Chapter 124

The temple empties as we step inside. I frown at bit at this, feeling…I don’t know. Very visible? Very…vulnerable? Here, alone, in this wide empty space. My eyes move again to the back of the temple where a few priestesses skitter away into doors tucked into walls. I can’t hear them, but the way they’re leaning their heads close together suggests that they’re exchanging frantic whispers.

I cross my arms, frowning, trying to figure this out, but no ready explanation comes to mind.

Faiza sighs, irritating me. “Did we come all this way just to stand here?” she asks, tilting her head back and staring up at the ornate ceiling.

I scowl and start forward, Anton moving with me. Orion and Laila follow, ushering Faiza along with them, squirrel-Blythe seated neatly in Laila’s hands.

I look around for some sort of starting place, but there really is just…nothing. I mean, in my grandmother’s temple there’s stuff to do – a pool of water in which you can dip objects or people to be blessed. An altar at which you can kneel and pray. A series of private tables at which priestesses wait for consultations, or to hear prayers, or field questions about how to find aid in the physical world as well as the spiritual.

A little happiness rings through me at the memory – the Goddess’s temple really is a wonderful place.

In contrast, Life’s temple is…sparse.

I huff as I come to a stop right in the center of the huge space, putting my hands on my hips, looking around, frustrated. “Is this it?”

“What were you expecting?” Faiza asks, dry.

I spin to glare at her, a hard frown pressed to my lips. “Call up Life. I want to speak with her.”

Faiza just laughs at me and shakes her head, like it’s rich that I have the gall to even assume that she would, or that she could, command a Goddess.

“Fine,” I say, shaking my hair back and directing my attention to Anton, Laila, and Orion instead. “Let’s…split up. Move around, investigate. See what information we can get. If we need to, we’ll…go through those doorways or whatever and follow the priestesses and see what information we can shake out of them.”

“Oh,” Laila says, anxious, holding Blythe closer to her and stepping incrementally closer to Orion. “I, um…June, are you sure it’s wise for us to split up?”

Orion raises an eyebrow at me, clearly on Laila’s side about that.

“Fine!” I say again, rolling my eyes and waving a hand. “Groups of two. Anton, you’re with me.”

“And what do I do?” Faiza asks, a bit gleeful to see me at odds to come up with a better plan than that.

I spare a moment to glare at her, slipping my gaze down to her feet, which root to their spot on the temple floor. “You stay,” I say, narrowing my eyes. She gasps when she feels her feet lock and then snarls at me.

But I just ignore her, consulting quickly with my friends, deciding that we should start at opposite ends of the temple and come together with what we’ve found. We nod and move off, Anton steady at my side.

He glances down at me, a frown tugging at his lips. “You all right, June?”

I glance up at him, teeth gritted. “We’d better not have come all this way for nothing.” We walk directly towards the closest wall, which has some carvings and mosaics on it.

“Not nothing,” Anton murmurs, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me close for a moment. “You got a Priestess. We learned about an interesting part of this world. Saw a dog with a bunch of wings. Not a total loss, in my book.”

“We came to get you a body, Tony,” I snap, not willing to give in or be ameliorated just yet. “And yes, the dog with wings was cool, but…not enough to dampen my disappointment if we don’t get you alive again.”

“That’s sweet,” he murmurs, laughing a little and bending low to press a quick kiss to my cheek. I turn my head quickly, pressing one to his mouth before he can stand straight. He smiles at me, eyes all crinkly and nice, and butterflies burst to life in my stomach. “Come on,” he urges, lifting his chin towards the wall. “Let’s see what all of this is about.”

I nod, moving along with him, and together we walk slowly along the wall, studying the images drawn there.

As we walk along the length of the wall, I at first assume that the images are simply decorative. The Goddess of Life is in most of them, doing magnificent things. I see some of her standing with pregnant women and newborn children, pressing what looks like light into their hearts, blessing their minds. Another shows her hand and hand with her brother, Death, as they together usher the shades of dead through the Deadlands, him showing them the way in, her showing the way out.

But as we walk, I see that it’s not simply a series of images celebrating her accomplishments. Instead, it’s a story.

Life, born from Darkness and yolked forever to Death.

Life, in many worlds, holding the hands of people as they are born and live and then pass back into the unknowing realms.

Life, beneath the light of a full moon with a howling she-wolf carved at its center, her head bowed as the light spreads all around her.

“That one,” I murmur, stopping before it. “Is odd…”

“I know, right?” Anton murmurs, crossing his arms and studying the images. “As far as my religious upbringing was concerned, our Moon Goddess has very little to do with the Goddess of Life – bastard daughter of her ex-husband, after all.”

“Ex-lover,” I correct, turning to him with a raised eyebrow. “They were never married.”

“Some apocryphal texts suggest otherwise,” Anton murmurs, smirking down at me.

“She’s my grandmother,” I say, pressing a demure hand to my chest. “I think I’d know.”

“And I was raised by nuns in an orphanage dedicated to worshipping the Goddess,” Anton says, leaning down with a grin. “Whereas I’m pretty sure that you’ve never picked up a religious text in your life. So, I win.”

“I am a religious text,” I say on a haughty huff, waving a hand and making him laugh as I stride away, continuing down the wall.

“Oh, I’m aware,” Anton says on a low sigh. “I’m looking forward to studying you very closely, Juniper Sinclair. Lay you out over my lap like a good book. Trace my fingertips all along so I can follow your story.”

I pretend I’m not blushing, turning my attention back to the engravings as he steps close. Both of us fall silent, our teasing fading away. Anton stands at my side, both of us studying the panel before us.

Which is…very unique.

Mostly because…Life isn’t in it very much at all.

I cock my head to the side, my eyes moving over the three moons at the top of the panel – references, obviously, to this world and the celestial bodies that are almost always visible in the dark sky.

Beneath each moon is carved the vague figure of a young man.

“This must be what Orion was talking about,” I murmur, stepping forward to trace my fingers over them, wanting to be closer to the story. “The three moons as…men?”

“Yeah, whereas we only have one moon,” Anton says, stepping close to my side. “Which is ruled by the Goddess.”

I nod, letting my eyes drift further down to the symbols carved beneath each of the male figures. The one all the way to the right, the smallest moon, is accompanied by a scythe. But the other two – the crescent moon and the full – have lilies carved beneath them.

I frown, turning back to the huge statue of the Goddess behind me, my eyes going directly to the lily pressed to her chest. I turn back to the carving and press my finger to each of the lilies in turn. “Life, life,” I say, my finger then moving to the scythe. “Do you think this means…death?”

“It would make sense,” Anton murmurs, leaning closer, the frown on his face suggesting that he, too, hasn’t figured it out. He turns his eyes to the right, to the next panel, and steps over to it. I follow, my eyes moving to the top and seeing again the figure of the young man, the crescent moon, the flower of life.

I frown as my eyes move further down the tablet. But as I begin to understand what I’m looking at, my frown falls away as my draw drops, my lips parting with shock.

“Anton,” I whisper, turning my eyes up to his face. “Are you…are you seeing what I’m seeing?”