Chapter 129

Life looks around at all of us, a pretty smile on her lips, baffled but amused. Even Faiza looks up at her with raised eyebrows. “Why is this surprising?” Life asks.

“Mom!” Anton bites out, his voice breaking on the word, tense and stressed. “Please – I need way, way more information here!”

“Oh, Anton,” Life says with a sigh, beaming at her son like she thinks he’s funny and stepping closer to him, taking his cheeks between her palms. “How have you not figured this out by now, darling? Life is your gift, boy. I honestly only thought you were delaying the return to your corpse because you didn’t want to leave Juniper’s side.”

Anton blinks at her, wide-eyed, his voice softer now. “But I can’t leave Juniper’s side.”

Life frowns, stepping back and looking him up and down, her eyes shifting and becoming slightly unfocused. “Well, that’s tricky, isn’t it?” she murmurs. “The Moon Goddess certainly has been clever there.”

I just stare between the Goddess and her son, completely baffled. So…we’re only tied because my grandmother wanted us to be? Not because he’d fade to nothing if he didn’t have me to root him to this world?

“Mom – Lady – Godde- god, I don’t know, whatever it is I’m supposed to call you – please help me here!” Anton says, shaking his head like he’s shaking off water, clearing his mind. “Because I am very dead! I don’t know what you’re talking about when you say go and get my body!”

“Oh, you’re not dead,” Life says, sighing and rolling her eyes. She waves a hand in an arc through the air in a way that feels just a little too dismissive to me. “You can’t die darling, not in the same way other mortals can. Honestly, I’m a little disappointed in you for not figuring this out sooner.”

Anton just raises his eyebrows at her, baffled and a little offended. Laila and Orion stand close by, silent, their eyes flicking between the Goddess and her son like they’re watching a tennis match.

“Well?” she says, crossing her arms and looking at Tony like the stern mother she probably is. My eyebrows raise as gratitude sweeps through me that my own mom has always been nothing but kindness and light. “Did you die when you fell into that lake when you were a little boy?”

Anton’s mouth drops open for a second – I think surprised that she knows about that – but then he cocks his head to the side. “Well, no, but that’s because I can breathe underwater. That’s my gift.”

She rolls her eyes again and my wolf’s hackles go up as I start to learn that…I’m not entirely sure that I like this Goddess very much. “Do you seriously think that I, your mother, a Goddess, would give you so simple a gift, boy?”

Anton raises his eyebrows a bit further, I think reaching their limit. “Well, I mean, at the time…it seemed pretty impressive. I never thought to ask more of it.”

“Not even when your friend, the little pink-haired princess, developed her own gift beyond just flame? Honestly, Anton, I expect you to be more critical than this. Her gift is more than simple fire – it is Goddess fire, more than destruction. It brings light to Darkness itself – it clears and heals. You, as Goddess-born as she, expect that all you can do is breathe underwater?”

My wolf’s lips peel back as Anton drops his head, ashamed of himself for not figuring it out. I bare my own teeth, wrapping my arms around Anton’s elbow, pulling myself closer to him. “Hey,” I snap. “Ariel had a whole barrage of magical users around her whole life to help her develop her gift. Anton was alone. And that was your choice.”

“And his brother?” Life snaps, turning her critical gaze to me. “His powers are nearly fully developed and he likewise grew up largely isolated from other magics – and certainly without a heard of priestesses to help him –“

“His brother?” I snarl, leaning towards her, narrowing my gaze. “What the hell does some stranger have to do with this!?”

Life smirks at me and turns her gaze back to her son, dismissing me in turn. My wolf’s growl makes itself known in my own throat.

“It doesn’t matter,” Life says. “Our time grows short and I grow tired of this interrogation. Anton, I would suggest you go and find your body – your soul has been separated from it, but your gift is not merely the ability to survive underwater – it is the ability to survive.”

We all go very quiet as Anton blinks at his mother, shocked.

“Your body can be damaged if you don’t call upon your gift to make yourself invulnerable to the harms you face,” she says, folding her arms over her chest and holding his gaze. “Your Selkie-born nature likely made your imperviousness to water more intuitive. But if you don’t use your gift, you can be hurt severely enough for your soul to be separated from your flesh, as it is now.”

We all just stare at the Goddess in completely shock as she continues to speak as casually as if she were listing some grocery items Anton might consider picking up from the store.

“But,” Life continues, cocking her head to the side, “unless your body is completely destroyed, it will persist until it can be healed. And then your soul can then return to it. It is an immense power and I admit – I’m rather disappointed that you haven’t explored its possibilities.”

“Oh my god,” Anton murmurs, ducking his head into his hand, his shoulders starting to tremble with this new knowledge.

“Juniper,” Orion says, his voice low and stern. I turn my eyes to him. “Please, please tell me that your culture doesn’t practice ceremonies of cremation after death.”

My eyes go wide and my wolf howls in terror at the idea. “No,” I say, all in a rush, snapping my gaze up to Tony. “But Anton…we…we buried you.”

