CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX #4
He squeezed my fingers, noting the way my face fell.
Then took a slow, greedy gulp of air. Fighting a war of control.
“When the god of chaos heard the whispers,” he said, hoarsely, “blood rained down on anyone the goddess cared about. Anyone who knew about the affair but didn’t tell him.
He knew their deaths would torture her because she would live with the blame of their suffering forever.
He forged a new title for himself. The God Killer. ”
I shuddered. Gods were supposed to be immortal. If he’d managed to kill them… only the stars could help anyone who got in his way. And even then, little could interfere with power that mighty.
“Did he kill her second lover?”
“He tried. Some say he succeeded. Others say the second god was so brutally damaged that if one listens closely on a clear night while standing at the highest peak of any mountain, his cries of pain can still be heard on distant winds.”
This story wasn’t pleasant at all. “What does any of this have to do with the Sunstar?”
“Patience,” he tutted. He slid his hand out from my hair, instead opting to trace the length of my shoulder.
“Unable to bear any more death, the goddess rallied all her power and cursed him. Trapped him in a mortal realm thinking that imprisoning him somewhere far away would be a sufficient method to prevent him from causing any more trouble. Which was generous on her part. Every other god wanted him dead.”
“Rightfully so.”
He hummed in agreement. “But he was clever and still bent on making her life miserable. The god used his imprisonment to his advantage. He ravaged the mortal realm until it was nothing but a pit of darkness and despair. He butchered many. All in the name of staining her hands, her soul, once more. Those lives were on her conscience, as she was the one who sent him there. And if that wasn’t enough, he cast his own magic around what was left—who was left, so that they could suffer in darkness, just as he had. ”
“Let me guess. The mortal realm is supposed to be ours?” Kodhan nodded in response. My eyes nearly rolled out of their sockets. “That is beyond ridiculous. And trust me, I have heard many strange things coming from the dark alleys of Aedreath.”
“Is it, really?” he asked carefully. Like he was testing me.
Scoffing, I shook my head. “Kodhan, come on. You can’t actually believe any of that, can you? Orthil was a real person. The kingdom is littered with his name after hundreds of years. The beasts in the sky are real. We see and hear them all the time. But this blood-thirsty god?”
I grimaced.
“What of him? Where is he now, if he’s supposedly trapped here?
If we know of Orthil, and he ruined daylight for us all, surely we would know about him too.
And gods are immortal—which draws another line across your story.
He shouldn’t have been able to kill his brethren in the first place.
” All the facts were concrete, and yet, a twinge of unease slugged through my veins.
What if the story was real? What if an angry god was prowling beyond the Veil, amongst all the other awful things surrounding the Temple of Borealis?
Suddenly, the dragons didn’t seem so terrible.
He considered me for a long moment, his fingers still dancing across my skin.
“The story ends in two possibilities. The first leads to the goddess finally acting on what she should have done to begin with, which was to rip his head from his spine and end him like he had ended the others. The second leads to the god disappearing between the secluded folds of the ravaged realm, biding his time until he can wring more chaos when it is least expected. Ever true to his name.” His lips curved into a smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
Blinking slowly at him, I said, “Please tell whoever came up with this story that it’s downright awful.”
“I admit it could use some work.”
“Or maybe it is your storytelling that needs improvement.”
His chest rose and fell with his laugh. Stars, I could never get enough of the sound.
This changes nothing.
This changes everything.
The damage was already done.
The constant ache in my heart had been given the smallest of reprieves. It no longer hurt with each beat. It felt lighter. Less of a burden to carry.
I knew better than to ignore the reason why.
But despite it all, I would’ve chosen it again. Chosen him again.
Shadows flickered in my periphery once more. This time from the darkest corner of the room. It was as if they had sensed my selfishness and gleefully took it upon themselves to lap it up like it fueled them.
Two thoughts occurred to me at once.
One being a breath-seizing realization that my curse had worsened.
Not only was I absent of magic, but I was also going mad.
The frequency at which my hallucinations occurred continued to rise at an abnormal pace regardless of how much I’d eaten or slept.
Grew stronger, more vivid, more tangible with each apparition.
I knew then, that if my curse was worsening, it meant the gods knew I was close to finding a way to break it.
And they would do anything they could to ensure I would fail.