Page 14 of Gods of Prey (Parallel Prey #3)

Sienna gives a ghost of a laugh. “Right? Ironic to be killed by cultists when you’re actually a deity they’d probably worship.

” Her expression darkens. “Our father was a serpent. Our grandfather was one of their leaders. They groomed Bash from a young age to join, but he saw through all the smoke and mirrors. He knew they were evil and rejected them. They didn’t believe I didn’t know anything special.

Thought I was protecting my brother’s secrets. ”

Their own mortal family did this. Whether they physically assaulted her is irrelevant. Her blood is still on their hands as leaders of the despicable cult who organized her ambush.

The thought has me seeing red.

Sienna doesn’t seem to notice my reaction.

She drifts lower, nearly touching the ground.

“They stripped me down. Ripped all my clothing off like it was nothing. The knife went in four more times. Here.” She points to her chest. “Here.” Her abdomen.

“Here and here.” Her back. “But I didn’t die right away.

They flipped me over and took their turns with me as I bled out. ”

My throat tightens, anger taking hold of my chest with a flood of hot flames.

No one should experience such despicable things.

No one should endure such torture, and then have to live to remember them for millennia.

All of it was senseless. Brutal. And mysteriously tied to Sebastian.

It’s a wonder she doesn't hate him for it.

What games are the Fates playing with them? The Divine Council? They talk about balance and then create these scenarios setting them up to resent each other and disrupt it.

“Sienna . . . ”

“No. You wanted to know.” Her eyes meet mine, fierce and bright with ghostly tears that will never fall.

“I lay here as they used me. Naked. Bleeding out. Trying to find a way to call Bash. Knowing if I died, we’d have to start all over again.

Another life. Another near-thirty years of building connections, only to lose them. ”

She spreads her arms, indicating the alley around us. “I died right here. Surrounded by people, yet utterly alone. Thinking about how I’d never see my parents again. Never finish my research. Never tell my best friend that I was the one who accidentally killed her plant.”

I push off from the wall, moving closer to her. “Why are you telling me all this?”

I had expected her to show me where it happened. Possibly explain her death in a cold, medical fashion. She’d play it off like it was nothing and I’d have to read between the lines to get any real information.

What I didn’t expect was for her to let me in. For so much emotion to still be attached.

“Because you still don’t get it.” Sienna’s voice rises slightly.

“Thirty-three times , Revel. Thirty-three lives . Do you have any idea what that’s like?

To build a complete existence from scratch, to create an identity, relationships, a purpose, only to have it violently ripped away? Over and over and over?”

“I can’t imagine,” I admit quietly, shaking my head.

I’ve been wallowing in my own self-pity, lamenting about being nothing more than a placeholder for the God of Life while they’ve been repeatedly living the same nightmare.

“No. You can’t.” She moves suddenly, her spectral form passing through me, sending a chill down my spine.

I’ve truly set her off now. “And neither can the Divine Council or the Council of Elders. Neither can your mother . They sit in their ivory towers, passing judgment, thinking fifty mortal lifetimes is a fair punishment for our transgression.”

I turn to face her. “What exactly did you two do?”

In all these years, Sebastian has never admitted what his crimes were.

He’s never explained why all of us have been serving this punishment and I’ve been hesitant to pry.

I was summoned to the Divine Council’s chambers one day by my mother and watched my friend receive his sentence, but no details were given.

At the time, all that mattered was that my friend and my mother needed me to serve a role.

But as the years have gone on, curiosity has eaten away at me.

“Have you ever experienced love? The kind you’d sacrifice everything for?” She slides her gaze over to me, and all I can do is shrug.

Sienna laughs, the sound hollow and echoing off the buildings around us.

“I’m not surprised your mother didn’t want to share our transgressions.

I’m not even shocked to hear that you agreed to take on this role without questioning it.

But our crime doesn’t matter. The punishment we’ve received is worse than any crime we could have committed.

” She pauses, glaring down at the pavement at our feet as her form flickers with emotion.

“So tell me, Revel, great and righteous interim God of Life: How am I supposed to drag my brother away from the one thing that has made him happy in centuries? How am I supposed to condemn him back to this punishment when I know exactly what it costs?”

The raw pain in her voice strips away my defenses. For the first time, I truly see her. Not as the sarcastic, difficult goddess I’ve been sparring with, but as someone who has endured unimaginable suffering. Someone who, despite everything, still loves deeply enough to question her own mission.

“You shouldn’t have to,” I hear myself say, surprised by my own words.

