Chapter 17
DEATH
Eight years later
“Your Majesty.” Corvus taps impatiently, his black wings puffing against my face. “Is it time?”
“Almost,” I reply, shooing him from my shoulder. I adjust the lapels of my dark suit, fiddling with the fabric until I finally remove the jacket in frustration.
“Anxious?” the raven asks.
“No,” I bite out, adjusting the pomegranates in the bowl for the fourth time this hour.
“Liar.” Corvus plucks a single stem from the vase atop my desk, flying over to drop the dark purple bloom in my hand. “It’s been a long time. It is okay to be anxious, Your Majesty.”
“The Dark God of Death does not get anxious, bird.”
“Maybe he does not…but Drayven does.”
Corvus’ beady eyes see far too much of me. But that’s the way it’s always been, ever since the day I killed him. He was my first death and the closest thing I’ve ever had to a friend.
“I’ll finish the preparations; you go fetch the queen.”
The sound of her name whispered in the ether pulled me from sleep in the wee hours of the morning.
Ever since her name was written on the scroll of souls to be collected today, I have been preparing.
From sending my Reapers to gather her favorite fruit to changing into four different black suits—all of which look and fit identical—I have been uncharacteristically nervous.
I slip the flower into my pocket and take one last look at myself in the mirror.
The ink on my skin vacillates from sunbursts to crescent moons in anticipation.
The overly polished rings that adorn my hands glimmer in the firelight as I smooth back an errant strand of white hair.
My fingers skate over my naked pinky, the missing ring soon to be reunited with the set.
“Corvus,” I say with a shaky breath. “Wish me luck.”
On a deep exhale, I command the shadows to wrap around me and step into the dark void of eternity. The infinite chasm between worlds where space and time does not exist. One star stands out on the map—a fixed point in glowing viridian.
If that wasn’t enough to locate her, our blood bond pulses like a honing beacon. It calls to me—she calls to me.
I train my internal compass on Realm 717, traveling faster than I ever have before. Moments later, my feet sink into sand.
The Eastern Sea laps against the shore, the light from the sun catching on a hint of black scales that crest in the waves. I offer a lifted finger in recognition of the creature who has come to greet me before following Selene’s pull toward the cottage just over the dunes.
The weathered door opens easily, granting me entrance without knocking.
Tentatively, I step into the cottage. The smell of salt and leather fills the home.
Books litter the large dining table, and in a chair, slumped over the pile of tomes, sits the mortal man I have watched live alongside the goddess I love.
His sleep is light and fitful. I inch toward him to read the page where exhaustion finally took hold of him. It’s a list of rare herbs, medicinal plants, and the illnesses they’ll cure.
But none of them have worked on her.
What ails Selene isn’t anything a human has ever experienced. Her death is a slow, painful murder at the hands of a vengeful God King. Eight years of no offerings, no worship, and severely reduced magic are what destroys her now.
Mikais wasted no time gaining power of this world and wiping all of them—every member of his rebellion—from their religious texts.
Every member except him, of course.
He erased the details of his betrayal, but left the act, and their speculation of the motive behind his treason has proven to be more than enough to sustain him.
I lay a single finger on the mortal man’s temple and grant him the deep sleep he desperately needs—but mostly to ensure that he will not wake to see her departure.
Leaving him, I follow the bond to the bedroom at the back of the cottage. There, wrapped in green velvet, lies the Goddess of Light. She doesn’t acknowledge me at first, her attention wholly fixed on the beach just outside her window.
A child with fawn brown hair splashes in the waves. She frolics and giggles in the water, finding an innocent, momentary respite in the grief that surrounds this home. She turns toward the window and my immortal gaze locks onto wide eyes of emerald green.
“She has your eyes.” Selene’s weak voice demands my attention. I drop to my knees at her bedside, taking her hands into mine.
“My light.”
The sight of her like this, pale and barely clinging to life, enrages me. If I could kill Nobus, I would travel to the god realm right now and and rip his soul from his body with my bare hands. But he made a deal with Creation that even my magic cannot undo.
“Have you come to take me home, Dark One?”
I nod my head, tears welling within me as her hand moves to my cheek. “I am sorry I could not come sooner. I am sorry that you had to suffer.”
“I have many regrets, Drayven, but spending these years with her isn’t one of them.” The goddess cuts her eyes to the window as she speaks. “I’ve been waiting for her power to manifest, but it hasn’t and I have no time left.”
“It will,” I whisper. “She is Light and Death. The daughter of two realms.”
“Three,” Selene corrects. “She is the daughter of three realms.”
The goddess turns her attention toward the doorway and the sleeping human just down the hall.
There’s a stabbing pain in my chest at the realization of how much Selene has grown to care for the mortal she married.
I should be thankful for the life he gave her and our daughter, for the cover he provided for them both and the protection he offered them from Mikais.
But I just want to kill him for having what I couldn’t.
“Ansel will watch over Ivy. She will be safe with him.”
“Ivy.” I turn the name over in my mouth, the name of my daughter.
“Princess of the Under Realm and Goddess of the Umbra,” Selene adds.
“Our little shadow has quite the name.” I spare one last glance at the girl and the green dress that floats around her in the water. My magic calls out to the sea beast, summoning her to fulfill her bargain.
It is time, Arcasia. Mark her.
With the flick of her scaled tail, the sea beast swims towards the girl. Brown hair disappears under the current, destiny converging as the serpentine body of the Goddess of Protection grazes against her.
A child entered the sea, but it’s a goddess who will emerge from its watery depths.
“It’s time to go now, my light,” I say, gently.
Selene sits up, slipping the silver ring from her thumb. She places it on the pillow—a token for the mortal husband she leaves behind.
I recognize the gesture and follow suit, slipping the flower from my pocket and setting it beside the ring. A sigil for the daughter who will have to navigate the ancient power in her veins without anyone to guide her.
“Godsbane,” Selene whispers. “You remembered.”
“Seems fitting for the dark bloom who bring gods to their knees, don’t you think?”
She nods sadly, tears filling her golden eyes. Eyes that still sparkle despite Nobus’ best efforts to dull them.
“Kill me, my love, so that I may finally be beside you for eternity.” Selene places her hand in mine as what remains of her power ripples out in a blinding flash.
An eclipse washes away the light, the sun vanishing from the noonday sky. The shadow of a crescent moon splays across the sand as I wrap the Goddess of Light in my arms. My lips caress her skin, grazing gently across the constellation of freckles that decorate her cheekbones.
She may have been forgotten by the mortals, but I never forgot her. Not for a single second of the past eight agonizing years. And I will take my time reacquainting myself with every part of her.
I spare one last look at the child goddess crawling across the beach—soaking, trembling, and terrified.
The Prince of the Gods is not the only one who will be forged, broken, and remade by this realm. Today is the first of many trials she will face, but she will not be defeated.
Nobus fears what his son will become, but his fear is misplaced. She is a creature of the Under Realm, afterall. And one day, when she comes into her full power, baptized in fury and drenched in decades of rage, they will be the ones trembling.
“Drayven,” Selene whispers weakly against my cheek. “Take me home now. ”
The light from her golden eyes collides with mine in a kaleidoscope of shimmering magic. I call to my shadows, letting them wrap around us as my grip on her tightens.
“Your throne awaits, my queen.”