Demons, Demigods and Hunters: Return from Hell

Chapter 28

Anna

Seeing Artemis appear in the middle of the parking lot of the shitty roadside motel they were staying at was a lot more surprising than it should have been. After all, it had been Zoë's constellation that had guided her east.

Dean was standing in front of their motel room, staring after her. If the goddess hadn't been there, Anna has no doubt that Dean would have prevented Anna from wandering off into the night; especially considering that she was leaving with an obviously non-human entity. And she's not wearing shoes.

The cool night wrapped around her shoulders. Before she'd been cold, even with Dean's jacket. But in the presence of the goddess, it all fell away, leaving her only vaguely aware of the discomfort of being outside in only thin sleep clothes.

"My lady." Anna bowed her head to the goddess. The moon goddess nodded back regally.

"Anna. I must say, we were all very impressed that you not only survived as long as you did, but found a way to return." Anna tries not to flinch away at the reminder, and instinctively glances at their surroundings; drinking in the cool, clean night air, the stars in the sky, the ugly neon sign advertising the vacant rooms in the motel. The goddess rests a gentle hand on her shoulder, and a rush of cold concentrated moonlight poured through her. There was no way to describe the feeling.

It was like flying over an endless highway on her bike. The sharp smell of rain on grass. The whisper of trees in a quiet forest. The twang of a bow in her fingers. The weight of a shield on her arm. The howl of a wolf in the night. The soft rustle of trees outside the window.

The tight ball of stress that seemed to always sit on her chest like a ten ton weight melted away with the goddess's blessing, and Anna managed to relax for the first time in what felt like centuries.

"I may not be as skilled as Dionysis when it comes to pains of the mind, but you have suffered enough, and though you do not belong to my Hunt, you are still a huntress in your own right, and thus are under my domain of protection."

"Thank you my lady. Thank you." Anna whispered, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. She knew that tomorrow, her doubts and fears would return. She'll probably always be afraid that she was still trapped in the Pit. But not even the horrors of Tartarus could manipulate a blessing from an Olympian god. This was her proof, the thing she will cling to tightly after her nightmares to remind herself that she really is free.

"Come, we have much to discuss." Artemis turned on her heel, and marched away, melting into a forest that hadn't been there a second ago. Anna glanced back over her shoulder at Dean, who was glaring at the spot Artemis had been standing in. She smiled at him briefly, trying to reassure him before following after the goddess.

They walk in silence through the trees, soft grass under Anna's bare feet. She is viscerally aware of how vulnerable she is, wearing only her thin sleep clothes, and not wearing shoes. But she is with a goddess, in the goddess's domain. Nothing would dare attack them now. The moonlight overhead grows stronger with each step she takes into the forest, lighting a path through the trees.

Just as the light grows shy of blinding, they emerge into an open clearing.

A silver tent stands in the middle of the clearing, and four golden reindeer were grazing beside a silver chariot. The goddess led the way into the warm tent carefully furnished in enough animal skins to give any animal rights activist a heart attack. Anna waited for Artemis to sit down before she sank down onto the soft fur herself.

"The Ancient Laws are very clear Isolde Ventura. Straying into the problems of another pantheon is strictly forbidden." Anna starts at the formal use of her birth name. She hasn't heard it used in decades, not even in the years before she fell into Tartarus.

No one used it, except for Terminus, and even the border god used it sparingly.

"My lady?" She asked quietly. A small bird hopped across the floor and fluttered up to the goddess's shoulder.

"Interference, Isolde. The Winchester's are neck deep in an apocalypse and destiny of their own. You are a child of the Greek pantheon. You cannot be involved." Anna blinked at the goddess, feeling for the first time in her life what it might mean to be dumb and slow.

"Apocalypse?" She repeated slowly. The goddess raised a single flawless eyebrow, silver eyes glittering with silent judgment.

"Yes. Apocalypse. The Christian one I believe. With the angels and demons and Michael and Lucifer. Hades is rather irritated with the no interference clause, as the demons are technically part of his domain, but destiny is destiny, and the Ancient Laws are rather explicit on the matter." Anna's brain finally began to kick into gear, picking over the various pieces of new information.

There had been signs before she'd fallen into Tartarus. Things Azazel had hinted at, weird omens she couldn't quite decipher. And then there's the matter of the destiny her father had drilled into her bones long before she'd learned who and what her mother is.

The Ventura line is old. And she's the last one. Her nightmares, and Eris's cryptic hints in Tartarus, cruel laughter in her voice as she whispered about the discord and pain that was to come.

"But I'm not only of Olympus my lady. My father was a hunter before me, and all my mortal family before him too. I have Ventura blood in my veins, and that means I have every right to be involved. My ancestors were nephilim, born of mortal and godly creations." Artemis smiled, dipping her head in approval. She waved her hand and with a flash of cool moonlight, a familiar battered trunk appeared. A silver key appeared in the palm of the goddess's hand, an owl engraved on the metal.

"You'll find it stocked with everything you need in a quest. Courtesy of a... special sponsor. But beware Anna, this will be the last time our family will be able to help you directly. I pray the Fates will be kind to you. You have done great things in the name of Olympus. Now you must do great deeds in your own name." Anna rose to her feet and bowed, properly this time.

"You honor me, my lady. Thank you." Artemis smiles at her tiredly.

"I do like this world huntress. I'll be rather upset if it ended so soon after we defeated my grandfather and great-grandmother." Anna bowed to the goddess.

"I swear I will do everything in my power to prevent the end from coming." She picked up the trunk, surprised by how light it felt in her arms. The two of them step back out into the clearing. Anna can see the neon glow of the motel in the distance, the low brick building just barely visible through the trees of the sacred forest that isn't really there.

"Not even your mother, in all her wisdom could have predicted your courage, or your path. Beware of the Winchester men hero, but do not lose them. They will guide your destiny, just as you guided theirs before you fell." Anna turned back to look at the goddess, but there was nothing to see in the small clearing but grass and trees.

She took one last deep breath of the clean Wild before beginning her trek back toward the motel's glow.