The Last Guardian of Tara (The Guardians of Tara Book 5)

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Last Guardian of Tara

  A Guardians of Tara Sequel

  S.M. Schmitz

  Copyright © 2017 by S.M. Schmitz

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Also by S.M. Schmitz

  Chapter One

  Hanna never thought she’d spend her twenty-fifth birthday painting walls in her parents’ palace, yet there she was, sponge roller in hand and a can of ivory paint by her feet. She glanced at her father who had already started covering one of the taupe walls with primer and decided to try whining one more time, even though it hadn’t worked so far.

  “Dad, it’s my birthday,” she pouted.

  “I know. I was there when you were born.”

  She blinked at his back and tried again. “I’ve gotten a party on every other birthday. This isn’t a party.”

  Cameron glanced over his shoulder at her and grinned. “And after last year, you’re lucky I still let Dionysus into Murias.”

  “Leave her alone,” Selena called from the hallway. She carried a new paintbrush in one hand and a wooden stirrer in the other, and she kissed her daughter’s cheek before emptying her hands to embrace her husband.

  Hanna wrinkled her nose and cleared her throat to remind them their daughter was only six feet away, and Cameron grinned at her again and said, “Maybe you should go find a party to attend for a while.”

  “Thank God,” she mumbled.

  “Hanna,” Cameron pretend-scolded.

  “You, Dad,” she sighed.

  “I mean, seriously, it’s like we raised a heathen or something,” he teased.

  Hanna glanced hopefully at her mother who laughed and waved a hand toward the door. “Go. This was obviously your father’s idea. But you know the rules. If you go to Earth, don’t go alone.”

  Hanna squealed and clapped her hands together, throwing her arms around her parents to hug them before darting out of a guest room they’d never even used. But it was her birthday, and like most birthdays, she had two completely different worlds where she wanted to celebrate. She’d grown up feeling just as bound to Earth as she did to the Otherworld, and she loved the realm of humans with a passion no other god could quite understand. Even her parents, who’d been born there as demigods, didn’t share the same attachment to this world Hanna had never even lived in.

  But Earth had been a dangerous planet for gods her entire life. The New Pantheon, which had been reinstated about a year after it was disbanded but had never regained the government’s trust, had failed to recover all of the vessels containing the souls of the gods who’d tried to murder her family, and while Enlil and his allies had been quiet, no one expected it to last.

  But today, her twenty-fifth birthday, Hanna planned to go to Findias to ask one of her closest friends to accompany her to New Orleans so they could celebrate, but Badb beat her to it. Hanna pulled open the door of the palace where she lived with her parents, and the war goddess stood on the other side, her fists planted on her hips. “Did your father really tell you that you had to spend the entire day helping him repaint a guest room?”

  From behind her, Cameron yelled, “Shut up, Crow.”

  “New Orleans?” Hanna asked.

  “God, yes,” Badb muttered.

  Cameron appeared beside her and crossed his arms over his chest. “How many years is it going to take before you just save me the trouble of asking?”

  So Badb crossed her arms and shot back, “Never going to happen. And Hanna will protect me.”

  “Don’t put me in the middle of this,” Hanna complained. “But, Badb, you know placating him is so much easier.”

  “Well, maybe I haven’t decided which god I’m invoking,” Badb insisted.

  “And that’s why you have to specify,” Cameron sighed, gesturing past Badb. Hanna glanced around her friend, but she didn’t recognize the breathtakingly beautiful god who’d shown up outside her home in Murias.

  Hanna wanted to ask her father who he was, but she found herself speechless and shy for the first time, and instead, backed out of the doorway until she bumped into Cameron, who shot her a strange look, but he just waved both Badb and the unfamiliar god inside.

  “Got tired of Earth?” Cameron asked the new god.

  “No,” he answered. “But…” The gorgeous god with soft brown curls and luminescent green eyes glanced in Hanna’s direction before finishing. “Don’t smite me. Just remember that whole adage about not killing the messenger.”

  “Prometheus,” Badb warned. “Hurry up and tell us or I’ll smite you myself.”

  “Prometheus,” Hanna whispered.

  The Titan glanced in her direction again, but lowered his eyes, as if he were embarrassed around her. “Enlil has resurfaced, Cameron. He and a group of Sumerians showed up outside of Baghdad and abducted several dozen people. No one knows what happened to them. But I think I know why he’s been hiding for the past twenty-five years.”

  “Oh,” Hanna breathed. She found her father’s hand, who squeezed it gently to remind her that no matter what devastating news Prometheus had come to deliver, he and her mother would be with her. She would never be alone. But for as long as she could remember, she’d known her destiny as the Last Guardian of Tara, and the news this Titan had brought was the moment she’d been anticipating yet fearing her whole life.

  She’d been born to defend Earth, and Fate was calling on her to claim her throne.

