Page 24 of Gods of Prey (Parallel Prey #3)

Sienna

T he silence in Revel’s apartment is suffocating. I float near the window, watching him pace the length of the living room for the third time. His jaw is clenched, and I can practically feel the anger radiating from him in waves.

“You’re not going to say anything?” I finally ask. Our conversation took a nosedive into silence on the way back to the apartment, where we each sat and waited for Sebastian or Jovie to call us.

And we waited.

And waited.

Revel’s panties have progressively gathered in a bunch with every passing minute. He began his incessant pacing about twenty minutes ago and I knew then that our argument would be receiving a revival.

He stops moving and fixes me with those piercing gray eyes. “What would you like me to say? That I’m impressed by your reckless endangerment of our mission? That I think it was brilliant to help a mortal hunt down a trained killer?”

I manifest more solidly, crossing my arms. “Jovie isn’t just any mortal. She’s Sebastian’s?—”

“She’s human,” Revel cuts me off. “And you put her in danger because you, what? Wanted to play vigilante? Wanted to relive your mortal friendship?”

I blanch at that. When Jovie contacted me yesterday, asking for help with tracking down Gregory Voss, I should have refused. Should have told her to let Sebastian handle it. Instead, I found myself drawn into her plan, helping her orchestrate the perfect trap in that parking garage basement.

But Revel doesn’t get to pass judgment toward me when his own friend took the man’s life right in front of him and he didn’t have anything to say about it.

“She would have gone after him with or without my help,” I say defensively. I refuse to admit to him that I made a mistake. “At least this way, she had backup.”

“Backup?” Revel laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “You’re a ghost, Sienna. What exactly were you going to do if things went wrong? Haunt him to death?”

I drift closer, my temper flaring. “I protected her. Kept her identity obscured. Kept him diffused so he didn’t attack. I mitigated Sebastian’s magic when he?—”

“When he what?” Revel interrupts. “When he used his divine powers to kill the man with his bare hands? When he fully embraced his identity as the God of Life and fucked us all by dealing Death?”

I fall silent. That part had been...unexpected. And infuriating. I’ve watched my brother kill without hesitation many times before, but having it happen with an audience felt so wrong. Admitting that part will lead to admitting everything else, and I can’t do that yet.

And anyway, it’s not like Revel will confront him about it. He’ll take all his frustration out on me instead.

“He remembers,” I whisper again. If I can bring the conversation back to what actually matters, I won’t make any accidental confessions.

“Obviously.” Revel resumes his pacing. “The question is, how much? And what does this mean for our plan?”

I think back to the moment in the parking garage when Sebastian’s glowing green eyes had met mine across the concrete space. There had been recognition there. Not just of me as his dead sister, but of something deeper. Something divine.

“Well, he definitely looked at me like he knew,” I admit. “Like he remembered who I really am. He called his divine energy in without issue. I’d guess that means he’s back.”

Revel runs a hand through his hair, and for the first time since I’ve known him, he looks genuinely worried. “This changes everything. If he remembers but still chooses to stay the way he said...”

“Then we’ve failed,” I finish quietly.

The weight of that possibility settles between us. I drift to the couch, sinking down onto it even though I don’t need to sit. The exhaustion I feel isn’t physical. It’s something much heavier. Soul-deep.

“What was he talking about back there, about you abandoning your realm twice?”

Ugh. This is exactly what I was dreading. I’d hoped he had dropped it. That the other events of the night had distracted him enough to make him forget.

Of course, that was foolish. Revel is tenacious and headstrong. He’d never let it go.

Straightening my spine, I lift my chin—a weak attempt to look more confident than I feel. Maybe if I deliver the news with my head held high, he won’t be as inclined to attack me for it.

He’s been begging for answers and I’ve successfully dodged giving them to him.

Until now.

“This isn’t the first time Sebastian and I have experienced this mortal life.” By some miracle, my voice is more steady than I feel.

He tilts his head, looking less human than ever as he attempts to make sense of my words. “What does that mean?” He finally asks.

“It means that when Jovie died, Sebastian somehow managed to jump timelines, and the rest of us had no choice but to follow.”

His brows shoot up, lips parting. “You two tampered with time?” The words come out as hardly more than a whisper, as if Myelle might overhear and strike us down right here and now.

To be honest, I’m slightly terrified of the same thing.

“ I didn’t tamper with anything.” My hands cover my chest. “I was taken along for the ride just as much as anyone else. But it appears that me, Sebastian, and Jovie are the only three who realized what had happened.”

“And you abandoned your realm?” His voice lifts in question.

This is where it gets messy.

I bite my lower lip. “Sebastian didn’t return to Aurelys in the last timeline, either. When I realized it, I returned to the mortal realm on my own to find answers. It was . . . not as successful.”

Images of watching Bash hunt and kill my murderers flash through my mind, along with all the times he stalked and hunted Jovie before she fell in love with him.

