Goddess of the Rose (Goddess Summoning #4)(102)

The old woman nodded her head slightly.

"Oh, God," Mikki gasped.

"I believe, Mikado, that it would be more appropriate for you to exclaim 'Oh, Goddess.' "

"How? How do you know about it? How did you get there, and how do I get back? What are you doing here? Why did you - "

Sevillana's raised hand cut off Mikki's torrent of words.

"Everything has its order and its time. Drowning me in questions will not change that."

"I'm sorry." Mikki pressed her hand against her chest, afraid that her heart would pound out of her body. "I just - I need to know . . ." She ran a trembling hand over her face and began again. "I have to get back."

"I know, child," Sevillana said softly. "I know." Then the old woman's gaze went past Mikki, and when she spoke again her voice reminded Mikki of a sad little girl. "Did no one speak my name while you were there? Did they not remember me at all?"

"Your name? No. Why would they - " Mikki's eyes widened with realization. "It's you. You are the last Empousa."

"No, I was Empousa. I am no longer Hecate's High Priestess. I discarded that position when I was young and foolish. But I have paid for my betrayal. For two hundred years I have been separated from my realm and my goddess and have walked the mundane earth, restless and unsatisfied - a true outlander."

"Two hundred years!" Mikki could only stare at her. "But how?"

"I have never fully understood it myself. Obviously, I age, but I do so slowly. I used to believe it was Hecate's way of punishing me - extending my life long enough that I was well and truly sorry for my selfish actions. Then, in my travels decades ago I visited Tulsa and happened to attend the unveiling of its new rose gardens . . ." She paused, her expression pained. "I recognized the Guardian statue, and I knew it had been placed here for a reason, so I always circled back to Tulsa, waiting and watching . . . And then I met you, and I began to hope that perhaps Hecate had allowed me to live for so long for another reason." Sevillana's blue eyes returned to Mikki. "I hoped the Great Goddess had meant for me to give you the anointing oil so you could awaken the Guardian and return to the realm - and fulfill the destiny I left undone." Sadness filled the old woman's beautiful eyes. "Why did you make the same mistake I made? I did not mean for you to run away."

"But I didn't!" Mikki cried. Then she lowered her voice when several heads turned in their direction. "You know about the blood, don't you? Somehow you understand."

"Yes, your blood nurtures the roses. How could I not know it? We carry the same blood in our veins, Mikado." Sevillana touched her hand lightly in a caress that reminded Mikki so much of her mother that it made her breath catch. "At the hospital that day I told you my name was Sevillana Kalyca, and it is. But that is only part of my name. I rarely use my family name - it is too difficult for me to hear it and to know that I forsook it, even though the deed was committed long ago. My true name is Sevillana Kalyca Empousai. I was the first Empousa to flee from the Realm of the Rose. I had hoped when I met you and felt the strength of the blood within you that I was also the last."

"I didn't run away," Mikki said numbly, staring at the woman who was her ancestress. "I died."

"Time runs differently there, but still it could not yet have been Beltane in the realm."

"It was just starting to be winter." Confused, Mikki frowned. "But the weather didn't have anything to do with it. Dream Stealers got into the realm."

Sevillana's hand flew to her heart in a gesture that oddly mimicked Mikki's earlier one. "Oh, Goddess, no!"

"It was me. They fooled me. I let them in. Asterius killed them - or, I supposed they can't actually be killed, so that's not the right word, but he got rid of them, sent them back into the forest."

"Asterius?"

Mikki studied Sevillana, her mind beginning to catch up with her racing emotions. This woman was the one they'd all been forbidden to talk about. She was part of why Hecate had bespelled the realm and Asterius. Well, Mikki was no longer in the Realm of the Rose, and she damn sure wanted to know, once and for all, what had happened.

"Asterius is the name given to the Guardian by his mother." Watching carefully, Mikki saw the flash of surprise and unease that passed through Sevillana's eyes. "I want to know what happened between the two of you. All of it."

Sevillana stared out the window as she spoke, and her voice took on a faraway sing-song cadence, as if she was retelling a story that had been passed down from generation to generation. "I was young and worse than foolish. I was selfish. I loved the power of Empousa, so much so that I was not willing to relinquish it. As the days drew closer and closer to Beltane, I convinced myself that it was only right that I escape the destiny planned for me. That I was different. But I knew I could not cross through the forest without protection. I convinced the Guardian to betray his duty and escort me through the forest to the entrance to the mundane world."

"You seduced him?" Mikki felt very cold.

"Only with words. I would not bed a beast, but I made him believe I would. It was not a difficult thing to do. He had little experience with women. It was odd, though, that he allowed me to escape even after I rejected him." Sevillana shook her head. "I have long wondered about that. He should have turned on me and, at the very least, forced me back to face Hecate's wrath. Instead, he said one small thing and then stepped aside and let me go free."