Cities of the Gods (The Unbreakable Sword Series Book 2) Read online

  Cities of the Gods

  Book Two: The Unbreakable Sword Series

  S.M. Schmitz

  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

  Also by S.M. Schmitz

  Sample Chapter from Treasures of the Gods

  Copyright © 2016 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

  Chapter One

  Selena let go of Cameron’s hand and lifted her eyes to the towering pearlescent spirals of the palaces before them. She walked a few steps and the echoing of her footsteps brought her eyes to the ground, covered in gleaming marble pathways. Low cumulus clouds kissed the tops of the castles and the remarkably blue sky broke through the patches of cottony white.

  “This way,” Badb directed. “I’ll show you around later. We need to talk to my sisters.”

  “Yeah,” Cameron said, his voice still embittered by the betrayal of his friends, “they should know the Norse are a bunch of backstabbing assholes.”

  Badb snickered and shook her head at him, long waves of golden hair falling over her porcelain shoulder. “They already know that, Cameron. I did try to warn you, but I’m sorry it happened, nonetheless.”

  “We should convene a council with the Greeks soon,” the Dagda announced.

  Selena looked around and only then realized Athena and Ares weren’t with them. “Where did they go? We didn’t leave them on Earth alone, did we?”

  “Of course not,” Badb replied indignantly. “They went home. This is where all of the Tuatha Dé live now, Selena.”

  “It’s one of your cities,” she whispered. One of the four magical island cities of the Tuatha Dé, and she and Cameron were standing in it. “Your palace… when Cameron and I were brought to your palace before, we were here, weren’t we?”

  Badb gave her a funny look then turned to Cameron. “Is she ok? Did she hit her head on the way over here?”

  Cameron shrugged. “How should I know? I don’t remember traveling here. You’re much faster than Ukko.”

  “Ukko,” the Dagda scoffed. “He was on the losing side of the war. He has been weakened by the loss just as all of the others have. Why do you think he’s trying to regain so much power on Earth?”

  “Well,” Cameron retorted, “the old cranky Badb said it was because people stopped believing in his pantheon, and eventually, even forgot about it.”

  The Dagda nodded and his long red beard bobbed against his thick chest. “That too. That’s why alliances are made and why we need to choose carefully.”

  “I know you two are capable of walking and speaking at the same time,” Badb said. “Cameron, I’m pretty sure nothing can actually prevent you from talking so let’s move.”

  She turned her back to them and headed toward one of the palaces in the distance with brilliant green and gold spires that reached through the clouds. “She’s still cranky,” Cameron insisted. “Even when she’s not old.”

  “I can still hear you,” Badb called over her shoulder.

  “Good, because I meant for you to hear that,” Cameron called back to her.

  “Cameron,” Selena sighed, “you’re going to get us kicked out of… which island city is this?”

  “There are three others, right?” Cameron asked. “I probably won’t get us kicked out of all four. Not in one day anyway.”

  Selena walked a little closer to him and let her fingers brush against his hand. Now that she was away from the terrors of Quetzalcoatl and his army and the Norse unexpectedly showing up, away from the fear of losing Badb, she kept hearing his voice in her mind, repeating over and over, Didn’t anybody ever warn you never to piss off a man in love?

  Cameron noticed her fingers brushing against him and smiled down at her, wrapping his hand around hers. He turned his attention back to the Dagda and asked, “So which island city is this? Anybody want to place bets on how long I make it before being shipped back to Earth?”

  Badb made a grunting sound and shook her head. The Dagda laughed.

  Cameron flashed his grin at Selena again and nudged her with his elbow. “See? He thinks I’m funny.”

  “He thought Cú Chulainn was funny, too,” Badb said. She turned her head over her shoulder, sending those long waves of golden tendrils down her back, and winked at Selena. “He wasn’t funny either.”

  “Bet she doesn’t like football or sandwiches either,” Cameron said, glaring at the goddess’s back.

  The Dagda laughed again then clapped Cameron on the back. “Chin up, son. Badb was far fonder of Cú Chulainn than she’s letting on.”

  “Ew,” Cameron responded. He pulled Selena a little closer and whispered, “Do they perform lobotomies on magical Irish islands?”

  Badb finally laughed and stopped walking, facing her demigods again, though this time, there was something playful and mischievous in her eyes. “Don’t worry, Cameron. I won’t be hitting on you. If Selena weren’t part of our fates though, things may be different.” She smiled at him then turned around and kept walking toward the palace. Cameron looked down at Selena with a please-tell-me-that-didn’t-just-happen look on his face, but Selena just shrugged and pulled on his hand so he’d walk faster.

  “Oh,” Badb called out, though she didn’t look at the demigods this time, “we’re in Murias and heading to The Dagda’s palace.”

  “Murias,” Selena repeated. “If it hadn’t been stolen, this is where I’d find the Cauldron. I could become one of you now…” Her voice trailed off when she noticed Cameron slowing down, his fingers tightening around hers. He had apparently decided to deal with her decision to join the Tuatha Dé by not thinking about it.

