Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“No. They actually kept denying me. When I asked why, I got no real answers. I was starting to feel like there’s a subplot I was being kept out of.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me. As much as they try to present a united front, they also work very independently of one another and each have their own machinations.”
“Yeah… that’s starting to become clear.”
I recount to him the troubling meeting that I have a feeling has sealed my fate as a god.
Circe took the forefront of godsplaining to me. “Amell was given strict orders not to interfere in the conflict in Vyronas. He was playing with fire the minute he decided to answer his daughter’s summons. Teaching her shadow magic was enough to land him in hot water, but killing Ferelith’s demons took it too far and that cannot go unpunished.”
I was so frustrated. “What does it matter? Thalia defeated the sorceress and freed her people.”
“True,” Circe replied with a coy smile. “But she would have done that even if the demons had slaughtered her rescuers.”
Thalia’s husband and his forces had stormed the castle where Ferelith held the princess hostage. They were confronted by a small army of demons Ferelith had summoned with blood magic and they outnumbered the mortals three to one. There was no way they’d win.
But Amell appeared and in one powerful sweep of magic disintegrated the conjured beasts, saving Thalia’s future husband and many others.
And then it dawned on me. “You wanted Bastien Dunne to die.”
Circe smiled at me while the other gods watched with impassive faces.
“But why? What did it serve?” A dozen thoughts ran through my mind, but I was betting she wanted Thalia to marry someone else for some reason. I got no response, and it pissed me off. “So you can just twist fate and meddle in people’s lives and you don’t need our agreement?”
“Of course she said yes,” Maddox says with a mirthless laugh. “Because that’s what gods do.”
“It’s when I realized not everything needs a unanimous decision. I also realized there are no set rules, so I made my own. I told them I was lifting Amell’s banishment myself and that anyone who interfered would incur my wrath.”
Maddox is so stunned by this display of courage in the face of uncertainty, he stops and pulls his hand free.
Turning to me, his face lined with worry, he asks hesitantly, “And what did they say?”
“They said nothing. Not even Circe, who merely inclined her head at me in acknowledgment.”
Maddox’s expression deepens with concern. “She might retaliate.”
“I know.” I figured it a possibility before I made the decision regarding Amell. “But I can’t live in fear of that.”
Maddox nods as he scrubs a hand along his jaw. I can see his mind whirling with all the ways I might be in danger but he hasn’t figured out yet that I don’t give a damn about what they will do to me.
If any of the gods want to come after me because I’m not falling into line, they’re going to hurt me through others.
Veda knows I have feelings for Maddox and he’s the one who’s in danger. They won’t go after Finley because they’re in her debt for the sacrifices she made to stop Kymaris from destroying this realm.
I’m confident it will be Maddox and if Veda knows how I feel about him, the others do too.
It’s time to cut him loose so he doesn’t get hurt.
“We need to end things,” I say.
Maddox’s expression morphs from worry to rage. “Like fuck we do.”
It’s the perfect time for me to tell him that we have to end it because I care for him, and the gods will use him against me. But the minute I admit the feelings I know he’s been wanting to hear from me, it will only encourage him to try harder.
Maddox moves fast, jerking me into his body, and kisses me hard. I submit for only a moment, just enough to feel him and memorize his touch and taste before I push him away with a punch of power that sends him stumbling backward several feet before he regains his footing.
I could tell him I’m not attracted to him anymore. I could tell him that I want to take other lovers. All things that would be meant to hurt and drive him away. But he’d never believe it, so instead I offer him the clearest truth.
“You make me weak, Maddox. This new life I’ve been granted is harsh and unforgiving. I cannot afford to care for you because it will make my life difficult. I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing this for me.”
His face is a mask of anger, but it twists my heart into a knot when I see a flicker of hurt in his green eyes.
Jaw locked tight, he grits out, “You don’t mean that.”