Page 44

CHAPTER 44

AURORA

S he clung to Thane as he whisked them into the safety of the Between . The cry of William’s soul faded, as did the desperate need to take it. She could still feel it like an itch that she couldn’t scratch. A quiet buzz in her ear. Thane’s room formed around them. The moon was starting to rise over the hills of Manere .

“Gods below.” Aurora stumbled away from Thane . She blinked back the tears. “ I should have known it would be him. Have I not suffered enough?” She pressed her hand to her forehead.

“It’s not you.” Thane walked over to the whiskey and poured a glass. “ It’s the girl.”

Aurora searched Thane’s face. “ What girl…” A boy and a girl . “ Sissy ?” Aurora recoiled, walking over to the bed and sitting down. She felt nothing and everything at the same time.

“I’m sorry.” Thane swirled the whiskey around in his glass.

“I don’t understand. How ?”

“When she wished for happiness, her wish righted all the wrongs. It was her and him who were to be wed until you wished away your memories,” Thane said into his glass. “ She will not get that happiness if you take William . She will die alone, doing backbreaking work.”

Aurora covered her mouth, trying to hold the sob in. This was all her fault.

Thane walked to her, taking her hands as he knelt before her. “ I won’t let you do this. I will not let you break her heart.”

“What choice do I have?” Aurora whispered as the reality of what she had to do sank deep into her bones. Gods remembered everything. Aurora would forever know that Sissy’s life hadn’t been a good life. Instead she’d have a life that would break her and turn her bitter. But what choice did Aurora have? “ I will do what is expected of me. I’m a god, after all. I was born selfish, born to take.” She spat out the words, hating the very bones that ached for what she must do. “ There are consequences for breaking a heart.” The consequence would be that she would never forget.

“For me, Aurora .” Thane stood. “ Not you. It is my curse, and I wish you would let me suffer the price that must be paid.”

“And what of me? I cannot live without your love.” She looked up at him.

“You never lost it. It has always been yours to have. It is I who must live with a broken heart, not you. You can have me and my love anytime you want.” Thane ran his hands over his face. “ Tell me, when we fight do you ever doubt my love for you?”

It was more anger that she felt towards Thane than doubt. The time he had sent all those flowers to her, she tossed them in the Sea of Tranquility . Another time she cursed his name and swore if she saw him again, it would be too soon. But never had she not felt his love. Even Ella had felt it. “ No , but you’re not there. And I hate that.”

“And so do I .” Thane pulled her into his embrace. “ I will never stop loving you. But I need you to listen to me. Aurora .” He pressed a finger to her mouth when she started to protest. “ It’s part of the curse. I must suffer a broken heart. It must truly break. And for that to happen, you must leave me.”

“Leave you. As in never see you again?” Aurora pulled away. He didn’t need to say the words. “ Thane . My love for you is more than my love for…”

“The mortal girl. The one who told your stories. The one who picked up the pieces I broke and held on to them.”

She turned away from him. She wanted to say yes, but the lie was stuck on the tip of her tongue. “ What you must think of me.”

Thane stepped closer, pressing a kiss to her shoulder. “ I think I love you more in this moment than I have ever loved you.”

“How?” Aurora couldn’t love herself for sacrificing him.

“Without you I would be like my father. I would revel in the suffering of those around me. That was what Fate wove into my life. My mother asked for a son only a father could love.” He stepped before her. “ Which left me lonely. Not even Pain could cure that loneliness. So one night I lay under a star, wishing for things gods have no right to wish for. Love came to me and said she would right the wrong Fate had caused. But it would cost me the love of my father. I took it. I didn’t think twice. It was Love , not Fate , as the story goes, who brought me to you.”

“Love?” Aurora let this new story sink in. That was why Aurora had not known love until she saw Thane . She had been destined to love no one. “ If you had chosen differently, none of this would have happened.” She would be alone. Thane would be the monster his father loved. Sissy and William would be married. And yet she could not fathom a life without Thane .

“Maybe.” Thane caressed her cheek. “ It matters not what may have happened. All that matters is the now. We cannot change the strings that have been strung. Let William live. Let him and the girl find the happiness she wished for.”

“And us? If William dies, then I lose.” She stepped away from Thane . “ Besides , I’d be saving William a lifetime of backbreaking work. Of disappointment. Sissy will be happy in a different way. I’ll give her another wish.”

