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

  Prometheus arched an eyebrow at her and flashed her a charming smile that made his youthful face appear even younger. Hanna’s heart fluttered, so she scolded it and reminded herself she had more important things to deal with than her burgeoning crush. She slowly smiled back at him and asked, “How do you feel about going back to the prison my father once freed you from?”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Prometheus groaned.

  “Afraid not. And I’m certain we can’t find Bres now because he’s hidden in the nothingness of Tartarus.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Hanna folded her arms over her chest just like Cameron and scowled at the darkness between Earth and the swirling purple light that used to be Olympus. Prometheus sighed and kicked a rock into the black nothingness of Tartarus, so Cameron shot him a “What the hell?” look and Prometheus just shrugged.

  “Simply pissed off that I have to go back in there. Thought I’d let Tartarus know how I feel about it.”

  Cameron snickered and nodded. “I’m not too happy about it either, and I was never a prisoner.”

  “I’m going this time,” Selena insisted.

  “Mom,” Hanna begged, but Selena cut her off.

  “No. My husband and my daughter are about to disappear into a void where nothing is supposed to exist. I let Cameron go without me last time because I was pregnant, but if you get hurt, you’ll need me.”

  Thor scratched his chin through his beard then asked, “Can I stay behind?”

  “Nope,” Cameron answered. “You’re coming with me on principle.”

  “What principle?”

  “I’m not exactly sure,” Cameron admitted. “I think it’s in the How to be a Godly Best Friend handbook.”

  “Is this handbook in the same place as Bridget’s How to be a Godly Queen?” Badb asked.

  “Probably.”

  “We should really find these books.”

  “Anyone else think it’s terribly suspicious that only Cameron knows the rules?” Thor asked.

  “No,” Cameron replied.

  Hanna pointed into the abyss and said, “Bres.”

  So Cameron pointed into the abyss and said, “It’s dark.”

  “And, apparently, flashlights aren’t allowed,” London added.

  “I think I’ll go alone,” Prometheus said.

  “Send a postcard,” Cameron told him.

  “Dad,” Hanna warned.

  “Fine,” he relented. “But Tartarus isn’t exactly my biggest fan.”

  “You have fans?” Thor retorted.

  “I have people who find me a little less annoying than others.”

  Selena placed a foot at the edge of the abyss and gasped when it disappeared.

  “I really hate this place,” Cameron muttered.

  “You’re kidding me, right?” Prometheus asked.

  “You should be some kind of Tartarus expert. Lead the way.”

  “You know, I’ll lead the way if you just shut up,” Athena sighed.

  “Why are we all going?” Badb asked. “Someone can stay behind to talk to Jasper.”

  “I think that’s why we’re all going,” Cameron answered smartly.

  Badb thought about it then shrugged. “Conceded.”

  Hanna rolled her eyes at them and stepped into the abyss. The air immediately transformed, becoming both warm and cool, and the ground rough yet smooth. Her parents and friends quickly followed her, and her mother’s hand found hers in the total darkness.

  “Is it just me, or does it feel like something’s alive all around us?” Selena whispered.

  “Not just you,” Hanna whispered back.

  “Freaking you out?”

  “More than a little.”

  “That would be Tartarus,” Cameron told them. “And he doesn’t like me very much.”

  “If he never wanted to see you again, he shouldn’t be hiding one of our traitors,” Hanna said.

  “For whom,” an oddly dissonant voice asked, “are you looking?”

  Hanna squeezed her mother’s hand and answered, “Bres of the Tuatha Dé and Fomorians.”

  “I have no business with Irish gods,” Tartarus responded.

  “I’m willing to bet my daughter can smite you,” Cameron warned.

  Hanna wasn’t sure, but she thought Tartarus sighed.

  “You again?” Tartarus complained.

  “Believe me,” Cameron said. “I’m not happy about it either.”

  “And what makes you think I have your Irish god?”

  “He’s not on Earth or in the Otherworld,” Hanna explained. “There aren’t many places he can be.”

