AllFreeNovel
Share Us
29
ADDIE
We had no idea if this would work. Persephone peered up at the myriad branches hanging over our heads. The sun turned the crystalline leaves into dappled light at our feet. Persephone slid a smirk in my direction. There was a spark in her eyes that I couldn’t quite read.
Was it joy? Mischief?
Had I made a mistake in bringing her here? Maddox pressed his wolf body against my thigh and licked the tips of my fingers. I laughed nervously but didn’t pull away.
I’d saved the world from one threat with the help of my husband. Had I brought another threat to the base of the world tree? Persephone had been helpful so far, but the divine had proven a penchant for trickery and selfishness that I couldn’t dismiss in any case.
The cool presence of Hel appeared behind me.
“Is this truly what you want?” she asked with a note of disappointment in her voice.
I nodded. “I’m not you. I don’t want to become you.”
As she entered my field of view, I caught her wince. It wasn’t like I’d meant my words as an insult, but I couldn’t stop her from considering them as such. I just…I didn’t want responsibility anymore.
I didn’t want this overflowing power that tore everything apart. Fenrir’s blood had cursed me so that my arcana required the sacrifice of life force in order to function. At least, that’s what I suspected. I didn’t know for sure. No one had any information on my specific power set.
And I was tired of having to find out everything through trial and error.
“This isn’t the end,” I reminded Hel.
With or without the small world inside me, I was still a Reaper. I was still Hel and Fenrir’s last descendant. Clutching my family rosary, humming with the power of all who came before me, I knew that I still had them on my side. Even after this, I knew I’d still have a wealth of power to sustain both Maddox and Potato.
I pressed a hand to my solar plexus and nodded. It was time for me to give up this borrowed power.
“I can’t restore the world as it once was,” Persephone told me.
No one had ever tried anything like this before. We were all flying by the seat of our pants, really. If Persephone said she didn’t know what would happen next, I believed her.
Still, I nodded. “That’s fine. This world will still get a second chance. Right?”
“In…theory.” She chewed on the inside of her cheek.
That was enough. I had a honeymoon that I wanted to get to.
Hel put a hand on my shoulder while Maddox leaned against my opposite thigh. When Persephone approached me, her pink-tipped fingers reaching towards my solar plexus, I still flinched. Hel’s hand turned heavy on my shoulder. She wasn’t about to let me back out of this.
I could have hugged her for that. Someone listened to me and what I wanted. She stood by me, no matter what happened. It was more than I expected of Hel. Perhaps she was taking her great-something grandmother duties seriously now.
Nah, that couldn’t be it.
Persephone’s pink fingers pierced my body, but I felt no pain. In fact, I felt nothing. I held my breath the entire time like that might keep this from hurting. Persephone’s smirk dropped into a laser-like focus. Inside my chest, I felt her fingers widen. It was an odd sensation, but I’d also been torn apart by Fenrir’s devouring aura.
This was a walk in the park.
At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.
Persephone finally grabbed ahold of…something. It felt like she’d pinched my stomach at first. Then she tugged and the presence inside me moved with her. It seemed to slide through me.
I gasped when I felt my arcana react. The great sea shrank. The cold waters of my arcana rushed to fill the now empty space within me. I waited for the levels to stay the same and realized that a part of me wasn’t ready to give up what I’d come to rely upon. When the arcana settled and revealed the lower level, I almost pouted.
This was for the best, I realized when Persephone cradled a twinklingexistencein the palms of her cupped hands. I stared in awe at the swirling stars and careening planets so small that I could have sprinkled them on my morning donut.
“That was inside me this whole time?” I asked, my voice cracking.
