Chapter 12
SELENE
Sweat coats my palms as I pace the corridor outside of the queen’s chambers.
This might very well be the biggest risk I’ve ever taken.
I may be a lot of things, but I could never be cruel enough to steal a mother’s child.
Convincing Arcasia to give him up on her own is the most painless way to save them both.
The door cracks open and a servant dressed in a flowing white robe motions for me to enter. I slip the sack of gold coins into her apron pocket as I step past her.
“I can only give you a few minutes. Make them count.” The woman closes the door behind as she leaves, the thud echoing through the grand foyer of Arcasia’s rooms.
There’s a coldness here, embedded deep into the tapestries, rugs, and furniture. The kind of cold that seeps through your clothing and buries itself in the marrow of your bones. A shiver snakes down my spine as I begin my search for the goddess.
Her drawing room, her bedroom, her bathing chamber—they’re all empty, pristine, and untouched. Chambers that might as well belong to a ghost.
The moment her pregnancy became public knowledge, Nobus confined her here. For protection, he claimed. As if the Goddess of Protection needed anyone, no matter how powerful, to keep her safe.
No, her sentence here is about control. Why else confine a queen for two years other than to break her?
A humming sound draws me further into her tomb-like quarters. The soft, melodic noise, both soothing and haunting, stops when I step into the nursery.
Arcasia sits beside the window, the dying light from the evening sun streaming across her face, illuminating the raven hair that cascades down her body in waves.
“Have you come for him?” she asks, her eyes never leaving the sleeping toddler cradled tightly in her arms.
“No.”
“Light?” she asks in disbelief as her eyes meet mine. “Of all the gods I thought would come to kill my son, I never once thought it would be you.”
“I am not here to kill anyone, Arcasia. I’m here…” I open and close my mouth several times, the weight of my gamble nearly too much to bear. “I’m here to…bargain with you.”
A dry, broken laugh cracks in her throat. “A bargain? Selene, I am a prisoner here. I have been stripped and deprived of offerings for so long that I barely have enough power left to protect my son. What could I possibly have that you want besides his life?”
“I want him to live,” I reassure her. “I want to save your son from his father, but in order to do that, I need your word that you will keep the information I am going to give you a secret.”
“If I aid the rebellion, he will kill us both,” she says matter-of-factly. “Do not expect me to play games of thrones and kings when my child’s life is at stake.”
As long as Arcasia believes that I’m here on behalf of the rebellion, she will never believe me. My hands move to rest across my belly as I prepare to offer her the only thing that will convince her of my true motives.
“My child’s life is at stake, too.”
The goddess tilts her head, her eyes roving over my body. “Your child?” she asks, skeptically.
“Mikais didn’t send me.” I take a steadying inhale before pressing on. “In fact, this could likely jeopardize the entire rebellion. But I need you to hear me out. From one mother to another.”
Arcasia rises from the chair and deposits the still sleeping prince in his golden crib. She swipes a finger across his brow, brushing the strands of black hair out of his face.
“There is nothing I won’t do to keep him safe,” she declares. “You have never been an adversary, Light, but if I choose to trust you now and you cross me, I will make you regret the day Creation formed you.”
“I would expect nothing less.”
The Goddess of Protection presses a single kiss to the prince’s forehead and stands to her full height. Her gray eyes pin me to the spot as she approaches, crossing her porcelain arms over her chest.
“Let’s hear it then. How exactly do you propose we save our children?”
The Goddess of Song stands atop the makeshift podium, sapphire leather clinging to her curves. Lyra beams, the first notes of her song already drifting from the harp as the rebellion leaders ascend to stand beside her. Nina has donned similar armor, hers in a deep shade of ruby red.
“My brothers and sisters!” Mikais says above the crowd of gods gathered at the edge of the forest.
Creatures of all shapes and sizes linger in the treeline that marks the start of the Great Wildes—the true dominion of the Wolf God. Their eyes glow in the light from our torches as they await a command from their god.
The edges of his silver fur cloak whip in the wind as he raises his voice. “Welcome to the beginning of the rest of your lives.”
