Goddess of War (9 page)

A WOMAN IN
white floated into the center of the courtyard, and the sky turned red.

She certainly didn’t waste any time.

“She’s here,” Raina whispered. Raina knew the moment that she saw her in the sky that this might be the day that she and her brother would finally die.

Litha landed in the center of town with the sound of thunder crackling across the sky. Long lavender hair floated with the cool breeze. With dark brown skin covered in white tattoos, she was a beautiful specimen to look upon, but Raina had seen, and felt her evil.

Litha’s blue eyes regarded the guests with cool disinterest.

Humans were beneath her.

“It’s time to go,” Raina whispered to her brother.

Allan shook his head. “No,” he said. “We can’t let her win.”

Raina shook her head as she tightened her fist around the dagger.

“Listen to your sister, Vineet,” Litha said, her lips curling into a cruel smile. “You are out of time. Come with me now, and I will let these pathetic humans live.”

King Lavi approached her first. Queen Nevah tried to pull him back, terror in her eyes. The king turned to calm her.

“It will be fine,” King Lavi said.

Raina clenched her jaw.

He had no idea how wrong he was.

There was no mystery to who Litha was. There were sculptures and statues all throughout the land in her honor.

“Goddess,” he said to her, bowing to one knee.

It was odd to see King Lavi bow to anyone, but he had the right idea. If anything was going to work on Litha, it was humility and praise.

“You’ve been hiding my prisoners, King Lavi,” Litha said, gazing to the blood red sky. “I really don’t appreciate it.”

“Who do you refer to?”

She glared down at him. “Who do you think? Don’t feign ignorance with me. I want the twins with the black tattoos.”

“We didn’t know who they were. I swear it,” King Lavi said. “Please spare us, and take those whom you seek.”

Raina shook as her eyes lifted to meet Litha’s. Shock filled her body, leaving her unable to move. She glanced at Aric.

Her lips whispered goodbye to him, and panic filled his eyes.

“No,” Aric shouted.

Litha’s attention went to him and Raina felt her stomach lurch.

“Stay back, Aric,” she shouted.

“Yes,” Litha said. “Stay back,” she repeated and with a flick of her hand, Aric’s body went soaring into the stone wall that enclosed them in the banquet hall’s courtyard.

Raina cried out. She ran at Litha only to suffer her first blow.

Litha’s black lightning entered Raina’s body, seeming to rip through her insides.

She prayed that Aric was okay.

Doubling over, she tried to catch her breath. She reached out a hand, weakly, but not ready to give up.

“No,” Raina shouted when Litha turned her attention to Allan. “Stop.”

She clutched her chest, the pain threatening to elicit a scream of agony. Raina held it in. Not in front of Aric.

“Leave him alone,” Raina shouted. “Please, kill me, and let Allan live.”

Litha’s brows rose, as did the corners of her lips.

“What is this you propose? I kill you, and let the God of Peace live?”

Raina bit her lip, her heart thumping in her chest. Everything hurt.

“Yes,” Raina said, nodding, tear streaming down her cheeks. “We can’t rule without the other. We can only rule together. Aden can be yours.”

Raina’s face drained of color when Litha let out a chuckle and sent her black lightning into Allan’s body. The jolt sent him crashing to the ground.

Eyes wide, Raina screamed as she watched her brother lay there unmoving.

Raina forgot her own pain and scrambled to reach for her brother’s hand.

They’d been foolish to think they could win again a god much stronger than the both of them.

Now, Raina could feel herself dying.

“I’m surprised you’re still breathing,” Litha said. “The reports must have been true; that you can truly absorb any kind of blow, physical, mental, or magical. I am impressed.”

Raina rolled onto her back, her eyes staring into the white sky. She held onto Allan’s hand.

“Please, goddess. Spare my people,” King Lavi said, his eyes fixed on Allan’s body. “We are not a part of this.”

“King Lavi,” Raina whispered, drawing his attention.

He looked to her. Everyone did.

“You brought this terror to my kingdom,” he said.

Raina felt her face heat. She turned her head to glare at him.

“You might want to get out of my way,” Raina said, her body lifting into the air.

King Lavi scrambled to his feet and backed away.

Litha watched her, her face without emotion.

Time was at a deficit. Raina had only seconds to retaliate, and so with the power of the wind, she cast a funnel over Allan’s body, protecting him from any further harm.

“Clever,” Litha said, her arms out to her side as she lifted herself to Raina’s level. “But you’ll pay for that with your life force.”

Raina shot her a glare. “No, Litha. I saved some just for you.”

Like an arrow, Raina darted into Litha’s body, crashing through her protective aura, and wrapping a hand around the woman’s neck.

Litha gasped, her blue eyes peering at Raina with shock.

“I thought you were willing to die,” Litha hissed from clenched teeth.

