Treycore knew who she was referring to, and felt it would be cruel, considering her help, not to offer a truthful response. “He.”
She gazed at him, her lips curling upward. Treycore knew she was struggling to keep from frowning, so not to make an unpleasant face.
“Higherling? Fallen?”
Though he still wanted to be honest, he felt tension in his chest as he worried about her response.
“Mortal.”
Her eyes widened. She set the pot on the ground before her and rose. Spinning around, she faced the forest, likely to keep Treycore from seeing her reaction.
Her arms shook, trembled. She was as he had expected she would be.
“Mortal?” she said softly, her tone suggesting she had not heard him.
“Yes.”
She spun back around, facing him, her eyes glistening with tears, her chest rising and falling rapidly, surely as she attempted to control her temper. She started to speak, but stopped and as she turned back around, she knelt, curling into a ball and sobbing.
Treycore set the ferrants on the ground and approached her. He knelt beside her and rested his hand on her back, hoping to soothe her.
She whirled around and scratched at him, her nails digging into his cheek as she had done before.
He leapt to his feet and she sprung to hers, marching toward him and backing him up to the stream.
“You dare touch me with the filthy hands that grope and fondle a mortal?”
“Eilee, I never wanted to be with a mortal.”
Her eyes drifted about, paralleling the mental scanning that was surely going on as she sorted through this.
“What could—How?”
She took a breath.
“You had the most beautiful of the Almighty’s creations at your disposal, and you surrendered her for a fallen. I could accept that. Ihadto accept that, but at least it was one of His prides. At least it was a being he had worked hard to bring into existence. But a mortal? You choose a mortal over me?”
She slapped at him, but he seized her wrist.
“How dare you insult me!” she continued. “How dare you mock my being! Was having all that you desired so unbearable that you had to reject it to prove to the Almighty that you didn’t need His pampering?”
“This has nothing to do with the Almighty.”
“Then what does it have to do with? Are you saying you find this mortal more beautiful than me?”
He didn’t want to be honest. He knew honesty would only destroy her even more. And yet, he had to.
“Yes.”
Her demeanor shifted. She relaxed. Her anger seemed to have evaporated, though Treycore knew it was wise to maintain his distance.
“Really?” she asked with an expression that demanded he substantiate his affront to her.
“But not in any way you could understand. You remember when you spoke of me and my flaws, my imperfections… how those things somehow merged together made me something more beautiful than most. That’s how this mortal is. That feeling you get when you first fall in love… that unbearable ache that tells you without that person you don’t know how you’ll go on, it’s stronger with him than I’ve ever felt before… even with you… even with Vera.”
Translucent tears slid down her face, glistening liquid diamonds trailing down her snow-white flesh.
“Clearly, what advantages He provided to your physique, He neglected in your sight.”
