom. Along the way, large golden doors that stood three or four stories high opened into the side of the mountain, and I could only imagine where they led. At the very bottom lay an enormous garden, with a thin but tall waterfall pouring out of the side of the mountain into a central pool of the clearest water I had ever seen.

Though they resembled ants from our height, dozens of individuals mingled amongst the lush and colorful garden. Others passed to and fro through the many, many doors.

Gods. All of them. I had always wondered how they lived on Mount Olympus. It had never made sense to me until now. Because now I knew they didn’t actually live on the mountain. They lived
inside
it.

And I was there. I was standing inside the
Hall of the Gods
.

Chapter 9

{Kris}

Days were now labeled in terms of how long Nathan had been gone. Today wasn’t Thursday. It was day number three. Three whole days since he left. I had once heard that time numbed the pain of separation, but I disagreed. Each day without him was worse than the previous, and he was all I thought about.

I wondered where he was. I wondered what time it was there. I wondered if he had started the mission yet. I wondered if he had completed it.I wondered if Kira had tried to make her move yet. When my mind wandered to thoughts of her, my inner Skotadi fought a little harder to come out and play.

My training hadn’t been going so well the past few days. I knew why. Everyone knew why. My head wasn’t in it because my heart was gone, and I didn’t know when it would come back.

Top secret mission. How long could it take? A week?

“I was talking to Gran the other day about your specialties.” Alec sat across from me at our usual table in the mess hall, with Kim and Bruce between us. We had been talking about the progress we both had made so far, but somewhere between fire yielding and charming, my mind started to wander.

“Uh-huh.”
Two weeks tops. Definitely couldn’t be more than two weeks.

“And we both think that maybe some of the things you’re trying to do aren’t working because . . .”

How am I going to make it two weeks? What if it ends up being longer?
 

“So I was thinking about giving up girls, and maybe try the gay thing for a little while . . .”

What if it’s a month or more? What if . . .

“There are some hot gay guys out there. Some even as hot as me . . .”

What if it’s forever? What if the last time I saw Nathan is really the last time?

“Actually, I did try it once. I was drunk, and one thing led to another . . .”

What?

“What?”

“Ah,” Alec said over the cup of coffee lifted to his mouth. Though I couldn’t see his lips, the twinkle in his eyes suggested that they were slanted in an Alec-style grin. “So coming out of the closet is what it takes for you to pay attention to me?”

Bruce snorted into his cup, spilling a little bit of coffee. Kim remained silent, though I detected the tease of a smile on her face. I stared at her a few seconds longer than what was socially acceptable, and when her gaze drifted to mine, the smile was gone, replaced by a wary frown. Not that it mattered now, because I knew I hadn’t imagined that smile.

Kim had actually smiled.

And Alec was still waiting for me to acknowledge him.

I shook off the moment of astonishment, and offered Alec a smile as an apology. “I’m just really distracted right now.”

“That’s actually the point I’m trying to make.” Alec leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “You’re not focusing enough.”

I groaned. “You know who you sound like?”

Alec pointed a finger at me. “Don’t you dare compare me to him.”

I shrugged. “It’s not my fault you said the same thing he says . . .
all the time
.”

“Whatever.” Alec waved his hand dismissively, letting the Micah insult bounce off of him surprisingly well. He must have been wearing his charm. “You need to stop worrying about Nathan. He’s a big boy. He can handle himself. You need to start worrying about yourself. Time is running out, Kris.”

I sat up a little straighter in my chair. “I know it is.”

“Then put your game face on.”

It was a warning—a stern one—that I already knew I needed to heed. It wasn’t just my future in jeopardy. Alec’s was too, and he was counting on me.
Everyone
was counting on me because
everything
was at stake. It was so much bigger than simply what would become of Alec and me, and much more important than my relationship with Nathan.

Besides, all the worry I did over Nathan would be in vain if he returned from the mission to find that I had become the monster we were trying to keep me from becoming. So, yeah, I knew I needed to focus on me first.

I squared my shoulders, lifting my head high. “I got it, Alec.”

His head tilted with a broad smile. “There’s your game face. Good. Now I can eat.” He stabbed the mountain of scrambled eggs on his plate with a fork, but stopped just before shoveling them into his mouth. “You do know I’m not gay, right? I was just messing with you earlier.”

I smiled into my cup of orange juice. “You said you were drunk. Who am I to judge you?”

“No, seriously . . .” The scrambled eggs were dropped, completely forgotten. He jabbed a thumb into his chest. “Right here? Straight as they come. Got it?”

“Sure,” I said, but my tone suggested uncertainty.

I glanced at Bruce, and saw the faint smile on his face. At least he recognized a joke when he heard one.

Alec leaned forward with his hands on the table, his eyes wide as they darted between the three of us. I suspected that he was about two seconds from jumping up and proving his sexuality with the next girl that walked by. Or Kim. I decided I had better stop teasing him before he got into trouble for offending some Kala princess, or had his jaw broken by Kim.

“Alec . . .” A slow smile spread across my face. “I’m joking. I know you’re not gay.” If anyone knew just how non-gay Alec was, it would be me.

“That’s not funny.” He finally took a bite of his eggs.

“It was kind of funny,” Bruce muttered quietly.

Alec grunted something unintelligible, and dove into his breakfast with renewed urgency. Apparently, now that his sexual preferences had been confirmed, he realized just how hungry he was. He had nearly cleared his plate before he looked up again with a groan.

“Incoming,” he said in warning. “Looks like you’re about to get branded, Kris.”

Before I could ask what he was talking about, Micah plopped into the seat beside me. With a bracelet in his hand. I had to admit it was gorgeous, with a dozen or so tiny, sparkly gems strung together on a silver chain. As spectacular as it was, it didn’t look like something that had come out of a
Tiffany’s
magazine.

