Chapter 31
Jessamine hated how difficult it was to wrap her mind around the fact that she was, actually, a goddess. Standing out here on the ramparts where she had gotten married, staring down at the glassy sea so far down, she struggled to comprehend how she had come this far.
She’d died here. Died multiple times afterward, and yet, she was still standing. A stronger, more capable version of herself. And still, she would need every last ounce of her own grit and mettle to get through this last part.
Because she knew there wasn’t a future that she wanted at the end of this story.
Sybil would get her house by the sea. Agnes would return to running the Pleasure District with her nephew and whoever he wanted to remain with them.
Elissa would go back to her birds, and perhaps even become strong enough to bring her dear love back to her normal existence.
Everyone else would get what they wanted.
They started this story with a desire for the end to be their biggest dream, and Jessamine had shared that hope with them.
She would be queen. She would sit on the same throne her mother had protected, and she would make Inverholm even better than it was before.
A wind brushed through her tangled hair, sending tendrils across her face.
It dug underneath the loose-fitting shirt she’d stolen from Elric, coiling along the nervous sweat at the base of her spine.
Soon enough, the waves would roll again.
The sea would turn into a churning chasm that dashed anything foolish enough to get trapped within its grasp against jagged rocks that she could just barely see from the height where she stood.
“Contemplating death?” Elric’s voice came from behind her shoulder. “Or is it perhaps life you think of?”
She swallowed. “I suppose they are one and the same to someone like me.”
“Death is an end.”
“It was only the beginning of my tale.” She looked over her shoulder at him, seeing the dark god who stood behind her and who had guided her through so much hardship. “I cannot seem to reconcile where I came from and what I am now. Life, death, mortal, goddess. It’s all rather hard to think about.”
“I’d imagine it is.” He walked up behind her, wrapping an arm around her waist. “But there is so much more you can do now.”
“Like what?”
He hummed low, the air fanning across her collarbone that was revealed by the low-cut shirt she wore. “Do you remember the first moment you brought me back to life?”
“Hard to forget, Elric.” Already goose bumps rose on her skin at the memory of it. That had been one of the most terrifying and electrifying moments of her entire life.
He had been real, actually right in front of her, and she hadn’t known what to do with that. A god reborn. The first god in two hundred years to walk the same land that she walked upon, and he wanted to worship her body like no one else ever had, and she…
Already her breath came a little faster. Her mind flicked back to the cave where they had first explored each other’s bodies, growling like animals as they tried to tear through each other’s flesh.
“You’ve experienced very little as a goddess,” he murmured. “Sometimes I wonder if you can really appreciate your new self if you don’t… push a little.”
She knew she wanted something to push for a while so that she could get her mind off all the things that were plaguing her.
But those weren’t appropriate thoughts. Maybe he was trying to teach her, or show her how to use the new magic that she had acquired. She hadn’t toyed with it all that much. The mere idea of it was terrifying, if she was being honest.
So she tried her best to pay attention to what he was saying, while also ignoring the way his hand was slowly moving underneath her shirt. “And just how should I push?”
“The gods have our own realms, somewhere to keep our magic safe,” he said, his voice a deep rumble against her ear. “But there is also a place where we meet. A pantheon that only the gods have access to.”
“Where is that?”
She felt him shrug against her back. “I don’t know if it’s a physical place or not, but I think it will be important for you to go there. Life goddess that you are, perhaps it would do you well to see how the pantheon has changed for you.”
Changed for her? That made little sense, but… she found herself nodding. Because if seeing that place would make her feel better, then she would absolutely go there. At the very least, to understand what she was now, although she hoped he would still provide some… distraction.
Elric lifted his hand in front of her eyes and snapped his fingers. She was so startled by the movement that she blinked, and suddenly, they were no longer standing in front of a cliff. They were in a massive hall with tall columns covered by dust.
Between each column was a throne. But each one was covered by two hundred years of neglect.
Dust and spiderwebs coated their once-beautiful material.
One was made out of gold, the next silver, and another was made out of wood that looked like swords.
