Page 32 of Sequel to the Easter Bunny

She shrugs… but it’s not a “no.”

“Come on.” She holds her hand out to me, and I take it. “We’ve still got a little further to go.”

Taking a deep breath, she closes her eyes, and when she opens them again, we set off across the meadow, delving back into the trees.

I feel the changes before I see them.

There’s a chill in the shadows and something sultry on the air.

“We’re in the densest part of the godswood,” Ari says, squeezing my hand. “You’ll get used to the sensations soon, I promise.”

“If this is Heim’s part of our world, why would he let Minoka put the peacock here?” I let her pull me along. “You said Heim hated all the other gods.”

“Not all of them. But almost…” She sighs, and, as with every other time the god of winter has come up, she doesn’t look at me when she speaks. “They like their progeny… You’ve met Lako.”

“She’s certainly likable.”

“And lickable, if memory serves.” She says it low enough, I imagine I wasn’t supposed to hear that bit. “The children Heim had with the other gods are all in his favour. But Minoka….”

“You called him the trickster?”

“Yes. Minoka is a special creature…” This time, there’s nothing rueful about her smile. “Heim would let Minoka get away with anything, and does if the tales are true.”

“But Minoka isn’t one of the other god’s children?” I remember that from stories when I was a child.

“No… and that is probably part of the reason he acts out as much as he does.”

Snow glitters on branches and on the edges of the clearing. The ferns are blue with frost and I shiver, brushing at my arms to drive away the chill.

Ari doesn’t even seem to notice as her boots crunch on the frosty soil.

“Why is it so cold?”

“It’s always winter here. Our world has these little pockets of theirs tucked away inside of it. They’re sacred places that hold entrances to their domains that aren’t as ostentatious as the spire. They’re suspended between the realms. Our world’s rules don’t necessarily apply.”

“What makes this place sacred to Heim?”

“It’s where Heim met his wife.” She caresses one of the snowdrops and it lets out a strange trill, like tiny bells. “She was a mortal. Her blood diluted only once, like your child’s will be.”

“The kittens said something about her being banished.”

“Mortals and the principal gods were not meant to mate.” She shuffles through the underbrush making noises to drive the bird out, if it’s there. “Giving birth to Minoka killed her. But Heim refused to let her go. He fought with the other gods to save her and in the end… she lived, but was forced to remain in the mortal world, never to meet her husband again.”

“Why?”

“Because the gods are not kind. Not even to each other.” She scowls down at the ground, scuffing the dirt with her shoe. “The only god willing to champion her beside Heim was Cupid.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. Like you said, the god of love….”

“They are the one that ensured her survival. Minoka is Heim’s favourite, but Cupid is Ester’s.”

“I wonder, then, why she did not hand me over to them?”

“When you meet them, you’ll understand.” She laughs and shakes her head at me before her eyes go wide. “Oh.”

Her distraction stops me before I can ask what she means about meeting Cupid, and when I follow her gaze, I see the bird.

It pecks at the ground a ways away, but when I push past the dense brush between it and us… well, nothing about this was ever going to be easy.

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