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When had she decided it was safer to be useless?

Nobody expects anything great from you if you are worthless.

But Ronin...

She brushed a piece of hair off his forehead. He expected nothing from her and accepted who she was, with or without a divine power.

The revelation was a grand awakening.

I cannot afford to be useless any longer.

A steady, surging breath of power pulsed in her veins.

Her world and those within it were no longer everlasting.

I will not let him die, Naia vowed as she watched Ronin sleep.

They would break their fate of finding and losing each other, once and for all.

Naia leaned down and kissed Ronin’s forehead. We are infinite. I refuse to let you go.

It was as if the High Goddess of Fate heard her vow and smirked. Let us see what you can do then, Lady Naia.

A thunderbolt of pain descended through Naia’s stomach, and she screamed.

35

THE BIRTH OF A DEMIGOD

“Naia, you’re going to have to push for me.” Positioned between Naia’s legs, Yuki pulled her hair back in a ponytail. “It’s time.”

The hours of Naia’s agony had bled on throughout the night into the dawn. A never-ending torment of pain, comparable to Malik’s cleavers blending throughout her insides. Her head rolled back on the headboard as she cried, warring with the wave of time cresting over her head.

“Naia, baby.” Ronin lightly pushed her hair from her neck. She’d never seen such a woeful look in his eyes before. Paired with his scrunched brow and the tugging of his lips, he appeared to be in pain, watching her weep. His arm hooked around her knee to help support it. “I need you to push. For me. Please.”

Through a wailing contraction, she tasted the salt of her tears slipping through her lips as she cried, “No, I don’t want to.”

Outside of Ronin’s bedroom, rain pummeled against the window.

“Naia.” Yuki’s intense gaze bore into her, leaving no room for argument in her voice. “Now.”

While Naia was immortal, her child was not. Two seconds of analyzing the serious look hardening in Yuki’s eyes told Naia if she didn’t start pushing, Ash could die.

Naia ground her teeth.

You will not be useless anymore.

She fisted her hands at her sides, refusing the hand Ronin offered her, knowing she’d crush his bones, and screamed against the excruciating pain as she pushed.

Yuki held her hand up for the syringe. Ronin passed it to her.

Naia shrieked louder as pressure tore between her legs.

“His head is out.” From what Naia could see at this angle, Yuki’s arms shuffled with haste. “Tell Avi to start the spell.”

Ronin nodded and swiped his hand up, commanding the bedroom door to swing open and rebound off the wall. It was the signal.

“One more push, Naia. You’re doing great.” Yuki handed the syringe off to Ronin, its vial filled with cherry-red blood, fresh from her child’s veins. Ronin tucked it away in his pocket.