Each one was different and perfectly in tune with the god who had once sat there.
Elric sauntered down the hall, his hands in his pockets and looking all the more handsome as he strode down with confidence.
The billowing of his shirt revealed the hard planes of his chest, even as his posture curved in on itself.
For a moment, he looked almost like a boy embarrassed to show his crush his bedchambers.
“Would you like to see my throne?” he asked, the words almost sheepish.
“Of course I want to see your throne.” And she really did. Not only because he wanted her to see it so badly, but because she was curious what his magic would conjure up for him.
There were quite a few thrones to walk past, although not nearly enough that they were close to the head of all of them.
Jessamine tried not to stare at the massive behemoth at the end.
The one that was so big, she thought she would need to climb on top of Elric’s shoulders to even get on top of it.
Clearly that was the God King’s throne, but it wasn’t cleaned off yet.
Almost as though even his magic didn’t want him to be back.
Finally, they reached Elric’s throne, and he let out a little sound of disapproval.
“Oh, well, it changed,” he grumbled. “That’s a shame. I liked the way it used to be.”
But all she could see was the massive, impressive throne. It was made out of shiny obsidian, sharp edges looking extremely deadly. Although the seating portion had a few black cushions and swaths of dark fabric that pooled down where his legs would be and spilled out onto the floor like oil.
“What did it use to have?” she asked, looking up at it in awe. “I think any mortal who stood before this would quake in fear.”
“It used to have bones.” Clearly, he was upset by the change. “Skulls and bones that were far more intimidating. This is so minimal.”
“Can you ask it to change?”
He snorted. “Magic is finicky. No, it won’t change even if I begged. Unfortunately, I’ll have to be satisfied with whatever it gave me and thank it for doing something that’s at least comfortable and won’t cut my ass when I sit on it.”
She bit her lips, trying very hard not to laugh at the image that he had just conjured.
Elric glared at her, but she could see the expression was playful. “Don’t you dare laugh, Jessamine Harmsworth.”
“I’m not laughing.”
“There’s nothing funny about me hopping up on that throne, only to shriek in pain.”
“Elric, I swear to the gods…”
She let out a little shriek of laughter as he lunged for her, wrapping her up in his arms and spinning her around once before setting her back down. “You swear to the gods?” he repeated with a chuckle. “You are a god now, Jessamine. Swearing to yourself doesn’t work as well as you might think.”
She rolled her eyes at the implication, mostly because it was too strange to even consider. Praying to herself seemed… No. She couldn’t think about that.
But then he leaned down and murmured in her ear, “Can I show you your throne?”
That did something deep inside of her. Like a puzzle piece had clicked into place. Maybe she wasn’t going to be queen, but she would still have her own throne, and maybe that was good enough.
At her slight nod, Elric turned them to look directly across from his.
It was made out of white marble, looking almost like a tomb effigy, so pretty and yet cracked down the center.
Etched onto the surface were white marble roses and vines that spilled down from the top to a seat that was cushioned by a bed of leaves and moss.
The emerald-green color coiled down the rest of it, tangling with ivy and roots that grew up from the base.
Something deep inside her felt right looking at it. Not because it was some otherworldly throne that she deserved, but because some beast that lived inside her knew she should sit upon it.
Caught in the siren call, she walked up to the throne and slowly sat down. The magic in her coiled deep in her belly, clearly telling her that not only was this right, but that everything in her had wanted this.
She set her hands on the arms and exhaled, long and low.
Elric stood before her, staring at her with wide eyes that were brimming with desire. “You look like you belong there,” he murmured, his voice hoarse with emotion.
“It feels like I do.”
Without another word, he fell to his knees before her.
It was strange to look down at another god who stared up at her like she was the only thing that existed in this world.
It felt right. And it felt wrong to revel in the sensation of it, but she loved looking at him as he crawled toward her and crept his hands up her thighs.
“What are you doing, Elric?” she asked.
“Worshipping the woman I love,” he replied, reaching for the waistband of her pants. “You were looking for a distraction, weren’t you?”
