“The stars will be disappointed in you,” he said like I would change my mind.
I laughed, and it scared the fuck out of Mikel.
“The stars can go fuck themselves.”
He paled. We were not to curse the stars, but I was so fucking full of rage that I wanted to climb into the heavens and kill them.
“Ardella, you cannot say shit like that.” He frowned.
“Yes, actually I can. I will not serve the stars after everything they did to me.”
“To you!” he yelled, and I saw his grief and anger bubbling up. “What about me? What about the fact that they did not punish you for taking Remiah from me?”
He walked toward me.
“You might want to choose your next move very carefully, Mikel. I am very fucking angry, and I will hurt you if you come at me.”
He stopped and stared at me, concern flashing in his eyes again.
“Seriously, what is wrong with you?” he demanded. “You are not acting like yourself, and since when are you okay with breaking god’s laws?”
“You don’t need to do that, Mikel. You don’t need to pretend to care about me. I understand that you hate me, so don’t waste your breath trying to do what you think the heavens would want from you.”
“You’re my sister.”
“I haven’t been your sister since I killed Remiah,” I said truthfully. He stared at me, and I couldn’t even pretend to be feeling like myself. Something dark and pissed off beyond reason was inside of me, and I couldn’t control it.
Then I headed back to my room and sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the wall, trying to figure out what was going on inside of me. Then a rage so violent pulsed through me after I thought of the life that the heavens teased me with. But I fell in love with a God of Hell, and the heavens would never allow me to keep him.
Fuck the stars. I hated them. As I thought of it, I felt my arm burn as a new broken star seared into my skin. A new treason, and I didn’t fucking care. I looked around the room before deciding to go see Brim. I needed to make sure he wasn’t remembering too much. He would ruin my plans, and nothing would stop me from going through with it.
Chapter 8
Della
When I arrived at Brim’s home, I was instantly relaxed. Only Brim could make me feel this way. His eyes burned into me like he was scared, but not of me—for me. Would he admit what he knew to me? I would jump into his mind and scrub away whatever he learned. I needed to make sure that he wasn’t going to fuck up the plans we had made hundreds of years ago. We were getting close to the end.
I went and sat down in his chair without a word. Brim was staring at me oddly before he finally started rocking next to me. I zoned out on the fire, but it was because I could smell the hint of a frosty morning clinging to the air. Haden had been here very recently.
“Haden was here.” I finally broke the tension that was rolling off of Brim. He wasn’t sure how much I knew or what I wanted to discuss.It’s alright, Brim, you and I are on the same team even if you can’t remember.
“Yes, he left only an hour ago.” Brim watched me closely. I could see the concern in his eyes when my black gaze met his. “You are void.”
I ignored his observation.
“When did you figure out he was a God of Hell?” I asked Brim.
He stopped rocking and stared at me. I turned to him and watched his eyes burn with curiosity.
“You know?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Brim watched me closely, like I would transform into a beast. But I just watched him, letting him process what I had known about Haden for centuries. I also watched to see if this information sparked any of his old memories to come back, the ones I hid from him to keep him safe. What he asked me to do for him so the stars could not find him.
“How long have you known?”
“Since the first time I saw him,” I confessed. Which was longer than 500 years now.