  Prometheus paced nervously in front of the fireplace as Hanna and her parents awaited Badb’s return. She’d gone to find the old Guardians, because with Enlil returning and planning some coup, they would need all the help they could get. Hanna tried not to watch him, but she’d never met a god so beautiful before, and every time she peeked at him, her father caught her and shot her a, “Cut that out,” look, so she’d shoot back a, “Make me,” look and then the whole thing would just start over.

  Badb finally returned and spared her from any humiliation of Cameron actually verbalizing his reprimands, as if his daughter weren’t an adult. All of the old Guardians had come, and Thor especially seemed pissed off, as if Enlil resurfacing were somehow a direct insult to him. “I’m going to crush him,” Thor growled. “Twenty-five years. We’ve lived peacefully and happily for twenty-five years.”

  “Um…” Cameron responded. “Thanks for pointing out the obvious?”


  Badb sighed and rolled her eyes. “Don’t start. You’re like a couple of badly behaved kids. Prometheus, you said you knew why Enlil and his allies have been quiet for so long. We’re all here now, so what has he been up to?”

  “He can’t invade the Otherworld,” Prometheus explained, “which means there’s only one realm left for him, and that’s Earth. But the only way to gain enough power on Earth to stand a chance of beating us is to attract more followers.”

  “Are gods really this stupid?” Cameron interrupted. “How many do we have to kill before they get the message they can’t beat us?”

  “I never said he was getting gods to follow him,” Prometheus corrected. “If he can’t find willing believers among humans, he’ll take them by force. He’ll rebuild his kingdom on Earth, even if he can only rule through fear.”

  “Oh, my God,” Hanna whispered, and Cameron immediately threw up a hand to indicate his displeasure that his own daughter hadn’t learned to specify which god she was invoking. She squinted at him and said, “Enlil. I think.”

  “Too bad we can’t invoke him,” Nemain added. “We really need to find his soul, so we can summon him and kill him.”

  “The New Pantheon’s been looking for a quarter of a century,” Macha argued. “If their agents couldn’t find it, what makes you think we can?”

  “Because we have something they don’t,” Selena said. The gods blinked at her as they waited for her to elaborate, so she arched an eyebrow at them and gestured toward her daughter. “We have Hanna.”

  “Great,” Hanna complained. “No pressure, Mom.”

  “We’re all going to be there to help you, Hanna,” Athena promised.

  “Any leads on where we can find him?” London asked Prometheus.

  “Won’t do any good,” Cameron told her. “We need to find the rest of those vessels first.”

  “Right,” she sighed. “I probably shouldn’t have left the New Pantheon considering how incompetent they’ve obviously become.”

  “Not really the agents’ fault,” Cameron argued. “Look at who their boss is.”

  “Leave Jasper alone,” Selena scolded. “He’s done a great job of turning that agency around and cooperating with the government at a time when humans don’t trust us.”

  “Do I seriously need to remind everyone that we have to go to Earth to find hidden vessels containing gods’ souls so we can eliminate them before they become a huge problem for the second time this century?” Hanna asked.

  Badb snickered and smiled at her young friend. “I can’t believe you had to ask this group that question.”

  “I can’t believe we’re still sitting here in Murias when my planet is being threatened,” Hanna retorted.

  “Technically,” Thor said, “I’m standing.”

  “You can smite him,” Cameron offered. “You officially have my permission.”

  Prometheus glanced at Hanna and asked, “Want to go alone? I think we might get more accomplished.”

  “Dude,” Cameron interjected. “Stay away from my daughter.”

  “Dad!” Hanna hissed. “Would you please shut up?”

  “Oh, Sweetheart,” Selena said. “I thought you knew by now that was impossible.”

  Cameron nodded smartly, as did every other god in the room, so Hanna groaned and folded her arms angrily. “I can’t believe this is how I’m spending my birthday. I’d rather be painting the guest room.”

  “Again,” Prometheus sighed, “want to go and leave your family here?”

  Cameron pointed at the Titan and narrowed his eyes. “You’d better not be hitting on her.”

  Prometheus threw his hands up, exasperated, but Selena laughed and tugged on her husband’s arm. “He’s messing with you, Prometheus. Mostly. But yeah, we should go to Houston and find out what Jasper knows.”

  “Not Jasper,” Cameron complained. “I’d rather fight another giant snake than meet with Jasper. Let London go.”

  London shrugged, ready to return to Earth, but Selena insisted they all should go meet with him, so Thor nudged Cameron as they prepared to leave and pointed Mjölnir at him. “Just remember you said you’d rather fight the snakes. I’m off the hook.”

  “Only if I don’t have to go to this meeting,” Cameron pointed out. “But I think I’m not being given a choice.”

  “Nope,” Selena said.

  “Damn it,” Thor sighed.

  “Don’t worry, Dad,” Hanna offered. “It sounds like you’ve already killed all the giant snakes… right?”

