Treasures of the Gods (The Unbreakable Sword Series Book 3) Read online

  Badb waved him off as someone knocked on the door, most likely the magic chef with Selena’s coffee. “Doesn’t matter. Do you have any idea what a pain in the ass she is? Such a prima donna.” Badb opened the door but stepped back, confused and concerned. Selena looked around the corner to the doorway and didn’t see the chef standing in her doorway with coffee, but a tall man with brown hair that grazed his shoulders. Wearing a royal blue robe and carrying a scepter topped with a sun and crescent moon, she thought this man looked more like a figure from the pages of a book on mythology than anyone else she’d met in Murias.

  And his presence here disturbed Badb.

  The man or god bowed toward Selena and Cameron then faced Badb again. “We have the Sword but not the heir?” he asked.

  “We only found the Sword yesterday,” Badb answered. “We haven’t had time…”

  “We don’t have time,” the man interrupted. “Return to Earth and bring back the new king or Murias will fall in two weeks.”

  “Two weeks,” Badb repeated, her voice barely a whisper.

  “A druid?” Selena asked.

  The man bowed toward her again then shook his head. “All of the druids are gone, my dear,” he answered. “I am Semias.”

  “I… still don’t have a clue who you are,” Cameron said.

  “He’s the leader of Murias,” Selena answered. “Like Uscias is charged with leading Findias, Semias is the wise man who leads the Tuatha Dé here.”

  “Oh,” Cameron replied, “you’re much younger than Uscias.”

  Semias smiled and lifted a shoulder. “I was younger when I came to Murias to guide the gods. We don’t age here. Uscias probably only has a couple of decades on me.”

  “We need to go,” Badb announced. “Make jokes about age and… hell, I don’t even understand half the jokes you make, Cameron, but if Semias tells us we need to leave now, then we need to leave now.”

  “Ok, but…” Cameron started but Badb sighed impatiently and snapped, “What? We don’t have time for this!”

  “Um, I just wanted to know what he meant by bringing back the new king. I thought we were supposed to be looking for Nuada’s heir.”

  Badb glared at him a little less. “That is who he’s referring to. Nuada was our king. And a marvelous one. Old habits die hard, I suppose, because I’ve explained a hundred times we have no way of knowing if this heir is a man, but it doesn’t matter. Whoever it is has inherited all of the qualities that made Nuada such a brave and honorable leader, and that person will become our new king or queen.”

  “But…” Cameron stuttered and looked between Semias and Badb. “Dagda?”

  “The Dagda isn’t a king, Cameron,” Semias explained. “He is the leader of the Tuatha Dé like a father heads his household…”

  “Or mother,” Badb interjected, looking like she’d had this conversation with the wise man at least a hundred times before, too.

  Semias exhaled heavily and relented. “I haven’t stepped foot on Earth in three thousand years! Give me a break!”

  “You have the ability to see what’s happening there. Don’t pretend like you missed the entire feminist movement,” Badb retorted.

  Semias blinked at her then turned to Selena and Cameron. “Would you please just hurry back to Earth and find whomever this person is before the Norse and Slavs and whatever allies they’ve recruited invade and we all die?”

  “You coming with us, Ms. Steinem?” Cameron asked Badb.

  “Careful,” Selena warned. “Your only ally in this room is a three-thousand-year-old man.”

  “Three thousand and thirty-two,” Semias corrected.

  “Question,” Cameron said.

  Badb groaned and shooed Semias toward the door. “This could take a while,” she muttered.

  “I’ve heard,” he muttered back.

  “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear any of that,” Cameron said. “But have you forgotten that some creepy Persian sun god wants to kill me and steal my soul?”

  “Of course not,” Badb replied. “But how many gods can we fight at once?”

  “You just had to ask, didn’t you?” Selena sighed.

  Badb cringed and grabbed Selena’s clothes from the neat pile on the dresser and handed them to her. “Pretend I didn’t say that. And once you’ve changed, come meet me in the hall so we can rescue Anita, get her wherever she wants to go, then concentrate on finding Nuada’s heir.”

