Brain Games Ch. 18

Zach made his own sounds, finding his voice uncontrollably joining the others, and the wind, and the groans of the building resisting the force of the storm.

He felt Ava. He felt her, saw her. A priestess chosen at birth, A priestess raised just for this. It was she, he knew, who had bled on him that night; she who had sacrificed herself to the violence of the yaojing so that he would find the tool he needed to serve their ends. Everything else had been illusion, a veil to hide the truths.

Zach felt Maddy, true Maddy, as she was with no Goddess in her. And he felt the joy of their discoveries together. Pure joy, and yes, love. The kind of love that would take many lovers. That would weave through many patterns in their life, sometimes close and sometimes not. He saw it all in her eyes, as she saw it all in him, as she rode him sliding herself to kiss the tip of him, and to bury him to the root within herself.

And he saw the Goddess herself, the pure wild power of her, more powerful than anything he could imagine. This was the force of chaos that was equal to Enkins' force of will. But it was not madness, it was wild unbounded love for every joy and grief of life.

At last, Zach dissolved into that, as they all did.

Until they were all the voices of the Goddess.

The lightning seemed to have exhausted itself, but the wind was ripping things away from the chapel. Zach heard metal tearing, wood splintering, stone cracking. A tree limb shattered through a window, bringing a blast of cold, damp air and scattering shards of glass.

Maddy leaned into him, placing her mouth over his.

"Breathe into me," she said.

Their lips formed a seal, and they breathed together; he into her, and she into him.

What rose within them—what overtook them—lifted the bones of the earth. Zach felt his erection swell within Maddy, as she gripped him with an incredible strength. He felt the release begin, and he put all of his feeling into it. Every beautiful intention that he could track, he pulled it together and with a final singleness of love, he let go.

And Maddy let go.

And their attendants let go.

And the roof of the chapel let go, groaning with a terrible sound and simply lifting away into the night.

The sanctuary itself remained a pocket of shelter in the storm, whether due to architecture or divine blessing, Zach couldn't say.

But the storm swiftly subsided into a simple downpour, as if the all the waters of the all the lakes were being bucketed down on them, washing the devastation and debris clear.

Maddy rolled off Zach, and swung her legs over the edge of the altar. Zach slowly lifted himself to sit next to her.

Ava was guiding four of the women through the rubble, as Vicky guided the other four.

Zach reached for Maddy's hand.

"What the fuck did we just do?"

"We fucked on a Christian altar, and blew up the church."

"Are we bad people?"

"No," Maddy said. "We are gods."

THE END