“No one else was there with you?” Diath asked.
“No.” He looked at me for a moment, and I held my breath to see if a flicker of recognition came to his eyes. It didn’t. I sighed softly. If he would have remembered, I would have ripped every memory from him in a flash. It took me hundreds of years to put this plan in place. Everything had been carefully calculated. Every meeting with the stars was with intention.
None of them suspected that I had known of their plans and destroyed them. Well, until I killed the Gods of Hell for good, but even now they couldn’t prove I was up to anything. After all, I had been here with them for a month—I couldn’t leave. My gaze met Diath’s from across the room. She was the only one that I worried about.
I looked back to Avesh as he talked about Haden’s name not being on the dead gods list. I had tried so fucking hard to forge his name in the book, but it would not stay. The Book of the Gods does not lie.
Avesh was freaking the fuck out more than he had in my vision, but other than that, everything was going according to how I saw it. The only problem was that I did not see everything that happened, only pieces.
“You did this,” Abarra suddenly accused me.
Malamay looked at me and frowned.
“How the fuck would I have done this? I don’t even understand what Avesh is losing his mind about. Because a book does not list Haden as a dead god?”
“It means—” She was cut off by Diath.
“Enough, Abarra.”
I knew what it meant. It meant Haden never died; I had made sure of that.
“Thank you, Avesh; you have been helpful. We will look into this matter and let you know if your assistance is needed any further.” Malamay dismissed him.
Avesh looked at me once more, like he had a feeling about me, but he said nothing as he left. I looked at Malamay while the rest of them stared at me. This was a pivotal moment. I knew they would suspect me because I loved Haden. But ultimately, Malamay would decide my fate, and I had spent years making sure I was his favorite goddess.
Malamay stood up and walked to where I was sitting. “Did you do something without the stars knowing, Della?”
I looked up at him, confused.
“What would I have done? I still don’t understand what is wrong.”
“She’s fucking lying,” Abarra hissed.
I turned to her and smiled. “Maybe beating your ass once didn’t teach you to shut the fuck up.” I stood up. “I will gladly do it again if you need a reminder to mind your own fucking business.”
She swallowed and looked away from me to Diath. I saw them exchange a glance, like there was an unspoken conversation between them. They didn’t believe me. I looked at Malamay and frowned.
“Whatever the problem is with the book isn’t my doing.”
Malamay’s stormy eyes narrowed on me before he sighed. “We will go see Haden and figure out where the fuck he was for nearly three hundred years, since clearly he wasn’t dead.”
The other stars agreed, and we all stood up. We pulled our cloaks on, which was what we needed to get to and from thestars. Someone or something had enchanted them. That is how the stars left when they shouldn’t have been able to. I noticed, though, that Malamay was watching me with a cautious curiosity in his eyes. Before I could give it another thought, we began falling toward Elloryon.
I’m sure everyone below us wondered why the heavens looked like they were raining down upon them. A move like this hadn’t happened in hundreds of years. All of us streamed down to the ground like shooting stars. But we were not the kind of stars used to make wishes on. No, these stars were made of sin and treason. They made sure wishes did not get answered if they messed with their power.
We landed on the ground, and I stared at mine and Haden’s home in longing. I knew Haden wasn’t in there. He was hidden safely in Brim’s impenetrable home.
“Haden Vale, you are being summoned by the stars to get out here and answer questions.” Malamay’s voice drifted with authority, but no noise came from the home. None of us had our hoods on, meaning they were all staring at me to watch my reaction.
“Get out here now!” His voice shook the ground.
Again, nothing happened.
“Search the house,” he demanded, and we all stepped forward, but he grabbed my wrist and tugged me back to him. “You’ll wait here, Della.”
I looked at him. “Why is everyone treating me like I did something wrong? I have been stuck with you for a month.”
“You have the most motivation to mess with fate. You’ve done it before.”
