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“She hoards vulnerable Omegas,” I said. “She is obsessed with protecting those who could not protect themselves. It is what she lives for. That, that heart of hers—that’s why your brother fell in love. That’s why he was willing to share his power.”

He made an odd sound, as if he’d been surprised by something. Not two seconds later, he muttered, “I must go.” He left abruptly, ash swirling around my face again as he did.

I closed my eyes. I hadn’t complained, but the effort of speaking was proving too difficult to sustain. Even staying awake while he spoke had become an arduous task.

I was growing weaker by the minute. Serak had provided more than enough food and water to keep me alive, but the injuries I’d sustained must have taken their toll. I prayed as I felt the strength slipping from me, as if Serak’s departure had been what I needed to allow the darkness to enfold me.

For some reason, just as the darkness dragged me under, I thought I heard Goran’s voice calling me.

SERAK

“Who the fuck is the priest?” Goran demanded, raising the knife he held in one hand. I wanted to tell him to drop the damned thing, not to antagonize the fire god who was watching through my eyes, but it was taking all my effort to keep Edan from ascending.

Not that Edan would kill Goran, necessarily. But it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. The hot-tempered Warlord might inadvertently set off the still-half-insane god made of lava and rage.

He might already have done so. His rage roiled inside me, seeking an outlet. I breathed slowly and forced myself to picture her. Her eyes, her smile, the mischief in her gaze when she admitted to poisoning me long ago, the way her eyes had darkened as she stabbed me.

Edan went still. That part always confused him. How an Omega could be so perfectly violent. How I could get so turned on by it.

I dragged my horrible, half-shifted body toward the small cavern where Alexios had been trapped when the Alldyns Vug exploded. I’d been grateful when it had blown up. Almost relieved when I was caught inside it, broken enough to make Edan stop screaming for revenge and whimper for relief instead. Our shared weakness had given us time to meet her best friend. Time to show Edan what friendship could be.

“The priest is Alexios,” I said quietly. “Her Beta.”

“Where is he? Is he alive?” Goran grabbed my arm, and I hissed as the bones inside broke audibly. “Shit, sorry, Serak,” he stammered. “What’s wrong with your bones?”

“They’re obsidian now,” I said. “Or I think so, at least. When we fell into the maw, Edan lost control of my physical form. This is… as close as he can get to what I was. We’re getting stronger, the longer we’re down here.”

I used my free hand to shift the broken bones back into place, and Edan ascended just enough to heal them. He’d thought having a human body would be easy. He’d had no idea what pain felt like until he’d brought me into this… shared consciousness. Shared everything. He didn’t seem to understand he’d done the same thing with me that his brother had done with Lusca.

I’d let him figure it out over time. We would have a lot of it.

“Alexios was alive when I fed him last. I’m taking this basket to him,” I told Goran. “Come with me.” He followed me, his knife still in one hand, crouching low as we entered the lava tube labyrinth that led to the Beta’s small cavern. “If you can help tear down the wall where he’s caught, we could bring him here. Use your ladder to take him up—ahh!”

“What’s wrong?” Goran demanded.

“Edan didn’t like the idea of sending Alexios away.” I panted as his shouts echoed in my mind.

He went still behind me. “Edan is still inside you?”

“I am him,” Edan replied. My throat ached with the power he forced past the still-healing vocal cords. He’d tried to breathe fire more than once in this form. I was fairly certain he would not try again, given the energy it had taken to rebuild the intricate human structures inside. “And the Beta is mine as well, as he is in my domain. He is injured and trapped. You will help him.”

“Edan.” Goran moved quickly, somehow bringing the knife to my neck. “What do you mean he is yours? Your slave? Your mate? Your priest?”

Edan didn’t answer. In fact, he was so confused, he buried himself at the base of our shared consciousness like a turtle diving into deep mud. I almost laughed, but his absence weakened my body until I could no longer crawl. “I think he is Edan’s first friend.”

“Serak? Goddess, this is confusing. Tell me what happened.”

I did, using the energy I had to fill in all the details. “The battle with Skadi should have been easy for Edan to win. Here, in the heart of his power, his home? But he hadn’t flown for so long, and he’d taken my body on like… like a shell, I suppose. He thought he would be the one to rule our combined form.” I smiled into the darkness. “I surprised him.”

Goran surprised me now. He put the knife down and helped me almost gently to a sitting position. “You don’t get thirsty, Serak?” he asked as he took a swallow from his canteen.

“I do. But Alexios needs the water. I can survive without it.”

He held his canteen to my lips. “You need to do more than survive, if you want to defeat Edan. Drink.”

I drank, ignoring Edan’s quiet snarls inside. “I’m not planning to defeat him, Goran. I am him. He’s a god, which means he’s immortal. I’m going to have to live forever with him. I’m trying to teach him…” I couldn’t find the words.

“What it means to be human?” Goran suggested.