  Selena bit her lip and followed Badb quietly into the palace where she and her sisters had brought them before. Selena’s eyes immediately trailed the long green and gold banners adorning the walls. Badb stopped and pointed out a different green banner with a gold circular symbol in the center. Inside the circle, a single line twisted and weaved together to create the illusion of multiple infinity patterns.

  “This is the seal of Lugh,” Badb explained. “It represents his nature as a master of all things. When he arrived at the palace in Tara and asked to join the Tuatha Dé, do you remember how he gained admittance, Selena?”

  Selena’s eyes kept roving over the intricate pattern of the banner, but she nodded. She’d known this myth well for a long time, even before meeting Cameron and learning about their own ancestry. For some reason, it had always been one of her favorites from Irish mythology. She had always assumed it was because she liked the idea of a god who possessed half the blood of the Tuatha Dé’s enemies, the Fomorians, being allowed to join their ranks because he proved his worthiness and skill to them. But perhaps she’d always had a deeper connection to this story and that’s why it had drawn her in.

  “He asked if the Tuatha Dé needed a carpenter and was told you already had one. He then asked if you needed a smith, a bard, a harper, an historian, a warrior, or a magician, but the Tuath
a Dé had each of these as well. So he asked if there was one among you who was a master of all of these gifts and there wasn’t one among you who could claim that he was. Lugh was allowed into the palace at Tara and joined your pantheon, even though he was only half Tuatha Dé.”

  Selena finally looked away from the banner to make sure she’d gotten the story right, and Badb’s face, filled with a kind of maternal pride, told her she had. “Yes,” Badb answered, “and I think you have the potential to be a great historian for our pantheon, too. Now, I’m going to change my clothes since being speared through the stomach has a way of ruining a dress. The Dagda will lead you to your rooms. You can clean up, and we’ll eat before meeting with the Greeks.”

  Selena and Cameron glanced at each other and the corners of his lips turned up just slightly. “This is so much cooler than the W in New Orleans. We’re moving up, Sweet…”

  He stopped himself from calling her a goddess again and forced a wider smile at the Dagda. “So. Do we get a view? Room service? Free HBO?”

  “I think Badb was wrong about you,” the Dagda chuckled. “You are Cú Chulainn reincarnated.”

  Cameron leaned closer to Selena’s ear and whispered, “Is that possible?”

  “No,” she assured him. “Not… technically.”

  “That is technically not reassuring.”

  “Don’t worry, Cameron,” the Dagda told him. “Cú Chulainn was beloved by all. Mostly.”

  “Um… who are the unmostly then?”

  “Medb conspired to have him killed, so I’m guessing she’s one of your unmostly, which isn’t a word, by the way,” Selena answered.

  “No worries though, lad,” the Dagda added, a wide grin on his ruddy face, “Medb’s been dead for centuries. You’ve just got to watch out for the Norse, the Slavs, all of their demigods, and the New Pantheon.” The Dagda paused by an open door and gestured toward the interior. “Ladies first.”

  Cameron let go of Selena’s hand but shot the Dagda a hard look and narrowed his eyes at him. “Just for that, I’m not leaving this Hilton. You’re on your own with all those guys.”

  “You’re in the Big Leagues now, son,” the Dagda laughed. “Hiding out here won’t protect you. Gods can easily get here.” He looked inside the room toward Selena then smiled at Cameron. “And it won’t protect her.”

  The Dagda gestured toward a room across the hall and told Cameron he could stay there then turned to walk away. Cameron scowled at his back and called, “That’s cheating!”

  Selena stopped opening the drawers on the chest closest to the doorway and peeked into the hallway at him. “What’s cheating?”

  Cameron pointed toward the god as he disappeared around a corner. “Every time I say I don’t want to do something, they’re going to drag you into it.”

  Selena felt the all too familiar sensation of her cheeks flushing and pretended to study the chest again. “But did you mean what you said earlier?” she asked quietly.

  Cameron stood in her doorway and glanced around her room, nodding approvingly. “Nice. Much better than the W, though that was admittedly pretty swanky.”

  “Cameron,” Selena sighed. “Are we just going to ignore what you said in the Basin forever?”

  Cameron stared at his boots and nodded again. “Yes. Not because I didn’t mean it… it’s just. Shit, Selena, you want to become a goddess. You want a future that’s everything I never wanted. What am I supposed to do with that? And that’s even assuming…”

  Selena swallowed and inhaled slowly. It was true then; he loved her but would never become anything more than her guardian, the man dedicated to allowing her to find the Cauldron. And along the way, he’d surely help her find the Unbreakable Sword and Nuada’s heir because he wouldn’t leave her without knowing she was well protected. But he would never be her lover. He would never accept a future with her because of the fate she wanted that represented everything he despised.

  “Assuming what?” she whispered. She brushed her fingers along the smooth oak wood surface then trailed them along the intricate carvings that ran down the sides of the chest. Like the tapestries in the main hall, even the furniture in this palace was exquisite in its detail and perfection, as if the gods themselves had carved it.

