Page 102 of As Darkness Fall
“Vir, I don’t know what to do now,” I said, stepping back slightly, looking up into his eyes as the fuzzy moonlight cast its pale glow over his face.
He really was stunning. That long hair, so perfectly straight and pooling ever so slightly at his shoulders, and the strong, regal nose, and, of course, those eyes. Royal blue and godlike, with the tiniest hints of sapphire fire in their depths, they threatened to drag me in every time.
But I couldn’t let myself. Not now, not ever.
“We’ll figure it out,” he said, and he stroked my cheek with his hand. It was a very tender, very human move.
I almost stepped into it, almost let myself get carried into that moment. It would have been so easy. So comforting. I leaned in, my resolve wavering, on the edge of crumbling at the moment as I sought out something,anything, that would tell me it was going to be okay.
“What’s that?” my mother asked from somewhere behind me.
I glanced behind me to see her standing outside the truck, staring back the way we’d come, her face slack with shock. The team in the bed all had their heads craned back toward Seguin as well.
Frowning, I looked up at Vir and then stepped to the side so his broad shoulders were no longer blocking my view.
A light purple haze could be seen from town. It had started near the ground, but it was rising swiftly into the air.
“Vir,” I said. “What the hell is that? It looks like it’s surrounding the entire town.”
“It’s a barrier,” the god replied, stunned. “A powerful one, at that.”
“He’s putting up a wall around town?” I asked.
Vir nodded slowly, his mouth slightly open. “It looks that way.”
“But…”
“How?” Vir said, finishing my unspoken thought. “How did he learn to use magic this quickly? That much power…that takesyearsto learn how to use. At the height of our power, Shuldar was shielded from the outside world by a similar barrier. One that concealed and only let in those who were wanted. That’s how it stayed hidden. But it took many priests a number of years to work that much magic.”
Lars hadn’t been practicing for that long. It was impossible. Until I’d led him to Shuldar, he’d not had any relics to practice with aside from the Idol of Amunlea. But according to Vir, until I’d somehow used the energy inside the Empress’s temple, the relic had been inactive. Powerless. So how had he learned all this in such a short time on his own?
The answer hit me like a ton of bricks. He wasn’t doing it on his own.
“He had help,” I whispered to myself so quietly nobody else could hear. “Oh, god, Vir, I have an idea. It’s not a good one. In fact, it’s probably a very, very bad one.”
“Dani,” my dad interrupted. “Why do you keep calling him Vir?”
“Oh. Right,” I said. “You’re out of the loop. Dad, meet Vir, Champion of Amunlea, Shifter God. Vir, meet Dad.”
“Hi, Dad,” Vir said, reaching out to shake my stunned father’s hands.
“Um, hi,” Thomas Wetter said, staring up at the living embodiment of our history.
“What is your idea, Dani?” Vir asked, turning away from my father, who was still staring, speechless and not moving.
“Someone is teaching him,” I said slowly, watching Vir’s face for a reaction. “Someone who knows what the relics can do and how shifter magic works.”
There was only one person that could be, and after several moments, I saw the recognition blossom on Vir’s face.
“You think they’re working together?” he asked, rubbing his jaw in thought.
“Do you have a better idea?” I countered. “Because that’s about as bad as it gets, and it makes too much sense. Which usually means it’s correct.”
“Butwhy?” Vir said, posing the question that I, too, was still trying to ponder out.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I have no idea.”
“Vir,” my father finally whispered, shaking his head. “You’re real. Like, actually real. A god.”
