“Maybe it is Della herself that is causing it,” he suggested.
“There is no way she would be unless she knew who I was, and she doesn’t,” I was confident in that.
“You’re right. She would never fall from grace, even for you. Della is a favorite god for a reason.” Brim looked at me, studying. He gave me a small smirk. “I knew you wouldn’t follow through.”
“What?” I asked.
“I had a vision while you were hiding. I saw this conversation. You made this decision before the fire, but this is the first time you let yourself stick to it. Is it because you feel like you have a duty to your siblings?”
“No.” I closed my eyes tightly. “I hate my siblings. They can all stay in Hell for all I care. There is a large part of me that wants to avenge what the heavens, stars, and old gods did to my parents—more like what they did to my father. He lost everything because of my mother. I lost everything because of their punishment."
"Do you think Della will forgive you for not telling her the truth?" he asked.
"If she demanded it, I would spend every moment of the rest of my days worshipping the ground she walks on, just to show her that my love is limitless, reckless, eternal. These past few years revealed the truth: I never clawed my way out of Hell forrevenge—I did it to find her. Della is not just my purpose. She is my absolution. My undoing. My only salvation. And now, I have to fix what I broke, not just to save her, but to prove that even a man born of damnation can be worthy of a love like hers."
He nodded like he understood that. Brim stared at the fire for a long moment, smirking to himself.
“I think Della will forgive you for lying.”
I shook my head. “There is no way she would. I lied to her. I kept my identity a secret and I wanted to use her to break the curse. Besides, I have been nothing but an asshole for nine years.” I wished she could forgive me, but I couldn’t convince myself of that delusion.
“We will see.” He smiled softly.
“Did you have a vision of it?”
He nodded and relief filled me. "I am willing to work for her trust again, even if that takes a thousand years. She is all I want. I do not want her to hate me. I do not want to ever see her look at me like I destroyed her again. There is nothing I won’t do for her. I am completely in love with her. She has owned me since the first time she looked at me.”
“She knows you love her.”
Not after what the nice side of me said to her. My mind wandered to why Della’s future was still hidden from us. What was going to make her fall from grace?
“So you love Della enough to get over your vengeance on the heavens and old gods?” He asked after a long pause.
“Yes.”
“Good.” Brim smiled at me. “Your future has never changed in my visions, Haden.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I never saw you using Della or hurting her in any such way. I always sawthismoment, where your mind caught up to your heart and you allowed yourself to choose you andDella. You may have tried to convince yourself that you would use her when you needed to but you never truly believed that. I never saw it in my visions.”Brim turned toward me and watched me for a long moment.“It felt like fate when you two met one another,” he finally said.
“Yes.”
“I’ve known Della for a very long time, Haden. She is a smart woman–clever and cunning. It is why she has always been a favorite god. But make no mistake that when she sets her heart and mind on something she is willing to bend the world around her to get it. Maybeyouwere never the one who was betrayingher.”
My eyebrows pinched together. Brim watched me carefully, like he was waiting to see if I understood his cryptic message.
“Is there something else that you aren’t telling me?”
“I won’t tell you what I know, Haden. Sometimes knowing too much of your fate is a curse itself.”
“Please tell me if you know who made Della’s future disappear.”
Brim stood up and moved closer to me. His head tilted to the side as I pleaded silently for any sort of answer. Something like pity filled his eyes.
“I can’t,” he said, sighing. “But I can see that you are beating yourself up over this. So, I will give you a crumb.” This time he grabbed my shoulders and looked me in my eyes. “Della has never been the prey in this plan; she has always been the hunter.”
Chapter 6
