AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Essos sits on the edge of the bed and takes my hand with one of his while the other strokes my cheek. “We will be okay. All of us. And then after, when this is all said and done, we will enjoy the hell out of the next pregnancy and the next pregnancy and the next pregnancy.”
“Just how many times are you thinking of knocking me up?”
“I am going to put a baby in you as often as you let me. I love how you glow and how cranky you are right now.”
I swat at him. “No more secrets, Essos. I mean it. We do this together, even if it means I have to do it from this bed.”
“I swear it.” He presses a kiss to my forehead.
“You better not be crossing your fingers.” He gives me a smile but shakes his head. “Good, now send in my friends so I can figure out how to better fix this mess we’re in.”
“As you wish, my queen.”
He gets up and opens the door for Cat and Zara to come back in. The door closes behind them, and on the other side, I hear the muffled sounds of Helene reading Essos the riot act.
“Are you okay?” Cat inquires, gingerly sitting on the bed.
“Yes. Essos assured me that we’re both okay, but I’m more worried about both of you and what happened today.”
“My family is hunkered down in their house and were surprised to find that they now have a generator and a second fully-stocked fridge that never seems to empty, thanks to Helene. They’re all a little traumatized, but I don’t think there’s a mortal alive who isn’t.”
“I know. Essos and I were discussing what the best plan of action is going to be once we get those souls back.”
“Why don’t you have Rafferty do for them what he did for me? Block the memories?”
I bite my lower lip. “It’s a thought, something I could get behind, but we would need a large-scale way to implement it, and we would need Rafferty’s cooperation.”
“He seems like a tool, no offense. I get why you needed to call him to help me, but he seems distinctly unhelpful otherwise.”
“He is. Rafferty likes to collect favors.”
Zara is thumbing through the stack of books on my nightstand. “Honestly, you can figure that all out later. Right now, you need to get the zombies back in the Underworld. I’m not going to be happy if your inability to get a handle on it is the reason my family dies.”
“Then let’s get to work,” Cat says, holding her hand out for a book.
We spend hours poring over every page and paragraph, trying to make sense of how the God and Goddess Supreme created the realms, but there are gaps in the story. Along with Octavia and Titus, there are mentions of the God of the Sun—Lairus—and the Goddess of the Moon—Esmaray—but for all we know, the four of them had a giant orgy and it was their orgasm that created everything.
Once that thought occurs to me, I slam the book shut. “I can’t do this anymore. We need to know from Octavia how it happened, and asking her is out of the question. Titus is dead, so he’s not an option. All of this is justhopeless.” I fall back onto my pillows.
“Since when are you a defeatist?” Zara snaps her own book closed. “What happened to the chick who never backed down, who was always willing to fight for what mattered? Who went toe-to-toe with the God of War andwon. I know Essos has been treating you like his poor little woman, but that’s not who you are. So, get the fuck over yourself, and let’s fix this!”
Her words reach something inside me—something I know to be true and that I’m afraid of, but she’s right. This isn’t about me and my problems. This is about the greater good, and I’m embarrassed by how much that fact seems to have escaped me in the middle of all mywoe is mebullshit.
“Can we ask this Esmaray or Lairus?” Cat suggests, tapping on her book, which pictures Esmaray in all her midnight glory reaching her hand toward Lairus, who is reaching toward her with his palm outstretched. Staged between their hands are two balls, one radiant as the sun, the other more shaded, representing the moon.
“No. They haven’t been seen since before I emerged as a goddess. Some think they’ve taken an eternal slumber or even returned to what they were meant to be—the sun and the moon, no longer personifications, but the things themselves.” I rub my temples as say this. Naturally, nothing can be easy.
“Can we, like, summon them?” Zara suggests as Cat flips a page.
“They’re not demons. They could be stardust at this point.”
Zara pinches her lower lip between two fingers. “What about Octavia?”
“Watch it. She’s like Beetlejuice. Say her name three times and she’ll appear and never go away,” I warn.
“But we want that. We want her to answer questions and tell us how to fix this.” Zara’s trying to reason with me, but she doesn’t know Octavia like I do.
“She’s a leech. Once she’s here, she burrows in and never lets go. She won’t help, anyway.” Since Essos and I never told anyone about her proposition, I can’t justify to them why I know that.
