“But that had to be centuries ago. Are you that old? Wait, only your husband survived? What about you? And what sons? I thought you only had Vero?”
“I have a husband and twin sons in the Faerie Realm. And yes, Arach was the only Dragon-Sidhe who survived the slaughter. I died, though I wasn't killed as a dragon. I'm talking about another life.”
“Reincarnation?” Austin gaped at me. “Reincarnation is real? And you have another family? Sweet Jesus, Vervain.”
“We are allonefamily, we just live in different realms. And yes, reincarnation is real, but so are the afterlives that gods offer.” I waved it away. “Don't get hung up on that now. Let's get through the faerie thing first. In my last life, my mother cast a spell on me to make me human and hide me from dragon hunters. Unfortunately, she was murdered before she could remove the spell. It's a long story, involving things I don't want to get into, so to sum it up: I was reborn into a human body, then altered by god magic and faerie essence. The result is that I'm human, god, and faerie.”
I didn't get into the one hundred percent thing with him. That stuff still blew my mind, I didn't think Austin was ready for it.
“How did you become the star goddess thingy you said nearly ruled the world?”
“The Dark Star,” I supplied the name.
“No. I mean, you told me about that all-powerful star inside you going bad, but how did you get that star, in the first place? Were you reincarnated with it?”
“No, I wasn't born with it. The Trinity Star is a collection of my magic, races, and beasts; I have three types of each. As I gathered them, they formed triangles and when there were three complete triangles, they fused into a nine-pointed star: the Trinity Star. Thus the sparkle hair.” I flicked the lock of starlight in my dark hair. “Technically it's all-powerful but it only helps me when it wants to.”
“Right, because it's good now.”
“BecauseI'mgood now.” I winked at him.
“And I think I'm good with that. Any more and I'll feel dumb enough to screw up an anvil.”
“O-o-kay,” I drew out the word.
“But could you just clear up the Snow White thing?” Austin asked. “She was evil?”
“A sadist.” I nodded sadly. “The evil queen in the human story was actually a faerie—Cora the Kindhearted. She saved the kingdom from their vicious princess and she did mercifully. Cora was advised to publicly torture Snow White to death but instead, she made it quick, out of love for Snow White's father.”
“Snow White was that bad?”
“She kept servants in her room to torture when the urge struck her.” I grimaced. “I know; it was hard for me to grasp too.”
“Not cursed, just evil,” Austin murmured. “Don't that just burn your britches?”
“Cursed,” Odin muttered. “I think that story about not looking back involved a curse too.”
“There are a lot of stories about not looking back,” I said gently. “That's what happened with Kirill, remember?”
“Right. You couldn't look back after leaving the lake,” Odin said to Kirill.”
“Ve veren't supposed to look back after ritual at lake,” Kirill clarified. “Ve burned, zen drowned effigy and couldn't touch it once in river. Zen ve had to valk away and not look back or fall on vay home. If ve did, Marzana vould have us.”
“She would have you.” Odin nodded. “Yes, just as these snakes had the men who turned around to look at them. Humans must like the way that sounds—only those who turn around can be taken.”
“You're blaming the humans?” Austin asked in surprise.
“Humans created the myths,” Odin explained. “We are the ones who must abide by them in exchange for the offerings we receive.”
“Like that whole thing about what we hold true on Earth shall be held true in Heaven?”
“Sort of,” Azrael stepped in. “The original translation of that verse is 'whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven.' I think that's closer to the truth. Humans make the stories and we are bound by them.”
“And those stories tend to have common themes,” I added. “Like this whole not looking back thing.”
“Like Lot's wife,” Austin offered.
Odin frowned at him.
