The ancient god layered primal magic upon me, stacking and stacking it, burying me alive in its suffocating wrathful punishment.
Vengeance. Power. Death.
I was seconds away from crossing to the afterlife, and I could do nothing to stop him. My magic was immense, but it would never rival a true god’s.
Punish. Punish. I shall punish you, female.
It suddenly struck me who had likely died here. Diredan, the God of Vengeance, was rumored to have once walked this land. But the ancient tomes said that he’d faded away, having not returned to the stars in time to reclaim his godly place. Buthe hadn’t. He’d gone into hibernation here. A land he had apparently never left.
I curled inward, wishing so desperately that I could have told my aunt, uncle, and Ree goodbye, told them that I loved them, and apologized for leaving them when they needed me most. But I couldn’t. My magic wasn’t working. I couldn’t even connect mentally one last time with them to tell them a fleeting goodbye. Worst of all, they would never know what became of me.
But just as I was about to succumb to Diredan’s vengeance, a memory tingled in the back of my mind.
My studies. The texts I’d read. Who the God of Vengeance had once been mated to.
I sucked in a lungful of air, hoping against hope.
Hands shaking, I uncurled my fingers to reveal the lock of golden hair and beseeched the God of Vengeance.
“Please! Please hear my call, God Diredan!” I begged. “Even if you won’t allow me to take the Stone, please at least let me live so my family doesn’t die wondering what happened to me! I beg of you!”
I fought against his power with everything I had and held the lock of Goddess Nuleef’s hair above my head. I didn’t know if the hair was genuine, but the feeling of being squashed into oblivion abruptly halted.
The pressure lifted, just enough that I could suck in another breath.
But that terrible, awful presence hissed into my thoughts again,What do you have there?
My hand still shook, and it took me a moment to understand what Diredan was asking. I released my death grip on the hair. Darkness still loomed around me. Utter blackness. It was as if my soul had been suspended in nothingness.
Yet I could still speak. Stillfeel. “A gift. For you,” I said haltingly. “I have a lock of Goddess Nuleef’s hair. Please, it’s yours. Just please grant me safe passage in return. I beg of you.”
Everything stopped.
Time stilled.
The feel of impending death and that horrible pressure lifted even more.
Her hair? You have her hair?
“Yes.” I opened my palm completely, my fingers shaking so violently that I nearly dropped it into the void.
A brush of wind stroked the hair. Tears fell in rivers down my cheeks. I hadn’t even realized I was crying.
The goddess’s hair was lifted from my hand as though phantom fingers had taken it.
Nuleef. My love.
I could barely breathe as I watched the lock of shining metallic hair rise before me, and then it hit me—the metallic border that had shone silver. It’d shone as brightly as the goddess’s gold hair, as though her mate had never stopped calling her, beckoning her, and wishing their souls didn’t part.
The ancient tomes spoke of the gods and goddesses who once walked the realm. It was rumored that some had bred with fae before they left our realm to venture back to the stars.
But some gods had stayed, either dying out from not returning to their celestial realm or choosing to morph into new beings.
And I knew, knew to mybones, that God Diredan had fallen here when his godly power had faded too much to return to the stars.
All at once, the horrible crushing sensation around me lifted completely.
The Wood returned around me. Darkness was still everywhere, but I could see once more.
