I ripped my hand from his arm and backed away as quickly as I could. “No,” I said.
He could see the conclusion in my eyes, and his chest rose with a deep breath. “Morrigan… just listen.”
“You’re… You’re Rosina’s… She’s your…”Am I hyperventilating? I might be hyperventilating.I pressed my palm against my forehead to try and calm myself down. “That meansRyukwas your…”
“Would you just let me speak?” he insisted.
When I turned to face him again, my eyes were wide, and a cold sensation crept along my arms. “S-So you’re… You’re a…”
“Yes.”
I let out a loud laugh that did absolutely nothing to stifle the fear in my voice.A god… He’s agod… And he’shere… Why is he here?
“That’s what I’m trying to explain to you,” he said.
My head whipped toward him, and I felt a deep pressure in my forehead as my brows pulled together. “Excuse me?”
“I can hear you, remember?” he answered, tapping his index finger to his temple as amusement seemed to return to his eyes.
He can hear…“You can hear my thoughts?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
The laugh that shook his chest almost had my lips parting. It was as if the sound alone shone around him, illuminating the garden around us. Every time I had seen him, he wore a mask that covered his face. Why? Why mask the unearthly beauty that emanated from him?
“That’s how this weird entanglement had begun,” he explained. “It’s like our minds are connected. I could feel your nightmares. Usually, they’d seepintomine, and that’s how I knew it wasyou. It only grew stronger as the years passed. So, yes, I can hear your thoughts. Don’t you remember hearingmine?”
I had to physically shake my head to pull away from the daze I had fallen into, reminding myself that a literalgodstood before me.He could kill me… It would be so easy for him?—
“I would never.” His voice darkened into an almost-threatening tone.
“I don’t know if I like that you can do that,” I mumbled, tightening my arms around me, as I suddenly felt completely exposed to him.
With an apologetic smile, he nodded his head. “I won’t do it without your permission,” he promised, making me feelslightlybetter, but it didn’t stop the unease that had me feeling nauseous. “I can even teach you how to block me out, if you’d like. But… that’s for another day. Today… I would like to tell you a story—one that youthinkyou’ve heard, but has been twisted in so many different directions that it’s impossible to see the truth on its web.” He took a step closer to me, and I didn’t move this time. “After, I’m going to give you a choice… and whatever you choose, I will honor. You have my word, Morrigan."
Morrigan. He kept saying my name with such conviction. I didn’t know I could both despiseandcrave the sound of someone saying it so equally.He says it like he knows me… but… I suppose he does.
Nervously, I straightened my back and unfolded my arms before whispering, “Okay.”
With one more step, he was in front of me again. He lifted his hands and stopped them just beside each of my temples. I trembled a little as my eyes widened.
“I need you to trust me,” he said calmly. “I have never, andwill never, intentionally hurt you. I just need you tosee.”
“See wha—” I gasped the moment his fingers brushed my skin, and a blinding white light shot across my vision.
It felt like my soul had been ripped from my body. It wasn’t painful, but it sent a rush through me, twisting my stomach like I was falling from that cliff again. Everything around me turned black, swallowing me in a foreign darkness that I could almost feel slipping through my fingers.
After a couple of moments, a small grey mist began to form. It seemed to float through the air and twirl like the seeds of a maple tree as they fell. The mist clumped together, growing slowly, until it finally started forming figures.
“Rosina and Ryuk did fall in love…”Hisvoice filled the empty silence, but he was nowhere to be seen.
I stood in the center of a void of darkness, with only the mist to keep me company… but Ifelthim. I felt the sensation of his fingers against my temples, his chest close to mine. This should have frightened me, but that strange tether I could sense—like a string wrapped around my very soul—told me I could trust him.
The mist moved, and I saw two figures standing before me. They weren’t completely shaped, but sculpted enough that I could make out a man and a woman side by side.
“Rosina would have done anything for him. So much so, that when Ryuk had asked her if she would tie her soul to his, she said yes without a second thought.”
A soul bond, I thought to myself. I had read about it with Harley. Only the gods could grant it, though Harley said it was rarely approved. Soul bonds were for loved ones who couldn’t imagine life without the other. It would connect them for eternity. If one died, so would the other. Though,howit connected them changed as the descendants of the gods began requesting them. They quickly learned that they could share their power with one another as well. A wind wielder may develop fire abilities. A water wielder may suddenly manipulate shadows around them. It was quickly outlawed when the war broke out. They couldn’t risk losing their greatest warriors, and somebonds were even forcefully broken—an experience I had read was extremely painful.
“But, as you know from my mother’s diary, she and my father had an…unexpectedgift.”