“What?” he whispers, dropping his hand and turning to me in shock.

I shake my head, a little frantic. “I mean, we didn’t know!”

“How could you have known – but like, when!?”

“We, um…the day I was taken? It was your funeral, and Blythe’s. I was there. I saw your…your coffin…”

Anton goes pale at the mention of it – the idea of his body now in a casket, buried somewhere beneath the earth, just…laying there.

“Oh, this is weird,” he whispers, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “This is really weird, June – I’m here with you? But also…I’m also somewhere under a bunch of dirt in Moon Valley?”

“The Royal Cemetery,” I whisper, naming the plot were our most honored dead are buried. “It’s right next to the palace. So Ariel could…visit.”

“Well, at least it’s fancy dirt,” Anton sighs, lifting a hand to rub at his temples.

“It’s better than if you were buried in my world,” Laila says, nodding and looking anxiously between us all. “We bury our dead at sea.”

“Yes, your flesh probably wouldn’t have survived that,” Life says, tilting her head to the side, considering.

“Oh ew,” I whisper, raising a hand to my mouth, still staring up at Anton. “I mean, you were buried…whole. But…but what did the undertakers do? Did they like…take all your blood out?”

“Oh my god,” Anton groans, covering his face with both hands, turning away from us all. “That’s so gross.”

“Well, that’s inconvenient,” Life says on a sigh, looking even more bored and casual than Faiza, who doesn’t look quite shaken but is certainly more still and quiet than she usually is. “I guess you’ll need to get new blood. But surely that can be arranged –“

“We have blood banks!” I offer, nodding eagerly.

“Guys,” Anton snaps, turning back and slicing a hand through the air, ending the conversation there. “We can worry about…where to find blood later. This is – I need…a minute to process all of this, okay?”

I nod, biting my lip, understanding, wanting to give him all of the space I can. But even as I hold back my barrage of questions and ideas, my wolf howls with delight.

Because Tony…a body. A body. It’s still there – in our world – and I have a magical mother healer. If she can help, and we can bring his ghost back to his body…

I mean, this could work, right? Anton could come back to life?

Joy rushes through me at the possibility. This news – it’s better than I could have even hoped for. Anton just…returned to his place in the world, entirely as he was. God, but I want that. Precisely that.

“So,” I say, snapping my eyes back to Life, my promise to leave the subject alone rather falling to the wayside. “He can come back to my world?” I ask, pointing at Tony. “And he won’t fade away or anything?”

“Your world has different rules,” Life says, crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow, studying her son. “He won’t be corporeal – at all – and will have even less presence than he does here. But he can go – ghosts have found their way to that world before, he won’t be the first.”

“And him?” I ask, pointing to Orion. “And her?” Laila now.

“The Selkie will be fine,” Life says, turning her eyes to Laila briefly. Laila beams at the news, looking at me with excitement. “But my nephew risks a great deal should he go to your world. He will give up his position as Prince of the Underworld if he leaves – a curse his father placed on him as a child.”

Orion twists his mouth to the side, shrugging as he turns his eyes to me, confirming this.

I scowl, not liking that at all.

“But he has also been blocked by your Goddess,” Life says, bringing my attention back to her. “Who does not wish anyone blessed by Darkness and not born in her world to cross the barrier. In order to be granted permission to cross, he will have to be baptized in her name.”

My face breaks into a smile at the idea, even as Orion’s scowl deepens.

“I love a nice baptism,” I say, looking at Orion hopefully, not wanting to take these next steps without him. “Champagne. And really good cake.”

“The lure of good cake aside,” Orion says, dry. “I am not giving up my position as Prince, Juniper. It’s too much to ask.”

I nod, accepting it even as my mind already turns on the problem, looking for loopholes.

But even as I contemplate, a huge boom sounds, a pulse passing through the air that threatens to push me off my feet. I gasp as Anton steps closer to me, a hand pressing to my back, keeping me steady.

“What was that?” I asked, completely freaked out. But before anyone can answer, Orion starts to fade from our sight.

He curses, leaning forward like he’s resisting a strong pull, looking frantically between us.

“Orion!” Laila gasps, reaching for him. But even as she does her figure starts to fade too, likewise pulled.

“Take her, June!” Orion shouts, pointing at Laila. “She’s yours now – not his!”

“Whose!?” Anton cries, reaching for Laila, his hands passing through her.

“My god damn father,” Orion growls. “It’s war – quick –“

I shake myself into action, reaching for Laila with my mind, my magic – grasping onto our bond and pulling as hard as I can. She gives a little cry, stumbling forward, snapping back into corporeality even as Orion fades further.

“Come for me!” Orion calls, skidding backwards across the floor, barely visible now. I cry out again, reaching for him, trying to pull him back – but nothing. We have no bond, nothing to hold onto. “Please, don’t let him –“

But before Orion can finish, he fades completely from sight. My heart wrenches, not knowing what to do next – not at all.