“Do you like peanut butter? Dominic makes these cookies, and they are so nice,” she asks me, and I smile at her. Feckin’ hell, I’ve missed peanut butter. Turns out I share that addiction with my siblings.
“I love peanut butter,” I answer her.
“I will get us some!” she cheers and runs off. I can’t wait to introduce Ruby to my mum and brothers, they will love her. I just know it. Knowing I can’t put it off any longer, I walk to the door and push it open, seeing Mads awake on the bed. Two gold cuffs hang on her wrists, glowing slightly, and now I know how they keep her in here. She turns to me, and the empty look she gives me hurts my soul. I rub my chest as I walk into the room and stand opposite her, leaning my back against the wall.
“Mads,” I whisper.
“My name is Madison, not Mads. Are you here to fight me again?” she asks me, and I shake my head. The higher gods have done one hell of a job on her. I can sense her power from here, even if she can’t use it in this place like me. Her blonde hair is now white, but it only adds to her beauty.
“I want to say I’m happy my best friend is immortal and a god now, but fecking hell, I’m furious. If I could kill the higher gods that did this to you all over again, I would,” I tell her. “Pey is missing you, I’m sure. Do you remember him?”
“No,” she snaps at me, standing up. Her hands shake, and I wonder if some little part of me is getting through to her. “Get out or fight me!”
“Nope,” I draw out the word, annoying her more. “Pey always said you were a saint for putting up with my stubborn ass, and he was right. He was always right, but don’t tell him that.” I chuckle, and she shakes her head even more. “We have been best friends since we were eight years old. Both of us are complete opposites. You were mortal, with no family, and in general you were sensible and kind. I was a goddess with a crazy family and headstrong, clumsy and immature. Yet you were my best friend, and I love you. You love me too, even if you don’t remember.”
“Shut up!” she shouts before she punches me hard in my cheek. I fly to the floor, tasting my blood in my mouth as tears prick my eyes. She jumps on me, lifting her fist to hit me again, and I just lie there. She pauses, halting above me. “Fight me back! Don’t just lie there!”
“I fought you once, and I won’t again. You’re my best friend,” I tell her, tears falling down my cheeks and stinging on the side that hurts like a bitch. “You will remember me, and everything you do, you will regret. I won’t give you anything else to regret because I love you.”
“Go away,” she pleads, her glowing blue eyes shining with pain. I wish I could hug her, tell her it will be okay. “Go away, go away, go away!” Her pleas hurt my ears as she climbs onto the bed and hides her head behind her knees, looking like a frightened animal. A sob catches in my throat as I stand up and walk to the door, forcing myself not to look back. The second I step out of the door, I can’t stop the tears that fall as I slide to my butt on the floor and hug my knees. I need Killian to make me laugh, Seth to hold me and make me feel safe, and Storm to be my avenging angel who would always be there for me. I miss them so much it hurts.
I don’t look up as I hear tiny footsteps walking towards me.
“Here’s a cookie. I used to cry all the time too, but it gets better,” Ruby softly says, and I look up to see her kneeling in front of me, holding a cookie on a plate for me.
“You’re brave, Ruby. So brave,” I tell her, wiping my tears away before taking the cookie from the plate.
“You’re my sister, so you can be too,” she replies, and I chuckle because it’s so far from the truth. I’m not brave at all. Ruby moves to sit next to me, and her small hand takes mine, holding on tightly.
Storm, Killian, Seth stay firmly in my mind as I convince myself to stand up and take a bite of the delicious cookie.
“Karma, will you join me for dinner this evening?” Neritous asks, but it’s not a question, it’s more a demand from his tone alone. I turn to see him walking towards us from the other side of the room, and Ruby presses herself close to my side, clearly frightened of him.
Ruby looks up to me, pleading with her eyes that I don’t fight him. “Okay.”
The word feels like a betrayal, but it might be the only thing that saves me for now.