Raina squeezed her neck.

“I lied,” she said.

IT TOOK EVERY
ounce of energy for Raina to keep her grip on Litha’s neck. Fueled by more rage than energy, she tightened her grip.

Litha reached a hand around Raina’s arm and pressed a finger to Raina’s forehead, blinding her.

The people of Rhene took this moment to flee. Screams of terror and filled her ears.

No one else had a chance to for Litha’s patience was thin. With a violent push to Raina’s face, Litha sent her back to the ground so forcefully that Raina found herself in a deep crater that broke through the stone of the courtyard and made way to moist soil.

Raina cried out as she fell face-first into the ground, the dirt barely softening the impact. Weak from the drain on her power, she looked over her shoulders at Litha.

Good job
, Raina thought.
All you did was make her angrier.

If only she had reached Enlightenment, she could have had a chance. They were foolish to think they could win against a goddess that had been around since the beginning of time.

The Goddess of Law lifted both arms, and a force of air rippled through the dusty ground. The power of that ripple sent all of the surrounding buildings outward.

The sound overwhelmed Raina as she tried to pull herself from the hole in the ground. The destruction was unlike anything Raina had ever seen. Dust and debris rose from the ground, and upward to encircle Litha’s frightening frame.

Enraged, Litha shot lightning into everything in sight.

Raina’s hair whipped around her face as the world around her turned to chaos.

She wished she could save the humans she had grown to love.

She’d failed them all.

Raina tried to climb to Allan’s body. She had to reach him and take refuge in the funnel she’d created. Together they could escape this world gone mad and walk into the land of the dead hand-in-hand.

Something grabbed Raina by the hair, jerking her to the surface.

“Don’t give up, Raina,” Desi’s voice said as she lifted to the surface.

Raina grunted as her body hit the stone beside Allan.

“Desi,” she cried as she watched the fairy stumble to her knees.

“I can’t stay, Raina,” Desi said in between gasps for air. “This world cannot sustain me.”

“Go back into the necklace!”

Desi shook her head. “No, Raina.”

Raina sucked in a breath as she watched Desi turn herself into a golden ball of light wrapped in black tendrils that increased her glow.

“Live, Raina,” Desi said in her tiny voice.

Raina cried out as Desi shot into the air. Her eyes followed the golden light as it cut through the destruction.

Desi shot through Litha’s body, leaving a hole the size of Raina’s fist.

“Desi!”

Her hands shook as she reached for the fairy. She prepared to fly when Allan grabbed her by the wrist.

“No,” he said in between ragged breaths.

Torn between Allan’s awakening, and Desi’s actions, Raina turned back to watch as Litha’s body trembled.

Within a blink, Desi exploded inside of Litha’s belly, sending blood, bone, and guts into the air.

Allan kept a firm grip on Raina’s arm.

“Run, Raina,” he shouted.

Through burning tears, Raina made a fist. “Why? She’s gone. They are all gone.”

Allan pulled her up to her feet.

Stunned by his strength, Raina stared at him.

“You can’t kill a god like Litha, Raina,” Allan reminded her. “She will be back.”

Raina wrapped her arms around her brother’s middle, and sobbed into the front of his shirt.

“And next time she will bring the Red Beast.”

“No,” Raina said, her face set with determination.

“Next time we will be ready. For her, the Red Beast, and any evil that comes our way.”

Allan ran his thumb across her cheek. He looked at her with pride.

“That’s right. That’s the Preeti I know.”

An Exclusive Excerpt from God of Peace, the second installment of The Tales from the Abyss series.

FEAR DOMINATED RAINA’S
thoughts. Rhene no longer existed. Allan was missing. All she had was her power and her golden-haired hero.

This could not be real.

Desi!

“We failed,” Raina mumbled through the bone-searing pain. Her blood dripped all over Aric. She dared to hope they could survive.

Raina gripped Aric’s hand and stifled a cry as the pain ripped through her thigh. The noise of the falling city filled her ears as the pain burned through her muscles.

She shrieked and without pause, he threw her over his shoulder and continued running through the snow covered forest.

Wolves howled and warned their pack that creatures more dangerous than themselves were in their territory.

The pain threatened everything.

“Calm yourself, Raina,” Aric growled as ran with her. “We will lose her and you will recharge. Trust me.”

Raina felt herself losing her grip on her power. So much blood dripped onto his chest from her wounds. Raina’s eyes rolled into the back of her head.

“Trust me,” he begged in between labored breaths. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Raina nodded. A chill ran throughout her entire body, making her eyes pop open in alarm. She expected to see the moon, but the cloak of a massive shadow blocked its light.

She was getting closer.

Cold, and bleeding, Raina began to cry. This was not the first time, nor the one hundredth. She knew that they weren’t going to make it out of the Abyss.

Not with their souls.