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“It’s not greed.” My words were soft but strong. “It’s about doing what’s right. Eternal torture is about as far as you can get from right as it gets.”
“How quick you are to denounce the natural order of things.”
The cavern shook around us. The ground beneath me split. I hurled myself across to get closer to Cole. He dove for me and we collided, rolling away from falling stalagmites. Phaidros floated over to us easily. Earthquakes were a lot less scary when you had freakingwings. The scene around us didn’t change in an instant. Instead, it was as though the realm was carefully rearranging the set around us. The floor slid up on the cavern walls. The ceiling fell to the floor, walls bending wide and then coming dangerously close before receding again.
“Tell me again that you wish to free every soul. That you believe they do not deserve that which I give them by right.”
The scene widened to reveal the Moon Goddess. She looked nothing like the last time I had seen her. Gone was her silver armor; gone were her gossamer sheer robes. She was nude, but it wasn’t a seductive nude or even a natural one like after shifters changed shape. Her body was on display in ice. Arms spread in front of herself protectively. Her eyes were wide, stuck at unequal sizes.
Her pupils widened at our presence, eyes shifting to follow our movement while her mouth was frozen in a permanent scream.
I parted my lips to tell the pits it was cruel because it was. But could I say it wasn’t what she deserved? The goddess who had played with the lives of countless shifters, tormenting them for years upon years?
I couldn’t.
“I can feel your loathing, life-giver. Still so eager to fight for the souls of the fallen?”
I swallowed. Cole’s jaw was ground shut. He didn’t have an answer either. After how she’d tormented me, if anything, Cole likely felt she deserved worse.
But this was about more than grudges.
“She’s not the only one I’m fighting for.”
“Very well.”
The scene shifted. Various figures appeared around us as the realm showed off its wares. Medusa, who did little more than hiss. The nixie. Demons who had challenged me. I braced for any of my old pack members, but they’d been set free to settle in the land beyond the stars. Was I glad they weren’t in the realm? I hated them. Jett dying hadn’t absolved him of a single sin in my book. But while I wanted him gone, I didn’t need him to suffer for eternity. What would it accomplish? No doubt several creatures wanted me to rot in Tartarus, the Moon Goddess included. Was their hatred any less valid than mine?
Okay, yes, in a lot of cases, it was. But the point was, no one deserved eternal torture.
“I will give you a gift, life-giver.”
I raised my head from the latest torments the under-realm displayed and looked to the emptiness above. “What’s that?”
“Rescind your challenge, and I will allow you and your death god to leave with your souls intact.”
Phaidros shot me a look, clearly screaming internally at me to take the deal.
“No.”
“If you do not want the souls of those who belong to me, what do you desire?”
“I want them to get to choose their destiny. I don’t want more subjects. I want to break this cycle of life, then death, then eternal torture. Let them live, then when they die come to our realm to rest. When they wish to be reborn, set the souls free, the way mine was,to reincarnate. And when they are truly done, let them disappear to the nothingness beyond the stars. They deserve a chance to find where they belong.”
“You ask a large price.”
I shrugged. “I’m prepared to pay up. Here’s what our challenge is. If I can convince the souls to leave, we win. If any stay behind, we lose.” It was a big gamble. I was betting everything on it.
“The challenge is mine to declare, life-giver. You overstep.”
Considering I was risking eternal torture for both Cole and myself, it was reasonable to say I was betting with chips I couldn’t afford to lose. A little rudeness to the realm that would be torturing us for eternity if we lost? All the more incentive towin. “Since Cole and I are the ones laying our souls on the line, I think I should get to make the rules.” I turned to Phaidros. “Do you agree this is a fair challenge to preside over?”
The demon nodded.
“Very well. I look forward to your return to my realm. For I recall, when you last intruded, you tried to force my subjects to leave and failed.”
He was right. I had tried to make a bunch of the realm’s victims escape with me, and I’d been summarily rejected.
The setting shifted around us. Gone was the empty space—now we were at the sight that had been burned into my mind when I’d last come. Miles and miles of torture.
