The runes ignite in acknowledgement as the revelation sits in our guts. “Why didn’t you want us to know?” I demand.
Natia grits her teeth. “Zeus has to believe it will control me or we don’t stand a chance of stopping this war on the boundaries of Hell.”
“What are you planning?” I ask.
She swings her gaze to me. “I don’t want to talk about it now.”
I furrow my brow. Something deep in my gut is warning me I am not going to like this plan.
“Thousands of years ago,” Nathan draws our attention to him. “I foresaw Natia and Archan’s relationship. The fates echoed my knowledge that this war would hang on your union—it still does. This war is a unique and significant branch in the timeline. It affects all the dimensions—what happens here decides the destiny of the universe. The distinction is too great for both worlds to exist. So it is impossible to see beyond it, even for the fates.”
The runes ignite, illuminating everyone’s shocked gaze. Natia’s hand tightens around mine. He’s never once hinted that our relationship affected the outcome.
“Well, that’s a hard act to follow,” Jed says as he puffs out a huge breath. “I have manipulated people in the past; leaders of societies, rulers of countries, kings and queens. But, I have never forgiven myself for nudging a well-known, but elusive serial killer. He was a lost soul in the depths of London who needed love. He was weighed down by shackles of guilt that prevented him from living a full life and finding meaningful relationships. I thought that by unburdening his soul, I was giving him the tools to find that love. What I did was to enable him to commit murder without remorse to fulfill that hole.” He shakes his head. “After that, I vowed to never alter people’s emotions again. I would only ever offer comfort to friends who needed it.”
“You didn’t commit the murders yourself, brother,” I tell him. “He took your gift and twisted it to fulfill his own sick and twisted fantasies.”
“He terrorized the streets and murdered women,” he mutters whilst staring at the parched ground with a blank look. The magic eats his truth. “Your turn.”
“I have soul bonded with Natia in the way of the old gods,” I state. “If either of us takes another lover, then that lover will forfeit their lives. I will feed her my immortality to ensure she can remain at my side. If I die, she will also, although her death will only weaken me. But the truth is,” I suck in a breath, “the truth is … if she is taken from this world before me, I would be a nightmare unleashed on the universe. I teetered on the verge of it when I lost her once. Now I would murder civilizations in a rage that would transform the world. So I have put in place a failsafe. If Natia dies, I will receive the true death.”
“Kay signed off on this?” Zac asks with wide eyes as the runes glow with the power of my truth.
I nod. “He did.”
I can feel her stare boring into the side of my head. “People lose their loved ones all the time,” she whispers. “Why would you do this?”
I turn to face her. “Lifetimes have passed and never have I found someone to share my soul with. Without you, I would be a menace to the universe. I would poke and prod it with malevolence until it retaliated. This way is simpler, no one gets hurt.”
“Do us all a favor and don’t die anytime soon,” Zac pleads.
Natia searches my eyes for the truth, the heavy weight of it boring into our souls. I didn’t want to tell her, because it’s hard enough bearing the weight of your own life.
“Your turn,” I say, bracing myself for impact. For the plan she is hiding to spill from her lips.
Her gaze shoots to the floor. “I died,” she says. “Kay gave me a choice. I could remember the life I had lived, the people I had left behind—or he could make me forget. I could live unburdened by the weight of mankind’s sins and be happy with my Gran, eating apple pie and singing to the winds that whispered peace to my soul. I let you go. All of you. But nightmares plagued me. You had burrowed too deep in my mind to be fully wiped. Then when Kay returned to me, he showed me how you mourned, how you were falling apart whilst our enemies pushed forward. He gave me another choice, to be reborn as a goddess or to stay in Heaven. With rebirth comes immortality, but if I am killed, I don’t return to heaven—I will never see my Gran or feel that peace again.”
Everything inside me tenses as I contemplate what she has given up to return to us.
“I faltered,” she continues. “Just for a second, I wanted to be selfish and remain in Heaven. I was exhausted and didn’t have the fight in me.”
“Locks, that’s understandable,” Duncan mumbles.
She shakes her head. “That’s not all. When I knew what this Adam’s curse did, when I understood it would return me to being mortal, my heart leapt for joy, knowing when I died again I would be returned to Heaven.”
She looks at me, her eyes wet with tears. “Archan, I love you, but I don’t know if I am ready for forever. I want no other, but to live an eternity is mind-boggling. It’s not how I was brought up, how I lived. A human’s power is rooted in mortality; we live our lives to the full knowing there is an expiration date, an end point. I can kiss you like I’d go to war for you because of that mortality. Without it I worry that this isn’t sustainable; that you will resent the mortal hanging onto your coattails while you continue to swell in power and outgrow me. You will tire of my fragility. You deserve someone strong who can stand tall at your side.”
“I will never outgrow you, Natia. I could never tire of your smart mouth or your vulnerability. That which you see as weakness is, in fact, your greatest strength. You are not only at my side, but you stand taller than me. You rise above that which makes lesser men and gods falter. Our souls recognize the other as being our match. One day soon I will tell you the story of soul mates and all of these fears will be put to rest. I don’t blame you for wanting peace, for being torn between us and your afterlife. You deserve peace and everything good this world has to offer, and I plan on being the one to deliver it to your feet. You are my queen.”
The circle hums in acceptance as her stormy eyes digest my declaration. I would lay waste to the world for this woman. She needs to recognize her own strength and value and be the queen she is destined to be. The one we need. The one I will worship.
36
Chapter Thirty Six
Natia
Taurus: Follow me onto the battlefield and watch me decimate our enemies, then afterwards we can have takeout and lounge in our pajamas.
