The Fire God

Chapter Two

I was permitted to drink alone and spent my evening pacing under the April sky. It had been warm in Canada that year, but snow surrounded me. I let the cold nip at me, fell willingly into a hazy dream.

Diana was under a lamplight, fire burning just above her head. My lips twitched into a smile and my chest relaxed. My strides lengthened as I went to her. My arms were opened before I reached her and she ran into them. I lifted her up, hugged her to me, was crying before any words left our lips.

Diana pulled back, her facial expression indicating pleasure. "It's all right, Babi. I absolve you of everything. We'll return to Arcadia together. You'll be healed there."

I made a bobbing nod, gazed into her black eyes.

And then her head was gone and the image of Asperia behind her with a sword filled my sight.

Diana's body doubled in weight, slipped to the ground, crumpled at my feet. I lost all control of my limbs, fell to my knees.

"Clean that up, then come home," Asperia roared at me.

My mouth was gaping and my heart was lurching into my throat, trying to escape me, lifeless thing.

I closed my eyes against the image, but it started all over, Diana in my arms, then headless on the ground.

When the sun was changing the sky from navy to purple to pink, I headed to the camp in the Yukon obsidian desert.

Asperia was in front of her mirror, brushing on powders and rouge. A new scarf covered her neck and she'd been careful to keep her forehead hidden under her hair. I smirked to myself. Her crinkled lips had become pencil line thin and spread into a smile. She spun to me.

"Mu said you'd been pacified," using the mother tongue. "I'm glad."

She swept out of the chair, her arms open their full span, but I jerked back.

"I won't hurt you."

I folded my arms before me, one leg poised forward, my head tilted. "Of course not. You need me. You're desperate for more dragon dust." I leaned my head the other way.

Her angry scar was peeking out at me under the scarf. "I could always return to your home in the Altai Mountains, break into your cache, murder Aditi while I'm at it—"

"You break into my home, much less harm a hair on Aditi's head, I'll flay every millimeter of skin off your body, douse you in vinegar, then leave you out for the cats to gnaw on." My teeth clenched as I hissed.

Asperia bowed her head, sucked her lips into her mouth. She was toying with the fringe on the edge of the scarf. This one was green with coral poppies.

"I'm sorry, Mricul," she said. She never veered from the mother tongue. "I don't want to fight you. I've resurrected Diana for you."

"Don't lie to me."

She tried to come a pace closer, but this time, I only tightened instead of pulling away. The motion was enough to prevent her from touching me.

"I'm not a fool. You'll never love me as you once did, but truly believe that I want us to be—well, at least, capable of civility."

"You murdered Diana!"

"I'm sorry. I was sorry almost as soon as I did it."

She wasn't. That memory was intact. The narrow eyes, the glint of them under the flame of the lamp. Her lips had been thin, tight, twisted. The biting words, ordering me home. After I cleaned up her mess, of course. She wasn't sorry until hours passed and I still hadn't returned to her.