“Stop speaking!” she screamed and jabbed the blade in my direction. I backed up almost immediately. There was only one thing strong enough to kill both a lordanda god. Obsidian. “Youreplacedme, Kaiden.” Her voice cracked at the end, and it felt like she had pierced that dagger into my chest.
I wanted to feel guilty. I wanted to show her some kind of remorse, but it just wasn’t true. They may have looked alike, and I may havehatedMorrigan for it in the beginning, but the more I got to know her, the more I realized that they were entirely different people.
Mara was always a sweet girl—patient, kind—and Morrigan was as well, but Morrigan held the weight of the world on her shoulders, even when no one asked her to. Morrigan took on the pain of others so they wouldn’t have to feel it alone. She saw through people with eyes that read between the lines so easily. She made people want to do better—tobebetter.
“She isn’t you, Mara,” I answered honestly, because shewasn’t.
I had once loved Mara with every fiber of my being. When she died, it broke my heart and left a black hole in my chest that stewed with hatred and bitterness. I blamed everyone but myself, though Ididplay a part in it. I had left her. I spent all of my time with Ryuk, training at his side, and she was by herself… Alone.
But Morrigan… She ignited something in me that I didn’t even know existed. She took my anger and shoved it back in my face, never backing down. She knocked me off of my pedestal and reminded me of what it meant to be human—what it meant to feel compassion again… to feellove. Yes, I had loved Mara, and, in a way, I always would, but she was never coming back. And what I felt for Morrigan ran so much deeper than that. She mended every shattered piece of my heart, and replaced the missing ones with shards of her own. I didn’t justloveher. Ilivedfor her now.
“What do you mean, I’mnot her?”
Tiny chills scattered over my body like pins scratching at my skin. When I turned, I found Morrigan standing beside a tree, not too far from Mara. She wore a black shirt and pants, both more fitted for a man but somehow made her look just as beautiful. Strapped to her chest was a leather harness with small throwing blades that were coated in a dried, black liquid. That same substance streaked parts of her cheeks and neck, and next to her stood a large,white-haired lycan. I could instantly tell that he was an alpha; they were always the largest of the packs.
But why was he withher?
“Morrigan,” I breathed in relief. Every tense part of my body relaxed just at the sight of her. I wanted to run to Morrigan, grab her and never fucking let her go. All that mattered was that she was in one piece—better than one piece actually. She lookedhealthy. “Thank the gods…”
I moved toward her, but Morrigan took a single step back that somehow felt five times the distance. Her eyes danced between me and Mara, and I had never felt so exposed in my life.
I should have told her.
“Dez had once told me that you had a lot to be angry about. She… She was the reason for that, wasn’t she?” Morrigan whispered out loud, but it almost seemed as though she spoke to herself.
“Let me explain, Morrigan,” I urged, taking another step. This time, the lycan beside her let out a low, warning growl.
“Ican tell you the truth,princess.” The bite in Mara’s voice sent off an array of warning bells in my mind. Her sinister smile made me forget who I was even talking to. This wasn’t Mara, not anymore. “You see, when Kaiden killed me, his godhatedseeing him hurt so deeply…” She formed a petulant pout with her lips as if to tease me. “So, Ryuk promised him something.”
I desperately tore my eyes between Mara and Morrigan. “Morrigan, you need to understand. It’s not like that?—”
“I saidquiet!” Mara swept an arm out, grabbing Morrigan, and dragged her to her front. “If you interrupt me one more time, Kaiden, I swear to you, I will slit her throat faster than you can stop me.”
“Malakai,” Morrigan spat out nervously.
Every limb in my body felt frozen in place, and I slowly raised my arms in front of me in a plea.
“Tell me, Mal. If obsidian can kill a god, how fast do you think it would kill their little prophecy?” Mara asked, keeping her eyes trained on me as if waiting for the smallest noise to escape.
To my left, I heard the sound of cracking and shifting before spotting a very naked man with hair as white as the beast that had once stood in his spot. He snatched the bag that lay on the ground and quickly threw on a pair of black pants. “Mara, he will destroy you,” he warned her. “Scratch that—Iwill do itforhim if you so much as put a scratch on her skin.”
“Who the fuck are you?” I couldn’t stop the anger I had directed at him. He was close enough to Morrigan that he jumped at the opportunity to defend her, and I wasn’t yet sure if I liked that or not.
Of course, he didn’t respond. He just continued to glare at Mara with his fists clenched.
Mara then lowered her lips to Morrigan’s ear. “You see, Ryuk promised to return his love to him. He swore the prophecy as his own personal gift to Kaiden. A woman made in the image of the onehekilled.”
I wanted to scream at her, swearing again thatIwasn’t the one that killed her, but I feared what would happen if I spoke again with the blade so close to Morrigan’s neck.
“Tristan swore to me that, when they came to retrieve you, Kaiden’s life would bemine. And if I stab him with this blade, Tristan can use the last of Ryuk’s light that passed down into Kaiden to heal himself,theoretically.”
Passed down?“What do you mean passed down?” I asked quietly.
Mara’s eyes shot to me, still for a moment, and then she began to laugh. It started off small, but quickly became more maniacal. “I told you, Kaiden, stupid does not look good on you. You can’t honestly have me believe that you didn’t know Ryuk was your father.”
My arms dropped to my sides. “You’re lying.”
Instead of answering, she simply smiled.
