Children of the Lost Ruler- Ghost Goddesses Book One

I'm Still Gonna Save Them... Just On My Own Terms

Finding Nico wasn’t that eventful. We searched a couple beaches and deserts, considering sunlight is the opposite of shadows, and eventually we found him at the place where I would’ve looked first, if Kae hadn’t convinced me otherwise.
Death Valley. The place with the recorded hottest temperature ever, and one of the hottest consistent temperatures. Walking with Kae, we saw Nico lying in the middle of the ground in nothing but bathing suit trunks. Running over to him, I found he was unconscious.
“Kit-Kat, water and shadows!”
Kae handed me a bottle of water, and we both covered the three of us in shadows. Opening the ice water, I dumped in on his face, and he shot up. “What the fuck?”
“You’re welcome,” I mumbled as he discerned where he was at.
He eventually turned to Kae and I. “I kept the shadows on me for a while, but I couldn’t hold them any longer.”
“It’s alright, Nidian. Have some nectar.” He drank a few sips of the nectar, and seemed to be getting stronger, but his major sunburn didn’t go away. Reaching into the oh-so-magical backpack of mine, I pulled out a bottle of aloe vera, and one of his normal outfits. “You’re gonna have to let that heal by itself. Do you want Kit-Kat over here to help you get dressed? It’ll hurt like a fucking bitch if you don’t. You’re burnt from head to toe.”
“Kae,” Kae said, glaring at me as Nico nodded. I turned away for a moment, and when he was dressed, I shadowed us to Hopscotch, a nice restaurant.
After lunch, we sent Nico back to Lara and Salem, and I shadowed us away. When we got to our destination, Kae raised his eyebrows. “Who’re we going to find here?”
“Not a fucking soul.”
“Then why are we here?”
I turned to look at him. “Listen up, Kit-Kat. You’re not as bad as most, but unlike the fucking voice in my head, I don’t trust you, yet. I’m in charge, so we’re gonna do this on my terms. I’m still deciding if I’m gonna save the rest of those assholes or not, and since I don’t really have any fucking leads on my dad right now, I’m gonna take a little fucking break.”
He scowled at me. “But why here? It’s a garden by a lake.”
“It’s called,” I growled, pointing at the sign a few feet away, “The Gardens at Lake Merritt. And I don’t have to justify anything I do to you.”
He sighed. “Ok. I’ll just sit down by the lake. Call me if you need me, and I’ll do the same.”
Having completely forgotten I gave him a phone and my number, I nodded. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
Once he got out of my view, I started walking down the path, covering myself in untraceable shadows. It probably wasn’t safe that I stayed in the same town, but I needed to come here.
Why did you give him your phone number? I thought you said, “Phone numbers are fucking stupid, and I wouldn’t even have one if it wasn’t for ,my parents wanting me to have easy way to contact them.”
Shut the fuck up. I don’t know.
He’s literally the first person from here to even know you have a phone, besides mom, dad, Lara, and Salem. And Lara and Salem don’t have your number,
Shut up and enjoy the view. Goodbye.
I shut out the voice in my head as I walked through the beautiful paths of flowers. “They haven't changed a bit,'' I mumbled to myself. “Only flourished more.”
Once I got to the centre of the garden, I sat down on the bench in the middle of all the flowers. Staring out and enjoying the serene view of Lake Merritt, I eventually fell asleep.

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When I woke up, the sun was in the middle of going down. Suddenly, I heard a voice from the bench next to me. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
I jumped up, reaching for my sword, when I saw Kae sitting next to me. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“I was getting worried when I didn’t hear from you, so I went looking for you. From what I’ve seen of you so far, you literally never fucking sleep, so I deicded not to wake you.”
“Thanks,” I grumbled.
“So?” He asked, cautiously. “Why are we here?”
I glared at him, but I figured he wouldn’t shut up about it until I told him. “The rare times I wasn’t in the Underworld growing up, whether it be the Mansion of Night or Pluto’s Palace, this is where I grew up. Oakland, California. I came here every weekend, and every summer, when it got extremely fucking hot in the Underworld. Once I started at Camp Jupiter, I’ve only been able to come here for spring break, but The Gardens at Lake Merritt, and Lake Merritt itself, have always been my favourite place. Now, we’re leaving, and you tell this to no one, understand me?”
He nodded, and I handed him a sleeping bag. “What’s this for?”
“My terms, remember? No hotel tonight. From now on, we stay in the woods every other night.”
He smiled. “Cool!” And I just stared at him. “What?”
“What… the fuck… was that?” I asked in minor shock.
“What was what?”
“You...” I hesitated, giving him some suspense. “You smiled.”
“No I didn’t,” he rebelled.
“Um huh… Right… Let’s go.” I shooed him to stand up, and then I shadowed us to the closest woods I could to our next destination. That night, I learned two things. One, that Kit-Kat can smile, he just chooses not to like me. And two, that motherfucker snores like a bitch.

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The next morning, Kae woke up to me throwing a pile of clothes and hand warmers on top of him. “What the fuck, Kere?”
I shot my head to him. “Ambrose.”
“Ahn ahn. No. You call me Kit-Kat, I call you Kere. It’s not your full middle name.”
“Kere, Keres. It’s only one letter off. Close enough.” He gave me a look, and I groaned. “Fine, Kit-Kat. But don’t expect any more special treatment.”
“Why all the clothes?”
“What’s the opposite of nice, warm sunshine?”
“Freezing cold darkness… Alaska?”
“Antarctica.”

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Once we shadowed there, Kae turned to me. “Where do we start?”
“I don’t know about you,” I replied. “But I’m starting by making a snow angel
“A snow angel? Really?”
“Everyone has guilty pleasures. Deal with it.” I dropped down and started making a snow angel. After a second, I heard grumpy butt Kit-Kat drop down and make one, too. When we were done, I got back up. “Now,” I said, finding and opening a tunnel in the snow. “We tunnel in the snow to stay a bit warmer and walk easier until we find something that might help us find Will.”
Kae nodded, and crawled into the tunnel behind me. After what felt like hours of crawling, with only a few breaks to eat or get some fresh air, we found something.
As we were crawling, the snow caved in between Kae and I. Climbing out, we saw a huge area of grass, and right in the middle of it stood a blue Will in an ice cube, with rays of sunlight surrounding it. Every time part of the ice cube started to melt, it would regrow, but the snow around him was melting rapidly.
“Well shit,” Kae said from next to me.
“You can say that again.”