“We're here because of her, Re,” I said softly. “Perhaps she's earned the right to come along; not to mention the fact that I have no desire to go hiking through wet sand for hours.”
“Vervain, please don't take this the wrong way, but if you stand up for my daughter one more time, I will lose my patience with you,” Re growled.
“Excuse me?” I gaped at him.
“Oh, damn,” Macaria whispered. “Someone's gonna be in the doghouse tonight.”
“Mac!” Hades hissed.
“Sorry.”
“Do I tell you how to parent your children?” Re suddenly lost the laid-back look he always wore and became the Supreme God of the Egyptians.
“No,” I whispered. “But I don't expect you to hold your tongue if I do something you don't approve of either. Before anything else, we are friends, and friends don't bullshit each other. If you want a Yes Girl, look somewhere else, because it's not me. I call it as I see it.”
“Fair enough.” Re sighed. “But I have punished my daughter on your behalf and every time you stand up for her against me, it feels like a betrayal.”
“Shit,” I winced. “You're right; I'm sorry, Re. I was only trying to be forgiving and get us all past this. No matter what happened, she's still your daughter, and I don't want to stand by and watch you damage your relationship with her because of me.”
“La-la, I already have,” Re said sadly. “And that was my choice; as is every other interaction I have with Sekhmet. I understand what you're trying to do, and I don't feel slighted anymore, but I need you to stay out of it from now on.”
“Of course.” I stepped back and waited for the father and daughter to come to a decision.
“You may join us until we've found the location,” Re compromised. “But then you come immediately back to shore. I cannot risk your death while you are in this state, Sekhmet. I love you too much.”
“Okay,” she whispered. “I accept your decision.”
“Wonderful; very touching,” Horus huffed. “Can we go now?”
“Sweetheart, what did we just talk about the other night?” Hekate asked her husband.
“Katie, I don't give a shit if they think I'm an asshole,” Horus growled and stomped toward the sea.
“Oh, thank goodness!” Pan exclaimed. “Because that's exactly what we think.”
“Men,” Hekate said to me with a glance at Re.
“Yeah; they're especially annoying when they're right,” I muttered.
“I wouldn't know.” Hekate winked at me before she followed her husband.
Chapter Eight
“This feels biblical,” Teharon—the Mohawk God of Healing (and Toby's nephew)—murmured.
“And the Lord caused the sea to go back, and maketh the sea into dry ground, and the waters are cleaved,” Pan intoned dramatically.
“I guess we'll be calling you 'Lord Toby' from now on.” Azrael smirked at Toby.
“'The Lord of Water' will do,” Toby said with an arrogant sniff.
“Seriously, man, this is amazing!” Torrent said as he stared up at the glassy wall of water beside him. “Look; a fish!”
Torrent poked at the liquid barrier and it indented like jelly.
“Yep; lots of fishes in the sea.” Artemis—Torrent's girlfriend—rolled her eyes before taking Torrent's hand and leading him away.
“It is pretty cool,” I said to Toby.
“You could have done it too, Lady Moon,” Toby said. “You have an influence over the tide and a pull on water in general.”
“Shut up,” I whispered. “Really?”
“I believe so,” he said. “Our magic works well together, remember?”
“Yes, Lord of Water, I remember,” I purred.
Horus groaned, and Hekate smacked him in the gut.
It didn't take long for us to reach the ruins and the location where Sekhmet had felt the magic originating from. She pointed out the general vicinity, and then Re gave her a stern look. Sekhmet headed back to shore with a grimace. After she left, Toby widened our dry zone to include a good portion of the ruins, and we spread out to investigate.
We had several shapeshifters with us, and I had the best sniffer in the bunch, but I couldn't smell anything beyond the briny decompositional scent of the sea. The ruins were covered in sand and seaweed, but you could still see the obvious bumps and curves of pillars, walls, and statues. They were crumbling and worn, and it was hard to imagine what the city had once looked like.
“So, this was the city of gold and silver palaces?” I asked Odin dubiously.
“Five-thousand years ago,” Odin said.
“Five thousand?” I asked with surprise. “You said that you visited Dvārakā.”
“Many times,” Odin said calmly.
“That would mean you're over five-thousand years old,” I pointed out.
“We all are,” Horus said drolly. “How did you not know that?”
“Well, not all of us,” Macaria huffed. “I was born after the Great Splash.”
“Macaria,” Hades growled, “how many times do I have to tell you to stop referring to the Fall of Atlantis as 'The Great Splash?'”
“Whatever.” Mac rolled her eyes.
“I guess I've never thought about it,” I blinked in shock. “Five thousand; wow.”
“We're older than that,” Re said. “Atlantis fell in the year 5086—Atlantis time—which equates to...” He frowned and looked to Odin for help.
“3966 BC,” Odin supplied immediately. “Vervain, I lost track of my age long ago, but it's probably around six-thousand years.”
“I think I need to sit down.” I plopped onto a seaweed coated wall; it went squish beneath my butt.
“Oh, get over it.” Horus rolled his eyes.
“Age is only a number.” Torrent patted my shoulder. “Isn't Arach like twenty-thousand years old, or something like that?”
“You're not helping,” Trevor whispered to Torrent as he shoved him away. Trevor sat down next to me and took my hand. “We're all the same men we were this morning, Minn Elska. Nothing has changed but your own knowledge.”
