Page 31 of Crazy as Hell

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Now, it all makes sense,” she muttered. Shaking that off, she glared at him. “I don’t have a father.”

Zeno let out an exaggerated gasp, and he clutched his hands over his heart. “That hurts, Naomi.”

“Fuck off, psycho.”

He sighed. “It is understandable that you are angry. I only recently found out about you. In order to make up for the years I missed, I wanted to surprise you on your first day at the magical academy, but things went terribly wrong.”

“What do you mean?” Naomi gasped. “It was you? You cursed me?”

Zeno waved his hands in the air. “No! Of course, not! I just wanted to unlock your god powers. You are a demi-goddess, after all. Something was blocking your abilities, and I simply wanted to release them. What I didn’t know was Emrys had hexed me to get back at me for a misunderstanding we had. Because of that, everything went sideways.”

“Don’t blame this on me. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t destroyed my manor,” Emrys growled.

“That was an accident!”

“So was this!” Emrys insisted. “Besides, I said I was sorry! I wouldn’t be here trying to beg the Tree of Life to bless us with fruit so you can marinate your daughter’s soul in the juice otherwise.”

“What the fuck?” Naomi bit out. “What are you doing with my soul?”

Zeno hunched his shoulders in shame. “When the lightning struck you, I captured your soul instead of letting it float away. I was determined to find a way to bring you back. We’ve tried a myriad of ways, but so far, nothing we’ve tried has worked.”

“This is unbelievable,” Killian whispered, shaking his head in disgust.

Naomi rubbed at her temples, trying to ease the pounding ache there, but it did no good. “Let me get this straight. You killed me—”

“That was an accident,” Zeno interjected.

“—in order to try to force my demi-goddess powers to awaken,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “Then, instead of letting me die peacefully, you trapped my soul in a fucking jar like some sort of psychotic keepsake—”

“Until I could figure out how to bring you back!”

“You experimented on me like some sort of twisted science project!” she raged. “How many spells did you use on me trying to bring me back?”

His shoulders hunched even more. “Only a few…hundred.”

“You son of a bitch,” Viktor growled, low and vicious.

“By the gods,” Arson groaned. “It just keeps getting worse.”

Naomi glared at her father. “Whatever you did ended up cursing me—”

“I was wrong! There, I admit I was wrong! I’m sorry. I knew I had messed up once your pretty soul started changing colors—”

“Give me my mate’s soul,” Viktor demanded, holding out a hand.

Zeno smiled brightly. “You are mated! How wonderful!”

“Now!” Viktor roared.

Suddenly a crystal jar appeared in his hand. Inside of it was a glowing purple orb that flickered the same way her eyes occasionally did. It would have been pretty if they didn’t know exactly what it was.

“How is any of this possible?” Naomi asked Viktor. “I’m standing right here, and our souls are bonded. How can that be my soul?”

“I think it’s only part of your soul. Like a shadow of it, just like the mating mark you left on me during your last cycle,” Viktor explained. “This could be the very reason you are stuck in the death loop. Almost like fate is repeating until you can be whole again.”

“That makes sense. This realm exists out of time and space,” Killian reminded.

“So, how do we put it back in me?” Naomi said, eying the jar. “I don’t feel any attachment to it. Shouldn’t I feel something if that is a part of me?”