Turmoil: Book Three of The Shadow Goddess series

I ended up in a Manarola, Italy. It was a small town that seemed to carved from the side of a mountain, or hill, whatever. The ocean breeze sprayed mist onto my face from where I landed on the beach. The sun was setting here, the skies a beautiful mixture of pinks, blues and light shades of purple. The lights in the town were glowing, the light casting shadows upon the beach. I silently wondered if there would even be anywhere to stay. It may be small, but it also seemed exceedingly crowded. Cramped. And I couldn’t see myself living there. Not among so many innocent people. What if one of the gods tracked me down? All of the people there would be put in danger. I couldn’t risk it. “You’re a goddess.” Alethea reminded me. “Use your power as a goddess and summon you your own place to live. It is well within your power to do so.” Her words intrigued me. I looked out over the ocean, island lighthouses coming to mind. I’d create my own small island, hide it from prying eyes. No one would know it was there. Turning incorporable I used my shadows to glide me out over the waters, only stopping when the town was nothing but a blob of light in the distance. Using my magic and shadows was easy. But I’ve never really called upon my goddess powers. Never tested their full extent. I took a deep breath, settling my racing heart before calling the power to me. It seemed slow at first, unwilling. But when I harnessed it, it flooded through me like a tidal wave knocking the breath out of me. Using my mind’s eye, I pictured what I wanted the power to accomplish. I pictured a large span of greenery. Trees of all kinds surrounding a small two-story river-rock structure that stood in the center of an open field, dead center of the surrounding forest. Moss climbed up the sides, and a chimney was smoking from a warm fire. A small porch, just large enough to sit on led to a cherry oak door, the door knobs a brilliant bronze. Flowers colored the window seals, the windows themselves a beautiful green with roses in red stained glass in the center. This inside was warm with a fire in the stone fireplace, light hardwood floors spread throughout the living, dining room open floor plan. There was a large area rug in deep scarlet red, with a black sectional and glass coffee table on top. The living room opened to a kitchen. The walls a beautiful sunrise yellow to make the room more open and inviting. The counters and top of the bar was a white marble, while the cabinets were a darker oak than the floors. Stainless steel appliances decorated the kitchen that was already fully stocked with everything I could possibly need. There was a dining room right off the kitchen. The hardwood floor continued; a large eight-person table sat on top of a Persian rug. The table cloth was a lovely shade of deep blue and already each space had been set as if I was expecting company. Glass curio cabinets adorned the walls, each holding priceless crystal dishes. Off to the back of the dining room was a full wall of nothing but windows, a sliding glass door opening onto a large covered porch. Upstairs had three bedrooms and three baths. All the same. Cream colored carpets, simple queen beds with one covered in red covers, one a shining silver, and the other a dark midnight blue. Each rooms wall was different as well. One painted a deep tan, one a cream, and the last one an off white. One dresser and one night stand all made od pecan wood. The stained glass cast an eerie shadow into the rooms, the shape of the rose clear as day onto the floor. The master bedroom had a double door leading to a balcony that overlooked the woods out back. The bathrooms all had Victorian pewter with a pale smoke colored sink. The standup shower was made of clear stained glass, with a waterfall type shower head, while the soak in tubs were all white. The floors were all the same as well. Made of a deep rosewood. The place was homey comfortable. Even just thinking about it brought some semblance of peace to my racing mind and rattled emotions. Though nothing could truly bring me comfort. Not the comfort I needed. It would have to be enough though. For now, this would be my home. The large twenty-acre island all I needed to be able to train my goddess powers and all of the other powers that bubbled and festered inside of me. The last thing I did was imagine a very large dome over the island, completely hiding the island from all outside eyes. Including the gods and my men. No one could get in or out without permission. When I opened my eyes, I watched stunned as what I had imagined took shape in front of me. Little by little the cottage became more and more clear. Moss and vines, windows, the chimney. All of it just popped into existence as if it had always been there. It was even more beautiful than I had imagined it would be. I turned to beam at my men, but my smile fell as tears stung my eyes. They weren’t here. There was no one to share my accomplishment with. No one to share my short term joy. I shook my head. No. I did this for them, they can’t, they won’t be able to come here. Not while I was here to keep them safe. No one would ever see my island of seclusion. No one would ever see my thing built as a goddess. No one but me, Lilith and Alethea. That would have to be enough for now. Hades My guilt was gnawing at me like a ravenous animal. Nothing that transpired was Rose’s fault. She had done nothing but try and help us. She has saved all of our lived numerous times. She frees me from the underworld twice now. And how did I repay her? By staying away, keeping myself away from her and avoiding her. My mind and emptions had blamed her, no matter how I tried to convince myself otherwise. Now. After three days of not seeing her, three days of no one even able to reach her, we all decided to go up and check on her. Apologize to her. We all have been acting like naïve children. Allowing out emotions to get the better of us. We all should have known better. We all should have realized that Rose would never intentionally hurt any of us. And yet, we all shunned her, turned our backs on her. Worst of all was Micha. Micha had given up his position back in the elven realm, and somehow blamed Rose for his loss of power. What he had done was his decision alone, Rose had no say, no part in what he had done. Yet, her resented her, blamed her. Rose will see that as nothing but betrayal. And I could not blame her. “Do you think she is alright?” Ryker asked nervously. “What do you think?’ Phoenix responded harshly. “She hasn’t come out of her room in three days. She has barricaded herself in there.” He sneered. I quirked a brow. “Can you blame her?” I asked coolly. “All of us requested a room far from hers. We have all been acting like children keeping her at arm’s length, afraid of what would happen next. We all blamed her for something she had no part in. Even if she saved us like she always does, we treated her as if she were the one responsible for all of the trouble we have come across.” “I was a fool.” Micha muttered to himself. “Yes, you were.” Silas spoke calmly. “You gave your position up willingly. Rose would never be selfish enough to ask such a thing from you. But you did it, then instantly blamed Rose for what happened. Rose would never be selfish with us.” “You’re one to talk.” Aaron hissed. “What happened to you was a tragic accident. Rose would never hurt you, much less kill you intentionally. Ashe thought she was doing a good thing, helping you heal. Your death broke her Cassius. You don’t know what she looked like when you were trapped, then when you were dead. She shattered. Then you like all of us, turned on her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she never wanted to talk or see any of us ever again. We treated her as if she were nothing to us. It’s unforgiveable." He was right. I thought the same more than once the last twenty-four hours. And yet I couldn’t bring myself to go to her without the others by my side. They brough their own strengths that could help me should Rose decide to attack. Now it all seemed so silly. We are all mates, all her bonded. She would never hurt us, would always put all of us before herself. I knew with no doubt, Rose would give her life for any of us. How could we all be so narrow minded? Would Rose find it in her heart to forgive us move on like she had so many times before? I sure hoped so. “Who wants to knock?” Phoenix turned and looked all of us over. But no one stepped forward. None of us wanted to be the one to face her sorrow first. “I will.” Micha said in a hard voice. “She deserves all of our apologies.” Again, he was right. There were not enough words in the universe to describe how sorry I was. Guilt ate away at me as my mind berated itself for what I had done. I vow here and now I shall never harm her again. I shall always be by her side, never let my fears get the better of me again. I just had to find a way to tell her all of this without making myself seem weak in her eyes. “Rose?” Micha’s voice softened as he knocked on the door loudly. When no answer came, I felt my lungs constrict with a new kind of fear. Fear of rejection. But Micha persisted, his determination admirable. “Rose please talk to us.” He pleaded, his knocking becoming louder. When still no answer came, trepidation gripped me. I shoved my way to the front, kicking her door down. Except her door flew across the room shattering upon impact with the opposite wall. But I didn’t care something was wrong. Rose wasn’t answering her door, and all links between us has been blocked off. It was as if she was trying to keep her emotions from us. I knew she did it a lot, but this was different. While normally I could feel a tinge of her emotions, there was nothing there now. Just a hollowness where out link had been. I stormed into the room checking everywhere I could to see if she was possibly hiding from us. That wasn’t like Rose though. She never hid, always facing anything and anyone with a fervent determination. She acted as if she feared nothing. But that wasn’t true. Her deepest fear was losing us. And we may have just started a fire that couldn’t be put out. My intuition was telling me we had made the worst mistake of our lives. Walking from the bathroom with my heart sinking, I sighed. “I can not find her anywhere.” I spoke as I walked into her bedchambers. The first thing that caught my eye was the tears in young Rykers eyes. My eyes roamed to his hands where he clutched a piece of paper tightly, the paper straining from the force he used. “What is it?” I asked, walking over to him and taking the paper from his hands. I sat on her bed as I read. As I continued down, my name was printed across the page, along with a note, just like the others. The more I read though, the more my heart broke. We had finally done it. All of our misconstrued her actions, thinking they put us in danger. We were wrong, and now Rose was gone. She had left to protect us, to keep us safe. She even locked us inside this place so we couldn’t possibly get past her barrier. We all passed the note around. Each of us reading our own dedicated paragraph, along side the others. I could see the pain and heartbreak on all of their faces. Micha and Ryker were actually crying. While Phoenix, Cassius and Aaron all looked like lost puppies. I on the other hand was disgusted with myself. I knew better and I still treated her like she was a monster. Now she was gone and willing to turn herself into the worst monster ever. Probably worse than Zeus. I did not know if she would ever come back from this. We had to go after her. Find a way to find her and ger to her/ Talk to her and implore her to come home. First, we had to find a way around the wards.