  “And I would want no part in any action that might bring him to my doorstep again,” Tartarus insisted.

  Hanna snorted and told her father, “Really, you have a gift.”

  “I know. And I also know he’s lying. This place messes with our senses, but he’s hiding something.”

  A gust of wind pushed against them, and Hanna stumbled but her mother was still holding her hand and pulled her back to her feet. Since Tartarus didn’t have a body, she wasn’t sure if weakening him would work, but she had no other ideas to force the Titan to cooperate. She carefully lowered herself to the ground and let her fingers brush against that strangely rough yet smooth surface. For a brief moment, nothing happened. She couldn’t feel the power that gave Tartarus life, let alone drain it. But familiar sensations began to trickle into her fingertips, and she latched onto them.

  “What are you doing, girl?” Tartarus demanded.

  “Making you mortal,” Hanna answered. “Is your arrangement with Bres really so important that you’re willing to die for it?”

  The ground shuddered as if he were trying to crawl away from her, but she had no intention of letting him go. She asked again, “Where is Bres?”

  Tartarus trembled violently and her friends slipped and fell, cursing him as they hit the ground. Hanna drained more of his power, and the living void cried out, “All right! I’ll bring him to you if you leave someone in his place.”

  “Dude, that’s totally pervy,” Cameron said.

  “Obviously, not him,” Tartarus clarified.

  “None of us are staying behind,” Hanna insisted. “You kept the Titans imprisoned for thousands of years. Why would we ever agree to let you trap anyone else here?”

  “None of you will stay,” Tartarus explained. “But you will bring me one of the gods you’re looking for now.”

  “Enlil is—” Hanna started, but Tartarus interrupted her.

  “No. You will bring me Veles, who ruled his own underworld and broke a deal between us a long time ago.”

  “Okay, I have to ask,” Cameron said. “What deal? But I’m just warning you: If this gets really pervy, I will smite you.”

  Hanna thought Tartarus sighed again.

  “I kept the spirits he didn’t want in his underworld because he feared they’d usurp him. What I wanted in exchange is inconsequential.”

  “See?” Cameron goaded. “Perv.”

  “Bring Bres to us,” Hanna agreed. “And we’ll give you Veles once we find him if you promise he won’t be tortured or spend eternity in pain.”

  “Yeah, if you do something like that, I’ll come back,” Cameron threatened.

  The living abyss groaned and quieted as if contemplating their terms. “What I do with my prisoners is none of your business. I don’t tell you how to wage your wars.”

  “This isn’t a war,” Hanna countered. “It’s an old grievance between you and another god.”

  “If you want Bres, you know what I expect.”

  “But—”

  “All right,” Cameron interrupted. “Give us Bres. We’ll bring Veles to you.”

  Hanna wanted to shoot her father a “What the hell?” glare, but it was far too dark and would have been a completely pointless gesture. Another gust of wind burst into them, but this time, a god tripped over her and fell beside her. Hanna grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet. “
Bres,” she hissed.

  She heard movement in the total darkness as some of the Irish gods searched for their traitor, but an explosion of light temporarily blinded them. Tartarus had cast them out of his realm. By the time her eyes adjusted, she noticed Badb had drawn her sword and was advancing on the Dagda’s brother.

  “No!” Hanna cried, standing between Bres and Badb. “We need him alive to find Enlil and Veles.”

  Bres smiled impishly at Badb and said, “It’s been a long time. I see you haven’t changed.”

  “Nor have you,” Badb growled.

  Bres shrugged. “So I bet on the wrong horse.”

  “My father?” Selena snapped. “Or Enlil?”

  Bres’s smile pulled higher as he replied, “Any horse that wasn’t the Tuatha Dé.”

  “That’s it,” Cameron decided. “Let’s throw him in the glass castle.”

  “Make him mortal first,” Selena suggested.

  “Mortal?” Bres scoffed, but Hanna wrapped her fingers around his arm and his eyes widened. Unlike every time she’d threatened a god with mortality in the past, she immediately drained their traitor of all the power that made him a god. A traitor among their family no longer deserved the gifts Fate had given him.

