Page 80 of The Endless One

The ivy shifted, spinning and rolling among itself like a bundle of snakes writhing before their eyes. A rosebud peeked out through the vines, tiny and so large it would have fit perfectly in the palm of his hand. As they watched, it bloomed into a bright red flower that dripped blood onto the emerald-green leaves.

The rose followed an exaggerated life cycle, withering to death before their eyes as its petals fell and a rose hip formed along the vine. Only then was a single dark eye revealed, watching them with hatred burning within the depths of that darkness.

“How quaint,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “A god who believes he is the end of all that is.”

Ajax recognized her voice. “I thought you were dead, witch.”

“Witch no longer. I am a goddess, and you will bow before me.” The vines slithered off her body, revealing graceful bare shoulders and cracked skin that glimmered with gold. She stood slowly, the ivy clinging to her form and creating a tight bodice that dipped between her legs. She was covered only by greenery and leaves, life itself blooming from her body as more flowers pulsed between living and dead.

“I will bow before no new goddess,” Ajax scoffed. “And you will see why.”

Elric didn’t move fast enough. A spell had already been hurtled from Ajax’s mouth, guided by the direction of his hand right toward Jessamine. Soon she would know why all the other gods had feared him. She would understand why they were terrified of their brother and king.

His gut twisted as he waited for her scream. Yet again, she would endure pain when he might have prevented it. He could have stepped in the way of that spell if he was just a little faster.

But she didn’t scream. Instead, she just stood there and smiled at the God King with an expression that said she thought not only was he weak, but that he was foolish as well.

“No more pain,” she said, her voice a soothing balm on Elric’s soul. “Not for me.”

Ajax’s eyes went wide with fear. Elric hadn’t realized just how much he needed to see that expression on his brother’s face. For once, Ajax would know what it was like to be bested. He would know what it was like to feel hunted because he could not intimidate a goddess of life.

And apparently, he could not cause her to feel pain either.

His brother turned as though he planned to leave, but Jessamine wasn’t going to let him. Vines shot out from her throne, wrapping around his legs and arms and holding him in place as she walked up to him. She was so small next to the behemoth of a man. Such a tiny woman to look up into the face of danger with hatred in her heart and vengeance in her eyes.

“I’m going to let you go,” she said. “Only because I want you to know a little longer what this feels like. This rumbling in your gut, the way your heart is racing, and your mind feeling like it can’t catch a thought. I want you to lie awake at night, wondering when we’re going to show up. Because we are. We’re coming for you, Ajax. I’m going to banish you from Leon’s body, and then I’m going to slit his throat just like he did mine. If I let him die afterward? That’s a question for Elric.”

Ajax struggled against the vines, but he still managed a disbelieving chuckle. “You are not strong enough to do that. A brand-new goddess and a deathless god who has always been worthless? I’m not frightened by you, nor your threats.”

She flexed her hand, and the ivy became stairs for her to walk right up to Ajax’s ear. She then leaned so close that Elric knew her lips almost touched his skin, and she whispered, “You should be very afraid, God King. You’re going to know what it’s like to kneel at my feet before I destroy everything you hold dear. You never should have fucked with me.”

With another flick of her wrist, she banished him from the pantheon.

Elric didn’t know what to say, so what came out was “I have never been more in love with you.”

She watched as Ajax disappeared from the pantheon, and something inside of her clicked into place. She couldn’t say this new goddess version of herself was a different person. It wasn’t. This was still her, and she was still making all the choices, but it felt… right to be in charge. It felt like she was finally getting the recognition she deserved.

Elric stared at her with wide eyes, and she wondered if she’d done something wrong.

But it didn’t feel like it. It felt like she had done everything right for the first time in a very, very long time.

She looked down at her hands, at the gold that threaded between her fingers, and asked a question that had been holding her back. “You said that a god is like a possession. Ajax clearly took over Leon. You said you took over the body of the man they poured you into. But I don’t feel like there’s another person inside of me. I feel like…” She struggled to find the words. “I feel more like myself than I ever have before.”

He reached for her hands, gripping them tightly in his own. “Every god is different. Up until this point, gods have always been stolen bodies and an inherited history of darkness and strife. But you? There has not been a goddess of life before, Jessamine. Not until this moment. That is what scared Ajax so much. We’ve never seen a goddess like you before, and that means something both he and I understand.”

“Which is?”

“That whatever magic made our siblings can make another,” he murmured. “You are a new goddess. One this world desperately needs. And if he isn’t careful, the gods he brings into that pantheon of his own will be new gods as well. Gods who aren’t afraid of him. Gods who have no history with the person who named himself our king.”

Her mind whirled with the possibility of what that meant. If her magic was new, then… “Does that mean that if I was ever brought back to life, or died again, then I would need to be put in a different body?”

He hesitated before admitting, “Yes, most likely.”

“Oh.” Jessamine looked down at this form that had always caused her so much strife. “But I was just starting to like this one.”

“That’s all right. I think you’ll have a lot of time to love it.” He tugged her a little closer. “Now, do you want to see what you can really do with all that power?”

“What are you suggesting?”