Chapter 54
“Thank you for agreeing to come to dinner with me,” Neritous states as I step into the room. I tense my back, watching him carefully as he straightens his tie.
“I wasn’t invited but demanded,” I remind him. “To be fecking truthful, I’d rather eat with a shark god. And they always stink of fish.”
“Did you know the lower water gods were the ones who made the fish in the seas?” he asks me, waving a hand towards a seat at the table. The smell of the food lures me over far more than my father’s invitation does. The small table is set for two, with several plates of various foods in the middle, waiting for us to help ourselves. Everything from rich roast potatoes, steamed vegetables, thick gravy and a whole leg of lamb calls to me. Roast dinners are my favourite, especially with lamb.
“How did you know this is my favourite meal?” I ask as he sits down. He doesn’t talk until I take my seat, and I feel like his answer is a reward for sitting down. More manipulation, with a side of lamb, it seems.
“It was your mother’s. I won her over with my cooking,” he remarks, cutting the lamb and placing some on my plate.
“Did you actually cook for her?” I question, crossing my arms. He serves me like I’m a child, and I’m not an eegit, but I know he sees me as one. His child that should be grateful to be around him. After he fills my plate, he works on his own, and I’d be tempted to throw the food at him if I weren’t so hungry. I feel like a traitor with every bite of the delicious food.
“To answer your question, of course not,” he tells me. “But she thought I did, and all that matters is you were the conclusion to our mating.”
“Unless you want me to puke this food up, can we change the subject?” I all but beg, and he laughs. I hate that his laugh is almost like mine. “Like the real reason you have me here, for instance.”
“The gods of the world are dying,” he announces, and I frown. From what I’ve seen and heard, they are not. “With every generation, they mix with humans, the magic fades, and over time, gods will be nothing but fairy tales in this world. A thousand years ago, a tree god could make a tree grow to the clouds within minutes, but now all they can do is heal a tree from dying. That is merely one example, but magic as a whole is fading. The world is dying.”
“Maybe if gods were allowed to mix with each other, that would change,” I suggest, and I instantly know I’ve said the wrong thing. Neritous stands, dropping his fork to the table, and the clang makes me jump.
“You might have killed my sisters and brother, the useless lot they were, but the higher gods’ law still stands with me. Mixing gods is dangerous,” he snaps.
“I’m a mix,” I point out, holding my head high.
“And you are far more dangerous than you realise,” he points out with a sneer. “Come with me.”
He walks out of the door, and knowing I don’t really have a choice, I stand up and shove some lamb into my mouth before following him out. I chew my food as I stay behind Neritous, following him to a thin steel door with three locks. It takes him a minute to put in all the codes, and then the door swings open on its own.
My skin immediately itches, like I can feel something wrong even before I step into the room behind Neritous. In the centre of the metal-covered room is a spinning, see-through green sphere that must be the size of a car. It constantly spins, like it’s actually alive, and right in the middle of it is a cube. The cube is a deep green colour, like the colour of the leaves in spring when they are at their brightest and most beautiful. Alluringly, I can’t stop staring at the cube. I almost feel like I’ve seen it before.
Without realising it, I’ve almost walked all the way to the edge of the sphere, and my feet knock into something. Almost slowly, I look down and see Faleria at my feet. Her eyes lack life, her soul is gone, and a smile is on her lips like she is almost happy to have died. Her body lies at an awkward angle, and sickness builds in my throat. I jump back, turning around to run away when I smack into Neritous. He grips my chin tightly in his hand, forcing me to look at him through my tears.
“Shame about her. Isn’t it?” he carelessly states. His daughter is dead on the floor behind me, and he doesn’t care one bit.
“We are all fecking experiments to you, aren’t we?” I spit out, and he laughs, shoving me away from him. He walks to the edge of the sphere, never looking down at the body. He traces his finger over the sphere, almost in a loving way that makes little sense to me.
“This is the source of all magic in the world. This is the dying soul of the goddess of life,” he whispers. “My adoptive mother, which I am sure you know the story of well from Storm.”
