I breathe in her hatred, letting the sweet taste flood my senses. “The onlypoor, pitifulgodI see here is you. Forever taking orders from Nobus like the bitch you are. The only way you’ll ever see the Under Realm is when my magic ends your eternal life.”
“Careful, brother.” Drayca spits, clearing the bitter taste of the title from her mouth. “Wouldn’t want your little doll to hear you speak like that.”
Shadows fly up around me, concealing us both from view. My hands find her shoulders and I shove her around the corner and against the stone wall. My forearm presses to her throat in threat. “I don’t have a doll and I can speak however the fuck I want. You seem to have forgotten that I am the only one with power great enough to kill a god. Don’t provoke me.”
“You can lie to yourself all you want, but we both know Light has had a hold over you since the first time you left your tower.”
“Dungeon,” I correct. “And I paid the price dearly for that escape…or do you forget how she allowed you to cast the final blow?”
“I remember that you didn’t come out for a month. Is that why you’re still so drawn to the light? Because we deprived you of it?”
A sinister smile pulls at the goddess’ lips as she recounts her version of events. To her, I cowered in the darkness, but in truth, it was the first time I traveled to the Under Realm. The day I made the decision that ensured my role as king, forever alone and forever tied to its rules.
My arm drops but I don’t step out of Drayca’s space. “One day you will cower in the presence of my power. You will pay for your sins with your blood…and I will bathe in it.”
A guttural growl vibrates in her chest. “The rules have changed, Dark One, and soon you will find out just how wrong you are.”
“Rules?” I chuckle mockingly. “I play by no rules but my own.”
Smoke and shadow fill the air between us, the dark magic encasing me as I prepare to disappear. “Tell your master that I will arrive in his chambers when I’m ready.”
The sound of steel clanging against stone echoes in the hallway. Without my shadows to muffle the sound of my sister’s tantrum, the jarring noise of the axe striking the wall startles the goddess perched casually in the nearby window. Selene stashes the book under the pillows and hurries off with the empty fruit bowl.
I shouldn’t pry, but I cannot help myself. Invisible to all, I snatch the book that she held so dearly, slipping it into the space between realms and sending it straight to my study in the Under Realm.
If I cannot have her—body, mind, or soul—I will relish in the things and words that have touched her.
CHAPTER 3
SELENE
“He makes a valid argument, Lyra!”
“Valid or not, it’s still dangerous, Nina!”
“Do I want to know where you two are going?” My sisters round the corner of the God King’s palace and nearly run headfirst into me. Startled, the color drains from their faces, a stark contrast to the vivid blue and red of their dresses.
“Selene!” Nina clutches her chest, sparks flying from her fingertips as she tries to steady her racing heart and regain control of her power. “You shouldn’t lurk in hallways!”
“I wasn’t lurking, I was walking. And it’s you who should be paying attention when you walk Nobus’ halls. Can you imagine if he had stumbled upon you instead of me?”
“Iwasn’t doing anything wrong,” Lyra says, her signature smirk pulling up the corner of her lip as she passes me the incriminating paper she holds. “I was simply protecting my sister from making what’s sure to be a terrible mistake.”
“Somehow I don’t quite think Nobus would distinguish between the two.”
Those words ring true as I examine the paper. The whisper of abrewing rebellion circulates through the Golden Pantheon, and a time scrawled in the Wolf God’s handwriting is proof enough to have both of my sisters exiled.
A fiery spark of a woman, the Goddess of Flame always seems to find herself dangerously close to igniting the darkest desires of those in her company. Mikais is the latest in a long list of the God King’s advisors she’s become entangled with.
A handler-less operative, she once called herself. Something she picked up from a book she found in one of the countless mortal realms. Nina has spent years whispering in the ears of powerful gods, collecting their secrets and swaying their opinions until she found herself in cahoots with the most ambitious one of all: the Wolf God.
Mikais may be the face of this soon-to-be rebellion, but Nina is his strategist. And if she gets her way, Lyra will be the one singing the battle cry when the war begins.
“Nina—”
My sister holds up her hand, cutting me off.“Don’t start with me, Selene.”
“Unless you want to finally admit your terrible taste in males, too, of course,” Lyra adds. Her eyes sparkle as she speaks, the cadence of her voice slipping into the sing-songy tone she uses to lure mortals to do her bidding—a tone that has no effect on me.
