Storm Gods - G. Bailey Page 0,53

in this as anyone else. But you’re also a survivor, and I…” She swallows hard, blinking back tears and refusing to let me look away. “I couldn’t be prouder of the woman you’ve become, Karma. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”

“Mum…” Trembling a little, I reach over and hug her, more tightly than I’ve ever done in my life. She seems to relax a little, stroking my hair like she did when I was a little girl.

It’s not until we break apart that she says anything else, and the next words out of her mouth hit me hard. “Maria would have been proud of you, too,” she says, her voice soft and sincere.

I blink, the corner of my mouth twitching in a sceptical half-smile. “You think so?”

Mum chuckles, putting an arm around my shoulders and pulling me closer. “I know so. She didn’t anticipate any of this, either. She planned on raising you, you know, her own way. I did the best that I could to give you a good life, the only way I knew how.”

“You did a great job,” I tell her. “Don’t ever doubt that.”

Mum doesn’t reply right away, and briefly I wonder if I said the wrong thing. “You’re so much like her,” she murmurs, not looking at me, and I’m not sure if she’s speaking more to me or to herself. “So much so that sometimes it hurt to look at you in the beginning. It was like looking at a carbon copy of Maria.”

“Well,” I say, hoping to lighten the mood, “red hair and green eyes isn’t exactly a common combo.”

“Not just in looks,” mum says, shaking her head. “In the way you see the world. In your idealism. I know that you’re tough, and that you usually don’t let things get to you—chalk it up to having all male siblings, I suppose—but you’ve never once let the world of the gods make you cynical. Maria was the same way: funny, charming, powerful. Always seeing the best in people.”

I sigh. “I don’t know about that, mum. I’m starting to lose faith in the whole system.”

“As well you should,” she agrees. “But I want you to promise me something, Karma.”

I turn to her. “I’m going to try my best, mum, but there’s no guarantee that—”

“I know,” she interrupts, holding up a hand. “I know you have to go, and I know there’s no other choice. I came to terms with that a long time ago.” I feel a bit relieved at that; it’s a conversation I’ve known was going to have to happen sooner or later, but the idea of telling the woman who raised me that I might not be coming back from my trip to London feels almost unspeakable. “I want you to promise me that you won’t let this make you cold, Karma,” mum says, and I’m surprised by how easily she asks it of me. “The world of gods is a brutal, ugly place,” she continues. “The world of humans, too. Some things are universal, I guess. But they don’t have to be,” she adds. “At the end of the day, the choices you make are going to shape the world. If the higher gods are defeated, there will need to be a new order, a new system…a new everything.

“You have the chance to make things better,” she tells me, and she sounds almost sure enough to make me believe it. “So don’t let Neritous turn you hard. Keep that fighting spirit. The genetics are great, but at the end of the day, that’s the most important thing that Maria ever gave to you.”

It’s a simple request, but it makes something stir deep inside me, and I feel a fresh wave of hope wash over me. Neritous let power and malevolence turn him into a tyrant. His evil runs in my veins…but so does my mother’s good. It’s in that moment that I resolve to continue to nurture that, whatever it takes. “Okay, mum,” I say, nodding. “I promise.”

“Good,” she says, getting to her feet. “Do you want some lunch? The others are getting ready to eat.”

The rest of the day moves at a snail’s pace. I continue to make anxious visits up to my room to check on Kit, but his situation remains unchanged. My talk with mum has taken the edge off, though, and I’m determined to take what she said seriously. I continue to hang around the house, drifting restlessly from room to room, so