“So maybe it didn’t actually happen that way?” Eleni suggested carefully.
I shook my head. “We’ve had many arguments about it. Mother never denied anything when I asked specific questions about my sire tricking her. But every wrong assumption, she denied. Like me, my mother never lies. For me—as is the case for any doppelganger—it is genetically impossible for us. For her, I can’t say if it’s the same. I just know that if she cannot—or doesn’t want to—give an honest answer, she will just deflect,dance around, or flat out say she will not speak of it. But she won’t lie. So by deduction, this general accounting of the event is accurate.
“To be fair, it is understandable that she might not want to talk about it,” Eleni said gently. “It must have been a dramatic experience for her, and one she doesn’t want to think about. But what of her beloved?”
“He never blamed her,” I replied firmly. “Of that, I am grateful. However, as far as I know, they never coupled again.”
Eleni frowned. “So hedidblame her or at least resented that she was with another.”
I shook my head and repressed a snort. My mother had hundreds of children, most with different fathers—which wasn’t uncommon among the Gods and Ancients like she was. Azrael had hundreds—if not thousands—of offspring. They didn’t care about such things.
“Not at all. As I understand it, she was the one who refused him. A part of me thinks that it is indeed trauma. Being with him would undoubtedly remind her of my sire and ruin the moment.”
“Fuck!” Eleni whispered, with horrified understanding.
“She loves him deeply, and he adores her. But I don’t know if they can ever be together again. Maybe one day,” I said with a sad smile. “After all, time isn’t an issue for them.”
Eleni stared at me with an unreadable expression for a few seconds that nearly had me squirming in my seat.
“What happened isn’t your fault, Lyall,” she said softly.
That comment struck a nerve, and I visibly flinched before regaining my composure. “I didn’t say that,” I replied a bit too defensively.
“You may not have said it, but it doesn’t take a mind reader to see that you think it,” she countered gently.
My shoulders slouched, and I bowed my head in defeat. Obviously, my head understood this, but my heart couldn’t let it go.
“You had zero control over what happened.Hewas the monster and appropriately paid for his crime,” Eleni said forcefully. “Surely your mother doesn’t blame you for it, right?”
I shook my head firmly. “No, she doesn’t and has stated it many times.
“See?! You’re a demigod. That means that your parents also are or maybe even higher in the divine hierarchy. If your mother blamed you, she would have taken revenge and found a way to eliminate you. After all, the pledge your sire extracted was only about getting you to term. After that, your fate became fair game. And yet, here you are. So she didn’t want to harm you.”
I snorted and studied her face with a hint of amusement.
“You sound just like my mother,” I said teasingly.
“She said that?” Eleni asked with curiosity.
I nodded. “She stated that if she wanted me gone, I would have been wiped out from both realms of existence a long time ago. In fact, she sent me to you.”
This time, Eleni recoiled, the fork she was lifting to her mouth pausing midway as she stared at me.
“She did?!”
I nodded again. “She told me to go pick flowers I absolutely knew she didn’t need by the crematorium on the specific day and around the time that you went to rescue the clerics.”
Eleni gaped at me, robbed of words.
“Who in the world is your mother?!” she asked, stunned.
I smiled. “You’ll find out in due time.”
The irony of using that sentence my mother far too often triggered me with almost had me snorting again. It was all the more amusing looking at my woman making the same annoyed face I undoubtedly made every time I got that answer.
“Fine,” Eleni muttered begrudgingly. “Whatever her reason for sending you there that day, I’m glad she did.”
“So am I, my mate.”