  Badb closed the door behind her and Selena slipped her pajamas off so she could get dressed. She caught Cameron watching her, wearing that sexy, playful grin, and she shook her head at him. “Badb is waiting for us.”

  “But you were totally wasted last night.”

  “You’ll survive.”

  “That’s debatable.”

  Selena threw his jeans at him and picked her pink flannel pajamas off the floor, only then realizing she didn’t remember putting them on. “You put me in my pajamas?”

  “Yeah, of course. You spilled wine on your sweater. Who wants to sleep like that?”

  Selena laughed and kissed him but gave him a look that told him not to get any ideas. “I really can’t handle my wine. Maybe I should give up drinking altogether like you. Why don’t you drink?”

  Cameron shrugged and pulled a long-sleeved LSU shirt over his head. “Always thought it was too dangerous if I didn’t want anyone to touch me and find out I was different. Guess that doesn’t really matter now.”

  “It matters more than ever. You have to be able to take care of your lush of a girlfriend,” Selena joked.

  Cameron snickered and pulled the door open, but yelled into the hallway before leaving the room. “Hey, Dagda! We never got the coffee! Your room service sucks!”

  Selena heard the Dagda’s laughter reverberating off the marble walls of his great hall. She thought she heard Badb sighing, too.

  “Coffee’s in the hall,” the Dagda called back.

  Cameron narrowed his eyes at the sound of the Dagda’s voice and whispered, “I don’t smell coffee. I think this is a trick.”

  Selena nodded in pretend agreement. “I suspect they’re trying to get us back to Earth to fight gods and hunt down people and work.”

  “I knew it. What are our chances of making a clean break if we go through the window?”

  “Depends. Are the cattle raids back on? If so, the Egyptians are probably watching this place like they’re the FBI.”

  “I met Osiris last night. Dude’s kinda cool, but not someone I want to piss off. I’ll take my chances with Badb.”

  Cameron made sure to speak a little louder as they entered the hall so Badb would hear him, and she just shook her head at him then smiled at Selena, holding up a large white mug. Selena resisted the temptation to run to her and tackle her in a giant hug. She didn’t want to spill her coffee.

  As she took the mug from Badb, the tapestry of the Cauldron moved and danced in her presence, and Selena ran her fingers over the flames beneath the bubbling pot. Badb watched her carefully in that way of hers, of always seeming to know what thoughts troubled Selena and why.

  Then you know, Badb. It’s not just about me losing Cameron anymore. He needs me so he doesn’t lose himself.

  “So, where are we going?” Cameron asked. “Don’t tell me you’re sending us to Larken again. Or worse. Nebraska.”

  “Because there’s so much to do in Louisiana,” Badb retorted.

  Cameron shrugged and reminded her New Orleans had plenty of entertaining attractions for people who weren’t running from asshole gods trying to abduct them and force them into servitude.

  “I don’t have a clue where we’re going,” Badb responded. “You’re the one who should know.”

  “Why would Cameron know?” Selena asked.

  Cameron’s dark brown eyes widened then began to cloud with that anger and terror that didn’t belong there. Selena put her coffee down on the table and grabbed his hand.

  “Hey,” she said gently, “calm down. Just tell me w
hatever it is you’ve been afraid to tell me. You know it won’t change anything.”

  “You’re psychic, aren’t you?” Cameron asked Badb. “Not like Anita or even Ukko, but a powerful one like Ninurta.”

  “Yes,” Badb answered quietly.

  Selena pushed him away from the goddess and stood in front of him. His eyes had already transformed with that fearsome and uncontrollable anger because Selena had told him about her conversation with Badb in the Baton Rouge airport when she’d insisted she wasn’t a mind reader like Avery and didn’t know why the Norse psychic had lied, which meant Badb had lied to them.

  “Look at me,” she demanded. “We’ll deal with why she lied to us later. If she had known how dangerous Quinn and Avery were, she would have warned us. And she did tell us not to trust them. I’ve suspected all along she had to be psychic, but at first, assumed it was more like a regular psychic. You’ve probably suspected it, too. For now, just tell me what she knows and why you’re so worried about me finding out.”

