Where my aunt lives. I can’t see her or the people of Morriganis being welcoming to me right now. “Why?”
“I will not give you all the answers. I see that telling you too much will skew the future. But you need an army—they’re the biggest city left for the Nexus.” She shrugs. “Maybe the answers you seek there are all you need to win this war. Then the world will bow, dear Goddess, to you.”
I don’t want a world bowing to me.
Finnegan shakes his head. “How could they possibly have five hundred thousand that they were hiding? Where? For years, our reports were that we’ve been running them into the ground.”
“Well, they were not telling you the truth.” She looks at me. “But I am. For my own release, I swear this to you, Goddess. You need the power to save your people, and you know what you must do. A hard, delicate choice, but it must be done. Maybe you should ask me a story of the past. There’s little I can tell you about the future anymore.”
“What story of the past?” I ask, gritting my teeth. I feel like she’s playing games with me now.
“I am aware you know the old legends of the five Gods that walked the earth, and what they were said to be, yes?” I nod to answer her. “But the Mortal God had a twin. There were six born, not five. The Morrigan was his twin, but she was cast out, forgotten by history, unwanted almost.”
It doesn’t surprise me that the Nexus lessons weren’t honest. “Why?”
“Many do not know. I’m sure there are old records that would tell us exactly why. But the Morrigan went to the Vian—some say she even created them—and became a Goddess to them. She helped them, and in the end, the Mortal God killed her.” She watches me closely. “Be careful fate doesn’t repeat itself. Gods are walking this world again, and they wish for you to be gone.” She stands. “They’re not done with this world or the games they like to play. You entered one… Do you think they just gave up on you?” She looks at the door. “It’s time for you to leave.”
I pick up the potion and drink half of it, and Finnegan drinks the rest. When I look back, the witch is gone.
Finnegan touches my chin. “You’ve always been a Goddess to me…but tell me about the Morrigan?”
I open my mouth to tell him some of it when I feel a tug in my chest, in my very soul. One of my mates is here.
I don’t know what to expect, but I rush outside with Finnegan behind me. Alek? Onyx? Severi? Did one of them finally find us? The smile drops from my face when I see Rhodes standing outside the tent.
Chapter
Three
Rhodes.
Commander Rhodes of the Vian Army.
My mate…who betrayed me.
He’s here, standing in front of me likenothing’schanged. Rhodes looks as heartbreakingly handsome as always, with the same smile I’ve grown to expect, the same kindness that I once fell for like a stone dropping into a lake. His green eyes are sharp and vivid, staring at me like we are still the same. The way he has always looked at me, right until he didn’t.
I never expected to stand in front of Rhodes and feel like he is a complete stranger to me. A stranger who shattered my heart into pieces and made no apology for it. Gods, if I thought it hurt before, it’s nothing compared to how much it hurts right now to see him. His scent carries on the wind to me, wrapping around my senses and making my betraying heart beat faster. He’s still my mate, and I wish somehow he weren’t. I wish the world ripped out the bond along with my heart that once beat hard for him. All the memories of us, all the things I thought I knew about him, trusted about him, are gone and tainted with lies. Now all that lies between us is just an empty, fractured shell of what our relationship was before.
Time seems like it freezes as he stands there, so still, so silent. A million emotions are shooting through his eyes, but I can barely breathe through my feelings. I’ve never broken like I did when he betrayed me. I’ve never screamed at the stars to change a single moment, but I did in Wales. I screamed, I cried, and I picked myself back up afterwards. I knew I’d have to face him at some point, but I’d hoped for more time. For me to be stronger and not to feel anything when I look at him.
“Give me a chance to explain.” His voice cuts through me. A voice I used to search for to make me feel better. Now I just remember him handing me to the Vian king. It makes me want to cry. Breakdown. Unravel.
My Nexus brushes across my mind. “I am here, and he will bow. He will suffer.” She burns as brightly as a dying star. “I will begin with cutting off his?—”
I cut her off before she finishes that train of thought. My hands are shaking, and Rhodes glances at them, his jaw tightening. “I won’t hurt you. You never have to be scared of me.”
Finnegan steps out beside me, pulling out a dagger marked for death. He points it at Rhodes. “No, she won’t, because you’re already dead.”
Before he gets another step, Rhodes lifts his hand and Finnegan at the same time. I reach for Finnegan, but Rhodes sends him straight back into the tent, smacking into the desk with a massive bang as it breaks into pieces. He tries to get up, but Rhodes’s power holds him down, even as he shifts into his bear and roars for the world to hear.
“Let him go, Rhodes,” I cooly reply, barely trusting my voice to be steady.
“He’s not dead, just angry, and I want to speak to you alone.” He clears his throat like he is nervous. He should be. “I never meant?—”
“Are you really beginning this with more lies? You never meant to what? Hurt me?” My laugh is hollow and fractured. “Oh, or is itkill me? Should I expect the Vian king to be around the corner with Georgina to finish the job? Did they send you, their little half-breed pet, to capture me?” I narrow my eyes. “This time you won’t find it so easy. You shocked me last time, Rhodes, but this time I see you for exactly what you are. I’ll kill you before you get a single chance to take me to them.”
“That was never, ever the point. I’ve never wanted you dead.” He shakes his head. “They aren’t here. Gwen…I’m sorry for what I had to do. It was the only way.”