  Cameron put an arm around her shoulders and kissed the side of her head before telling her, “Somehow, these assholes keep finding them. But I’ll fight them for my little girl.”

  “Not so little anymore,” she reminded him.

  Cameron just smiled at her and shrugged. “Even when you’re a thousand, you’ll still be my little girl.”

  Hanna’s cheeks warmed, and she shot a beseeching look toward her mother. Normally, she loved how openly devoted her father was to her, but with an unfamiliar god in the room, and one who just happened to be unbelievably gorgeous, she desperately wished he’d just shut up, and only Selena had the ability to make that happen. Even though her mother wasn’t psychic, she knew exactly what Hanna’s look meant and grabbed Cameron’s hand.

  “Meet us in Houston,” she told her friends, and the two most powerful gods of the Tuatha Dé vanished.

  “I hate it when they do that,” Ares muttered.

  “Still not as annoying as when they converse silently,” Badb pointed out.

  Ares thought about it then nodded. “Conceded.”

  “Um… I’m going after my parents,” Hanna said. “If you’re joining us, I suggest you hurry. Knowing my father, he’s already threatening to smite the whole city just because of one slightly arrogant demigod who still has this weird frenemy thing going with him.”

  Badb took her friend’s hand and smiled at her one last time. “We’ve all done our best to prepare you for this moment, Hanna. Are you ready?”

  Hanna glanced toward Prometheus one last time before returning her friend’s smile. “I’d say I was born ready, but that would be clichéd and not exactly true. But I have had the best teachers and family a goddess could ask for. And I have faith that Fate will help me through this. She wanted me to become the Last Guardian of Tara, and I think she’s ready for me. So let’s get over to Earth and kick some ass.”

  Chapter Two

  The glass and metal skyscraper that housed the New Pantheon’s headquarters in Houston seemed strangely quiet, so Hanna tapped Badb’s shoulder and asked, “What day is it?”

  Badb stared at a passing pedestrian, most likely concentrating on finding that information in his mind, then told her, “Tuesday.”

  “Shouldn’t there be more agents here on a Tuesday?” Hanna pressed.

  “Yeah,” London agreed. “Something’s odd. Think your father ran them all off?”

  “Wouldn’t surprise me,” Thor said.

  The tinted glass door swung open and Jasper waved them inside. Her parents waited in the lobby, and Jasper, whom she’d only met once before when she was a child, took off his glasses and offered her a friendly smile. She assumed he had to be in his early fifties now, but he’d aged well, and still looked every bit the descendant of Eros.

  “So you’ve only found Tarhunt’s vessel?” Badb asked.

  “And Chernobog’s,” Jasper replied. “We’re not really sure if Veles is helping Enlil with his revolution, but we were never able to find his vessel either. Nergal is almost certainly helping his father.”

  “What good does kidnapping people do?” London asked. “Seems like that’s a really bad way of recruiting followers.”

  Jasper shrugged and rubbed his eyes before putting his glasses back on. “It does convey his power over mortals. Dictators rule through fear, not love. Besides, we’ve discovered some humans are willingly following Enlil. They’re the ones rebuilding the altars and temples around Nippur.”

&n
bsp; “What exactly are they promising humans?” Macha asked. “And why are they stupid enough to believe them?”

  Jasper shrugged again. “Why do humans join cults? Any why do gods get all psycho and become truly obnoxious assholes?”

  “Don’t answer that,” Cameron quickly interjected. “I’m pretty sure it’s a trick question.”

  “Did your agents find any clues as to where we should look for these vessels?” Hanna asked, ignoring her father, which she knew would drive him crazy.

  “Not really,” Jasper admitted. “The hiding places have been pretty random: One was outside of Estes Park and the other was in the Gobi Desert.”

  Cameron nudged Selena with his elbow and said, “Ten bucks says he doesn’t even know where the Gobi Desert is.”

  Jasper blinked at him then looked at Hanna. “Did he have to come?”

  “Well, yeah,” Hanna teased. “I’m not fighting any giant snakes.”

  From behind her, Thor chimed in. “Don’t blame you.”

  “Wait,” Cameron said, “were either of those vessels guarded by giant serpents?”

  Jasper plucked a file off the desk beside him and thrust it at Cameron. “I wish. But you’ll apparently just have to settle for digging.”

  Cameron handed the file to Hanna without bothering to read it. She flipped it open and thumbed through the pages, hoping to find some common thread, but Jasper’s agents were intelligent and well trained. They wouldn’t have missed anything obvious.

  “Send someone if you learn anything, okay?” she asked him.

  “Of course. And it’s a good thing you take after your mother.”

  Hanna laughed and shook her head. “Oh, believe me. I’ve got more in common with my father than you think.”

  Badb held out her hand for the file, and as the Guardians stepped onto the Houston sidewalk again, Athena peeked over her shoulder to see what was inside the New Pantheon’s file on the soul vessels.