Chapter 89 #2
“You have fought too hard to break the curse. Promise me, you will live and find happiness.”
Tovi didn’t need a fully woven thread to feel the truth of Eldrick’s words. She had an ask, and this was his. Like he had for her, respect vibrated through her.
“I promise.”
Moments later, Tovi and Eldrick entered the council tent hand in hand.
Eldrick gave her a parting smile and released her to join his brothers by the fire.
He and Lorkan stared at each other, and after a breath, the scholarly brother dragged Eldrick into a hug.
When they parted, they spoke in hushed voices, but from the bright glint in their eyes, Tovi recognized the signs of pleasant words.
Two hearths at opposite corners kept the enclosed space warm, their metal flues traveling up and out openings in the tent’s ceiling. Near the center table, Blair and Evelyn smiled together, a rare sight in recent months.
“Will you ever tell me how long you two have . . .?” Evelyn trailed off, raising a sly brow and jumping her attention between Lorkan and Blair.
She smiled. “Perhaps when all of this is over, we’ll have time for that story. Over a bottle of wine—“
“And breakfast for dinner.”
“Yes, exactly that,” Blair finished.
Evelyn nodded. “I look forward to it and to having someone to talk to about having a werewolf as a mate. They can be rather—“
“Territorial.” Tovi approached them with arms crossed.
“That puts it lightly,” Evelyn grumbled.
The three old friends laughed.
“You know,” Blair said, eyeing Tovi, “you’re technically a sister to us now, seeing as our mates are brothers.”
Tovi blinked, and Evelyn straightened. The three friends stared at one another, and something new and promising blossomed between them.
“I suppose you’re right,” Tovi whispered.
Rook shot between them, escaping through the tent’s flaps. An orange ball of fur dashed after him, and Maxie growled as she darted outside.
Tovi grinned. “It’s too bad neither Eldrick nor I had a familiar as a sign that we were mates.”
Evelyn snorted, shoving Tovi’s shoulder. “Oh, there were signs.”
Tovi shook her head, not letting their light banter seep too deeply into her skin. She turned to Blair. “Cass and Bran let me know you wanted to see Eldrick and me.”
The three Drengr brothers marched towards the table.
Lorkan crossed his arms. “I’m not sure there’s a right way to say this, but we think there’s a chance we’ve misunderstood the Mother of Darkness.”
Tovi straightened. “Who?”
Blair rummaged through a stack of books. She flipped to a page depicting a goddess with onyx hair and a sword strapped to her back, the hilt embellished with a three-moon design.
Tovi shook her head, muscles tightening. “Wait, that’s the Blood Goddess. We all saw her fly out of the gates of Hel.”
Lorkan sighed, sharing a glance with Blair. “Indeed, we did, but this deity claims that is not her name.”
“Why does her name matter?” Tovi’s ire prickled in the air, but she didn’t give a damn. “She could’ve changed it since the Gods War.”
“She herself told me it’s not her name,” Blair said.
Tovi reared back, crossing her arms. “Have you spoken with her? Have you seen her since she entered our realm?”
“No.” Blair shut her eyes and humphed. “When Evelyn and Kade traveled to the Otherworld, the veil between realms thinned.” She jabbed her finger into the illustration of the Blood Goddess. “This is who visited me.”
“Did she promise you something?” Tovi whispered, studying her friend like she might spy the same madness that had taken hold of Riven.
Blair wavered from foot to foot. “Yes, but—“
Tovi scoffed. “That is what she does, Blair. She manipulated my father with something he wanted, which is how the curse started, and now has done the same to Riven. You can’t trust anything she says.”
“She didn’t promise me anything other than the truth about my shadows—“
“The Blood Goddess found your weakness, but there is nothing wrong with your power,“ Tovi said, tone soft but full of understanding. “My mother was my father’s weakness, and Riven’s dead wife and child are his. Again, this is what she does.”
Evelyn grasped hold of her hand. “Tovi, I think it’s worth hearing Blair out.”
Her friend’s gentle words stilled her anger for a moment, and Tovi met Blair’s stare and braced.
“The Mother of Darkness instructed me to crack open a bloodstone and learn the truth.” Blair shared a quick glance with Lorkan, and he nodded.
“My research revealed that only the blood of a god slain by a fellow god creates bloodstones, which hold memories. At Vísdómr, I did as she said, using my shadows, and witnessed the moments of a god before they died.”
Blair explained the memory from the bloodstone, and Tovi’s limbs grew heavy as she tried to make sense of it all.
“From what Blair and Lorkan described, it sounds as though the killer was the Sun Goddess,” Kade said. “Golden hair. Beautiful. Slightly deranged.”
“And?” Tovi asked, heating from the inside. “We already learned she’s not kind. It doesn’t mean the Mother of Darkness isn’t.”
Evelyn shook her head. “Yes, but the Sun Goddess’s power ran through my veins when I showed signs of vampyrism.”
Snow escaped under the tent’s walls, skittering across the ground.
Silence rang in Tovi’s head. She’d not so easily forgotten that her friend’s hands had shifted into talons or the red haze she’d claimed to have experienced.
It had made no sense in Callum, and now Tovi had one foot in denial, while the other pivoted towards the harrowing possibility that everything they’d believed was a lie.
Her soul raged against the notion. “So, what? Both goddesses could be equally wretched.”
“She mourned her friend,” Lorkan said. “Held him as he passed.”
“Ingrid wept when I killed Visha. It means nothing.“ She yanked her hand out of Evelyn’s grasp. “Have you all forgotten the Blood Goddess cursed my people? For all we know, she’s laid out a new trap.”
“That’s an interesting theory.”
All of them whirled. At the tent’s entrance, a striking female stood amid wisping shadows.
She wore tattered clothes stained the color of ink.
Holes here and there revealed her pale skin.
Draped across her shoulders, a patched cloak billowed around her, frayed so violently its edges appeared like jagged teeth.
She pushed back her hood. Her windswept hair fell free, though her deep-blue eyes remained dark, thanks to the coal smudged across her eyelids.
Beautiful yet ancient. And that sword. The back of Tovi’s mind tickled at the sight of the hilt.
Bloody hel. Her instinct flared to life. The Blood Goddess stood before her—the cruel deity who’d made her and used her father like a pawn.
Tovi unsheathed her sword. Eldrick growled her name. Evelyn cursed, and Kade shouted for her to stop. She didn’t listen and charged. Without thinking. Without reason. Only fueled by vengeance.
Yet, the air ahead of her whirled and shifted, and Blair stepped through a danu, blocking her path to the goddess.
“Wait!” She held out her hands for Tovi to stop.
She halted but didn’t lower her sword. “Get out of my way!”
Her heart hammered so wildly in her chest, it threatened to beat free.
The rage coursing through her blood slithered alongside the curse, rousing it from the depths of Tovi’s baser instinct.
Its wicked, monstrous chant echoed in her ears.
She winced, but it was too late. Her sight faded to a red hue.
All because of this goddess and her damn curse.
“Blair, I swear to bloody hel—“
“She’s a goddess, Tovi. If she wanted us dead, she’d already have done it.” Her friend’s midnight stare bore into her, pleading.
“How can you be so sure?” Tovi tightened her hold on her sword.
“Because I’m your friend, you know me, and—“ Blair unraveled the fabric around her hand.
Revealing a mark that matched the goddess’s sword.