  “What did you do?” he breathed.

  “Exactly what we said I would, so if you want to spend the next fifty years in relative peace before you die an old man, help me find Enlil’s vessel,” Hanna answered.

  Bres pried his arm free from her grasp and rubbed his skin where her fingers had been. “You’ve already made me mortal. Why would I tell you anything now?”

  “Because I suspect you still want to live,” Hanna said. “And your options are help us, or I’ll let Badb do whatever she wants to you.”

  “That’s cruel and unusual punishment,” Cameron whispered. “I don’t think we’re allowed to do that.”

  “Shut up, Sun God,” Badb snapped.

  Bres blinked at them then turned his attention back to Hanna. “Enlil and Veles aren’t working together. They have different goals, and Enlil has largely kept to himself, recruiting only Sumerian gods and demigods. As far as I know, he’s no longer working with the Aztecs either. Once Huitzilopochtli’s revolution ended, that alliance fell apart.”

  “There aren’t enough Sumerians left to mount an offensive against us,” Thor countered. “He’s allied with someone.”

  Bres shrugged and reminded them, “And it’s still not my problem.”

  “Badb is your problem,” Cameron said.

  “Um… thanks?” Badb replied.

  Cameron nodded. “Got your back, Crow.”

  “You’re not as helpful as you think you are,” Thor told him.

  “It’s irrelevant,” Bres insisted. “She’s psychic, so she knows I’m not lying. I know nothing about Enlil’s vessel or his current alliances, if he has any.”

  “But you do know something about Veles,” Badb said.

  “Actually, I don’t know where he’s hidden his soul either. I was just thinking that his body may be immortal, but if it’s permanently trapped somewhere, he may as well be dead.”

  “Tartarus,” Hanna murmured.

  “And technically, we never promised Tartarus we’d deliver his soul as well,” Cameron said. “If we can find his body and deliver him to Tartarus, that would fulfill our obligation to him and get rid of one of our problems.”

  “What was that back there?” Hanna asked. “No matter what Veles has done, allowing him to suffer for eternity is wrong. We’re better than that, Dad.”

  “Of course we are,” he agreed. “Our agreement is to bring Veles to Tartarus though. We never said we wouldn’t get him back out if we had to.”

  Hanna slowly smiled at her father and said, “Sometimes, you really are kinda brilliant.”

  “Please don’t,” London begged. “I can’t take more preening.”

  “All right,” Hanna pretended to agree. “But if he can answer this next question, I’m totally letting him preen. How do we find a god we can’t summon?”

  “Please don’t tell me we have to venture into another realm’s Hell,” Thor groaned.

  “We’re three for three,” Cameron told him.

  “Tartarus still isn’t the Greek Hell,” Prometheus pointed out.

  “It’s more like Hell than Hades,” Athena argued. “Because Hades isn’t a Hell at all.”

  “Hel wasn’t like Hell for that matter,” Cameron added. “I’m starting to think everyone got it wrong.”

  “Why did you say that?” Selena scolded. “You know we’ll have to trek through fire and brimstone now.”

  Cameron grimaced and shook his head. “I’m okay with fire, but I’ll be honest. If we run into a horde of demons, I’ll totally ditch all of you there.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Except you and your mom. I’ll take you with me.”

  “Can I go now?” Bres asked. “If I’m on the mortality clock, I’d rather spend the rest of my life anywhere you’re not.”

  “Now we know how to repay him for stabbing us in the back,” Cameron said smartly.

  “Except that would torture us, too,” Badb sneered.

  “Bring him to the Dagda,” Hanna suggested. “Let him deal with his brother how he sees fit.”

  Bres shook his head quickly, but Badb grabbed his arm and disappeared before he could protest. Athena blew a frustrated breath through her lips and kicked at the grass. “Assuming Veles is even in the Slavic underworld, how will we find him?”

  “Same way we found Nergal,” Cameron assured her. “These gods don’t like it when trespassers go marching through their land and rummaging through their palaces. He’ll show up to try to stop us.”

