Chapter 32 #2
“You need not bow, Keeper. You are allowed here at any time.”
If I could have snapped my head back, I would have. “I am?” I replied dumbly.
She smiled, a beautiful, brilliant smile that pulled at something deep inside me. Immense joy filled me at seeing her serene expression, which lulled me with its beauty and grace, and it felt as though everything I could have ever hoped for or dreamed of was about to come true.
In that same sing-song voice, she replied, “Of course, as a descendent of Starsill, it is your right.”
Starsill? Even though I knew I needed to tell her of Diredan, of his wish to see her once more, I couldn’t help but ask, “I’m sorry, Goddess Nuleef, but who is Starsill?”
Her brilliant smile faded, and sorrow filled her eyes. “She was the Goddess of Minds, Keeper of the Stars, but like my mate, she, too, faded from existence and is no more. She faded many millennia ago.”
If that was true, it would explain why I’d never heard of her, but even though I wanted to know more, my curiosity was not why I was here.
Shaking my questions off, I said, “Goddess Nuleef, the reason I’m here is because Diredan still exists. He’s why I’ve come. He requests to see you.”
She gasped. “Do not lie to me, Keeper,” she replied in a sharp tone. “I am stronger than you, and I do not take kindly to others trying to deceive me, even those of celestial blood. You dare to come here to mock me of my undying pain?”
“No! No, of course not, Goddess, I do not mock you. I swear,” I replied in a rush even though it hit me that she’d just said I had celestial blood and earlier had said I was a descendent of Starsill.
“I promise to this universe and the next that I would never do such a thing. But Diredan is why I’m here.
He still exists, but he’s too weak to leave my realm or call to you.
” I told her as quickly as I could where her mate was located and what Diredan had requested, hoping that if I explained fast enough, I wouldn’t suffer from her wrath.
As soon as I finished, she fell silent, but her forehead furrowed in confusion. “My mate exists? But I haven’t felt him. Haven’t seen him. How is this so?”
I struggled with how to reply. The mystery of the gods and goddesses’ existence and how any of them came to be, or why they’d ever chosen to walk in the fae lands, eluded not only me but all fae.
“I’m sorry, Goddess Nuleef. I do not know.
All I know is that he’s asked for you to visit him where he eternally slumbers in Silventine Wood. ”
“Truly?” Golden light pulsed around her, and it once again felt as though anything I’d ever desired could and would happen. “Diredan. My love. If what you say is true, Keeper, I need to go.”
In a flash of blinding light, she disappeared. In the same beat, I began rising, rising, rising. I shot upward through time and space, moving as fast as light through the galaxy as the call of the fae lands barreled through me.
In a blast of power, I jolted back into my body, and when I opened my eyes, the priestess stared at me as though she’d seen a ghost.
She immediately fell to her knees, her head dipping. “I bow to you, almighty fairy. You’ve been kissed by the gods.”
Outside the temple, disbelief zoomed toward me from Kole through our bond, and a look of utter shock covered his face.
Despite their strange responses to me, I rushed toward him, and an ear-splitting grin stretched my lips.
When I reached him, Kole continued to look at me with wonder. Amazement. Awe.
“Primelle.” Kole reverently cupped my cheek, then he also fell to his knees. “Goddess. Princess. My mate. My love. I also bow to you.”
It was then that I became aware of the starlight refracting off my skin and the sheer power of my magic reverberating through me. Immense magic radiated all around me, and I gazed in wonder at the starlight that bathed my skin.
But as each second passed, the starlight grew closer and closer to my skin, and then on my next blink, it sucked back inside me and disappeared.
The goddess’s words again careened to the forefront of my thoughts. Descendent of Starsill. Goddess of Minds. Keeper of the Stars.
I still didn’t know what all of that meant, nor had I fully grasped what she’d claimed about Starsill, but something told me the words she’d hinted at were the key to explaining what I was and why my magic was so potent.
Shrugging that off, I knew now wasn’t the time to contemplate my origins. Instead, a laugh of joy erupted from me, and I kneeled to face my mate and clasp his hands.
Shining blue eyes filled with startling wonder met mine, especially when he saw that my skin had returned to the way it’d always been.
I squeezed him tightly. “I’m still Primelle, still the same fairy, or rather vampire, you’ve always known, my love, but I think it worked.
Nuleef answered my call, and she said she was going to Diredan, which means that Diredan should keep his promise.
With any luck, by the end of the day, you’ll be saved. ”
I couldn’t wait a second longer to mistphase back to Silventine Wood. I’d barely registered that the bargain mark had disappeared from my skin since the priestess had kept true to her word as I called out a quick note of thanks, and then Kole and I were vanishing in a blast of mistphasing power.
We rematerialized at Diredan’s crater in Silventine Wood, to the heart of where the god eternally slumbered, and no sooner had we arrived than both of us staggered back.
Goddess Nuleef, in the flesh, and Diredan, a ghostly spirit, stood together atop his black grave.
They held each other, their immense power barreling out of them, and Kole and I hastily retreated.
We didn’t stop until we were well away from the gods, who appeared too enraptured with one another to pay us any notice.
Crouched behind a broad tree, Kole and I glued our backs to it.
“Oh. My. Gods,” I whispered. It was the only thing I could utter, and an entirely inappropriate giggle wanted to spill out of me due to my unintended pun.
Kole squeezed my hand, and along our bond, his shock and amusement careened toward me. “Is life always going to be this surprising with you, Princess?”
His teasing tone made me want to giggle more.
To stop it, I slapped a hand over my face, but the incredibility of what was occurring behind us hit me all over again.
It’d been thousands of seasons since a god or goddess had walked our realm, perhaps even longer.
No one truly knew, but unless Kole and I had accidentally brushed against one of the spimenal tree’s leaves on the Lochen island and all of this was a pleasant hallucination, then Goddess Nuleef, in the flesh, had actually transported herself here.
“That’s Nuleef?” he whispered.
I nodded. “She said she was coming here. I guess I didn’t realize how quickly she could do that.”
“Should we leave?” he asked, his forehead furrowing.
I understood his concern. It was obviously an incredibly intimate and private moment between the gods, but no sooner had he asked that when a rumble shifted the soil beneath our feet.
Vibrating dirt and plants came to life as immense magic poured from all around. My eyes widened to saucers as Nuleef and Diredan walked around the tree to appear before us. But while the goddess still had enough power to retain her flesh-like exterior, Diredan didn’t.
Kole and I tilted our chins upward. Speechless, all I could do was stare. Like Nuleef, Diredan’s form was incredibly tall. However, unlike the Goddess of Luck, dark energy surrounded him, and pitch-black eyes peered at us out of his ghostly form.
Too terrified to move, I froze.
“You asked for a wish to be granted earlier, former fairy, now vampire of Mistvale Kingdom. Is it still the wish you seek?” The god’s deep voice rumbled all around me.
I couldn’t reply. Couldn’t speak. Immense power radiated from the two of them, so much so that it robbed my breath.
All I could do was nod.
Diredan smirked as Nuleef gazed at him with complete adoration. “Then so be it.”