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Since my mom had had me, she’d been alone and wandering, taking care of me, putting her own needs aside. My father had been nothing more than a fling, and my mother hadn’t had a companion to lean on in a long time.
I’d always wanted her to look after herself, too. She needed to focus on her own needs and her own happiness.
Maybe that was what Zita could give her. If my mom found companionship, love, support from the warrior, then I was happy for her.
She deserved so much more than the hand she’d been dealt all these years.
“I should go,” I said and stood. “I didn’t mean to interrupt anything. I should have checked with you before barging in like this.”
“You’re always welcome,” Mom said with a warm smile.
I knew she would always be there for me, and I loved her for it. She wasn’t just a good mother, she was also a wonderful friend and confidante. She deserved to be allowed to focus on her own heart, her own path forward.
I left the room and shut the door behind me, closing the two Fae in together. I truly hoped my mom was finding her happiness, too.
What I wanted more than anything was that we all ended up with our happy endings.
14
EROL
Ididn’t sleep well.
Since Cyrene had come to me, my dreams had been terrible again, filled with blood and gore, with fear and loathing. I jerked awake at least three times a night, and when I woke up in the mornings, I felt like I hadn’t slept at all.
I stayed up later and later in the hopes that I would be so exhausted, I wouldn’t have what it took to dream.
It didn’t work.
When I jerked awake, it was the middle of the night. I couldn’t remember what I’d dreamed, just that there had been a lot of blood, a lot of cruelty, and so much darkness. It had felt the way it had when Falx had still been alive, and Lavinia had messed with my head for fun.
I let out a breath, trying to calm myself.
“You know the drill,” I told myself, speaking into the dark room. “We’re just going to have to face this one night at a time.” One night at a time, for the rest of my life.
I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing, the way it traveled in through my nose, filling my chest, and out through my mouth again. I repeated the process. In, out, in, out.
“Erol,” a voice said, and I stiffened. The voice was all around me and inside me. It waseverywhere.
“What do you want?” I bit out through clenched jaws. I’d just managed to calm my heart rate enough that I could fall asleep again.
Cyrene appeared before me in the dark of the room with a smile on her face.
“I thought we could chat for a while.”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
“Is that how you treat a goddess? I don’t remember you being this disrespectful.”
“I don’t remember you being around at all,” I pointed out.
I knew I was playing with fire, making the Dark Goddess angry, but I was frustrated, irritated with her, and on edge after yet another nightmare. The less I slept, the crankier I became, and it had been dozens of nights of restless sleep in a row so far.
Cyrene laughed despite my snappy remarks. “You’re right, I haven’t exactly been around, showing my face to you. Lavinia was here, making contact with me, doing my work. And Falx obeyed me through her. The system worked. You don’t have a high priestess, so I have to make do without a middleman.”
I scowled. Cyrene was more a voice in the darkness than a figure I could make out. I knew where she was—her energy was darker than the darkness in the room, and her pale skin was almost translucent. I glared in her general direction.
“So, now I’m supposed to be a ruler and a priest of some kind?”
