AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We need to figure out why the Endless Mist refuses you.”
Ah yes, The Endless Mist.
After Von’s death, Arkyn marched me into the forest, straight to the Endless Mist—not that I went willingly. I did, however, willingly touch it when he demanded I do so, hoping it would take me away from him. But nothing out of the ordinary happened. The ethereal voices asked who I was, to which I replied, “The Goddess of Life.” The voices then responded that I would need to return another time—like I had arrived one minute before they closed up shop for the day.
Arkyn was less than pleased that our trip to the Endless Mist had not been successful, muttering under his breath thatwewould try again later. Thewebit was laughable—like when a man cut off his partner who was talking about the birth of her child and made it seem like he was the one who pushed it out of his dingle.
Following our trip to the Endless Mist, Arkyn allowed me to stop at the cottage to gather a few of my things. I found the offer odd, like he was trying to make amends for everything that happened earlier that day. Another laughable notion. Under his watchful gaze, I gathered a few of my things, but he didn’t see the paper I found when I went up to the loft. There, on my bed, was a letter from Ezra—her print always surprisingly legible for someone who was blind. The letter explained that she would be away for a while, that she was returning to a place that filled her with hope. I knew what that meant—she was going to the Cursed Lands. A small portion of me felt a bit of relief—she would be out of harm’s way for the time being.
Arkyn let out an audible sigh. “Oh, for the Creator’s sake, this is getting ridiculous. You are mourning the loss of a god who attempted to murder you on more than one occasion.”
Great divine, he was persistent today.
I didn’t reply. Just a bit longer and he would leave.
The bed sighed, heaving as he sat down on the end.
This was new. I didn’t like it.
“Look, I get that all of this is a lot. You are very much in the infancy stage of your goddesshood right now, and you have hundreds of years of memories stowed away—ones you haven’t even started to tap into. I can help you go through them, help you sort them and make sense of them. If you would just open up to me.”
I pursed my lips, steadfast in my vow of silence. Fuck him and the king’s carriage he rode in.
“There is something I need to get off my chest.” He stopped, took a deep breath.
I rolled my eyes. Oh goody.
“That day in the bathhouse—you thought I was speaking of an old lover. I should have corrected you back then.” I could hear his fingers comb through his hair. “I realized I needed to tell you the truth when you said it again at the Endless Mist. Although I have felt moments of attraction towards you, you and I were never lovers. We were always just friends. We could have that again.”
Be friends . . . with him? His not-so-little red head was delirious. He claimed it was ridiculous that I was mourning the loss of a god who apparently tried to murder me. What a hypocrite. Not only did he throw me in the Endless Mist, he also threatened my life with the Crown of Thorns and a hot, hungry pyre.
Currently, in the game of attempted murder, he was leading the score.
“I know we have gone over this many times, but I feel like I need to say it again. I never planned to take your life that day, but I had to make it look real. The God of Death was the king of our enemies. He could have taken the Living Realm back from us at any given moment. I couldn’t let that happen, so my hand was forced, and I had to use the thing that weakened him—unfortunately, that was you. And I apologize for that, but like I said, when your memory returns, when you rememberwhathe is—that he is the villain—then you will trust in what I did and understand why it had to be done.”
We had gone over this many times, from many different angles.
It always fell on my purposefully deafened ears.
“Aurelia, please, you have to talk to me eventually.”
That was where he was wrong. I didn’t. And I really wished he would stop calling methatname—it might have belonged to me in other lifetimes, but right now, all I wanted to be was just plain old Sage.
“Fine,” he stated bluntly. The bed groaned, telling me he was on his feet, on his way out.
Mentally, I waved a flag in victory.
“I have business in the countryside. I will return in a week’s time. When I do, I hope we will finally be able to talk about things. The king is looking forward to seeing you.” His bootheels sounded against the flagstone floor as he strode over to the door. “Goodbye, Aurelia. And please . . . just eat something.”
Then I heard the sounds I had hoped to hear—the door shutting, followed by fading steps.
Good riddance.
I poked my head out from underneath the furs, thankful for the fresh air. Maybe Ididneed a bath.
Forget it—that was too much work.
Besides, I had more important things to do. I returned my gaze to the vine pillar and started the task of tracing it for the seventeenth time that day.
