“Love is a fool’s game.” Mother turned away from her. “Your father played it well. Though it seemed to kill him in the end.”
Marina’s brain couldn’t make sense of her mother’s truth; all this time, the devotion Marina clung to was never a mutual bond between them. Everything she’d done, all the unforgivable acts—her violence to Naia, her coldness to Finnian, her animosity toward Father—repulsed her.
“You will get the blood from your brother and kill that wench in my kingdom.”
Marina blinked at her, pushing tears down her cheeks.
I am the fool.
“Then you will bring Naia’s child to me.”
The mention of the demigod tore through Marina’s shock, and a furious resolution took its place.
Marina gritted her teeth against the enraged stride of her pulse echoing in her ears. She wiped away her tears and straightened her shoulders. “No.”
Mother snapped her head around. “Excuse me?”
“Tell me, Mother, as a goddess with nothing more than her pride, do you not see how powerless you have become?” Marina gave her mother a scornful once-over, unimpressed. “You are in this cage because of the decisions thatyoumade. Perhaps it is time to learn from your mistakes.” Marina’s vision bled red, her cheeks kindling.
Mother glared at her.
Keep going.
“Consider this while you are trapped in the walls of a prison you crafted for your enemies: I will no longer do as you say, for I no longer care if I am in possession of your love. That lonely child you took advantage of died with her father.”
Marina finally understood. Love was never enough. And she no longer wanted it. Whatever version Mother gave, or Father, in the end, it did not make a difference.Shehad never been enough for either of them.
Mother’s mouth opened, her brow clenched, but her words sputtered out like a dying motor.
Her body violently jerked, and she collapsed, falling sideways onto the floor. A fit of garbled choking sounds shook out of her.
The hex.
Marina’s throat tightened.
For a second, a part of her stupidly considered her mother’s request. It was amazing, given the confession she’d just made about sending the gods to assault Marina. Yet, despite that, the small part of her that loved Mother was willing to overlook that, to do anything to save her.
There is nothing more I can do for her.
Without the expense of losing even more of herself.
I have to let her go.
Unable to take the horrible sight of her mother convulsing on the floor, Marina swung around and stormed down the corridor. Her eyes flooded, and she blinked to rid the blur.
Waves of darkness crested around her backside, the tide carrying her to Tenebris, to the walls of her home.
Was all love so fragile?
Marina collapsed on the plush carpet of her living room and folded in on herself, pushing her palms against her mouth to catch her sobs.
For the first time in her life, Marina felt aged. No longer would she be a child looking up at her mother, but a goddess unable to recognize the husk of another who gave her breath and a beating heart.
Marina believed love to be a boundless thread within the cosmos. A constellation, never wavering. The one thing that could span past existence itself.
But perhaps, her infinite Night blotted out the stars. Maybe it never held room for them at all.
10
