“Help me.”
“I don’t want to die!”
“I hate you!”
“What happened to the gods?”
All I can do is listen to their cries, their pleas. Watch the blood run down the walls, the bodies rot. There’s nothing I can do.
I close my eyes, willing myself not to see.
I killed her.
I’ve searched the worlds to find her, and it was my fault she’s gone.
I descend into madness willingly.
Four Hundred Years after the Night of Falling Stars
“It’s been four hundred years; are you really not going to talk?”
The Beta Goddess is wearing a woman in her early twenties with dark hair and hazel eyes.
I lift my lips and snarl, and despite her ironclad control, she can’t mitigate human instincts, and the body jumps back, almost falling from the rock.
“Fine,” she snaps, stamping a tiny foot. “I brought you a present.”
A line of people are brought in. I can sense their designations right away. The strength of alpha is in the two men and the boy who is on the cusp of turning. The young woman clinging to the older woman are both omegas, one’s scent is strong and tart, while the other’s is a fading wisp.
“Start,” the goddess says with a flippant smile.
A black-robed beta pulls a gold knife out and slides it across the throat of the oldest man.
He gurgles as a spray of red blood mists the air. I clamp my teeth together to silence the growls, but I can’t hide the way my body is shaking.
He drops to his knees, dead.
The second is quicker. The third is the young man, and he lifts his chin, and even though it trembles, he’s braver by far than anyone I’ve ever seen.
The old woman is ripped from her granddaughter. They are cruel, sawing into her throat, the cuts shallow and needing to be done multiple times.
Her granddaughter screams, but the Beta Goddess just stands on the rock, watching and laughing.
“They’ll come back,” the omega hisses.
The Goddess stops laughing. “What?” She leans over the rock, staring with fascination at the rebellious omega.
“They’ll be back. One day, when you think you’ve won, when I’m just dust, they’ll come back and beat you.”
I focus on the young omega, seeing a shine in her eyes, something that I’d missed.
“Renounce yourself. Let these people go. The gods will have mercy on you.”
“The gods are dead,” the Beta Goddess says and puts a hand on her hips. “I made sure of that.”
“They live still, waiting for the right moment.”
“It will never come. When I’m done with this world, there will be no such thing as an omega or alpha.” The Goddess is irritated, her lips twitching as she glares.
