Gods Save the Princess (Grace of Gods Book 2) (4 page)

“Like the fridge?”

“Yes, everything here is magic and its magic is triggered by the magic inside of you. You simply need to believe in it, and to imagine it, and it will exist.”

“Anything I want?”

“Anything. If you want an ocean to swim in, the mountain will provide. If you want a shopping centre to go crazy in, then so be it. Just think hard about whatever it is you want, be specific and open a door. The doors in this place can take you wherever you imagine.”

I smiled, unable to help myself, it sounded wonderful to be honest. I had no worries here. No siblings who ignored me, no father to appease and no mother to take care of. I just had to be Valentina. I didn’t even worry that it might get old fast because I had wanted this sort of freedom all my life.

“What about my schooling?”

“You can study as you please here. There is a massive library that, with your help, can bring up any subject you’d like. You have the Internet, and you have other resources. If you would like a proper teacher I can provide one... But that is entirely to your own discretion.” 

“Can I leave here? Go visit my family?”

“The one thing I do ask is that you do not leave for the time being. There are dangers outside of the mountain that are waiting for a vessel to slip up and give them the opportunity to usurp the power of the Gods for their own.”

“Dangers?” I paled, “like what?”

“I don’t want to worry you.” Atlas smiled mysteriously and I felt that the subject was closed.

“Can I leave eventually? When I’m ready?”

“When my job is complete and everyone here has properly ascended their place then I will no longer be needed and you will be free to do as you please. If that means going home to visit your family, you may. But I must warn you, time works differently here than it does back in your old life. What seems like a month here could be a week or a year on Earth. When you are free to leave you might find a significant amount of time has passed and your old life is not how you left it.”

I felt a shiver run down my back but forced a smile nonetheless. There were many downsides to being a God it would seem. Dangers looking to kill us, giving up our human lives as a replacement for this life... And I got the distinct impression I couldn’t just give back my Goddess if I didn’t want it. It was an unbreakable contract I didn’t remember signing.

“Is there anyone else here?”

Atlas nodded, “yes, since I brought you a week ago I have also brought three others as they too were ready to join us here.”

“I’ve been here a week?”

“I told you, time moves differently here than it does back home.” He smiled ominously and I felt grim.

“I must’ve been tired.”

“You were very weak and tired.” We stared at each other for a moment or two; Atlas’ face was an unreadable mask. I had been a lot of things, but tired and weak were seemingly the least of my worries.

“Can I meet the others then?” I broke the silence finally, smiling politely as I knew Mother would want.

“You may do as you please here, I am not your keeper.” He smiled once more and I nodded, looking to the door. Well, it seemed I had a lot of time to decide what I wanted to do with myself. But mostly I was curious about meeting these other people who were here, seeing what they thought of this place.

“Valentina?” I turned and smiled at Atlas, “my door is always open if you need someone to talk to. Or if you have anymore questions.”

I nodded slightly, getting the impression he was feeling paternal toward me. It made my stomach coil, but I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or bad.

As I left I thought about finding one of the other people who were here and pushed the door open. When I stepped through I found myself entering the library, pausing to look around curiously.

“Hello?”  My voice echoed slightly through the empty room.

I must’ve done it wrong.

I had merely ended up somewhere that might further my understanding of this place and its Gods. But there was no one around like I had hoped. Instead the mountain had offered me information about the other people who were here, in the form of books.

Grabbing the biggest book in front of me, I glanced down at the title. It was an anthology of each lesser God in the so-called Pantheon. It would be a good starting place to familiarise myself with the options I had for my Goddess besides the Olympians Atlas had given me in his book.

Balancing it carefully in my arms I turned ready to head back to my apartment for some reading when I stopped short in surprise. A bookish girl stood directly behind me, peering at me strangely.

“Hello.” She said, simply unaware at just how unnervingly close she was to me.

“Hi.” I said, taking a step back if only to give me the chance to take her in entirely.

“Cleo.” She struck her hand out toward me and I shifted the book uncomfortably in my arms to be able to shake her hand.

“Valentina.”

“Nice to meet you. Are you taking that?” She pushed her glasses back up on her nose and took the book from me right afterwards. I gaped slightly in surprise, starting to grab it back from her before I composed myself. I was used to this, I reminded myself. Eleven siblings tended to make having something entirely “your own” difficult. I watched Cleo flip carelessly through the pages before handing the open book back to me.

“Looking into what Goddess you are.” She said simply, making it more of a statement than a question. My eyes flicked down at it and read quickly over the title page: “Muses”, before looking back up at her.

“That’s the plan hopefully.” I smiled, “are you a muse?” I guessed, closing the book.

“Clio.” She nodded, confusing me for a moment before I gasped softly.

“You have the same name as your Goddess.”

“Yes, helpful I find. But I don’t know of any Goddesses named Valentina besides Saint Valentine but that’s Catholic.”

“That’s who I’m named after.”

“Why?”

“All my siblings are named after saints. I guess they just ran out of female saints by the time they got to me so they found one that had a name that could become a feminine name without ruining it too much.”

Cleo nodded her head slightly, “good luck.” She turned and started walking away making my eyebrows raise in confusion. She was strange. I hoped she wasn’t a representation of the kind of people who had been chosen to be Gods. Things were already strange enough without strange people.

I decided to read about her Goddess when I got back to my apartment, maybe “Clio” was strange too and that was their historical connection Atlas had spoken about.

