Storm Gods - G. Bailey Page 0,2
her skin is covered in markings of flames, all flashing against the hanging lights. She is a fire god. I wonder what the twins are, I can’t pick up on it.
“A new sister?” the woman asks, running her gaze over me. “Fun. Now there are six of us left—for now.”
“Don’t be bitter, Faleria, it will be all worth it in the end,” Neritous replies, but his tone shows a lack of interest in her altogether. Faleria sits with her brothers...well, I guess our brothers, and I clear my throat.
“How many were there? Where are they now?”
Kjetli answers me when our father chooses not to. “There were twenty, well, twenty-one including you.”
“And they are all dead. Each one of them failed our father,” Faleria replies. “I am being tested next, and I will not fail.”
“What test?” I question Neritous, not wanting to comment on the level of crazy brainwashing that is going on with Faleria.
Neritous stands and walks to me, pulling out a familiar necklace in his hand. I all but jump for it as he hands me it, my hands curling around the charms like a lifeline.
“You had my necklace this whole time?”
“I took you from the prison, and I never suspected you had the key on your necklace all this time. Maria stole it from me, and I spent years searching. How did you get it?” he holds up the lightning charm mum gave me on my last birthday. The charm I nearly killed him with.
“It’s not a key, it creates lightning,” I say, and he laughs at me, slipping the charm back in his pocket.
“The lightning bolt is a key to unlock the sphere of magic. The original source of all the gods’ magic in the world,” he tells me. Well, fuck me, Neritous is the craziest out of all the higher gods. I was sure Xur took that award, but I was feckin’ wrong. “And when one of my children takes the power without dying, I will take the world. If Faleria dies, you will be next.”
My heart pounds in my chest as he walks away, creating a portal and disappearing into thin air. Feeling the eyes of my siblings on me, I choose a random door and walk through it into a room of bunk beds. All of them but the one at the very end look used, and on the bed next to it is a little girl with bright red hair in a blue dress, who must be about nine. Hoping she is who I think she is, I walk over and sit on the made up bed opposite her. The little girl looks up, her ruby eyes locking onto mine, and I take in her tiny cat-like ears poking out of her hair. She rubs a silver bracelet on her wrist with two charms hanging off it.
“Who are you?” she asks.
“Karma Kismet,” I reply, offering her my hand. She eyes it before looking up at me with a stubborn set of her jaw that reminds me of myself. Crossing her arms, she sweeps her eyes over me.
“Another sister?” she asks around a yawn. “I’m Ruby, but I’m not going to be your friend. I want to get out of here.”
“Same,” I tell her, making her pause. “And your mum, Emerald, is looking for you. I met her, and I was good friends with Jade. I am here to save you.”
“Mum?” she asks, her hands falling to her sides, and her lip wobbles a tad. “She is looking for me? Father said she thought I was dead.”
“You can’t trick a cat that easily. Do I have to tell you that?” I say, and she smiles, a full beaming smile before jumping on me, wrapping her tiny arms around my neck. I hug her back as tightly before she suddenly freezes.
“You have a goblin in your hood. Do you know they bite?” she slowly asks me, leaning back. “I’ve read books about goblins, and they are bad luck.”
“This is Kit, and he isn’t bad luck. For us, he is the opposite, I promise,” I whisper as Ruby climbs off my lap and I pull Kit out of my hood to show her. “And he is how we get out of here. I need to hide him, so is under the beds safe?”
“Yes, I clean in here. It’s my job,” she whispers back and pulls out a spare pillow from her bed. I place Kit on the pillow, and Ruby pushes it under my bed before