Storm Gods - G. Bailey Page 0,59

life, and I maintain my restraint, biting down hard on my lip. Carefully, I lift the being up into the air on a platform of green energy before lifting it up and over the river, depositing it on the bridge. It’s the best I can do.

“Where the hell are the other gods when we need them?” Mads demands.

“They’re all busy fighting Neritous,” I reply as we move to rejoin the others. The justice twins have dispatched the last of the creatures, and after a quick scan to make sure everyone is okay, we’re able to start moving again, albeit with more trepidation than before. “Come on,” I say, picking up my pace. “They’re going to need our help.”

We continue to pick our way through the ruined city, the sounds of the battle growing closer with every step. There are a few more of the monsters lurking on the side streets, but we’re able to evade most of them, and the ones we aren’t, we take care of with nonlethal force. I don’t know if there’s a way to undo it, but I’m certainly going to try to find one…assuming I make it out of this in one piece. What concerns me more than the presence of the creatures is their numbers; I would have been expecting more of them, considering the number of people living in London. I guess it’s possible some of them may have fled the city after hearing about what happened to San Francisco and New York, but that doesn’t quite add up, either. It’s almost like…

But my train of thought is interrupted when we round a corner into what used to be Trafalgar Square. It’s now a jungle of overgrown trees and wrecked buildings. That isn’t what surprises me. What surprises me is the chaos; the place might as well be a battlefield. All around us, gods of all dominions and power levels are battling other gods, and it’s not immediately possible to tell which ones are on our side and which ones are on Neritous’s. Explosions of magic split the air all around us, bolts of lightning fly every which way, and other, more exotic powers light up the overcast sky. The dominant power is green, no doubt signs of the magic I gave to them, and my heart sinks when I see that many of the enemy combatants were once human. Many of them are now plant monsters like the ones we encountered before, but there are many others—businessmen, mothers, children—who are untouched by the foliage, instead sporting the same vine tattoos that signal the successful transfer of the life powers. These must be the humans who survived the initial wave, I think, my hand flying to my mouth as I look around. This was what he meant by being reborn, turning into gods and goddesses.

“Why are they fighting us?” Killian wonders aloud. “Can’t they see this is Neritous’s fault?”

It’s true; their eyes aren’t the blank, staring green that shows their minds are no longer their own. There’s sanity on their faces, confusion, determination…but also fear. “We don’t know what he told them,” Storm replies. “Maybe they think he’s here to help them.”

“We’re wasting time,” Seth says flatly. “We need to find Neritous and the twins.”

“Won’t be easy, considering how many life gods there are here now,” Mads remarks.

I open my mouth to reply, but I’m interrupted by a deafening burst of power. Before I even realise what’s happening, I’m being lifted off the ground, some sort of telekinetic energy keeping me immobilised and struggling futilely. I let out a yell, glancing down to see one of the other gods standing below me with her hands raised. “I got her!” she yells triumphantly. “I got the karma goddess!”

“Karma!” yells Killian, making a move towards her, but then a couple of the others look up from their own fights and charge over, engaging with the guys and Mads before they even have a chance to help. I’m on my own. I thrash against the magic holding me in place, but every movement is a struggle, like a million strong hands are restricting me.

Shite.

Another glance down shows the goddess moving her hands, and moments later I begin to move in midair, slowly carried by the enemy magic as she sends me in an unknown direction, no doubt to Neritous or the twins. So, he did want me dead, after all. The others too, probably. It’s not exactly surprising, and it makes a fresh wave of anger