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“Are you so sure about that, Euralys?”

At the sound of her formal name, the woman flinched. She tried to cover it with a laugh as she tossed his arm off her, but the god saw through it.

“All of you are the same,” she spat. “You think you are so smart, so unique, but you are not the first god to walk among humans.” Cocking her head, she took a steady step forward. “The only question is, what have you done with Graeson?”

“Nothing.” His gaze flicked to the crowd behind her.

It was the night before the royal wedding, and some civilians seemed to have decided to celebrate the union early. But if the god had anything to do with it, there would be no union to celebrate tomorrow. This would be the Frenzians’ last night of peace.

Euralys’ smirked. “He’s fighting you, isn’t he?”

He noted the way the muscles in her face flexed, her calm demeanor. She thought she knew what was happening, but she knew nothing. “These other gods you have come across, what have they led you to believe?”

“They have not led me to believe anything. You all come down here, borrow human bodies, and bend them to your will.”

The god laughed. In the reflection of her pitch-black eyes, he could see that his eyes now glowed as silver as the moon. “And that is where you are wrong, little witch.”

Her brows furrowed, lines creasing her foreheads as she studied him. She was trying to read him like she did the man. But she was not a mind reader, not like the dead prince.

“Then where—”

“He is still here,” the god said, pointing to his head.When her lips parted, he cut off her words. “Ah-ah. Your arrogance, little witch, will get you killed. You think you know everything, that your people’s connection to Nerva has granted you some access to knowledge that the others do not have. But you do not know everything. Not even close.”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “Just tell me what you did to Graeson.”

The god stepped forward. “He would not want anyone to know the truth about his nature. Even he is afraid to admit that truth himself.” The god paused, contemplating. Perhaps if the truth were spoken, the man would have no reason to deny it. “You think I took this body? I was born into this body. This body is mine just as much as it is his. Because here is the thing, little witch, him and I? We are one and the same.”

The muscles in her face twitched as she tried to piece together the information.

“It is only because he is in denial that Iamhim that he splits us apart. Deep down, he believes that if he admits the truth, he will have to admit that this power, that everything I do when he shuts down and closes himself off to the world, is his true soul acting. Not some other being. Not some wildthing. But him.”

The woman took a step back. “But how can that be?”

“I thought you knew everything, Euralys?” The god cackled, the sound rough and low. “How does one acquire their gifts to begin with?”

Euralys’ black eyes dashed across his face. “Because of the god’s blood that runs in your veins.”

“Mhm,” the god hummed.

“But if you’re—” she gasped, halting her thought. “Gods cannot die, though.”

“And?”

“Graeson said his mother died when he was born.”

The muscles in his jaw tensed.

Her face paled. “Who is Graeson’s father?”

Behind the caged door, the man was silent as the god whispered the name of the father who had abandoned him.

Chapter52

KALLIE

It wastradition that the bride dine with only her family the night before the wedding to represent the last night the bride’s family needed to take care of her. Which meant Kallie dined with her father alone. Even if the staff had been dismissed from the room until Domitius rang for them

Knives scraped porcelain, the sound screeching in the surrounding silence. The pressure of tomorrow was heavy in the space between them.