“I suppose it was only a matter of time before we had a modern American god,” another man said as he stepped out of the shadows. “Vayu,” he introduced himself before sitting in the chair Venus had just abandoned.
“This is everyone,” Montu said as he took charge of the room.
Silence echoed for a moment, and I could feel the unspoken sadness in the room. Five gods, six if I included myself, were here. How many were missing?
“When do we attack?” Malekbel asked bluntly. “There’s no reason to delay any longer.”
“Patience,” Montu said with the raise of his hand. “We want this over within one battle, not have it drag on for centuries. To do that, we need a solid plan.”
“Why attack at all?” Venus asked. “The humans here barely remember us at all, and I’m tired of living as one of them. Let’s leave this place to the Morrigan and be done with it.”
Vayu sighed. “We have a chance to reclaim what we lost. Xichil has shown us that.”
Everyone turned to look at the Jaguar Goddess, and I narrowed my eyes at her. Yes, she’d reclaimed part of South America, but at what cost?
Xichil looked pleased with the attention and swept her luxurious dark hair off her shoulder. “It wasn’t easy, but I’m slowly earning back my worshipers.”
“Why not go back to America with Anna?” Malekbel asked Venus with a curl of his lip. “There should be enough vanity and pleasure there to sustain you.”
Venus pouted. “I’m hurt, Mal. It’s almost like you hate having me around.”
Malekbel gave an irritated huff, but I saw something that looked almost like worry in his eyes. There was definitely history between the two.
“Since we’re all together, let’s talk territories,” Vayu demanded.
“We haven’t even discussed how we’re going to win the war, but you want to discuss the spoils?” Montu asked in disbelief.
“You sound surprised,” Xichil said dryly. “We all know how Vayu is.”
“Fine,” Montu grumbled. He waved his hand, and a large map of the world appeared on a table in front of him.
“Why not keep the old boundaries?” Venus proposed. “The gods of North America are all gone, and the people there won’t be swayed from their Christian god anyway.”
“I want my territory expanded into Asia,” Vayu demanded.
Montu sighed but turned his attention back to the map.
I tapped my fingers in irritation as the gods squabbled over petty borders. We didn’t have time for this nonsense.
“The Morrigan is most likely planning our deaths right now,” I interrupted.
Vayu opened his mouth – most likely to say something derisive, but another voice cut him off.
“Quite right, my darling,” the familiar voice purred to me from the shadows a moment before Drake stepped out into the courtyard with us.
“Drake,” Xichil said coldly. “How did you bypass the wards against fae?”
Drake chuckled. “I believe if you take a closer look, you’ll see that I transcended beyond that.”
I looked at Drake with the new senses that being a goddess had given me. Drake’s power exceeded that of everyone else in the room – except me. That made me realize the real reason why I was here. Venus wasn’t far from the truth when she accused the others of wanting to use me as cannon fodder. They needed me to fight with them if they wanted a chance to defeat the Morrigan. That’s why they were so solicitously offering me a large territory. Or did they think I wouldn’t survive this? That one of them would be able to swoop in after my death?
“Anna,” Drake greeted me. “You look stunning, as always.”
I gave him an irritated look, but he merely chuckled and moved on to greet the other gods.
“No one invited you,” Montu stated with a dark look on his face.
Drake shrugged and came to stand at my side. “I assumed it was an oversight.”
“It wasn’t,” Xichil hissed.
Drake shrugged a shoulder and reached over to the table beside us. He plucked a fat grape off a platter and casually tossed it into his mouth. He looked around the room as he chewed and swallowed, taking in each one of the gods present.
“So hostile,” he said with a laugh. “You forget that it was I who sounded the alarm and gathered you together.”
Montu snorted derisively. “For your own purposes, I’m sure.”
From this conversation, I gathered that these gods really did know Drake somehow. Interesting. I watched him from the corner of my eye, but it didn’t go unnoticed, because he