“I assumed you’d finally made your decision,” he added quietly.
“I did make my decision!” Her anger rose again, followed by a rumble as a boulder crashed to the ground from the mountains, releasing a gush of water that filled the empty River Styx. The force of the water loosened the rock that had been blocking the lake, joining the two as it had been before. “I have chosen you a dozen times over.”
“Throughout our long history, you have always chosen him in the end,” Lucius pointed out. “You may enjoy me for a moment, but you always go back. And I cannot chase you anymore. I know I love you completely, but if you’re happier with him, then you should be with him. How can I proclaim my love for you, but not allow you to be happy?”
Morrigan was stunned.
“That being said, I have no desire to live on Earth without you and I’m quite certain I could not physically handle witnessing your reconciliation with David. I can make do here, like I’ve always done.”
“You are the decision I should have always made,” she insisted. “I had hoped you saw that in me.”
He softened as he searched her eyes. “Please forgive me, I should have trusted you.” He crept closer with the careful approach one uses with a wild animal. “I wanted to, but there was too much noise in the background, preying on the nagging voice that tells me otherwise.”
Morrigan sighed. “I know I must earn your trust again. But perhaps we can both stop running from each other until then?”
“I can do that,” he agreed. His lips turned up in a sideways smile. “In any case, I did feel bad leaving David down here. He’s far too delicate for this realm.”
She matched his grin with a roll of her eyes. “I did figure out that part on my own. Also, you were right from the beginning—the Holy Watchers didn’t want any gods to live, but they were targeting me specifically because I am the one who created the realms. They wanted you gone, not only because you helped me build them—even inspiring me to create Tartarus and the Upperrealms—but because you protect me at all costs. Even when I don’t want you to. There was no getting rid of me unless they first got rid of you.”
Lucius gazed at her with adoration. “I do love your mind.”
“As mad as I am that you came here without me,” she continued, “you knew this was what we had to do—it was our part in saving the realms. To come back here and rebuild them all. You just wanted it to be my choice to make…and I made it.”
“Can I please hold you now?”
She smiled, and he pulled her tightly against him. She sighed with relief, grateful to be back where she belonged.
He rested his face against her hair. “All I ever really wanted was for you to want to be here,” he murmured.
“I think all I ever wanted was the choice,” she said against the warmth of his chest. “I realized that as furious as you make me, I don’t want to live in a world without you.”
“And my brother?”
Morrigan lifted her head to meet his eyes. “He has chosen to let me—let us go. I think it’s high time we all moved on.”
“Then you must promise me that if you need to return to Earth, you do so,” he told her. “I might have finally made peace with my place in the Netherrealms, but I don’t ever want you to feel trapped and restless again. I will do my best to trust you. Besides, you’ve discovered you’re a liminal deity now, like David. Somehow you can both move between the realms without much effort. There must be a reason why.”
“Thank you.” She smiled. “But I do think I’ll be down here for quite a bit of time.” She took his hands from behind her back and guided them so they rested on the low part of her stomach. “I seem to have picked up a pair of twins along the way.”
Lucius blinked several times in shock, his mind racing behind his eyes to understand what she just told him, before tears beaded their corners. “Is it true?” he whispered.
She grazed his lips with hers. “They were peacefully awaiting you in the Middleworld and recognized me immediately. I’m thinking we should call them by the names they once had—Ashera and Abi.”
Lucius grabbed her face, covering her with kisses and squeezing her joyfully before hoisting her up in the air. Tears freely streamed down his cheeks, his face lit up with the happiest expression she had ever seen on his face, his eyes like radiant stars in the night sky.
“Come,” he said, kissing her again as he carried her up the steps towards Hades’s palace. “We have a lot of rebuilding to do.”
David
The Watchers stared at him coldly from behind their human facades. The atmosphere was tight and still, a far cry from the pleasant ethereal realm he’d once visited. All three of them stood with their arms crossed in front of them, Michael’s lips pressed into a hateful line.
“I am not here for war,” David told them, “but to offer you an accord. We have successfully avoided all of your attempts to stifle us. The goddess Discordia is now dead, her minions purposelessly roaming Earth until they are found and killed by Cahira. Lucius and Morrigan are rebuilding the Underworld, and will soon be joined by the other death gods hiding in the Middleworld. You have lost.”
“Did you come here to gloat?”
“Not in the slightest. But we cannot let go of what you have done. You murdered the Council that Anubis created to protect the realms, and you have done anything but. It would only be fair that we destroy your realm like you did ours. But we know your Holy One is loved by many, and Jesus has persuaded us that He is not to blame—His sycophants are.
“You can stay here in the Kingdom of Heaven, but you must stop interfering in the affairs of the other gods. In turn, we will leave you in peace. You will no longer act as the Council—Cahira, Morrigan, Lucius and myself will take our rightful place, with Anubis and Libraean standing in for Lucius and Morrigan while they are in the Underworld. You can have your own Council here, but you will reinstate Gabriel. He will keep an eye on you to make sure you are following the new rules. I wouldn’t attempt to get rid of him, for Jesus has agreed to this plan and plans on protecting his trusted friend.”
Michael’s scowl did not move. “Is that all?”
“Almost.” David smiled back. “You can keep your Kingdom, but I will be taking back control of the Upperrealms. They were not even yours to begin with. I will take Gaia’s Forest and you will let any other gods who ascend have whatever else is available. Libraean will be in charge of it all—he is a remarkable record keeper and you are lucky to have him guide you. As far as the humans are concerned, you can continue to have your religions and your rules, but you will cease your torment of those who do not choose to believe in your ways. You may quarrel amongst each other, but you will leave those who practice the old ways alone.”
“Is that all?” Michael repeated coldly.
“Yes,” David said as he headed out of the Tower. “And God help you if you cross us again.”
No one moved to stop him, but the realm shuddered as the Tower that was once firmly planted in the atmospheric island promptly disappeared from sight, taking the clouds and fog with them. David turned to see Libraean and Jacob, both restored to their younger selves. Strikingly blonde and handsome, Libraean’s clear blue eyes rivaled Morrigan’s; they were completely restored with his death, a gift finally given to him, as well as the one that allowed him to finally join his true love. Tears amassed in his eyes now as Jacob, then he, gave David a warm embrace.
“You must visit,” Libraean told him.
“I will,” David promised.
“You are welcome any time in Jesus’s realm, as well,” Jacob said.
“Thank you.” David smiled. In his peripheral vision, he saw the outline of two others on shore waiting for him.
Libraean gave him one final squeeze. “Go. Please be happy for once.”