“Oh, Valentina.” Cleo stopped walking and turned to look at me.

“Be careful of the dark lion.”

I blinked slightly, looking around wondering maybe if there was a ferocious beast lurking somewhere nearby that might attack me.

“Thanks?”

“You’re welcome.” Cleo smiled sweetly and slipped behind a bookshelf without another word.

Strange.

Moving to the door I pushed it open again and stepped out into the hallway, holding the book again with two arms as I walked. I was so focused on thinking about Cleo and her dark lion that I forgot to think about going back to my apartment.

It was no loss though; I could do with getting better acquainted with the mountain if I was going to be living here for... well, ever.

But the more I wandered the more I realised there wasn’t exactly anywhere in the hallway
to go
. If I wanted to go anywhere, like Atlas had suggested, I just had to think about it.

Going through the next door I entered the hallway, stopping suddenly when I saw Atlas there outside my door. Only it wasn’t my door, I realised after a moment.

He was holding a body in his arms. I didn’t understand how he had managed to leave me and have time to go and get another person from Earth in the five – maybe ten – minutes I had spent in the library. It seemed unfathomable to me.

But curiosity drew me closer as I came down the hallway toward them. He didn’t notice me as he opened the door and I watched him take the boy into the room.

I caught a glance of his face and noted it was the same boy he had been looking at on the map. His face was riddled with bruises and dark circles marred under his eyes. He looked frail and weak like I had been when Atlas had brought me in.

I frowned to myself and shook my head; it was none of my business. I looked for the door to my apartment and soon found myself back in the comfort of my cozy little living room. I set the book down on top of the one Atlas had left before and stared at the size of the second one for a moment but my thoughts were not on the reading I planned to do. They were on the boy in Atlas’ arms.

I felt a unusual kinship toward him, understanding how it felt to be that helpless. In many ways we were similar, I could see parts of myself in his fractured face and it broke my heart. I needed to know more about him.

Chapter Four

I lazily read through what I could of the book, some of the Gods interesting me while others didn’t. But none of them cried out to me or reminded me of myself. It only made me wonder more who I could possibly be, if I was a Goddess at all.

Atlas didn’t seem like the kind of man who made mistakes though; I had to be here for a reason... Even if the reason wasn’t very clear to me. Tired, and somewhat frustrated, I gave up on researching. Deciding that maybe the best way to go was write out a list of Gods that I thought I
could
be and then going back to that library – trying to avoid Cleo – to get the specific volumes about these Gods. Going in depth about them might help me clear some things up.

I could only hope at least.

I stood up from my spot on the couch, stretching out like a cat before heading to find a notebook and pencil. My eyes were drawn to the adjoining wall that connected my apartment with that boy’s. I wondered if he was awake, how he was feeling and if he needed anything. 

I knew it was a long shot that he would even come to the door but I couldn’t help myself. I set the notebook down and left my apartment to go to his. I had been thinking about him when I left my apartment, hoping that would be sufficient enough to see myself through to his door. When I entered the hallway there was one other door to my left besides the one I’d gone through. That had to be his.

I felt unnecessarily nervous as I walked over to the door and raised my hand to knock. Only as soon as my knuckles rapt on the door I found it was pushed slightly ajar. Atlas must’ve forgotten to close it completely on his way out.

Swallowing my nerves I reached out, pushing the door open carefully and peeked in.

“Hello?” The apartment was dark, except for some faint grey light with no source. My stomach twisted painfully as I walked further into the room. I knew better than to just walk into someone’s home but I’d seen Atlas bring the boy here myself... he was in here, somewhere. Perhaps he was still passed out.

“Hello?” I tried again pushing the door open more and let the light filter into the room from the hallway. There was barely anything inside the apartment, a couch that looked old and not nearly as nice as my own, a table that was weathered and worn – maybe even pulled out of a dumpster somewhere, and no decorations to speak of.

It was cold; it was the basic necessities for an apartment. But it had no character at all.

To the right of the couch was a door, I figured had to be the bedroom so I carefully crossed over to it and knocked again. This time the door was secured shut. But there was no noise from behind it.

So I knocked again and waited, it was only the polite thing to do when entering someone’s bedroom, before letting myself in. It was just as dark in here as the main room had been but I could see a small shape huddled under the blankets of the bed.

My instincts told me to leave him as he was, he was sleeping after all, and I didn’t even know him. But he had looked so sick when Atlas had brought him in and it simply wasn’t in my nature to leave someone to feign for themselves when they were not strong enough.

Frowning to myself I moved over to the side of the bed, reaching out gently and hovering my hand by his mouth. It didn’t come as frequently as it should have but every so often I felt a small tuft of air on the back of my hand. He was alive at least.

But he smelt like a brewery.

I turned and walked out of the room quickly, moving over to the sink where I grabbed a cup and filled it with water for him.

Once my brother had gotten so drunk he was sick for two days straight, moaning and groaning in pain from his bed. I had been tasked to bring him water and toast for the entire 48 hours just to make sure he remained hydrated through the puking and he had something to settle the stomach acid.

I opened his fridge, thinking about bread, and grabbed it out, popping it in the toaster. It was just in case he woke up and needed food.

Moving around a little bit I looked for a candle or a flashlight, anything that would help me see better. I thought about what Atlas had said about the magic so I went to a drawer, thought about a candle and opened it. Sure enough there was a large taper candle laying there like it had been waiting for me. I just needed a lighter.