Aya let out a breathless sob, her head bowing over Evie’s lifeless body.
Evie had died, and now…
Now the realm would die, too.
Aya looked up at the sky, at the veil, which continued to sink toward the earth.
I have the power of the gods…
She pushed to her feet. Will was at her side instantly, his arm hooking around her waist as he held her back, as if he was terrified she’d get too close to the gods. Tyr and Akeeta flanked them, their ears pinned back as they stared at the gods.
“Please,” Aya rasped.
Slowly, Sage turned her attention to Aya. “You dare to speak to your goddess?”
But Sage…Sage was not her goddess.
Aya’s gaze settled on Saudra.
“Saudra. I beg you. Let me heal the veil.”
“Aya,” Will breathed in her ear.
“Impudent human,” Sage snarled, her finger flicking in Aya’s direction. Will dropped to his knees, a scream wrenching from him as he bowed over in pain. Aya crouched beside him, her hands searching frantically for some way to help. But Will just screamed and screamed.
Sage moved her attention to the wolves, and they, too, whimpered as she forced their backs to bend in a bow.
“Leave them, Sage,” Pathos commanded. “She weakened the demigod for you!”
Sage did not release them from her power.
“Leave him alone!” Aya begged, still searching desperately for a way to ease Will’s pain. Even her power was useless against this attack.
“You see how they make demands of us?” Sage asked. “Creating them was a mistake. This entire realm exists solely to hide your offspring and look what came of them.” She rounded on Pathos and Saudra. “You begged me to give them their second chance last time, but now…now I will make up for the mistake I made in helping you.”
Sage flung her hands toward the other two gods. And though knowledge was Sage’s most powerful affinity, it did not stop the earth from responding to her call. Vines burst from the ground and wrapped around Saudra and Pathos’s legs, anchoring them in place.
“You will watch as I destroy this tainted place,” Sage snarled. “And if you’re lucky, I’ll let you live to see the remains.”
Will had stopped screaming, but his body wasconvulsing, his eyes rolled back in his head as he twitched on the ground.
“Please,” Aya begged again, turning back to Sage. She crawled forward on her knees, Evie’s blood soaking through her leathers.
I have the power of the gods…
“Please, let me fix it. I can heal the veil; I can make it so you never have to think of us again.”
Sage’s eyes flicked to Aya, a bitter smile twisting her lips. “Oh, child,” she murmured in that deep voice that trembled the mountains. “Your power would not be enough.”
“No,” Aya said breathlessly as she pushed to her feet, her hand snatching the discarded dagger from the ground. “But yours would.”
Sage’s eyes went wide as Aya slammed the dagger into her chest, her scream devastating as it burst from her. Aya held tight to the goddess’s shoulder, her hand aching as it held the dagger in place.
She thrust her power into Sage at the same moment that she reached for one of those tatters of the veil. And then she pulled, bridging the two, a conduit between the goddess and the gods-made barrier.
A weapon, and its wielder.
***