  Cameron opened his mouth then closed it and shook his head slowly. As he continued to stare back into Selena’s eyes, some of that unnatural anger and power dissipated, but he hadn’t returned to her. Not yet. And Selena refused to let go of him until he did. “What will it take for you to stop defending her? She’s lied to us and hidden things from us since the beginning.”

  “But it’s too late now, Cameron. I love her. Even I have my limits, but I still have faith she has a good reason for the things she does. Eventually, we’ll understand them.”

  Cameron tried to look away from her to glare at the war goddess but Selena hurriedly put a palm on his cheek and forced him to look at her again. “Where were you? Where did you go? Nothing will change my love for you. Don’t you know that?”

  “Selena,” he whispered. “My head… it’s so…”

  “I know,” Selena assured him. “You will always know me, Cameron, and I will always be here to rescue you, just as you will always rescue me.”

  Cameron closed his eyes and breathed deeply and something inside her seemed to sigh with a profound sense of relief and gratitude. He’s back. He’s ok now. He’s just Mi…

  “What?” Selena said aloud.

  Cameron opened his eyes, this time clouded with confusion rather than an anger that had never belonged to the demigod. “What the hell was that?”

  Selena turned on Badb and demanded, “What is going on with us?”

  “Well, I think Cameron wanted to kill me again and you stopped him.”

  “Badb!” Selena yelled. “That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it!”

  Badb crossed her arms defiantly and replied, “A god’s word is binding. And I will live and die by the agreements I’ve made.”

  “Did you do something to us?” Cameron asked.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Badb sighed. “Besides, there’s nothing wrong with either of you. And you’re wasting time here. Anita’s still Ukko’s prisoner, Nuada’s heir is out there somewhere and we need to work our way through the list, we have a Cauldron to find, and we only have two weeks to do all this. I suggest you just tell her the truth so we can get out of here and get to work.”

  Selena shot her one last you-so-owe-me-for-not-letting-my-boyfriend-smite-you scowl then asked Cameron again, “Where did you go?”

  Cameron ran a hand through his hair and blew a quick, nervous breath through his lips. “There was only one place I could go to hide from everyone,” he finally said. The shame in his voice made Selena’s heart ache and she gripped his arm tighter as the truth settled on her like the lightning strikes that had killed the water horses.

  “You went to Ukko,” she whispered.

  Cameron swallowed and whispered back, “Yes.”

  “That’s how you found out we were at the lake. How you knew to come rescue me. Ukko returned and told you.”

  “Yes,” Cameron whispered again.

  “Oh, my God,” Selena breathed.

  “Selena,” Badb said, “Cameron knows where the New Pantheon’s headquarters are and he’ll be able to take us there to tell Ukko he has to let Anita choose where she wants to go now.”

  “But…” Selena kept looking into Cameron’s eyes as she struggled to accept that he’d spent days working for the agency they both detested. “You told me you’d rather die than work for them.”

  That was the wrong thing to say, Selena. Can’t you see how much this is hurting him already? What is wrong with you?

  She really wasn’t sure.

  Shock, maybe. Fear that Cameron had fallen so low he’d taken part in assignments he would have never accepted otherwise. Fear that Ukko had been right all along and that he and his agency weren’t quite as bad as they’d always believed.

  “I had nowhere else to go where you wouldn’t be able to reach me,” Cameron admitted.

  “Didn’t Ukko ask why you were there? What did you tell him?”

  “Of course he asked. And I told him the truth. I couldn’t trust myself around you right now and I needed a place to hide. Anita was right. I spent three days just helping his teams of agents into secure areas and getting them out. And he said we’re even as far as what he’s doing to track down Alan.”

  “Ok,” Selena said, taking a deep breath and releasing her grip on his arms. “Don’t guess he apologized for the three years of Hell he put me through.”

  Cameron snickered and shook his head. “Uh… no. The guy may not be the Devil, but he’s not exactly a saint either.”

  “Where are we going then? Where does he have Anita?” Selena asked.

