32. The Goddess of Eternity
32
THE GODDESS OF ETERNITY
Bright starlight poured out at the edge of the grove, and Naia stepped through it.
Gracefully, she lifted her arm to free Wren from her silver strands, rippling in the gust of her divine power. The golden hairpin emerged to life and slashed the threads banded around Finnian’s throat.
The pressure released and he gasped in a breath.
Naia pushed off her legs and collided into Ruelle. They skid across the ash-dusted grove. The syringe toppled across the ground.
Finnian saw them then, the twinkling of the threads in the sunlight, raining down as Wren sliced through them, weightless. A cage, disbanded.
In less than a breath’s second, Cassian appeared at Finnian’s side, rushing to unravel the thread from around his neck.
The knot in Finnian’s chest eased at the sight of him unharmed, though his hair was a disheveled mess, and blood stained the corner of his mouth.
He grabbed onto his forearm and slowly hauled himself up to track Naia and Ruelle.
Cassian hissed a demand at him that he did not catch.
He regarded him with a look of confusion before wincing from the stabbing pang in his abdomen—a reaction to the stretching of muscles as he sat up all the way.
Cassian’s eyes snapped up to his right ear, then the ground around them, searching, while simultaneously continuing to unweave the string from around his neck.
Ruelle’s backside was smashed up against the only hawthorn trunk still upright.
Azara and Iliana stood behind Naia like two torchbearers.
Naia’s palm was firmly planted on Ruelle’s sternum, her other hand drawn up and a thumb pressed to Ruelle’s forehead.
Snowy starlight crested around Naia like waves. “Ruelle, High Goddess of Fate.” Her voice was thunderous, almighty. “The Council is gathered to see to it that you are punished for your digressions. In the order of our name, you have manipulated your power of Fate for selfish and impure intent.”
Our name.
“No!” Acacius fabricated in the center of the grove, his robe only ribbons and his bone visibly jutting out of his forearm and ribcage. His pale skin slowly stitched across newly formed muscle and tissue.
Iliana whisked around, her gilded eyes shining like heated crystals, and she raised her palm to silence him.
Acacius collapsed to his knees, slamming his eyes shut in some sort of pain. “Sister, no!”
The brilliant rays of white rippled in large rings around Naia as she continued. “Ruelle, from this moment forward, you will no longer bear the gift of immortality.”
A thin, metallic ring screamed out as the incandescence beamed hotter, brighter, like a burning star.
Finnian squinted against its power, tears welling in his eyes.
Stunning.
It seemed that not only could she grant immortal life, but she could also take it away.
Pride swelled in his chest. She was elegant and so much like Father that it hurt.
His stomach dipped at the reminder of Father.
Finnian tightened his fingers around Cassian’s forearm, a lifeline to keep him afloat.
The frozen opalescence dimmed and the sharp shrill fell flat, revealing Naia and Ruelle in its draining light.
Finnian glanced over at Cassian. His chest was still, with bated breath, as he peered at the two goddesses. Blood smudges stained his fair cheeks. His hands were covered in it, but the threads were completely untangled from Finnian.
As if he could sense Finnian’s staring, Cassian turned his head to look at him, offering his hand in between them. He opened his enclosed fingers to reveal the bidziil crystal in his palm.
Finnian glanced up from his hearing aid onto Cassian’s weak smile. Guilt and sorrow and an outpouring of so much damn love flooded Finnian. Even after all the years that had passed between them, Cassian still had his well-being in the forefront of his mind.
He accepted his hearing aid, quickly inserting it as he fixated back onto Naia and Ruelle.
Ruelle slid down the bark of the tree, her auburn strands matte under the sunlight. The sheen of her divinity was stripped, and it showed in the pallid hue of her complexion, the muted brown in what once was a bronze, glittering gaze.
Naia took a step back and bowed her head. Always the respectful one. “I apologize for what has transpired here today, Lady Ruelle, but it was the will of the Council.” She lifted her chin then, looking straight at Ruelle. “And the will of my heart, for the pain you have brought upon my younger brother.”
Strangely, Ruelle regarded Naia with a wistful smile, crinkling the skin at the corners of her tear-filled eyes. “No need to apologize, Lady Naia. You have my gratitude.”
Finnian exchanged a look of apprehension with Cassian.
Why would Ruelle be grateful? Especially after everything she’d put them through to seek her revenge.
Naia held Ruelle’s stare for a long moment.
Acacius crossed the grove in a trail of charcoal-blue smoke to Ruelle’s side.
Naia made no move to back away at his close presence. She acknowledged him with a small dip of her chin that he did not return as he rushed to scoop up Ruelle.
Together, they vanished.
Cassian let out a frail sigh, shifting his attention to the souls surrounding them in the grove.
Finnian took one last look at each of them, memorizing their distinct energies, the faces, saying his peace to them one last time.
You could keep them all.
The voice came in a distant whisper, under the muffled shrill scratching in his mind, prodding at the nerves in his jaws, down his spine. He was growing so used to the curse’s chronic itch and manic murmuring that it did not immediately trigger an unfurling fear throughout his insides.
Mind it no attention.
His eyes found Eleanor and Isla, their arms hooked, waving and smiling at him. “We love you, Finny.”
Cassian snapped his fingers, and the souls disfigured and took flight in the air as luminous orbs.
Fireflies.
A blissful grin broke apart Finnian’s blood-crusted lips. “I love you too,” he whispered.
Iliana rotated to Cassian, her expression somber, disheartened.
Cassian held her gaze, silently exchanging grief-stricken feelings.
Acacius had chosen Ruelle over the Council, over his siblings. How would they recover from that?
Iliana gave a single nod of mutual understanding before teleporting away. Milky wisps curled in the air where she had stood.
Azara passed Cassian a brief look before her form dispersed into crackling embers shortly after.
Finnian looked at his sister, her deep green eyes shining and squished in a broad smile directed at him. Truly her. Not an illusion or a hallucination.
Warmth seeped like spilled wine in Finnian’s chest, and he smiled, stretching his arms wide.
She leapt forward on her feet and materialized in a white-jasmine wisp, crashing into him. “I made it to you, Finny!”
He laughed as tears snuck down the crevices of his nose, embracing her with the strength of a god and straining her bones.
She was a cloud of espresso and white sage and a floral garden; of city air and frequent visits to the local bakery on 10th Street; fruity and pungent like the inside of Ronin’s brewery.
“I missed you so much,” she sniveled into his shoulder.
Finnian held her between his knees, her hair sticking to his damp face. “I missed you so much more.”