She had been, but was it right to do this?
He must have seen the turmoil on her features, because he made a tsking noise even as he pulled her pants over her hips and down the long length of her legs. “Do you not remember how I did this at the feet of my own shrine? What makes you think this is any different?”
“Both are sacrilege,” she murmured, her words a little shaky as he stared at her like a starving man.
“We’re the gods now, nightmare. It’s only sacrilege if we say so, and frankly, if people wish to worship their partners at the feet of my shrines, then I’ll take that as the sacrifice it is. Their pleasure is far better than their pain.”
And with that, he leaned down and devoured her whole.
His lips sealed over her core. His tongue twisted masterfully, exactly where she wanted him most, and she arched back as she gripped onto the arms of her throne to hold herself still.
That talented tongue of his would be the death of her.
Or perhaps it was just that he could read her so well.
At this point, he knew the sound of her moans and the sensation of her pleasure.
He knew the bursts of her magic that exploded out of her every time she was close.
And he knew she was close, because he brushed against every one of her nerves with precision.
He plunged his fingers inside of her, coiling them just so as he teased a bundle of nerves deep inside her body that she hadn’t even realized was there until he did it.
Lightning danced down her entire form. She couldn’t think.
Could only writhe on her own throne as he worked her into an aching need that burned through her entire body.
She was simultaneously too hot and not hot enough. Sweat beaded up and dripped between her breasts as she panted for him, begging for him to get it over and done with or she was going to splinter into a million pieces.
But that was always the point with Elric. He liked to tease and torment. He enjoyed the sound of her frustration and the disgruntled noises she made in the back of her throat when he brought her right to the brink and then immediately denied her the satisfaction she sought.
Her Deathless God had always been a wicked one. Why she would ever expect any different, even at this moment, she did not know.
Finally, she was panting so hard she swore her heart was going to pop right out of her chest, and she couldn’t take it anymore.
“Elric!” she cried out, her voice ringing in the pantheon.
He leaned back, but his fingers kept working her, plunging in and out of her body as he grinned up at her. “Yes, nightmare?”
“Please,” she whimpered.
“Please what?”
“Please let me come, you absolutely insufferable…”
He dove between her legs and immediately gave her what she wanted. She slammed her head back against the throne, pleasure coursing throughout her entire form until she shattered into a million pieces.
Her stomach clenched, her legs quaked where he had placed them on his shoulders, and she swore she stopped breathing for an alarming amount of time until she spun down back into the reality that she was getting eaten out on her own throne.
The throne of a goddess, in fact.
Elric leaned back, wiping his face on his shirt before grinning up at her. “You feel better now?”
She did. But her tongue wasn’t working. Finally, she managed to shrug and reply, “I don’t think I’m entirely capable of reasonable conversation.”
“It sounds like you’re doing just fine to me.” He patted her bare thigh before getting to work dressing her once again.
She was no help. Her legs could barely hold her up, and he was far too pleased with himself when he realized she might need to lean on him to get her pants back on. His little chuckles made her blood boil, but it was in the best way possible.
He’d helped clear her head. He’d shown her all the things that a new goddess might want to know, and next, they would learn how to control her magic as they planned the attack on Ajax.
“Well,” she muttered as she hopped down from the throne, “that was entertaining. But the real world does await.”
“I was thinking…” Elric was still leaning against the side of her throne, a small scowl on his face. “What if we first confronted him here?”
“Here?” She gestured around them. “Wouldn’t that be a bad idea? I still don’t know how to be a… goddess. If he attacked us, I’d be useless to help.”
Elric shrugged. “It’s really a trial-by-fire sort of situation, if you think about it. Your magic and ability as a goddess aren’t the same as when you were a gravesinger. There is no training now; there’s just doing. Besides, catching him off guard might be our best bet at actually beating him.”
It made sense, but…
“We do it my way,” she said. “That’s the only way I’ll agree.”
The grin on his face was entirely diabolical. “We can do that.”