Sienna goes still, her form solidifying as she stares at me. “What?”

“You shouldn’t have to,” I repeat, stronger now. “Either of you. The punishment is cruel. Excessive.”

“That’s...not what I expected you to say.” She drifts closer, suspicious. “You’re the one who’s been pushing to get Sebastian back to Aurelys at any cost.”

I run a hand through my hair, frustrated. “Because that’s my job. That’s what I was told to do. Maintain the balance.”

And haven’t I always done this? Blindly follow orders, regardless how I truly feel?

“And now?” she presses.

“Now I think the balance can go to hell.” The words feel like blasphemy coming from my lips, but they’re true. “Fifty mortal lifetimes of suffering is not justice. It’s torture.”

Sienna’s form brightens slightly, hope flickering across her features before she masks it. “The Divine Council won’t see it that way.”

“Then the Divine Council is wrong.” I step forward, my hand passing through her arm as I instinctively try to touch her.

The cold sensation sends electricity up my spine.

“I’ve spent weeks watching you both. Seeing what this punishment has done to you.

It’s enough, Sienna. It’s been enough for a long time. I only wish I realized it sooner.”

She looks at me with an expression I can’t quite read. “Why do you suddenly care? We’re barely even friends. You stand to gain more if Sebastian and I are exiled or destroyed.”

I laugh, the sound echoing in the empty alley. “Friends? No. We’re not friends.” I step closer to her spectral form, close enough that I can see the individual lashes around her sage eyes. “But I think I stand to lose more going against you than anything else.”

Surprise flashes across her face, followed quickly by wariness. “Don’t mock me, Revel. Not here. Not about this.”

“I’m not mocking you.” My voice drops lower. “I’m saying that watching you, learning about you—it’s changing things. Changing me.”

Her form wavers, becoming less distinct. A defense mechanism, I’ve learned. She does this when emotions threaten to overwhelm her.

“You don’t even like me,” she whispers.

“I didn’t understand you,” I correct her, carefully using past tense. “There’s a difference.”

For a long moment, we stand there in silence, a god and a goddess’s ghost on a dirty New York street where she bled out alone. The weight of centuries hangs between us.

Finally, Sienna speaks, her voice barely audible. “If we defy the council, if we try to help Sebastian stay with Jovie...we could both be punished.”

“I know.”

“You could lose everything.”

I nod once. “I know that, too.”

She drifts slightly closer. “Why would you risk that? For Sebastian? For me?”

For me . She says it so skeptically. As if no one has ever gone out of their way for her. Like no one has bothered to step into the fray for her.

And maybe that’s been true. But not anymore.

I look at the spot where she last died, then back at her ghostly face. “Because some things are worth the risk. Because I’m starting to think the rules we’ve both followed for so long might be wrong.”

Sienna’s form solidifies slightly as she studies my face. “And if this is a terrible mistake?”

“Then it’s my mistake to make.” I hold her gaze steadily. “I’m the interim God of Life, Sienna. If I can’t choose to stand for life—for living fully, for love —then what’s the point of this power?”

A small smile curves her lips, the first genuine one I’ve seen from her. “That sounds dangerously close to the argument Sebastian and I made that got us punished in the first place.”

“Maybe you were right then, too.”

She floats in a slow circle around me, her spectral clothes rippling in nonexistent wind. “This changes everything, you know. If you’re serious.”

“I am.” I turn to follow her movement, incapable of taking my eyes off her. It’s been years since I saw her act so free. “No more gods and goddesses dying alone. No more endless cycles of punishment. We’ll find another way.”

Sienna stops in front of me, her form more solid than I’ve ever seen it in the mortal realm. “Revel...” she begins, then stops, seeming to search for words.

“Yes?”

She reaches out, her ghostly hand hovering just above my cheek. I can feel the cold radiating from her, but it’s not unpleasant—it’s like the first breath of winter air.

“Thank you,” she says simply. “For seeing us. For seeing me.”

I close my eyes, imagining I can feel her touch. “We’re friends. We’ll figure this out. Together . I promise.”

When I open my eyes, Sienna is smiling—a sad, beautiful smile that transforms her face. The Goddess of Death, finding a reason to hope.

“Let’s go back to Seattle,” she says. “We have a new plan to make.”

As we leave the alley behind, I can’t help but glance back at the unmarked spot where Sienna’s mortal form died. It’s just a patch of dirty concrete to anyone else. But to me, it’s something sacred—the place where everything changed. Where I finally understood that some rules deserve to be broken.

And some punishments need to end.