A Beast Among Gods (The Mac Tire Chronicles) by Garnet Davenport (big screen ebook reader txt) 📗

He didn’t look much older than me. I didn’t understand how he could have lived through generations and be the age that he looked. I know that an elf’s age is different. He looked like he was over a hundred years old, but it was different. This man looked like he could have been in the same class as me.

“There’s a place up here that puts spices in beans and rice, and it’s to die for,” he said as he continued to walk away.

“What’s going on here?” I asked.

“I’m making sure you eat and we can talk. Alvar said you needed to find peace. Is it peace in your soul or peace in your mind that you seek?”

He stopped in front of a tent and spoke in another language and raised his hand to show two fingers. The woman spoke and held out her hand. Gabriel dropped a few coins into her hand, and then she pocketed the coins and scooped out a bowl of rice and beans with peppers in a creamy orange-brown sauce.

“Here,” he said, handing the bowl to me.

“Thank you.”

“Of course, let’s go sit over here.” He pointed toward an open area where colorful rugs were lying on the ground.

“Alvar said you were angry. I can see it.”

“Alvar also said you could see that my soul is black,” I countered.

“He did. But it’s not about the color of your soul. It’s about the fact that you have one.”

I sucked in a breath.

“What? You didn’t think that you had a soul or that your soul is black?”

I didn’t answer.

“Your soul can still be good if it is black. Black is a color. The darkest color. It is the absence of visible light. With no hue just like white. And you cannot have black without white. It is night versus day. Did you know that, since the Middle Ages, black has been a symbol of solemnity,” he continued to explain.

“Night versus day?”

“Exactly. Since the beginning of time, people have said there is a war between night and day. They’re always fighting for more time. Solstice comes twice a year. Summer and Winter. In the past, a god gave birth to twins. The prophecy said that one would be born under the sun and one would be born under the moon. The power had to be divided. One stayed with the father and grew angry over time. Her thirst for power overwhelmed her.”

“What happened to the other baby?”

“Ah, the one born under the moon? She was raised by a god that controlled the sea. Her power that attracted the moon helped him control the tides over time.”

“So, the one twin born at night was the good one?”

“In a way. But everyone has darkness. It only matters how much you let it control you,” he replied and took a bite of his rice. “What is it you’re looking for here? You have to want to be good to look for something to connect you to this world. Do you want to be saved?”

“That is the question, isn’t it?” I responded.

“It is. I bet, if you stay around here for a little while, you might be able to answer that for yourself.”

“I might stay for a little while.”

“Good. My brothers are also here. I’m sure they would like to meet you.”

“I don’t know about that, but I know I want to accept my fate.”

“Do you know your fate?”

“I’ve always known my fate.”

“And I have known mine. You will meet the rest of my brothers, and you will know what is to come.”

It’s not like those words weren’t ominous. But it reminded me that everyone has their own fate and that no matter how bad I know it will one day be, someone else will be there with me. I could live another year or it could be ten or ninety. But one day, I would be with Jamie, Lucy and Taylor again.

➣ Chapter 26

The Fate of the Future

That night, I was introduced to the Quadripartite. A myth among the mystics. They have been drawn as the four horseman of the apocalypse. They were captured in time with a curse and each given a specific gift. Gabriel Vassos has the gift of seeing into your soul. Káobe Kilmarr was gifted with peace. Those around him will feel a calm when they need it most. Shen Xui has the gift to read emotions. She can see love and hate. Then there was Sebastian Hale; he was gifted with the ability to see the truth.

We sat and ate dinner that night under the stars on the roof. They had given me a beer and let me sit and listen to them as they talked like a family.

“There’s always love,” Sebastian said.

“Oh, come on, man. You’re never going to find her,” Shen Xui said.

“Find who?” I asked.

“This… this… what would you even call her?” Gabriel said.

“She has been cursed.”

“Oh, that’s right. She is the wolf that survived the curse,” Káobe said.

“What curse?” I asked.

“The Gael Fearg. He thinks that there is a mac tire out there that will be cursed by the Gael Fearg sword to live through deaths until her own. Since he has the ability to see the truth, he saw the truth in her eyes. She wasn’t the demon before him. There was kindness in her eyes,” Shen Xui said.

“Kindness?” I said.

“Yeah, she looked like the demon I was there to send back to hell, but her eyes were kind and pure. Years later, I met her again. Same type of situation. But this time, I saw her. The truth beyond the mask of the demon. She was beautiful.”

“That’s right, the beautiful goddess he saw only as if it were a dream. You’re never going to find her. You don’t even know when you should have looked,” Káobe said.

“When?” I asked confused.

“Yeah, when you’ve lived as long as we have, it’s possible that he could have lived past her