He was a far more vicious beast in the previous timeline than he is now.

Part of me is grateful that Revel didn’t know him then.

It would have altered their whole relationship.

“And he did all of this for her?”

My response is a slow nod.

“Tell me about your friendship with Jovie,” Revel says suddenly, his voice less hostile now.

I look up at him, surprised by the change in his tone. “Why?”

“Because I need to understand what we’re dealing with. What you’re dealing with. I’ve obviously underestimated it.” He sits in the chair across from me, leaning forward. “I know Sebastian cares about her, but you do, too.”

“She was kind to me when she didn’t have to be. When I was just some rich medical student who kept showing up at her coffee shop.”

“That’s not all of it.”

He’s right, of course. My connection to Jovie runs deeper than simple kindness. She became the sister I never had. The friend I’d never allowed myself in all my centuries of existence.

But what would a male like him understand about that? One who can have any being he wants at the snap of his fingers. One who people love and revere and fawn over.

“She saw through my masks,” I say finally. “All the walls I’d built up over lifetimes of playing my roles. With her, I could just be...Sienna. Not the Goddess of Death, not Sebastian’s twin, not someone defined by duty and divine responsibility. Just me.”

Revel’s expression softens. I scowl at the change, hating the feel of his pity. “And now?” he asks.

“Now she’s doing it again.” I meet his eyes. “That’s part of what makes this so dangerous. The more time I spend with her, the harder it becomes to remember why I need to take Sebastian away from her.”

Revel watches me move across the room. “Is that what you want? To take him away from her?”

I stop, my back to him. “What I want doesn’t matter. The balance is failing. The Divine Council will intervene soon if we don’t fix this. The Council of Elders has us on a timer. We’ll lose our leverage if we delay any more.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

I turn to face him, and I’m surprised to find him standing much closer than before. When did he move?

“No,” I find myself admitting quietly. “It’s not what I want. I want my brother to be happy. I want Jovie to keep being kind and brave and everything that made Sebastian fall in love with her. I want?—”

“What?” His voice is barely above a whisper now.

“I want to not have to choose between duty and the people I care about.” The confession tumbles out before I can stop it.

We’re standing too close now. I can see flecks of glittering silver floating in his gray eyes.

I can feel the warmth of his Life energy even in my spectral form.

For a moment, I forget that we’re supposed to be enemies.

Forget that he’s Life and I’m Death. My brother’s best friend almost since birth.

I forget that we’ve spent centuries in opposition one way or another.

I forget that we were arguing just minutes before.

“Sienna,” he says, and my name sounds different on his lips. Softer.

“Don’t,” I whisper, but I don’t pull away.

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t look at me like that. Don’t make this more complicated than it already is.”

His hand rises as if to touch my face, then falls when he remembers I’m not solid enough.

The moment stretches between us, charged with possibility and impossibility in equal measure. Then his phone buzzes—a text from Jovie.

I glance at it and sigh as Revel reads it aloud. “Sebastian wants to meet. All of us.” He steps back, the spell broken. “He’s ready.”

I look up at him, struggling to shake off the weight of what just happened between us. “What do we do?”

“We tell him the truth,” he says. “All of it. About the Divine Council, about the balance, about why we’re really here. You said it yourself. There’s no more time to waste.”

“And if he refuses to come back?”

He meets my eyes, and I see the same conflict there that I feel brewing deep inside me. “Then we figure out another way. Together.”

The word hangs in the air between us. Together . It shouldn’t sound as appealing as it does.

I make myself fade from visibility, putting distance between us even though he can still sense my presence. “We should go.”

“Sienna,” Revel calls as I move toward the door.

I project my voice across the space. “What?”

“Whatever happens tonight, whatever Sebastian says or does...we’ll handle it. You don’t have to carry this alone anymore.”

I don’t respond, but something tight in my chest loosens slightly. For the first time in centuries, I don’t feel entirely isolated with the weight of divine responsibility.

As we leave the apartment together, I can’t shake the feeling that everything is about to change. Sebastian remembers who he is, which means he’s making a conscious choice to stay in the mortal realm. The Divine Council’s patience won’t last much longer.

And somewhere in the middle of it all, I’m developing feelings for the one being I’m supposed to be naturally opposed to.

The irony isn’t lost on me. The Goddess of Death, falling for the God of Life, while trying to convince her brother to abandon his own mortal love.

If the situation weren’t so dire, it might almost be funny.

Instead, it feels like the beginning of the end of everything I thought I knew about duty, love, and the delicate balance between Life and Death.

The elevator doors leading to Sebastian and Jovie’s apartment closes, and we ride up in silence.

I study Revel’s profile, admiring his strength and patience.

He could easily turn us over to the Divine Council and walk away the ruler of Aurelys.

It’s what I’ve always assumed he’d do. Instead, he’s kept our secrets.

He cares about our fates. And he faces it all with remarkable composure.