  Badb returned, announcing, “The Dagda is imprisoning him for now, just in case we need to question him again. I think a few of us should stay on Earth. If Enlil resurfaces, someone needs to be here to deal with him.”

  “I’ll stay,” London offered.

  “As will I,” Ares added.

  Hanna caught him shooting a sly smile in the Greek goddess’s direction, but London pretended not to notice. But Badb grunted at him and waved a hand in his direction. “And who’s going to stay behind to babysit him?”

  Athena squinted at her brother and shook her head. “I’m not missing out on ransacking the Slavic underworld because my brother can’t control his libido.”

  “I’m pretty sure I can handle him if he misbehaves,” London said.

  “Oh, we’re not worried about you,” Cameron clarified.

  “All right,” Thor sighed. “I’ll babysit Ares so Little Goddess doesn’t murder him.”

  Cameron patted his friend’s shoulder and told him, “We’ll send you a postcard.”

  “If you’re done, we should probably actually find Veles now,” Hanna said.

  “I want a souvenir, too,” Thor told Cameron then grinned guiltily at Hanna. “Now I’m done.”

  “Two underworlds and a living abyss all in the same day,” Cameron said. “And you thought your birthday was going to be boring.”

  “You had me painting the guestroom,” Hanna responded. “And if this is your idea of a birthday present, you really need to let Mom do the shopping from now on.”

  “We do actually have a present for you,” Selena said. “But I guess it’ll have to wait now.”

  “We do?” Cameron teased. “Because I was thinking I’d just slap a bow on Prometheus.”

  Prometheus blinked at him then blinked at Hanna. “Is he serious?”

  “If you have to ask, the answer is almost always no,” she answered.

  “Selena,” Badb said, “I know we’ve asked, but—”

  “My answer’s never going to change,” Selena interrupted.

  “Anybody want to run away to Hawaii with me?” Hanna asked.

  “God, yes,” Prometheus mumbled, so Cameron immediately shot him a “Keep your hands off my daughter” look and the Titan’s cheeks flushed. “I meant to get away fr
om this silly argument, that’s all.”

  “On second thought,” Hanna decided, “I’ll go to the Slavic underworld alone.” She left her parents and friends in Athens and appeared at the entrance of the underworld, where the tall gate barred living gods from entering. The equally tall stone wall stretched around the realm, both guarding its inhabitants from invaders and keeping those within from leaving.

  Hanna placed a hesitant hand on the handle of the gate and the locks broke off, falling to the ground as she swung the gate open. The interior of the underworld lay in darkness before her, so Hanna took a deep breath and stepped inside.

  Chapter Twelve

  Not surprisingly, her parents and friends weren’t far behind her and as the gate swung closed with an echoing clang, her father whispered, “Well, this seems ominously and suspiciously quiet.”

  “It’s an underworld for dead gods and demigods,” Badb whispered back. “What did you expect?”

  “Findias isn’t dark or ominous,” he pointed out.

  Badb waved him off. “Everything Irish is better.”

  “I don’t really know what to say to that,” Prometheus admitted.

  “I don’t know either, but you’re not saying it in Hawaii,” Cameron told him.

  “Dad,” Hanna hissed. “Knock it off.”

  “What?” he asked innocently.

  “Is that a mountain?” Athena interjected, pointing to a tall, dark shape in the distance.

  “Possibly,” Selena replied. “We know almost nothing about the Slavic underworld. In hindsight, we probably should have consulted Lugh before coming here.”

  “Not sure he knows more than we do,” Badb said. “I don’t think much was ever written about it. Besides, you’re supposed to be our new historian.”

  Selena nodded and glanced around the dark landscape. “Give me a few centuries to catch up on my reading.”

  “Think we should search the mountain?” Athena asked. “I mean, it probably serves some sort of function, right? There are no geological accidents in realms of the dead.”

  “Are regular mountains geological accidents?” Cameron asked back.

  “Don’t answer that,” Hanna warned.

  Athena smiled and shrugged, but didn’t answer him.