I looked to Calix to gauge his reaction, and he looked back at me, shaking his head slowly. He didn’t know they were real either, then.What the fuck?
“Yes, they were indeed,” Earendel confirmed with a nod and a sad smile. “When we first began to create, we all were…experimenting, let’s say.”
“The Elves, Dryads, Pixies, and Vampyres were all created then. All with different aspects of our own selves added to them. Eventually, we ended up creating a race in an entirely different way. One that was exactly what we’d been trying for and failing to accomplish with the others,” Erebus said in a heavy tone infused with regret.
“We had no problem with the other races continuing on despite perfecting what we were aiming for,” Earendel continued, and I felt vaguely insulted on behalf of the other races. “But the Vampyres were out of control. Their bloodlust was a scourge on the realms.”
“We were forced to banish them, for the safety of all. Cruach had grown just as bloodthirsty as his favorite creatures. He wanted to use the other races to continue feeding his Vampyres, making them the dominant race. And thus himself, the dominant god,” Erebus sneered, contempt flowing out of him just as his darkness did.
“We were forced to lock him away,” Asteria said, saddened but resolute. “Should he ever escape his prison, the realms would bleed, and chaos would reign forevermore.”
Fuck.
And here I thought Cyrus was the problem. Now, there’s a deranged and bloodthirsty god to deal with.
I felt a weird spike in the bond, and looked to Calix with a questioning look. His eyebrows were furrowed in thought, thoroughly distracted, so I grabbed his hand to bring his focus to me. His head turned to me, our eyes meeting, and the heavy look in his made my own brows crease.
“You’re talking about the Fae, aren’t you? The race you perfected. So if we have those same aspects you mentioned giving to the others…” Calix began, shifting his eyes to Erebus, but with a firm grip on my hand. “Does that mean the bloodlust…”
He trailed off, swallowing heavily as his eyes skittered away. The strangest feeling of…shame, ran through the bond.
“Ah.” Erebus smiled knowingly. “You’re worried your bloodlust in battle, and thedifferentkind of bloodlust you feel in bed with your mate are part of this same corruption that took the Vampyres.”
Knowing how Calix battled with this part of himself, I gripped his hand back hard for support as I realized what was bothering him. I wished I could soothe his mind myself. I knew without a doubt he was nothing like them.
“Do not fear, Calix,” Asteria said soothingly. “While you may get parts of it from Cruach, as all Fae do in this way, it is not corrupted, not like it was in the Vampyres. In fact,” she smirked, raising a brow, “The blood sharing between mates used to be a sacred act. It went out of favor after Cruach tried breaking free, as we were forced to starve him of his strength. But now, it is too important to hold off. The blood sharing between the two of you will strengthen the bond you share.”
“Strengthen us?” I asked, extremely curious at that little fact. I remembered quite fondly the drive to drink his blood that had seemed so natural during sex. Even if it was utterly bizarre in the aftermath, I had never felt anything sorighteither.
“Yes,” The goddess nodded in confirmation. “The two of you must share blood and complete the bond in this way to unlock your full potential.”
“What does that mean?” Calix jumped in, the crease in his brow betraying his concern. “I’ve never heard of mates sharing blood to complete the bond. Most mated couples?—”
“Are not you,” Erebus interrupted. “You twomustcomplete the bond. It will bevitalfor what is to come.”
Chapter Fifty
Calix
“Okay.”Asteria drew the word out, and I could feel how unsure she was. I was still shocked to find out an entire god was erased from our history. And despite their words of reassurance, I struggled to see what made us truly different from the Vampyres.
I’d heard the stories about them, of course. Where they’d run through villages, destroying every creature in their path, leaving nothing behind but desiccated bodies drained entirely of blood.
What about my bloodlust was different? I’d worried since the moment I realized that my bloodlust during battle extended to drinking Asteria’s blood, no matter how natural it felt in the moment. But I didn’t doubt the gods—could not.
If mates were always supposed to share blood, and we’d just lost that knowledge along the way, then that explained a great deal of my draw to her veins.
I wanted to lose myself in her entirely, blood and magic, and most especially, body. I would take any and every part of her I could.
With whatever was to come, we’d need whatever extra strength sharing blood could give us. I wouldn’t lose Asteria because of my own fears. I refused to let the monster inside of me hurt her, and I was determined to make sure she lived through this war if it was the last thing I did.
“It takes several blood-sharing sessions to cement the bonds between mates. You have one left to complete. You two must share blood when you return and cement the bond fully. Tie off the bow on the threads of fate that connect you. Then, andonly then, can you go fight this war. But beware, our children. Should Cyrus win, chaos will reign—as will Cruach.” Earendel said gravely, leaning forward on his throne as his eyes flared with light. “Every blood sacrifice Cyrus makes strengthens Cruach. It’s given him an opportunity to escape that he should never have gotten. Should he get out of his prison, the balance will never recover. Nor will your world.”
A dark chill went up my spine. Everything I’d been working toward was at risk. Should chaos reign, and this god escape, we’d lose everything,forever.
“Cyrus has been overtaken by chaos to such a degree, that he does not realize Cruach’s manipulations,” Erebus added, his gaze as dark as the rest of him. “Cruach has always been able to manipulate dreams, a gift he passed onto his creatures,” he sneered in disdain. “Cyrus’s delusions of grandeur are only hastened by Cruach’s touch.”
“His influence feeds Cyrus’s own rage and lust for power,” Asteria told us softly. “His own anger toward us is vast, if entirely misplaced. He has turned on us because his magic faded, which was a direct result of his own actions. Should the balance sway too far either way, the magic weakens in your realm. It was created in balance, and in that balance, it must continue. Or risk becoming something…other.”
