Ash’s smile grew, unchecked.
It was at that moment Keir appeared, tall and unnervingly lean, hovering over them like a shadow with a grin that suggested mischief rather than menace. His gaunt frame gave him a sickly air, but Ash knew better, knew that beneath that frail form was a god of fearsome power.
‘Start explaining yourself!’ Adriana snapped.
Keir raised a hand and pointed. ‘Why are you being so cruel to him?’
‘Don’t you dare take his side, Keir.’
‘Can’t he breathe for a moment?’
‘Do you want to sleep outside tonight?’
Keir opened his mouth to respond, then thought better of it. His gaze flicked to Ash, apologetic. ‘Sorry. You’re on your own.’ And with that, he turned and hurried off, calling over his shoulder for Cronan to follow as he fled the wrath of his wife.
Ash watched their figures retreat across the fields, the corners of his lips still curved in quiet amusement.
‘The bodies never quite take to Keir,’ Adriana explained, her fingers brushing soil from the roots of a half-harvested crop. ‘We inhabited these forms when they were still children. Easier back then. But now…’ Her voice faltered, and the irrepressible brightness in her expression dimmed into sorrow. ‘Each year that passes… the older he grows, the more the body begins to fail.’ She offered a small, helpless shrug. ‘I know I shouldn’t let it get to me. If this one dies, he can simply take another. But… we’ve tried, truly tried, to live these mortal lives. To walk among them, to be them. And the mortals who once lived in these bodies… they gave them up willingly, for us. And now…’
‘Keir c-cannot remain much longer,’ Ash said gently, his voice laced with quiet certainty. ‘He’s too powerful.’
Adriana nodded, and tears slipped silently down her cheeks, leaving pale streaks across skin already smudged with dirt. ‘No. He cannot. It won’t be long before the vessel crumbles entirely. And when that day comes… we’ll have to leave.’
Ash tilted his head. ‘Why do you not wish to be… gods?’
She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand, only for earth to take the place of tears. ‘Because gods are wretchedthings, Ash Acheron. Every last one of them. Keir and I… we were vile once, too. But we swore we would change. And we have. But if we go back, if we return to the realms where power is all that matters…I’m frightened we’ll become monsters again.’
‘You won’t,’ he said softly.
‘And how can you be so sure?’
Ash shrugged. ‘Being a god doesn’t make you a monster, Adriana. Being a m-monster is s-something you choose. So… you can simply choose not to be one.’
Her lips curved faintly. A sad, tender sort of smile. ‘I suppose you’re right.’
Ash dug his hands into the earth once more, tugging a cluster of vegetables free. He laid them gently in a basket beside him, their roots still damp with soil. This patch of land wasn’t as rich as the one they’d discovered further on, so the crops would be moved, reborn in kinder earth.
‘Do good,’ he said quietly, ‘and you will be good.’
Ash glanced across the open field, watching the wyverians and wolverians moving in tandem like cogs in a well-worn wheel. Unity pulsed through the camp with quiet pride. A group of wolverians returned from the hunt, laughter echoing as they triumphantly displayed the rabbits they'd caught, their joy a brief reprieve from war and ruin.
‘Hagan’s mother was once a lady of the court,’ Ash began, his voice barely above a murmur, soft enough to make Adriana pause her work and glance back at him. ‘He was raised within the ca-castle walls, alongside me, b-because of her. She was b-beloved by many, a po-popular court lady and a dear friend to my mother, the q-queen. But I dis-discovered what she truly was.’
Adriana stilled, her expression shifting.
‘She was a witch,’ Ash continued, his voice hollow. ‘Using gla-glamour to h-hide what she was. At first, I couldn’t b-bring myself to believe it. And I was angry. I con-confronted her. Threatened her. Told her to leave c-court, to leave him, and ne-never come back.’ He stared down at his hands, earth-streaked and trembling, as though ashamed to meet Hagan’s eyes in memory. ‘I thought I was pro-protecting him. I truly b-believed I was d-doing what was right. I n-never imagined she would… end her l-life.’
Adriana’s eyes widened, breath catching in her throat. ‘So… you knew? You knew Hagan was half-warlock?’
Ash let out a long, weary sigh, then nodded slowly.
‘You knew all along,’ she whispered, stunned. ‘And did he? Did he know you knew?’
Ash shook his head. ‘No. But… I b-believe he always suspected it was me. That I was the one who had spoken to his mo-mother. That I had f-forced her to g-go. He n-never knew the truth, that I had dis-discovered her s-secret. Only that the p-prince had d-driven her away.’
Adriana stared at him, bewildered. ‘But why, Ash? Why let him stay? You could have sent him away too. You knew what he was. And yet you kept him by your side.’
Tears welled in Ash’s eyes before he could stop them. His hands trembled harder now, unable to conceal the raw ache clawing its way to the surface.
