For me to take my vengeance, for every god in every pantheon to tremble at Hell and its wrath, I wrapped my fingers around the intrusive gaze of every deity who dared to use my human, myLove, as a pawn, so across time, across lands, across faiths, no one would dare to repeat the mistake.
But to keep her safe, I had to become unworthy of her love.
My tenth tear—the one that had been dancing along my lids from the moment I landed in her mountain village—spilled at last.
I loved her enough to find her, to fight for her, to spend life after life after life with her.
I loved her enough to call a summit that surpassed kingdoms or geography or politics in the name of our treaty.
I loved her enough to sacrifice my kingdom.
And now, I loved her enough to sacrifice her.
Unseen claws grabbed my heart and ripped it into two. Teeth shredded its remnants. An eleventh tear fell. A twelfth. I couldn’t count the salt that spilled as I listened to Love and her family, as venomous testosterone overrode Jarovid’s logic. He slashed through the wood-hewn cottage with a point to prove.
He emerged, sword dripping, dark eyes gleaming with his wicked grin to see me standing twenty paces back, arms held away from my body, feet poised for launch.
The second hand of the clock ticked once, then twice before he understood his mistake.
My legion swarmed him, anchoring his feet, his hands, his writhing, bulky worm of a worthless body as I turned into an eagle. Sharp, raptor claws dug into one eye while I dove my beak into another.
The pain was enough for him to burst free, sword swinging. Blood poured from his sockets as he continued to wield his weapon, flailing sightlessly.
A grunt, a step, another useless arc of his sword as my legion swarmed him once more, quicksand immobilizing him in a thousand shadowed hands. He called on his allies, but no one answered.
My body ripped into pained oblivion as I became a grizzly large enough to tear his sword arm from his shoulder. I chomped through skin, feeling the popping of tendon, the snapping of bone, until metal clattered to the snow.
I’d expected more of a fight.
The war raged on around us, tapered only by a nameless ally on a journey of her own.
Despite our efforts, I knew the village would fall.
By morning, the invaders would plant their flag and declare a new god.
But not before I eliminated the one who had brought the enemy to their borders.
I stepped into a man’s shape once more as I plucked the sword from its still-gripping hand.
We would have lost, had it just been one demon against a war god, an angel, a succubus, and a thousand human warriors. The village was already in ruins. There was one last battle within its charred remains.
An entity—too powerful to be fae, too chaotic to be a goddess of any order I understood—had taken care of the heavenly problem so I could focus my attention. While she hadn’t stood against me, I couldn’t be certain she was on my side either. And yet, her efforts left me alone for this final, choking moment. Thousands of wriggling limbs pinned him in place, two crimson rivers rushing down his face, shoulder spurting where once his weapon had been, as I came a breath from his face.
The proud god jutted his lower jaw. “I didn’t realize Hell’s prince was a god-killer.”
I scoffed. “Yes, you did.” The screaming began to die as the last of the village’s people were slain. I sensed the heartbeats of those who hid or fled, but knew it was only a matter of time before their hope was gone, too. This massacre had only one ending.
“Heaven?” I asked. “Really?”
He didn’t have to see me to know where my eyes would be. He maintained his defiance. “The enemy of my enemy, you piece of shit.”
It was too bad he couldn’t see my eyes roll.
“You’ve had it out for me before you called your fucking summit.” He sucked blood and saliva into his mouth and spat his belligerence onto the snow at our feet. “I’m why you called your fucking conclave, right? A humiliation ritual before every god. All because I’d listened to your cunt of a sister about drawing you out. Fuck you, and fuck that whore, too.”
I twitched at the barest of news.
Izi had done…what? Oh, I was already going to kill her, but this was one more notch in her wickedness.