“It’s my curse, dove. Let this be the last time you break for me.”

“But the bargain?”

“That is on my father.” Thane poured himself another shot and brought a glass over to Aurora . “ In his rush to make you suffer, he never said when the bargain with William would be up. William can live with this bargain forever. You need him to forget you and move on.”

“And what if something else happens? What if he gets sick or has an accident?” Aurora held the glass to her lips. The smell of the whiskey brought the memories back of that night in Riverton and Thane’s drunken confessions. That felt like a lifetime ago. One she had lived so long ago.

“Make a deal with Pain . She can demand her father protect William .” Thane took her hand in his. “ She owes you.”

“For what?” Aurora didn’t want to let hope plant a seed that maybe she could beat Death .

“For robbing you of the most handsome god in all the realms.” Thane winked before taking the shot of whiskey.

“Oh, I can have Sky ,” Aurora teased. The thought of what she was about to do made her chest hurt. She fought the tears that burned in the back of her throat. “ Would you hate me if I did let him live?”

Thane’s features softened. “ I could never hate you any more than I could ask my heart to stop beating. We have lived so long with this curse. What’s a few more moments in a lifetime as long as ours? A mortal life is but one mark of Time’s clock.”

“But how will the dawn live without darkness?” Was she capable of living without him? Could she live with only seeing him each morning? Not feel his cool caress as he slipped into the last shadow of the night?

“You will.” Thane came up behind her. “ If you take William’s soul, you will not only carry that weight but that of the girl’s heartbreak. You will have to see him amongst the shadows of my realm.”

Aurora turned to Thane . She took in everything about him. The silver in his eyes, the fullness of his mouth. The way his hair fell across his face. “ What if you fall in love with another?”

“I can’t. Not only has Pain made sure of that, but so has her mother. I think they both hate me,” Thane teased. “ But will you find another? One more suited for the daughter of Life ?”

“I can’t. I wrote our love in the stars.” Aurora cupped his cheek. “ This hurts. It feels as if my heart may be breaking.”

“It’s not, and it’s not forever.” Thane lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her softly.

“What about your father? He won’t be happy.”

“Death is never happy. He was created to be miserable and make everyone around him miserable. This is his consequence for interfering with Fate .” Thane traced Aurora’s brow. “ Don’t hate William . He was hurting, and my father knew it. That’s how he gets mortals to make such stupid deals. He once made a deal with a man for magic beans.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, they grew food that would fill you in one bite. And they never needed to be replanted. Which would have been great, but the villagers thought it was the work of the devil and burned the field down and ran the man out of the village.” Thane cupped her cheek. “ William fell in love with a god. And I can’t blame him. You are a sight to look upon.”

“So that’s it? The end of us?”

“Just for a heartbeat. And before you know it, it will be over, and then you and I shall marry and… and we’ll do whatever gods do.”

“Fight? Plot revenge? Have affairs?” Aurora teased.

“Let’s not be like our parents.”

“I’ll miss you so much. Every time I watch darkness steal across the heavens, my body will ache for you.”

Thane caught the first tear. It sparkled on his finger. “ Do not weep, my love. The sky is not big enough to hold all your tears. I will still be here. And on the longest night of each year that William is alive, I will come to you. And we shall have until the sun rises. Now let’s not spend our last night together worrying about Death .”

Aurora closed her eyes, letting Thane’s touch pull her out of the mess they were in. He led her to the bed, pushing her down on the cool silk sheets. She tugged his shirt off, memorizing every plane of his body. She traced the shape of him, leaving her dusty mark all over. It would fade over time, but traces of her would always be there on him. Just as his prints would be all over her. Dark smudges on her hips and breast. His name on the tip of her lips, just as it had been on Ella’s . But unlike Ella , Aurora would remember him.

“I love you,” she cried.

“Not as much as I love you.” Thane kissed her mouth before kneeling before her.

He slid the gown up her thighs, pressing kisses on the inside of her knees. Any worries she had melted under his wicked tongue. Her back pressed against the bed as he used his fingers and mouth to drag her closer to the sharp edge that would cut all the ties she had to the mortal world. Her climax did little to ease the tension and guilt from her. But this was her life. And the god she belonged to.

She hoped the cut from her mortal life would be quicker and less painful than cutting her ties with darkness.