“When I say so.”
Katell clenched her fists and turned away, releasing a frustrated breath.
Behind her, Laran let out a quiet chuckle. “So impatient, daughter. I’ve waited years to finally meet you, and already, you can’t wait to leave.”
Something in his tone made her pause. Not frustration. Not mockery. Something heavier. Regret, maybe. Or something close to it.
She turned back, but he still wasn’t watching her. His gaze hovered over the table, fingers cradling the cup, though he didn’t drink.
A long silence stretched between them, thick with unspoken words.
“If I had known the truth,” Katell admitted quietly, “we might have met sooner. But I didn’t. I only found out about my mother a few days ago. My sister told me.”
Laran set the goblet down with care and leaned back. “And I would have tried to find you before, but you were hidden from me. The Mark on your neck—it belongs to the White Mare.”
Katell stiffened. The White Mare? The Western goddess. Her mind raced. “Why would she?—”
“I suppose it must have been a request from your mother,” Laran cut in, his voice quieter now. “To keep you safe. It was meant to suppress your true nature until your magic could no longer be contained.”
Warmth she’d never known filled Katell’s chest. Her mother had done this for her—gone to the goddess, sworn some kind of pact, just to protect her. The thought settled over her like a shield, bringing both comfort and an avalanche of new questions.
“I searched for many years, but never found you or your sister.”
He’d been looking for Alena, too? Her breath caught. She hadn’t expected that. “We were east. Past the Deep River?—”
Laran’s gaze sharpened. “The Freefolk Lands?”
“Yes.” Her throat tightened, her mind flashing back to that day in the woods with the hunting party—the day everything hadchanged. “My strength… it broke out of me while I was fighting. After that, I could hear them—the voices in my head.”
Laran nodded, as if this was exactly what he’d expected. “The Makhai are my children, born of the battlefield, and they are yours to command—just like my magic.”
“Command?” She blinked, a dry laugh escaping her. “I could barely summon one, last time I tried.”
Laran leaned forward, his gaze unyielding. “Once you embrace your immortal side, you will.”
“It can’t be that simple?—”
A hand slammed onto the table with a resoundingthud, rattling goblets and sending cutlery clattering against the golden plates.
“Perhaps I haven’t made myself clear…” Laran rose, the thunderous look in his eyes rooting her to the spot. He prowled forward, jagged shadows stretching long across the marble walls, shifting with each measured step.
“I am the god ofwar.” His voice swelled, reverberating through the chamber, rattling her bones until it seemed the very stone trembled with it. “Protector of the Empire, and defeater of giants.”
The villa around them seemed to shrink, the air thick with his overwhelming magic, pressing down on her lungs like an iron weight. The sunlight streaming through the open archways dimmed, as though even the day itself dared not shine too brightly in his presence.
Her muscles coiled, every instinct screaming at her to flee, yet she remained frozen, limbs locked before a divine force far beyond mortal strength.
“Thousands pray to me each day, and I wield more magic than any of the Rasennan gods.” His words crackled with raw power, and the ground beneath Katell’s feet wavered, as if the world itself bowed to his presence.
She forced herself to breathe, to remain upright against the invisible force pressing down on her, threatening to crush her into submission.
“Mortals sacrifice their most precious possessions for a sliver of my favour. They feast in my honour and celebrate great festivals in my name. I was there when the Achaeans came with their ships to conquer Kyrnos, and our warriors—nothing more than a rabble—drove them back. I was there when King Tarquinius crushed our greatest enemy, the Romans, at Lake Vadimo. And I was there when the most beautiful, mostbrilliantWestern queen marched her armies into Kendrisia to defy the Emperor.”
He stopped just short of her, dark eyes gleaming with something primal… something that should never be defied. “You are the daughter of the fiercest god the Rasennans have ever known.Act like it.” His voice thrummed with command. “You refuse to face the magic within you because its darkness scares you, but you cannot run from it. It is a part of you, just as the Makhai are an extension of me—my wrath, my unrelenting prowess in battle. They obey me in all things. And theywillobey you.”
Laran didn’t move, his heavy gaze boring into hers, expectant. Blood pounding in her ears, Katell gave a single nod, her voice stolen by the suffocating force of his magic.
Then, as swiftly as it had come, the weight vanished. The towering shadows shrank back to their natural forms, and the charged energy in the air dissipated like mist in the sun.