“What’s this?” I asked him.

“Something you need to wear.”

He grabbed my hand, but I pulled it out of his grasp before he could slip the bracelet on. “Why?”

He dropped the bracelet to his lap with a sigh, and his eyes lifted to mine. The sadness in them caused my heart to stutter a beat before falling into its natural rhythm again.

That protective instinct—the need to shelter Micah from any kind of pain, both physically and emotionally—came from somewhere deep inside of me. Somewhere very,
very
deep, and it clashed with the other half of me that yearned to rip his head off. It was as if I were riding on a very unsteady seesaw that bounced back and forth randomly and forcefully. The daily battle did a hell of a job messing with my head. Because even if I didn’t particularly like Micah, I didn’t really hate him either. Not like the Skotadi in me did.

But I also didn’t really care for him. Not like my mother’s bloodline had programmed me to do. However, that love-crossed version of me seemed to be in control of the seesaw this morning.

“I’ve been doing some researching,” Micah explained, and I tried to ignore the injured-pride tone to his voice. It did weird things to my heart—without my approval. “I’ve been staying up late for weeks now, trying to find a way to help you, and I think I found a way. A lot of spells require the use of certain stones or gems, right?”

“Yeah, I know. I have a few in my room.” My favorite was the black tourmaline crystal placed under my pillow that kept Micah from invading my dreams. “We’ve had a hard time finding the rest.”

“I found them.” He lifted the bracelet. “I went through the books and found every single one that you might need and had the Earth Department supervisor order them.”

I gingerly took the bracelet from him, and marveled at the raw beauty of the gems as I rolled them between my fingers. 

“I thought maybe if you wore this all the time, you could draw from their energy,” Micah continued. “And when you need them, when you do a spell, they will already be with you.”

My eyes remained fixed on the gems as if they held me in a trance. Who knew what strength I might gain from having these on me when I attempted spells?

“Thank you,” I whispered, finally meeting Micah’s eyes.

I chose to overlook the gleam of admiration I saw in them, and fastened the chain around my wrist. It didn’t necessarily make me feel any different, any better, but just knowing the possibilities gave me a renewed sense of empowerment.

Having the bracelet, and all the gems that I needed to reach my potential in my possession, gave me the confidence I had been lacking all this time. I had the feeling that this was exactly what I needed to get over the hump that had stalled me.

It would all be thanks to Micah. I couldn’t believe he had gone to all this trouble for me.

No. I actually could believe it. That was one thing I could always count on Micah for. He would stop at nothing to help me, and he had proven that once again today.

I felt a little bad now about how I had been treating him. It wasn’t his fault we were destined to be soul mates, and it wasn’t fair to take it out on him. True, he was okay with letting it happen—perhaps a little too okay with it. But I supposed I went a little too far in letting him know how unhappy I was about having my fate determined for me.

I made a conscious decision to be nicer to Micah. Starting now.

When I looked up and caught Alec’s gaze, he hooked a dark eyebrow in curiosity. I couldn’t imagine what his reaction would be when I told him about my change of heart regarding Micah.

My new and improved opinion of Micah lasted about twenty minutes.

The downward spiral started when he suggested we try something different with our practice that morning. Because I was eager to see how well the gems around my wrist would work, I was game for anything. Even going somewhere alone with Micah—well, with Richie tagging along of course. Kim took a break, while Alec went down to the beach with Gran and Bruce. That left the three of us to enter the Infirmary that morning.

This wasn’t my first trip to the Infirmary. Shortly after arriving, the island doctor had checked me out. I had no idea what he had been looking for, but he had apparently decided that I was worthy enough to live on the island while they helped me find a cure for my evil. As if it were a medical condition.

But today, Micah had something entirely different in store for me.

Security regarded Micah as if he were some Kala prince, and wrinkled their noses at me like I was something that they would throw in the dumpster. But since I was with him, the guards held the doors open until I had passed through, rather than shutting them in my face.

Security also seemed to know exactly where Micah was going, and it finally occurred to me what he planned for me to do.

Healing diamond injury
.

I came to a halt as the last door opened in front of us, and I caught a glimpse of the Skotadi in the room—on the other side of a glass wall.

“I’m not sure I’m ready for this, Micah.”

“There’s only one way to find out,” he returned. “You have to learn some time.”

“I will. I’m just . . . not sure I want to do it now. I don’t know what to do.”

“I told you what to do. I explained what compounds are used, and exactly how to use them.” He pulled the vial he always carried with him out from under his shirt, and lifted the chain over his head. Holding it out to me, he added, “You have everything you need right here.”

I didn’t take the vial from him. If anything, I recoiled from it.

I didn’t want to do this for two reasons. One, we hadn’t reviewed how to perform the ritual enough for me to feel comfortable doing it on my own yet. And two, I didn’t exactly agree with the method in which he practiced the skill.

A quick glance at the Skotadi behind the glass confirmed my suspicions. While all Skotadi looked like death, this one in particular looked like he had been dead, buried, and dragged through the pits of hell no less than a dozen times. I didn’t doubt that he had been Micah’s practice dummy for some time. My opinion of the Skotadi was as low as anyone else’s, but that didn’t mean I thought it was okay for the Kala to kidnap them for the purpose of practicing diamond injury healing.

I had experienced diamond injury. I knew how badly it hurt. Skotadi or not, I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone. Unless, of course, they tried to kill me or someone I loved. Then it was injure to kill. Not injure to practice healing.

“Micah, no. I’m not comfortable with this.”

He regarded me with a hint of compassion, and for a moment I thought he would respect my wishes and call off this exercise. Then his eyes flicked to the see-through glass wall behind me, and he said, “You have about thirty seconds to get comfortable with it.”

“What?” I turned to see what he saw.