Raithe’s expression was severe as he pulled me closer. “You are a demigoddess of Wrath, and you are wrong if you think you’ve always been alone. I’ve been here, Odessa. From the moment I was able, I stayed. I watched you. I felt you. I heard you, even from Torhiel. When you were hurting, I hurt. When you went hollow, so did I.
“I saw the potential in you when we were just children. I saw what you were capable of and it left me in awe. There was nothing in the world that could have kept me from looking at you. You were beauty and death and violence, all at once. I have seen you, truly seen you, not as the things that happened to you, but as yourself. And I have loved every piece of you. Every part that shattered, every part you stitched back together. Because you are not weak. You are not lost. You held it together, even when you were close to falling apart.
“You’ve been so afraid of breaking again that you don’t even see that you’ve already survived it. You’re whole. It’s me that’s fragmented. And you’re the only one who’s ever made me feel anything close to intact again. I truly meant it when I said I couldn’t understand how you resisted Torhiel’s call this long. Your first mortal bargain was a death bargain and you didn’t falter. Not once. You are terrifying. And brilliant. And unlike anyone I’ve ever met. You’re one of the strongest demigods I’ve ever seen, maybe the strongest Wrath has ever created.”
Raithe’s voice cracked. “So tell me, how could I resist wanting you to become mine? You will always be enough for me, Odessa. You always have been.”
My tears wouldn’t stop. They weren’t tears of Wrath, they were mine. Tears from years of aching and emptiness. Tears from carrying the weight of powerlessness, of responsibility, of expectations I never asked for. I had only been a girl when it all began. And I couldn’t help but wonder, if I hadn’t been filled with so much darkness, could I have become something else? Something softer. Something lovely.
With Raithe, I never had to pretend. He didn’t try to fix me or reach for something I couldn’t give. He took what I offered and held it gently. He believed in me when I couldn’t believe in myself. And still, he waited for me. He always would.
I met his golden gaze through the blur of my tears, lips trembling as I tried to speak. But I didn’t have to. Raithe already knew, he always knew. I never needed to explain anything.
His face folded, crumbling under the weight of it all. “Odessa,” he said, his voice like something breaking open. His arms spread wide for me.
I didn’t think. I just ran to him, crashing into his chest, because I knew he would catch me. He always did. He held me like I mattered, like nothing else in the world existed but keeping me together. I buried myself in him and sobbed.
Raithe wrapped his arms around me, pressed his lips to my hair, and whispered, “My light. My heart. My love.”
46
There wasa moment when I almost completely lost myself in Raithe, body, mind, and soul blending into his. I was laid bare, and I would’ve given him anything just to hold onto the comfort he offered me. In his arms, I stood on the edge, hammer in hand, ready to bring down the walls I’d spent a lifetime building. All just for him. But he saw that vulnerability. He saw how exposed I was, and he didn’t take advantage of that.
He told me he’d wait. That he wouldn’t do anything until the moment felt right, until I knew, without question, that it was what I wanted. Because when he took me, he wouldn’t hold back. If I gave myself to him, it had to be with certainty. No second-guessing. No regret. If I wavered, if I changed my mind after, it would break him.
He’d leave.
And in that moment, I couldn’t promise him he wouldn’t have to.
So he just kissed me like he meant it and held me while I cried. In the chaos of everything I was, he became my anchor. And it was what I needed. Every day, I uncovered more of who I was, peeling back layersI’d never dared to look at before. I was strong, yes, but even strength needed rest. I needed somewhere I could lay down my fury and be cared for by someone else. If only for a moment.
Raithe promised he’d always be that for me. And for the first time, I was starting to believe him.
A new morning had come,soft and quiet. We were sitting in a glen, our feet dipped into the warm shallows of a pond as the world hushed around us.
“So, what now?” I murmured to him.
“What do you mean?” Raithe asked. His heart was still bared for me, though he had returned to his usual stoic state.
“Is this it? Is this what forever looks like?” I asked, swaying my feet through the water. “Do we just keep answering the cries of mortals, moving back and forth between their world and ours?”
Raithe let out a chuckle. “Are you bored already?”
I shrugged. “Not yet. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of striking bargains of Wrath, but maybe I will one day. Perhaps it’s the sliver of humanity left in me still talking.”
The pain of Caz had mostly faded, dulled to something distant, but the dreams he once painted for me still lingered. I wanted to read. I wanted to learn. I wanted to see. I’d lived my whole life in Brier Len. My time in Hyrall was spent trapped in a tower. And the single night I spent in Falhurst had only nudged me closer to my godhood.
Now, I craved something that was mine. A story of my own making. And the thought of Raithe walking beside me while I lived it didn’t feel so impossible anymore.
“Tell me,” Raithe prodded gently. He could tell I was holding something back.
I looked at him, then gestured around us. To the forest, to Torhiel. “Before all this, I knew I wanted more. I just didn’t know what that meant yet. But now, I’ve realized I was searching for so many things. Pieces of myself I didn’t know were missing. And then I learned I was a demigod. That restless part of me that was searching for answers, it’s quiet now. It’s content.”
I paused, my eyes falling to the pond. I skimmed a finger across the surface, watching the ripples scatter. “But not all of my longing disappeared when I came into my divinity. There are still things I want. I want to see the world. To experience more than just gods and pacts.”
I looked back at him. “Is it strange that I still feel that way?”
“No,” Raithe answered. “It’s not strange, maybe uncommon, but not strange. All of us, us halflings, we’re a blend of divine and mortal. Some lean more toward one, some toward the other. There are those who are content with this life, one bargain after the next, living by the rhythm of divine duty. But not everyone feels that way.”
