Cahira nodded, though her sorrow had returned. “I hold nothing against you, but my heart is heavy that we must part. We have been together for a very long time.”
Sandrine’s stony exterior melted to reveal a vulnerability she rarely trusted with another. “You are the closest I have ever had to family,” she admitted. “But, like you, I am a lone wolf. We were once connected by a common cause—to rid the world of Angelique and her demons. Now we are free to resume our natural ways.”
“I understand.” Cahira nodded. “I will miss you though.”
Sandrine grabbed her arm in the old style of handshake, meeting her eyes. “And I will miss you. If you ever need me again, you must promise that you will find me.”
Cahira clenched her jaw against her rising emotion, offering instead a firm nod.
Then Sandrine was gone, with no further word, no further action, her figure enveloped instantly by the darkness.
Cahira let out a deep exhale. Although she fought the steady foreboding tremble that persists when loved ones part, she knew Sandrine was right. To beg her to stay would be asking her to sacrifice her true nature. And to Cahira, that was the antithesis of love.
She headed back into Anubis’s house with slow and heavy steps. The torch light flickered in the wind as she approached.
Morrigan, Anubis, David, Libraean, and Thomas stood in the main room, and as soon as David saw her enter, he immediately rose to his feet. “We need to open a portal to Tartarus,” he said without greeting.
“Since the beginning of this trip, I wanted to do exactly that and no one wanted to hear it,” she said, half in jest.
“I am sorry I tried to persuade you not to save Dan,” Morrigan broke in. “Especially since I have decided to retrieve Lucius from the very same place.” She looked different, a peculiar energy flickering around her, bringing flecks of emerald into her eyes. Cahira picked up whispers as she drew closer and, with a start, she realized the same spirits who once guided her path to David were now running through Morrigan’s veins.
Morrigan smiled, as if knowing exactly what she was thinking.
Cahira resumed focus on their conversation. “You do not need to apologize,” she told her. “You were right. Dan chose to die to save my life, and it was right for me to honor that choice. I no longer hold any resentment towards you for your decision to do what I could not.”
Morrigan did not speak, but a trace smile appeared on her lips, the swirling sky blue and sea greens of her eyes full of emotion.
Cahira moved to the front of the fireplace to address them all. “I have spent the last few months disconnected from the spirit world, so focused on my own desires that I could not see what was plainly in front of me. All of us knew we should be together to restore the realms, and that is true. Morrigan, Anubis, and Thomas are death gods—you three can open the portal to Tartarus to retrieve Lucius. As far as the rest of us,” she looked between David and Libraean, “I have a plan. It’s time to put this all behind us.”
morrigan
Her world was drenched in color, swirling and vibrating as what was left of her family spoke amongst each other. She still held Isis’s hand, the falcon and the crow standing in quiet observation, though no one else could see it.
“I think I finally understand love,” Isis murmured from beside her.
Well, please enlighten me, because I have yet to understand it, Morrigan replied in her mind.
“It is not chaos, as Discordia proclaimed. It is the opposite—what keeps the world in a state of ma’at, balancing all the pain and hatred.”
Love can be painful.
“Lust perhaps, but love itself is beautiful. It is what I felt for you when you told me of your affair with Osiris, and when you asked me to watch over your children. It is what enables David to let you go. It is what makes Libraean care for David, what helped Cahira come up with a way to save the realms. What pushed young Anubis to prevent you from taking your own life. What has kept Lucius alive for so long. Anything Discordia has thrown at us, love has defeated it.”
Morrigan raised an eyebrow, feeling both surprised and moved. You turned out to be quite the romantic after all.
Isis laughed. “I have been existing silently beside you for quite a while now. I see what you cannot.”
Morrigan smiled, though sadness wove its way around her heart as she gazed at her. You were smart to split your soul to prevent Discordia from being all powerful, but it pains me that you will never exist whole.
“You should know better than to say never.”
“Morrigan,” David’s voice interrupted. “Are you ready?”
She was grateful to observe eyes that resumed their softness when he looked at her. Even if they could no longer be lovers, the world felt better when they were at peace.
“Allow me one last thing,” she said. Then she went to Cahira, taking her by the hands. Morrigan was pleased she didn’t recoil, enjoying the warmth of her hands against the coolness of her skin. “I have something for you.”
Cahira nodded as if she already knew.
Morrigan suddenly saw her sister and herself running in the fields, Heka and Lilith painfully young and blissfully unaware of what would soon befall them. Little Morrigan hurried to keep up with her sister, but she’d already transformed into a black kite, her wings spread out as she soared and dove in the clear blue expanse dotted with clouds. Morrigan followed suit, the two weaving together as they cut through the skies in a spiraling dance, wild, happy, and free.
The vision ended to reveal Cahira’s face staring back at her, two tears neatly streaming down her face. Isis’s apparition had vanished.
“Thank you,” Cahira whispered. She learned forward and she kissed Morrigan’s cheek.
Morrigan smiled, assured her sister was finally at peace.
“You are now the Earth’s protector,” Anubis told Cahira from beside her. “While the rest of us have ties to other realms, the Earth is yours, blessed by Isis.” He gestured to the rest of the gods who had gathered around her. “And we will all protect you.”
Cahira nodded, her strong facade crumbling with emotion.
Morrigan seized the opportunity to embrace her. “I deeply regret how things turned out for us in this life, but I cannot think of a better vessel for my sister’s soul. I am honored to have helped raise you.”
Cahira did not speak, but squeezed her back tightly in reply.
Morrigan gradually pulled away, echoes of her sister’s voice and young Cahira’s laughter in her mind. “I am ready now,” she told Anubis. He nodded and, as they headed out the door, she found David’s eyes.
His jaw trembled but stayed tight, battling tears she knew threatened to spill from his soulful eyes. “In another life,” he said softly.
