Page 332 of Commanding Scythe and Sky

Her chin dipped as she closed the distance, gingerly laying the clothing at the foot of my bed. I followed, grasping for an understanding that continually evaded me.

When Marley turned, concern pinched her brows, her nimble fingers finding their way into her shiny platinum hair. “From the beginning, they turned up their noses at the gifts they were given—gifts our kind have long been denied through no fault of our own. None of us were alive when the angels turned from their Creator, and yet we suffer in their stead, while humanity is accepted home with open arms despite its unending hunger for cruelty and sin.”

She motioned for me to change, and I stripped off the blouse, tossing it aside and watching in fascination as it vanished just as quickly. I stepped forward, scooping up the buttery fabric and pulling it over my head as she continued, “I, unfortunately, know it firsthand.” I shed my skirts as she collapsed onto the bed, throwing herself onto her back. “Centuries ago, our queen and my dear sister were killed by mortals in a human village within our territory—mortals we were tasked to protect. They beat them to death. Adrastos reached them first, but he was just a boy. He could do nothing against a mob that size. Nonetheless, he prematurely ascended in his agony, and they all died in the explosion of his power.” She shrugged one slender shoulder, shaking her head against the mattress as I stepped into the form-fitting pants, the pockets and straps somehow familiar.

“How would mortals kill a soul?” I pressed, eyes narrowed on her face as her jaw tightened.

“Our princess was Adrastos’ twin—too young to wield the power within her. Mother… I never fully understood it. I suppose anything is possible with enough hands and no morals.”

Nodding, I crossed the room to the armoire, fishing out socks. “And that started the war?”

“Yes and no. There’s always been some degree of conflict between souls and humans. Inevitable, I suppose, when we’re meant to watch over them and they’re determined to succumb to their wickedness.” She sat up with a huff. “But their cold-blooded actions were rooted in fear of something they didn’t understand, and we never recovered. Bastien and Caius were killed in the following decades—our older brothers. We were waiting to assemble all the pieces of a prophecy, and now they’re all on the board, so we struck.”

“And you hate them—the humans?”

“I didn’t always,” she said, her dark eyes glimmering morosely. Unease settled in me like I’d eaten something rancid. There was more to her story.

“Marley?” I prodded, yanking on the boots she’d set out for me. Black and laced, like the ones soldiers wore.

Her gaze dropped to her lap—or the rug below; I wasn’t sure which. Her throat bobbed. She nodded, then lifted one shoulder as if dismissing the validity of whatever occupied her mind. “Old history, really.”

“What happened?” I pressed, tracking her movements as she planted her feet on the floor and whisked across the room to peer outside at the cliffs I’d memorized. Her shoulders dropped, and when I closed the distance, I found her skin had gone impossibly paler—even her lips appearing to lose color. “Marley?”

“We’re not so very different, you and I,” she said, the words dripping with pain long buried. “I fell in love with a man from a city inside Koa’s borders. Human,” she whispered, as if it were shameful to admit. “As a daughter of the king, my hand was spoken for, of course. We don’t own ourselves as women in a world where our ability to bear children is our value. Ro disagreed. He thought my value was in my gifts.” She held up a pale hand, curling her fingers in practiced motions as ashes spiraled from their tips. “Koa sought to wield that power in negotiations with the north. So I loved him in secret—but in a world where all my decisions were owned by the men around me, he was mine.” She looked at me then, and her eyes held a sorrow so great I feared she might break, those delicate bones incapable of bearing its weight. “Adrastos warned me, time and again—both of the ire our affair would bring and of its impermanence. After all, mortals are frail pets, and their lives are so short in the scheme of things. A blink, really. And yet I still remember the sound of his voice.” Her eyes went distant, as though she stared through me. “I still remember the touch of his calloused hands over my belly as it grew swollen, no matter how many times I attempt to replace them.”

“You have children?” I gasped, immediately regretting the question when tears glittered in her eyes.

“I did. One. We were—naturally—discovered,” she said with a long-suffering sigh. “Impossible to hide my condition, I fear. Koa reacted… poorly.” Dread turned my belly leaden, and I leaned against the wall for support. “Edwin was killed for the crime of loving me, but when the baby was born Earthside—unworthy of breathing the air of The Middle—the cabin I’d been banished to was stormed.” My hand flew to cover my mouth as hers settled against her throat, eyes far away as though the image were seared into her retinas. “Word that a witch was birthing a demon in the woods reached the men in neighboring villages. They believed I’d enchanted Edwin—put him in thrall—and was responsible for his death. The last bit was true, I suppose.”

“They killed your baby?” I asked, horrified as my eyes burned with that reality.

Her head dropped, hands fluttering to settle against her belly. With a sharp inhale, she said, “Celestial births are often hard—I suppose, at the time, all births were—and for my dishonor, I was left to do it alone. I was still in the agony of afterbirth when they came in. I’d just lifted her slippery little body to my chest,” she breathed. With a sniff, she stiffly explained, “I didn’t even get to see her face before they slammed through the doors, shattering the windows. I had no magic left—all of it had been dedicated to safely guiding her Earthside alone in that shack. And they… they took her. I will never forget the sound of her cries as they took her from my breast, or the feeling of screaming myself hoarse, trying to fight my way to her. Blood still poured down my legs as I stumbled after them, and one man hit me so hard I lost consciousness.”

“Marley,” I breathed, horrified, needing to comfort her as she offered me this truth. She shook her head, holding a hand out to keep me from reaching for her.

A man shouting my name, searing agony burning a brand into my chest.

Screaming myself hoarse, crawling over the shattered glass left in the wake of my explosion toward my lover’s crumpled form.

I blinked, refocusing on the room—the woman—before me as confusion sent my insides twisting.

“Ro and Adrastos rode after them. They felt my distress, I think, through our mental connection. But… they were gone without a trace. Adrastos tended to me, never leaving my side as I recovered. Ro hunted for my daughter. He was gone for months, only returning when he’d annihilated the monsters who took her from me.” She lifted her chin, sadness solidifying into something far more dangerous, her eyes darkening. “They’d killed her for what she was—the demon princess. And Ro hunted every one of them down in my name.”

Nodding, I said, “That’s when you two became so close?”

“We were always close,” she said sadly. “But I owe him a debt I can never repay—for going to the ends of the earth to enact retribution on my behalf.”

“Any good brother would,” I said with a certainty I couldn’t explain, amber and quicksilver eyes flashing through my mind. Even without understanding why, I knew I’d been loved like that. That there had been men in my life who would’ve ridden to the ends of the earth to do right by me.

“Maybe. But it was Ro who did it for me.”

Nodding, I said, “I’m so sorry.”

She forced a smile that remained miles from her eyes. “It was a long time ago.”

“Still.”

A knock on the door had us both turning and coming face to face with the man called Smith. “Your Highness, you’re needed.”