P.C. Cast: Goddess of Light

"I hope you're granted your heart's desire as easily as I was granted mine." She lifted her face to his. As he kissed her, she breathed in his scent. His closeness soothed her. When he touched her, she could make herself believe that what he said so often was the truth—that all really would be well. Reluctantly, he ended their kiss, and her stomach tightened uncomfortably.

"It appears the crowd has moved on," Apollo said.

Pamela glanced down the suddenly empty sidewalk. "Looks like there must have been a big rush to get somewhere. It's a little weird." She felt a trickle of something lift the fine hairs on her arms and the back of her neck. Her intuition was telling her to stay there, seated on the bench beside Apollo. But before she could say anything, he was already standing up. With a thick feeling of resignation, she realized that she just didn't want him to go—that was all there was to her so-called intuition.

Distracted, the god shrugged off the strangeness of the deserted walkway. "We should go, too," Apollo said. He pulled her to her feet beside him. Keeping his arm securely around her, they walked slowly to stand alone on the curb while they waited for the light to change from red to green. It wasn't good-bye yet, he told himself. He would keep her close to him all the way through Caesars Palace and would not relinquish her until the portal was before him. Then their separation would only be temporary. Apollo murmured his next thoughts aloud to her. "My father will relent. He has been love's victim too many times not to grant our request."

"Love's victim or lust's victim?" Pamela asked.

He smiled down at her. "For my father, love and lust set the same banquet table, and Zeus enjoys the feast."

Pamela gave an unladylike, sarcastic snort. He laughed, hugging her against him. He couldn't lose her. She tilted her head up to him, and as he bent to kiss her again, the fountain sprang into life. They froze, staring at each other, and then Pamela's face blazed with happiness.

"Perfect!" she said through her laughter. "It couldn't be more perfect."

Once again, Faith Hill seemed to sing only for them.

"It is the best of omens! All will be well," Apollo said joyously. He turned and watched the dancing water.

Almost as if the music compelled him, the god walked to the railing. There was something in the air—something in which he sensed an immortal's hand. It had to be an omen sent from Zeus. Glancing over his shoulder, he grinned happily, motioning for Pamela to join him.

She smiled and nodded, but stayed where she was—just for another moment. Apollo was gazing at the sparkling waters as they geysered into the air in time to the magical song. He was so magnificent, this remarkable god who somehow was the other half of her soul. And suddenly, fiercely she believed that he would make everything right. The God of Light was her soul mate, and he would find a way to return to her.

Pamela lifted her foot to take a step forward, and a flash of movement caught at the corner of her eye. Frowning, she turned her head in time to see the car, but not in time to get out of its path as it leapt the curb and rammed into her body.

Filled with new hope, Apollo was smiling at the shooting water when he heard the first terrible screech. Insulated as he was by water and song, the sound seemed far away. Confused, he turned to see what was keeping Pamela. In wordless horror he watched as the metal beast struck her body.

" Pamela !" he screamed. The impact hurtled her to the busy street and directly into the oncoming traffic. Brakes squealed, and drivers veered, smashing into other cars as they tried unsuccessfully to avoid hitting her. Apollo surged forward. Dodging cars and people, he followed her bloody path to where she had finally come to rest in a crumpled heap in the center median.

Shrieking his agony, Apollo dropped to his knees beside her and pulled her broken body into his arms. His flashing, tear-filled eyes stared at the ball of light that still hovered low in the sky.

"Leave the sky!" he commanded the waning sun. "Return my powers to me!"

Pamela felt nothing, just an odd sense of wrongness. As if she had awakened in a dark room in a strange bed, she couldn't see and couldn't get her bearings. Then she heard a scream that tore through her soul. She knew it was Apollo. She tried to open her mouth and call out to him, but her body was no longer under her control. She fought against it, but her eyes closed an instant before the sun set.

Apollo knew when she died. It was one breath before the pain in his hand disappeared and immortal power filled his body. Panicked, he lay her carefully on the cement road and placed his hands on her bloody chest.

" Live !" commanded the God of Light, though he knew he was too late. Even with his immortal powers, he could not reset time. He could not undo what was already done. "No!" his tears mingled with her blood. " No !" he cried.

"Someone call 911!"

"Oh my god! Get an ambulance!"

"Is there a doctor here?"

Apollo heard the cries of the mortals around him. They would come and take her from him.

" No !" he screamed his rage. Standing, he threw his arms out wide. " Be silent !" His command shot like an arrow through the growing crowd, forming a wall of power that struck each of them deaf and dumb, turning the mortals into silent, openmouthed statues.

Then the God of Light looked down at his fallen love.

"No." He whispered the word this time. "It will not be." He made the decision quickly. He had to. If he hesitated now, it would be too late. Regardless of the consequences, it was the only way. Apollo stretched his hands out above Pamela's body. "Come to me. I command you not to depart this realm."

Beneath Apollo's outstretched hands, Pamela's body began to glow, and then a sphere of pure light lifted to hover between the god's palms.

"Apollo!"

He heard the cry behind him and, keeping the globe of light between his hands, he whirled. Like a sprite, Artemis ran through the smashed cars and silent, frozen mortals until she came close enough to see what it was her brother loomed over and what it was he held between his palms. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Moving with surprising speed, Eddie rushed up beside her. As his mind tried to make sense of the scene before him, the author's face drained of all color.

"You should not have lifted the spell from him," Apollo snarled.

"I didn't know… I didn't think… Oh, my brother. What have you done?" She stared from Pamela's body to the pulsing light he gripped possessively.

"I was too late," he said brokenly. "The sun was too late. They killed her."

Artemis approached him slowly, as if he was one of her wild woodland creatures. "But what are you doing? You hold her immortal soul."

Apollo cradled the light against his body. "I will not lose her!"

"Apollo—" she began.

"No! I will not lose her!" His angry cry caused lightning to spike across the sky. "Laws of the Universe be damned. Over and over it has been said that love is the strongest force in the universe." The god's wild eyes turned to the stunned author. "You are a bard in this world. Is that not what you proclaim?"

Unable to find the words to speak, E. D. Faust could only nod.

"Then I say my love for her overrules the Laws of the Universe!"

"Apollo, you can not keep her like this. Her immortal soul will not rest in this realm. You know that," Artemis said.

"I am not going to keep her in this realm."

Artemis' eyes widened with understanding. "Hades!"

"He will know what to do. He must know what to do," Apollo said.