“Get away from me.”
Pain split my skull as I rolled onto my front and slammed my fists into the rock. More pain shot through my fingers, but it was nothing compared to the rage burning in my veins. My mother and the gods had taken everything from me.
Everything.
I lifted my eyes to Bellicent’s face. Her skin was as pale as the silver of her hair—ofMorgan’shair. She had stolen so much from everyone, all to escape death long enough to drag the gods back into this world. Long enough to doom us all.
But for the first time in my life, I struggled to care about my mother. Tessa had been taken from me. There was no telling what Andromeda would do to her.
“Where is Tessa?” I said, slowly pushing to my feet. After what Andromeda had done to me, there was weakness yet in my limbs, but the rage fueled me enough to keep me standing. I would not rest until my wife had returned to my side.
Bellicent pressed her lips together. “She is gone.”
“Where?” I asked through clenched teeth. The vow I’d made with my mother tugged at me, but my desperation to reach Tessa shoved it down.
“It doesn’t matter. She made a vow, my son. You can never see her again.”
The anger filled my head with a roar. I strode toward her, but the lightness in my head made my feet stumble against the rocky surface. Slowing to a stop, I spoke with all the fury I could muster. “You will not keep her from me. Not even the God of Death can hold me back.”
Her silver eyes swept across my face, then narrowed. “No, my son, please. Youdidn’t.”
“Didn’t what?” I snapped.
She shook her head, then let out a bitter laugh that filled the eerie silence of Gailfean’s rubble. “I would recognize the feral glint in your eye anywhere. It’s the look of a fae bonded in marriage. You promised yourself to that mortal.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Get out of here now, Kalen. The gods will not stand for this.”
The tone of her voice was like a lick of fire down my spine, but with it came the glimmer of hope. “My bond with Tessa. It can override the one she made with Andromeda, can’t it?”
“A part of it…perhaps yes.” Her eyes darted to the darkness just behind me. “Which is why you must run. If one of them discovers you two are bonded, the gods won’t—”
Whorling shadows suddenly consumed the space between me and Bellicent. Powerful wings thundered to the ground, and a god landed in a crouch before me. When he stood, a creeping dread pulsed from his towering frame. He wore full plate armor, except a helm, and his hands were free. They were so large he could easily snap even the strongest fae’s neck. Hair as black as onyx curled around his pointed ears, and his eyes glowed red, like blood.
As he swept his gaze across me, he frowned. “You.”
That single word sounded like a curse, or like a promise of death.
“You,” I repeated back to him in a snarl. His power did not terrify me, nor would I cow before him. Not like my mother, who had knelt and splayed her hands across the ground.
He curled back his top lip, revealing his sharp teeth, each chiseled to a point. “You cannot hide something as big as a marriage bond from Andromeda.”
“Please,” Bellicent said, her voice wobbling. She still bowed before the god, though she had not dared to lift her head. “Perseus, leave him be.”
Perseus. The God of Fear.
I glanced at his bare hands and took a step back from pure instinct. Out of all the gods, he was the one I wished to face the least. I’d heard stories of what his curse could do. I would see my worst fears come to life, every single horror my mind could conjure. I knew, without a doubt, so many would be about Tessa.
I lifted my sword from the ground and angled it toward the god. In my state, the weapon wobbled, but I did not back down.
The god frowned. “Weapons are useless against us, Mist King.”
My mother climbed to her feet and started toward him. “Leave him be. I made a deal with Andromeda, and she swore to spare his life. I—”
Perseus’s hand snapped out, and he gripped Bellicent’s throat. His fingers dug into her skin. Her eyes went wide as she loosed a strangled cough and clawed at the god’s hand. With an impassive expression, Perseus tugged her against his chest and snapped her neck. Then he released her, and her body—Morgan’s body—hit the ground. Horror and revulsion churned my gut.
For a moment, I couldn’t speak. All the love I’d once felt for my mother had been twisted and corrupted by the thing she’d become. Bellicent Denare had changed from the vibrant, bold, and powerful fae she’d been. In her place had been a cowering creature willing to sacrifice everything to be close to the gods.
But that did not blunt the sword of pain that sliced through my heart. I’d harbored a secret hope that we could find a way to break the vow and get her back to who she’d once been—that I would one day be able to look at her and see the mother I’d once known before her relationship with Oberon had driven her to the gods.
None of this had been her choice.