Cheers ring up from the crowd, the animals roaring and chittering in agreement. Nina’s flaming torch casts a sinister shadow across Mikais’ face as a smile forms on his lips.
“For too long we have suffered under my brother’s rule.
For too long we have bent to his will. We deserve to live how and where we want.
We deserve to feel the full might of our power again.
No more offerings to him. No more kneeling at the feet of a god who loathes us.
Tonight, we take back our realm and we take back our lives. ”
Something dangerous ripples throughout the crowd as the cheering resounds again.
Hope, deadly and blinding, fuels the fire ignited by the Wolf God’s call-to-arms. I search the faces of the gods around me and find it splayed across each of them.
I commit their faces to memory, knowing that this may be the last time we all stand together in this realm.
Taura squeezes my hand gently as she does the same. She has read the fates of too many of us to still believe that we win this rebellion. It’s true that fate can be changed, but the only way this outcome changes is if we do not fight at all.
The energy buzzing from the deities that gather here is not one of submission. The fire has been lit and now we will all burn.
A pair of green eyes glow in the distance. I slip back into the shadows toward their owner as Nina begins to read off the plan of attack and the role each god will play in the battle ahead.
“Last chance to run away,” Drayven says as I approach. “You could hide out in another realm until this is over.”
“You know as well I do that this is a long way from over,” I reply. “And the prince doesn’t live without me.”
“So it’s decided then? She agreed?”
I slip the two daggers from the sheathes hidden in the sides of my black leather pants. “You could say that.”
Drayven’s eyes go wide at the sight of both god blades. The blade he found and the one Arcasia stole from her husband, reunited at last after millennias apart. He takes one from my hand, turning it over.
“Is this…” His words trail off as he examines the new addition to the weapon. Arcasia’s markings, sigils of her protection, run down the center of the alloy blade.
Death pricks his finger with the point of the god blade. A single drop of his blood lands atop the symbols, each glowing a brilliant shade of cerulean as the divine liquid runs across them.
“She imbued them with her magic.” Drayven’s awe shifts to wicked delight. “How did she know they can be altered if they’re brought together?”
“Turns out that book wasn’t completely useless.”
“Clearly. When he notices this is missing…” Drayven pushes his white hair behind his ear as his voice trails off. He doesn’t have to finish the sentence. We already know that Nobus will harm Arcasia for this and she knows it too.
I sheathe the blades at my sides, silently hoping the need to use them doesn’t arise. The shadows grow thick around us as the Dark God pulls me against his chest and wraps me in his reassuring strength. His nose buries in my hair, breathing me in deeply.
Rising up on my toes, I twist and pull Drayven’s mouth to mine. Our kiss is slow and consuming. I commit every movement to memory—from the way he tugs on my bottom lip to the way our tongues tangle effortlessly. There is no part of him I don’t want to remember.
Any moment now, Lyra’s battle cry will sound. We both know I am about to march into an unwinnable battle. A lost cause. But instead of feeling scared, I am determined.
I am not a cog in the wheel, I am the linchpin. The future of the Golden Pantheon rests on my shoulders and in my womb. I am the Goddess of Light and the Queen of the Under Realm.
And I have a plan to save us all.
Drayven breaks the kiss first. The backs of his knuckles trail across my cheekbones as he stares into my eyes. I grant myself the briefest indulgence, a fleeting second spent drowning in the infinite depths of his gaze.
In this moment, I understand why simpering mortals fall to their knees and beg for our favor. Gods do not pray—there is no higher power who watches over us. There is no one to hear our pleas, no being who grants us the desires of our hearts. There is no one to save us but ourselves.
“Meet me at the overlook just before sunrise.”
Drayven presses his forehead against mine, our lips grazing one final time. “I will always meet you, my light.”
The deep bass notes of a harp pierce the shadows and I know it’s time. I steal one last look at the god who stole my heart before I step out of the shadows.
Lyra’s song echoes through the Great Wildes, her magic spearing the souls of the waiting deities, commanding their powers to rise up and meet her. The Goddess of Song throws her head back with one final roaring note and the end begins.