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NATALIE
When Brian and the Goddess joined Lucian and me, I explained how I’d contacted Cedric, and what I’d learned.
“There was an attack on the City of Souls last night, wasn't there? You know it's only going to get worse—and for the Mortal Realm, too," I said, repeating Cedric's words to the others. "That's what Cedric said, and he's never directly mentioned the human realm before. Nothing's happened there yet, has it?"
The Goddess shook her head. "No, the virus hasn't spread to the human realm yet. The fact that he said that things are about to get worse there is a little odd.”
“But is it enough to go on?” Brian asked.
"It has to be," I replied. "We know the virus will spread there eventually. But what'll happen if Cedric attacks the realm directly? We can barely handle things here. If he attacks Earth, everyone will be done for.”
“And there’ll be that much more power for him,” Lucian grumbled.
I pointed at him and nodded in agreement. “Exactly,” I replied. "We can't wait for him to do that. Maybe he'll attack, or maybe he won’t, but we need to prepare. I have a strong feeling that it will be his next move—or at least one of them."
“You’re right.” Lucian leaned on the wall with his arms crossed. “We need allies in the Mortal Realm who know what's coming. And yes, I know, those on Earth can't be made aware of the God Realm, but there won't be a God Realm if we lose this war."
“Cedric is putting his final plans into motion." I started pacing. "The attack last night proved that. According to Tedara, his goal is to create more chaos users—dragon chaos users. We're going to be destroyed."
“What about sending a few gods to the Mortal Realm?" Brian asked. "Though we barely have enough of them here to face Cedric, a few gods in the Mortal Realm would make things not so one-sided if Cedric attacks. It’s been hard trying to contain the virus here, but it'll be that much worse for the unsuspecting humans and supernatural creatures on earth."
I thought of Xavier and the Blackmoon Pack, as well as all the werewolf packs that had done so much to save Earth during the Second Vampire War. Now they were going to be hit with this, just when their world was finding its footing again.
Humans, wolves, witches… All life would be killed.
“It won’t be enough,” the Goddess said. “Not to change the tide of things. Besides, there’s not enough time to find vessels for any of the gods to visit the Mortal Realm."
We fell into silence after that. I couldn't shake the memories of my time on Earth during the Vampire War, and I tried not to think about how much worse it could be this time around. Xavier would be caught off guard. The entire pack might become infected, and then Ruby would really lose it.
She'd fought and saved the world once—saved Xavier. I couldn’t let him turn into an infected and die while she was waiting for him here in the God Realm.
"Demons," Brian mumbled to himself after a while, and we all turned to him. He looked at us and smiled. “It’s unlikely Cedric ever got his hands on a demon to find out how they’d react to the virus, right? Chaos is all-powerful, but the primordial gods didn't create the Demon Realm. That realm and demons came into being when magic itself started to change due to greed."
Lucian and I looked at each other, and Lucian’s lips curved with a smile. Brian was certainly on to something.
"You're right," I said. "We have no idea if the virus will affect demons or what effect chaos has on them. And if the Demon King realizes that Cedric won’t stop at the God Realm and Earth, he might be willing to help us. After all, they might be next. In fact…” I said, the idea growing on me, “maybe we could even use demon blood to find a way to counteract the virus.”
"It's something," Lucian said, standing up.
The Goddess abruptly turned and left the room, slamming the door on her way out. And suddenly, I understood. We were talking about demons as a possible solution. But to the Goddess, they were the creatures that had killed her sister.
The Goddess’s sister had been abducted by the Demon King, and had given birth to the first vampire. That was why the Goddess had played such a large role in the vampire wars.
"Shit," I mumbled, turning to Lucian and Brian.
"I'll talk to her. I wasn't thinking just now,” Brian said.
But I held his shoulder when he tried to walk by. “Let me,” I said. “I’ll go.”
* * *
Natalie
Ifound the Goddess sitting alone in a small garden filled with white trees. Leaves were scattered on the ground, and the various benches throughout the garden were made of crystals. Birds were singing in the trees, but I couldn't see them.
When I sat beside the Goddess, she audibly sighed.
I turned to face her. "I’m sorry. It was insensitive of us to talk about demons in your presence, considering your history," I said softly, and the Goddess's shoulders slumped a little. “Brian didn’t mean to offend you. He was only searching for a way out of this war.”