  “I don’t… I’m not assuming…” Cameron shuffled his feet and Selena looked up at him, the shy and nervous way he wouldn’t meet her eyes, his expression that begged any god to just get him out of this conversation.

  “That I love you?”

  Cameron ran his fingers through his hair and exhaled quickly. “Yeah. I mean, look at you. You’re already a goddess. And a caring and compassionate and funny one and once they hand you that Cauldron…” Cameron bit his lip and looked over his shoulder toward his empty room. “Thank you, Selena. For what you did back in the Basin. Refusing to let them give me the Spear, saving me from a future I didn’t want. You’re the only person I’ve ever met who would’ve risked death to save one man’s free will.”

  Selena’s mouth seemed dry, and her head ached with a pain that radiated throughout her body. She wanted to grab him and tell him she loved him, more than she’d ever loved anyone, more than she’d ever thought she could love another person. But if she told him the truth, if she confessed now, how much more difficult would that make his future and his decision to return to a normal life if they succeeded against the New Pantheon and their enemies in the Otherworld? So she told him nothing instead.

  Cameron lifted his eyes and grinned at her. “I’m going to take a shower. And a nap. Who knew fighting pissed off Aztec gods could be so exhausting?”

  A small breath, what was meant to be a laugh, escaped her lips, and she watched him walk across the hallway and close his door. She stared at the dark stained oak for a long time, hoping he would change his mind and return to her room, confess his own misgivings about the future he had chosen but couldn’t envision without her, but the door didn’t open. Selena eventually closed her own door and retreated into the bathroom to wash the dirt and blood from her body, but the stains of her wounded heart – of knowing the one thing she’d always want most would always be the one thing she could not have – could never wash away.

  Chapter Two

  A light rap at Selena’s door dragged her out of the plush, oversized four-poster bed. She gave the thick white blankets a remorseful glance as she walked to the door and pulled it open. Cameron stood in the hallway, looking clean and rested and mischievous. He grinned at her but kept one hand hidden behind his back.

  “This is so much better than Ukko’s hotel. Check it out.” He extended his hand and showed her a plate with a sandwich on it. Selena looked at it then lifted her eyes to meet his.

  “It’s a sandwich.”

  Cameron grunted at her. “Selena… it’s not a sandwich. It’s your half of the crawfish po-boy I promised you.”

  Selena laughed and moved away from the door. “But I don’t have your half of the not-a-sandwich sandwich.”

  Cameron waved her off and handed her the plate. “Apparently, the Dagda doesn’t need his magic Cauldron to keep everyone fed. He’s got a magic chef. And that’s so much cooler than a big pot anyway.”

  Selena nodded and lifted the top of her po-boy to peek at the fried crawfish inside. “If only there were a football game you could take me to. I may graduate from caterpillar to butterfly sooner than you thought.”

  Cameron smiled and pointed out her window and asked, “Does the sun ever set here?”

  “Maybe we slept all night.”

  “Maybe there is no night because if we’re not on Earth, we’re not rotating around the sun.”

  “Then why is there a sun in the sky?” Selena countered.

  Cameron looked out the window again and put a finger to his lip as he thought about it. Selena sniffed her sandwich because even though she obviously trusted Cameron with her life now, she didn’t necessarily trust his culinary tastes. She lowered the plate before he could catch her smelling her food.

&n
bsp; “That’s going to get cold,” he warned her. “And maybe they need a moon god or something. I don’t know. This place is bizarre.”

  “It’s a sandwich. Isn’t it supposed to be cold?”

  “Po-boy,” Cameron corrected. “And the crawfish are better while they’re still warm.”

  Selena sat at the table near the window where Cameron stood and braved a bite of the sandwich, which she reminded herself not to call a sandwich again out loud. Little bits of fried crustaceans dropped out of the other end, and she scowled at them and shot Cameron a this-is-a-stupid-sandwich look. “Why is this place so bizarre? You just said it was way cooler than the W in New Orleans.”

  “Their ability to make whatever food you want appear is way cooler,” Cameron said. “The rest of the place is… weird. I know we didn’t sleep twenty-four hours, and the sun is still in the same place in the sky.”

  Selena finished her second bite of po-boy, which she thought was a good sandwich but still a sandwich, and shrugged. “Ask Badb or the Dagda. I doubt their day and night cycles are some kind of godly secret.”

  “It’s not just that…” Cameron said, but a knock on her door interrupted him. He crossed the room to open it and Badb, her golden hair swept up into a twist behind her head and wearing a long emerald dress that hugged every curve on her body, stood in the doorway. She pointed to Selena’s plate and told her, “Finish eating. The Greeks are here.”

  Selena thought it was a good thing she didn’t have food in her mouth with Badb’s announcement because she would have choked on it. “The Greeks? Why do I have to be at this meeting?”

  She could already imagine herself saying all of the wrong things and humiliating Badb and the Dagda, and worse, Cameron.

  “Why wouldn’t you be there?” Cameron asked. “Besides, you want to become one of the Tuatha Dé. This is good practice.”

  “Be bitter about her choice later, Cameron,” Badb said. “You’re going to be there as well. And they’re waiting on us.”