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Abandoning me yet again, but I couldn’t even muster up the energy to be angry with her for that.

A life without Estrella wasn’t worth living at all.

I placed my hands behind my head, attempting to get comfortable as I let my eyes drift closed. Holt seemed to realize that my need for understanding had passed, the history between my parents and I no longer relevant.

They’d chosen one another over time with me, and I couldn’t fault them for it.

Not when I would have sacrificed them both to save her. Holt spoke, silencing Tara with his voice.

“Sleep, God of the Dead. For when you wake, we ride.”

TWENTY-THREE

ESTRELLA

The Gorgon woman stared back at me, her lungs heaving as she studied my face. My hands tightened around the hilt of my sword, my fingers running over the scales of the snakes engraved into the metal.

The woman standing before me was a breathtaking beauty. Her eyes were the bright, vivid green of the serpents dancing within her hair, specks of brown forming the pattern of scales within her irises. Her hair was wavy and a deep brown so dark it almost possessed a blueish undertone. She had brown skin, her lips a deep rose color. Her facial structure was sharp, with high cheekbones and a defined brow.

She was a great and terrible beauty in a timeless way, the kind of breathtaking that men waged wars for.

She wore armor of the deepest green, her shoulders bare where it curved to wrap around her throat at the center before plunging into a sweetheart neckline. Each of her arms was wrapped in a snake,their teeth embedded into her flesh. The skin around the snakes’ fangs was gray, as if their bites threatened to turn her to stone at any given moment.

An intricate band of metal curved over her forehead, the gold sparkling in the firelight. It continued around her head like a band, complementing the gold tones in the scales of the snakes that stared back at me. Their eyes glimmered with the same golden color, heads tipping to the side as they studied me in curiosity.

They’d saved our lives. There was no denying that.

I swallowed, forcing down my trepidation at what they might expect in return. In this place, no one did anything out of the kindness of their hearts.

“Thank you,” I said, the sound coming out far too quiet. The Gorgon woman tipped her head to the side in a manner that was so reminiscent of the snakes in her hair that I almost chuckled, standing on my own as the others couldn’t risk meeting her stare.

There were no Gorgons left in Nothrek, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t seen the remains of the statues they’d left behind during our war with the Fae all those centuries ago. People turned to stone where they stood, with no ability to defend themselves.

I looked to the Morrigan where they had turned their backs on the Gorgon women, my own relief peaking. It wasn’t without a hint of surprise, but given my father’s bloodline, maybe such magics weren’t a threat to me.

Was that why I hadn’t turned to stone?

“You’ve no need to thank me, Little Sserpent,” she said, taking a single step toward me. I braced myself, placing my feet shoulder width apart on instinct. My swords rose at my sides automatically, my elbows bending to prepare for an attack. “Your father might have sworn not to interfere in the trials, but I made no such promise.”

“What do you want in return for your aid?” I asked, pursing my lips as I studied her. Whoever she was, whatever she thought to gain from sparing our lives, Fenrir seemed to know she wouldn’t harm me.

Even if he thought he would turn to stone, the beast would interfere to save me if he saw a threat.

“Beast,” Fenrir scoffed in my head. “Do not insult me, Neamhai. I am no more beast than you.”

“Fenrir,” the Gorgon woman said, but the affection in her voice caught me off guard. My wolf kept his eyes to the ground, rising now that his injuries had healed thanks to the phoenix. He approachedthe Gorgon women, standing at their feet and allowing them to run their hands over his fur.

“You know my familiar,” I said, my swords lowering at my sides.

“Family,” Fenrir said, his words full of warmth as he rubbed his head against the scaled pants of the woman who wouldn’t turn her gaze away from me. She petted him absentmindedly, allowing him to lick her hand sweetly as Ylfa and Lupa approached the other Gorgons behind her and rolled to their backs, letting the snakes tickle their bellies.

Family, I thought, echoing his word. I knew he heard the disbelief in the thought, knew he understood it for what it was.

I didn’t have much in the way of family. A mother who was hidden away in the Winter Court and my not-brother I’d left to suffer in Tartarus under the thin promise to meet him at the Cradle of Creation. Could he be trusted to uphold his word? After all his lies?

“Fenrir and I have been family for a very long time,” the woman said, quirking her brow at the swords still held tightly within my grasp.

“I fail to see the resemblance,” I said, the snark in my tone taking even me by surprise. It was stupid, foolish to think that someone else could lay claim to the wolf that felt so like a part of me already.