Chapter Forty-Five #2
Taking my time, I steadied myself, allowing my legs to adjust to the weight of my body once again before slowly crossing the distance between us. The throne might as well have been in another world for how many steps it took to get there, but at least she healed me enough to restore some strength.
She watched my struggle in deep contemplation, her unnaturally green eyes reflecting sunlight with a strange delay, as if it had got ensnared inside her irises before she reluctantly let go.
Disturbing.
The muscles of my thighs and shins burned as I collapsed on a shockingly soft chair. Where were the thorns?
Resting her hands on her knees, the Goddess proclaimed, ‘Though I have never faced your struggles, I imagine this situation must be peculiar. Ask me what you want to know.’
Wasn’t that precisely what I had been doing ever since she snatched me here? ‘You said I am blessed by you. What does that mean?’
She beamed. ‘It means when the time is right, I will help you accomplish your goals.’
How vague. Story of my life. ‘My goals? What if my goal was to destroy the realm?’
‘Then I wouldn’t have chosen you, would I?’ Melinda sighed, playing with a rose bud that kept growing the more she touched it. Within seconds, it bloomed blood-red, and she tore it off to place it in her hair.
My throat felt dry. ‘My point is, how did you know what my goals would be?’
‘Being a goddess has its perks. Next question, please,’ she claimed, this time toying with a thorn.
‘You said you could only act if particular conditions were met to help me. Can you explain that?’
The Goddess looked reluctant to share. Eyebrows creasing, she finally muttered, ‘I can only intervene if the blood witches are about to kill you.’
‘And why is that?’ I crossed my arms. ‘Why only then?’
‘Because Gods aren’t to unnecessarily meddle in mortal lives,’ she shot back in a harsh tone before clearing her throat. ‘And it’s my fault their kind exists in the first place—’
The Goddess blanched, before a vibrant moonlight replaced the scorching sun.
‘At last he’s here. Watch this, he likes to make an entrance,’ she complained, visibly appalled.
The front door burst open in an explosion of the blackest flames I had ever seen. It was pure darkness, seeping out of every pore of a towering, overwhelming man.
No. A God.
Dressed in a fitted black shirt, covered in darkness that stretched around him, where sunlight pooled in Melinda’s eyes before—in his was pure…
Death.
He was a God of Death.
‘You called. Have you reconsidered my proposal?’ His hopeful tone echoed through the room.
She snickered. ‘Not at all; I merely need you to untangle your imprint on my blessed.’
The God looked annoyed. ‘Have you at least considered what the union might mean for you? Our power would be unparalleled.’
Melinda’s eyes flashed with light. ‘I will not be bullied into marriage, nor will I marry you to make you stronger.’
‘It would make you stronger too.’ The God of Death materialised, kneeling in front of Melinda, who sat on her throne. ‘Give me a day in my realm, and I will prove you’ll make a great queen.’
‘I do not wish to be your queen; keep your demons away from me.' She rose suddenly and sidestepped him. ‘If you could so kindly help with the girl.’
‘The conversation isn’t over,’ he warned, getting up.
Melinda looked him in the eye, a clear challenge shining within them like a beacon of danger.
Neon green burned, siphoning the light around us until the room had gone from day to dusk.
‘You’re after atrocities of my womb. You want havoc and imbalance.
Do your job before I show you why death lands last in our hierarchy. ’
‘No, I just want you,’ he shot back.
‘It’s unrequited,’ she hissed. ‘Death is beneath me.’
Lighting cracked above him. ‘Yet you entertained one of the banished ones.’
‘Banished or deathly, you have no place here. Nature prevails, and you will not corrupt us with your lesser magic.’
‘Yet it stands superior, doesn’t it? Everything you accomplish ends perishing in a cloud of destruction.
No matter the realm or time, even rebirth starts with death.
’ The God mused, entirely covered in darkness unlike I had ever seen before.
’You’re not like them, Melinda. You have a mind of your own; use it. ’
‘Unbind the girl’s death inklings; I’m busy.’
‘It’s darkness, not death,’ he corrected her. ‘There is a difference.’
Melinda looked away. ‘Not for me.’
‘The girl shouldn’t be unbound until she’s ready. There are prophecies at play—‘
A hound of pure light appeared by Melinda’s side, and she stroked its mane as it growled at him. ‘You have yours and I have mine. Unwind your gift from mine so I can do it too.’
‘As you wish,' he murmured, walking toward me.
My breath hitched. His swirling stygian eyes were a work of art. They made him look vicious even when his expression remained neutral. Handsome in a way that made me want to run and hide.
‘You shouldn’t still be missing your shadows.’ The mountain of a man kneeled before me, and due to his size, we remained at eye level as I still perched on Melinda’s rose chair. ‘You released your fire on your own. Something must be wrong.’
‘What do you–’
A giant hand pressed to my forehead, and for a moment, everything went dark like when I was close to passing out.
Whatever he was doing was the opposite of what Melinda had done.
His power burned through my body, breaking through dams I never noticed, ripping threads of darkness from the other magic that flowed within me like flesh from bone.
It was as gruesome and freeing.
The moment he stepped away, I felt different.
Melinda shooed him away to place her hand on my chest, this time her light flew through me like a river, catching my witchcraft in its wild drift and pumping it full of energy. In response, it clung to her like a child to its mother.
Finished, she stepped away and smiled. ‘There. Done.’
‘Why did I need to have this done… What even was it that you did to me?’ I asked the God of Death.
He turned to Melinda. ‘That isn’t my story to tell.’
Thank you for reading my book!