  “I don’t know where she is, actually. When he told me you were at the lake and I’d better get over there before the Norse showed up and killed you, she wasn’t with him. I didn’t even know he’d taken her until Badb told me. I only know where to find the New Pantheon, so for now, we’re going to Houston.”

  “And make sure it’s close to the time we left Earth,” Badb added. “Ukko may be trying to… seduce her.”

  Cameron grimaced and said, “I should smite you for that. Can a god smite another god or is that no longer smiting?”

  “Can we just go to Houston?” Badb sighed.

  “Fine. But if I see something that permanently scars me, I am smiting you.”

  “You already smote me,” Badb muttered. “I wasn’t a fan.”

  “That… was an accident?” Cameron replied.

  Selena gave him a look that she hoped conveyed shut-up-and-get-us-to-Houston-now. Cameron gave her a look that she interpreted as but-Ukko-might-be-doing-it-with-Anita-and-that’s-gross.

  Regardless of his concerns, Cameron apparently didn’t want to argue with his girlfriend because Selena found herself in a cold, empty conference room. A white projector screen was pulled down against one wall and all of the black plastic and metal chairs were pushed beneath the long, rectangular tables. Selena zipped up her jacket and shuddered.

  “So this is where Ukko planned all of his attempts to abduct me?”

  “Um… probably,” Cameron answered.

  The door opened and Ukko looked at each of them then raised an eyebrow at Cameron. “You’re awfully impatient,” he said. “I told you I’d bring you the information I have on Alan.”

  “Not why we’re here,” Cameron answered. “We want Anita back.”

  Ukko’s face fell and his eyes hardened. “Back? I didn’t know she was yours to begin with.”

  “She’s Irish, so yeah, she kinda is,” Cameron said.

  “She’s not here. And you Irish are just going to get her killed anyway. You hardly need a fifty-seven-year-old psychic to help you now. Leave her alone.”

  “She wanted to help us,” Selena protested. “And it’s her choice. You don’t get to take that away from people, Ukko, even if you are trying to protect her.”

  “What are you going to do?” Ukko asked. “Kill me? And how will that help you find her if she’s so important to you?”

  “Ukko,” Badb pleaded, “don�
��t do this to her. You can’t make her your prisoner.”

  “She’s not my prisoner!” Ukko yelled. The muted conversations down the hallway stopped and Ukko stood taller, smoothing down his blazer much like Badb smoothed out invisible wrinkles when she pretended to be an old woman. “Siliniez, give me Cameron’s folder.”

  Ukko held out his hand and Siliniez placed a large manila envelope in it then disappeared down the hallway again. Ukko tossed it toward Cameron and told him, “Our deal is finished. We’ve both held up to our end of the bargain. You have no more business here, so unless you plan to destroy me and every other god and demigod in this building, it’s time for you to leave.”

  “Oh, Anita,” Selena breathed.

  Ukko’s pale blue eyes quickly flickered to her then settled on Cameron again as he waited for Cameron’s response. The young sun god studied the envelope in his hands for a few moments then sighed. “You know I have no intention of killing innocent people. But that doesn’t mean we’re just going to forget you’ve kidnapped our friend. I’ll find her, and you’d better hope you’re not alone when I do.”

  If Cameron’s threat bothered the Finnish thunder god, he hid it well.

  “One more thing,” Ukko added. “Mithra knows I tipped you off. I don’t know how, but he found out. He’s raised the bounty on your head. Not only is Selena a prize but so is the Otherworld. If he subsumes your power, the Tuatha Dé won’t be able to stop him.”

  Cameron grunted and turned to Badb. “Is there any god not trying to steal this place?”

  Badb shrugged and gestured to Ukko. “Him, but he’s giving us other problems to deal with instead.”

  Ukko pointed to the envelope in Cameron’s hands and told him, “You have bigger problems to deal with than me. If I were you, I’d leave Selena in the Otherworld before attempting to find a person you know nothing about.”

  Selena put her hands on her hips and stared indignantly at the Finnish god, ready to snap at him that she would decide where she would go and when, but Ukko didn’t give her the chance. He closed the door and left them alone in the cold, mostly empty conference room.

  Cameron sighed and muttered, “I really don’t like that guy.”