AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“If I were to allow you to do that, the Cursed would scatter across the Living Realm like mice, which would make it much harder for me to get rid of them. For once, your troublesome mist will be of benefit to me, by keeping them all locked here.” Theatrically, his brows crinkled in false concern, but the twinkle in his eyes stated the opposite. “But do not worry. After I have finished Cleansing Edenvale,thenyou will bring the Mist down and we will leave this cesspit. Then I will build an even larger army, and I will destroy the Old Gods, once and for all.”
“I would rather die than go with you,” I snarled.
He chuckled. “And yet, you will, regardless of your wants, because you still possess something that belongs to me.”
A chill spider-walked the length of my spine.
He leaned over top of me, his fingers pressing on my left breast. “And one day, I shall find a way to take it back, even if that means ripping it out with my bare hands.” He curled his fingers and snatched them away.
My heart leapt—not in the way of fear or sadness, but rather as if itlikedthat thought.
It wanted—wanted—to be reunited with him.
I felt dumbfounded—this heart was not mine. It never was. It hadalwaysbelonged to him. My body was just its keeper.
How much of having Aurelius’s heart beating within me factored into my feelings for him? Hadanyof my feelings ever been genuine?
I thought back to when I first met him in this lifetime, of the intense feelings I had felt so quickly for him. I had warred with myself to the extent that I felt as though I was being split in two—my mind cheering for Von, while my heart wanted Aurelius.
But what I didn’t understand then, I understood now—the heart beating within my chest loved Aurelius. But I never had.
. . .I never had.
This epiphany hit me like a landslide, but instead of falling into a pit of sorrow as I realized how much of my past life had been a complete lie, all I felt was . . .
Free.
It was as if the door to a cage that I had lived in since the day I drew my first breath had finally sprung open, and now, I could finally stretch my wings and find my independence.
Deep down, I felt that part of me—the goddess part that I was often cut off from—was smiling.
And when she shared it with me, thousands of forgotten memories instantly bloomed.
Memories of a goddess walking the lonely palace halls, wondering when her husband would finally have time for her.
Memories of a goddess who was never allowed into the council meetings because her word wasn’t considered to be worthwhile.
Memories of a goddess who was always greeted asprincess, neverqueen, because her husband, the king, would never allow it.
But the most prevalent of all the memories was the one of the goddess whostoodbeside her husband’s throne—day after day, year after year, decade after decade, century after century.
And despite her loyalty, she was never granted one of her own.
Not even so much as a measly stool beside his.
“Did you hear what I said, Aurelia?” Aurelius asked, his kingly voice the pick and the command it bore the hammer, chiseling me from my thoughts.
Aurelia.
Thatname. . . he had given it to me before I had one, naming me afterhimself. Because to him, I was never my own person. I was always just an extension of him, of what he’d created me to be. A trickle of fire warmed my cooled-off veins—the hold his compel held over me was beginning to fade.
I felt my divinity radiating within. The feel of it—of her—it was the same feeling that day at the training barracks when I melted the cuffs from the wrists of the conscripted men. I had thought that a goddess had come to my aid.
But now I realized that it had all beenme.
“That—” I grated between clenched teeth, “—is not my name.”
“Oh, no? Then do tell, whatisyour name?” His eyes narrowed into slits as they swiped towards mine. “Perhaps you would prefer Death’s Whore?”
