Her heart plummeted. Of course. “I can’t leave Otherworld. The demigod potion didn’t work. I’m mortal. I’m stuck here.”
“You’re not mortal, Ana. At least, not entirely.”
What? Before she could speak, he wrapped his arms around her and she felt the familiar pull of the aether.
When they appeared in Esha’s flat, Ana gasped. She’d never expected to make it back to earth. When a mortal went to an afterworld, they stayed there. No exception. “How? How am I here?”
Cam kissed her hard, then pulled away from her and limped toward the bedroom, presumably looking for Esha. “The gods cannot come here, right?”
“Of course,” Ana said. “The gods hold no sway at the university.”
“Excellent. Gofannon will know that his magic chains have been broken. Soon the gods will know I’m gone.”
“But how am I here? I should be trapped in Otherworld. You can’t give life back to mortals.” She shivered. It had been the hardest part of slitting her wrists back in Druantia’s pantry, the knowledge that even as a god, he couldn’t give her back the earth. But it had been the easiest trade she’d ever made.
“You’re part Mythean, Ana. Not enough to make you immortal, since you were able to kill yourself to get into Otherworld.” He reached for her wrist and rubbed his thumb against the new scar, then met her eyes. “But enough that combined with your knowledge of the world of myth, I could treat you as any other Mythean and take you from Otherworld.”
Her brow furrowed. “Then what am I? This doesn’t make any sense.”
He pulled her over to the couch and they sat. His grip on her hands remained, his thumb slowly stroking as if to confirm for himself that she really was there. The story that followed was surreal. Her mind raced as he told her about an enormous party, every god from Otherworld in attendance—and she had been there with him in the forest.
“A Dryad?” she asked. Could she have truly lived another life? The Celts believed in reincarnation, but she’d always thought that if it had been her, she’d have remembered her past life. “But I don’t remember any of that. And I shouldn’t have a body. I killed my earthly body. Even as a Dryad, my soul should have stayed trapped in Otherworld.”
“That’s strange, and I’ve no idea how that worked. But it was you, Ana. You’re identical to the woman from my past.”
Her eyes raced over his face. He believed this. “But how did everything change? You went from feeling to unfeeling. How is that even possible?”
“Very powerful magic, in which we gods played a part. That night, I woke long after the others, farther into the forest where the magic couldn’t reach me as quickly. I witnessed the bones and blood of the Dryads form the oaks in that macabre glen. Your blood and your bones. But the spell made the memories fade until they felt unimportant. When I saw you covered in blood at Logan’s house, it looked horrifyingly familiar. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. When I was chained up on Blackmoor, I remembered.”
“Holy shit,” she breathed. She didn’t remember any of that. She’d had another life? Where she’d known Cam? “You killed me?”
Grief darkened his gaze. “I’m sorry, Ana. I couldn’t control it.”
Her mind struggled to recall anything from her past, but she could remember nothing. Flutters of panic rose in her breast, that she had a whole history with Cam that she knew nothing about.
“Ana, I’m sorry.”
She blinked and met his gaze, realizing that she’d disappeared into her mind, searching for memories. “It’s fine. Really. It was a spell, of course you couldn’t control it. And I can’t believe it was me. I don’t remember anything.”
“It was you. I’m certain of it. She looked like you and she felt like you and smelled of the forest, like you do.”
“I—I believe you. I just can’t remember. But it’s fine. I wouldn’t be here in this incarnation if you hadn’t killed me in the past. I like being me, even if my situation is currently a nightmare.”
“We’ll get out of it.”
“How? If you step foot off the university campus, the gods will get you.”
“They’ll have to find me first.”
“They will, eventually.” Then they’d be separated—presuming the gods didn’t kill her.
“Not if we can figure out a way to break the spell on Otherworld. It’s got to be one of the reasons that the gods feel so bound to the place. None of the other religions are like that.”
“True. You said before that Druantia hosted the party where the gods lost emotion?” When he nodded, she said, “I think she cast the spell. When I went to her for help to come after you, she locked me up. She hates the gods. She hates you. With the kind of hatred that lasts millennia and spawns intricate plots.”
He cursed, vile and low. Then nodded. “Fucking idiot. I was so damned arrogant back then, I never realized. The last time I saw her before that terrible night was after a battle. She’d taken tributes that were meant for me. Now, I don’t give a damn about them. But back then I was enraged. I was obsessed with myself and what I thought she’d taken from me. I threw her into the mud. Humiliated her in front of her followers.”
“But you’re not like that now.”