Damn, he’s cold.
“My life in exchange for hers.” Cary points his sword toward the goddess, who hisses angrily, gold blood pooling around her abdomen.
I’m about to erupt with rage, when to my relief, he adds, “And you must use the goddess to free your daughter.”
The lion drops the remains of Dylan’s body and turns to face Cary, who’s holding his sword up in surrender.
The air around the lion shimmers with a golden glow, and in seconds, the god stands before us. No longer clad in rags, he’s draped in the finest gold. Skin no longer sallow but radiating with life. His back is to me as he takes a step toward Cary.
Cary’s eyes avoid mine, and I wonder what he’s thinking. Knowing the plan ahead of time sure would have been a hells of a lot more helpful than just flying by the seat of my pants here.
“We meet again,” Kyros purrs.
Cary blanches but appears to hold his composure as he stands his ground. “Well? Is it a bargain?”
I dare a step toward Kyros, trying to keep my feet light and silent.
“What makes you think you have anything to bargain with, old friend? You can’t seriously think a snack would be enough,” Kyros scoffs. “From where I’m standing, I have the advantage here. I can finally have my revenge on you and punish the goddess to my heart’s content.”
“I’ve missed you, darling,” Luna coos. “I can’t wait to play.” She makes eye contact with me over his shoulder, and I freeze, wondering if she’ll give me away. Luna winks, and I release a breath, continuing my stealthy steps toward them.
“Silence, Luna. I’ll deal with you soon,” Kyros growls.
“Surely my summoning the goddess here and wrapping her up like a present in addition to my sacrifice is worthy of some boon,” Cary says.
Kyros only laughs and stalks closer, knocking the enchanted blade away with his hand as if it were nothing. “You think to best me when I’m in this form? Perhaps you were my match with a sword in my mortal form all those years ago, but you’ll never get the better of me again.” He grabs Cary around the throat and lifts him off the ground. “Will you beg?”
Clearly none of this is going to plan, but Rae is all that matters now. I thought I needed the sun god to save my realm, but we’ll find another way. We have to. I will not doom my wife to spend the rest of her days in a dank pit. Does that make me a selfish bastard and a terrible prince? Maybe so, but I’d see the world burn before leaving her to rot. Perhaps Luna’s right: she is my ruin.
On silent feet, grateful for the apparent stealth and skill granted to me by the goddess, I close the distance to Kyros and plunge my enchanted blade through his torso.
Chapter Fifty-Four
RAELYN
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Sera asks for what feels like the millionth time.
“I’m fine . . . just a little uncomfortable.”
And devastated. Broken. Betrayed. It’s starting to feel as if none of my parents ever cared about me; I was just a means to an end for all of them. To my adoptive—or should I say thieving—father, I was a means of revenge. To my real father, I was a means of escape. All so he could be free and find his way back to perhaps the only true love of his life—my real mother. Will he try to steal her from the paradise of Celestia or find a way to join her? I don’t even know if such a thing is possible, but the gods’ ways are mysterious. I suppose I’m about to figure that out . . . if I ever make it out of here.
Light flickers above but hardly reaches me, though anything is better than the pitch-black I sat in for hours and hours. When I heard Sera’s and Alex’s voices, I cried with relief. Perhaps I’m too harsh on the sun god. I was only alone here for a few hours and felt madness creeping in—he’d been trapped for nearly three decades.
My mind goes back to the memories Kyros showed me. My mother’s love for me had felt real, but she’d chosen Kyros in her final moments. I want to be angry at her for leaving me alone to be raised by a controlling asshole, but if I’d been in her place and that had been Kian with a blade in his chest, would I have chosen differently?
“Talk to me, Rae,” Sera calls down. “I can feel the spiraling from here.”
I close my eyes, leaning against the wall of the pit. “Tell me a story, Sera. One like you used to.”
“Which one would you?—”
“It’s time, Sera,” Alex interrupts. “You need to tell her. I doubt you have much of an imagination anyway.”
A soft “oof” comes out of Alex, and I desperately wish I could see them. Did Sera punch him? My lips quirk into a half-grin. I hope she did.
Footsteps stomp away, and the light grows just a bit dimmer.
“Scare him off?” I ask.
