“Keep her safe.” He said to Solas as his shadows consumed him, pulling him into the darkness.
“We should let the boy’s mother say goodbye to him,” Solas said softly, gesturing to the cottage.
I ignored him, squeezing my eyes shut and placing the small boy on the ground in front of me. I was a fucking goddess; I would save this boy even if it killed me.
I imagined my well of power, the swirling pool of glittering turquoise in my chest. I pulled at it, urging it to my hands that pressed over the boy’s weak heart. I did not know if this was going to work. But he was dying, and I was willing to try anything. My hand turned warm and tingly as my power thrummed along it, sinking into the small lifeless body.
Nothing happened. Just the silent weight of a child slipping away and the hysteric wails of his mother who had opened the door.
“No,” I whispered, shaking. “No, no, no—come on.” The turquoise glow deepened, pulsing with streaks of shadowed black as I poured more power into him.
“Lyra,” Solas warned, voice soft and patient. “Goddess or not, if you force too much?—”
“Stay back!” I snapped, tears burning hot trails down my face. “Iwilldo this.”
My power surged again, hard enough to make my teeth grit together in effort.
The boy gasped. A shallow, fragile sound. Then another. Then another. His little chest hitched under my palms, and colour seeped back into his cheeks. He blinked up at me, eyes no longer hazel, but a clear crystal blue.
A sob burst out of me, half laugh, half relief, as I gathered him back into my arms. “There you are,” I whispered, “you’re safe.”
Solas knelt beside us, eyes wide with awe and something dangerously close to reverence. “Holy Gods,” hebreathed out as the boy’s mother fell to her knees next to me. I tried to pass her the boy, but she stared down at him with fear filled eyes, muttering something in the Fae language.
“Take him,” I said, but she snarled at me. Solas took the boy from my arms, speaking to the hysterical mother in their native tongue. I stood on shaky legs and began walking towards the feeling offear.
“Where are you going?” Solas called after me. I lifted my chin, breath shaking, but resolve like steel hardening beneath my ribs.
“To kill some fucking monsters.”
Forty
Goddess
The night air was too quiet. The town felt suspended, like a held breath waiting to be exhaled. Lanterns glowed above the narrow streets in golden strings, swaying gently as if the wind itself was trying not to be noticed. Their warm light flickered over shuttered windows, bolted doors, and abandoned baskets of half-sorted fruit left on stoops. A place built for joy, now suffocated by fear.
My power should have been empty, burnt out completely after forcing magic through my veins to pull the dying child back from the brink. But instead, magic thrummed quietly beneath my skin. Waiting and begging to be released. All because Iacceptedit. Iamthe goddess of the sea.
I stepped down the middle of the deserted street, my boots brushing over scattered petals that had fallen from the vines overhead. The vines themselves trembled as though sensing what lingered just beyond the veil of the visible.
The first note that left my mouth was soft and inviting.
The monsters wanted me, perhaps I could lure them in with my song.
A low, resonant melody left my lips, rippling through the street and weaving between the shuttered homes. My voice wasn’t sweet or gentle; it was asummoning.
Power threaded through the song, coiling in the air like fine strands of shimmering water. The street widened as I moved deeper into the town square. Shop fronts crowned with flowers lined the perimeter, and the centre fountain shone like a bowl of liquid moonlight. My melody echoed across its still surface, making the water quiver.
The air changed. The first pulse of pressure rippled across my skin like a hand pressing softly against my spine. The lights darkened, dimming until a coldness pressed into my skin.
It washere.
The magic in my song sharpened, shifting to a minor key, each note rising with purpose. The world around me grew dense, heavy, as if invisible walls were drawing inward. The cobblestones at the far edge of the square darkened, the lantern light bending as if swallowed.
I blinked and it was there. Thin and impossibly tall with gangly limbs ending in sharpened claws that dragged across the ground. It had no eyes. No mouth. Yet its face tilted towards me, drawn to my song. The fear it radiated struck like a knife of ice stabbing into my spine.
The melody threaded into the night air, curling around its unnatural form. Its head snapped to the side, bones cracking wetly. I blinked—and it had moved closer, another wave of crushing terror slamming into me.
I forced my voice louder and my magic surged, swirling beneath my ribs. I reached inside the monster’s body, pulling at its blood.
