Page 48

The Last Piece

“What did you say?” Vos and Trysolde snarl at the same time when I translate Bene’s words.

The goddess—because Bene has no reason to lie—smiles. She actually smiles. And then says, “It would be nice to see my accusers’ faces.”

The two men come around the side of the portal and get their first good look at her, but I can see them thinking that no way is this sickly, bedraggled creature a goddess.

Goddess. The word echoes in my head.

She’s…she’s a goddess?

Not just a terrifyingly powerful Enfernae, because that would make more sense to me than the other thing. Allusian.

The heavens have a goddess. “You shouldn’t be telling me this or anything,” I say. “I have a… There’s a curse… He can…” How do I explain this? “I should leave.”

Except they need me to hold the portal open, and she’s not letting me go.

“I can see the connection.” Allusian’s gaze skates over me. “Whoever it is can’t see or hear anything for now. I’m stopping him.”

She’s blocking Eidolon…

How is this possible? She’s never been mentioned in our histories or the recordings of our temples.

“Bene,” I say in a wobbly voice. “I think you’d better explain.” I wrinkle my nose at the goddess apologetically. “No offense, but we don’t know you. We trust whatever he says.”

Her eyebrows draw slowly upward. “Are you sure you should?”

I expect Bene to fly up onto my shoulder or squawk or flap his wings in protest at that. Anything. But he stays huddled in Tabra’s arms, staring at Allusian.

“Bene?” I prod.

He gives a full-body tremble that scrapes his wings along his sandy body with a scritch ing sound. “Aryd and I were told by her sisters that their seventh sister, Allusian, had died.”

The goddess says nothing.

I glance between them. Why does being told that make him petrified with fear? He didn’t kill her if he had to be told.

“They couldn’t have.” His voice is a mere thread of a hushed whimper in my head. “ They wouldn’t have.”

But the doubt in his voice tells me even he isn’t sure of whatever it is they couldn’t have done. Whoever they are.

I guess I don’t need to translate for the goddess, because her smile takes on a bitter edge. “But they did.”

“Did what?” Vos demands. He whips his gaze between the goddess and me and Bene. “Who did? Somebody better start talking.”

A terrible suspicion starts to creep up on me like a fog skulking across the Sea of Terra toward the palace. “Does this have anything to do with the reason why my ancestresses trapped your sisters in amulets?”

The goddess pulls her shoulders back. “It worked?”

I nod.

“I thought so, because I couldn’t feel them anymore, and my sisters didn’t return here after I crawled out of the hole where they left me to die. But I wasn’t sure.”

What in the name of Nova?

“I don’t know about the…rest of that, but what they did worked.” I pull the amulet that contains Savanah out from under my clothes. Unlike Aryd’s, it doesn’t ever light with an inner fire, remaining cold and unresponsive.

Allusian tips her head, studying the glass. “Hello, sister,” she says softly, venom in her voice.

“But there have been consequences.” I tuck it back out of sight. “Release me and tell me what you know.”

A martial light in her eyes warns me not to test her. “You dare give orders to a goddess?”

I stare her down hard, neither of us giving an inch. “Given how badly the goddesses seem to have messed up the world, that title doesn’t hold much weight with me at the moment.”

“Meren,” Reven says, a warning in his voice, and the arm still curled around me scoots me a bit farther behind him.

He probably thinks I’m about to be taken over by Eidolon again. He could be right. But I’m done screwing around trying to figure out what happened and how to fix it with only a hazy idea and not all the pieces. I’m pretty sure this goddess has all the answers I need.

I slide my gaze to hers. “Release me, tell me your story, and then we’ll see.”

Vos bows his head, muttering under his breath, “Seven hells, Meren.”

Which is when Achlys rolls up to sit, looking wobbly and a little green. “What happened?”

“Are there more people there?” Allusian asks. “I need to know who I’m telling what to.”

Fair enough. I wave at Tabra, and she helps a swaying Achlys to her feet, both coming around to stand with the rest of us in front of the portal.

Allusian takes one look at Tabra’s face before glancing at me again. “Even a thousand years later, the twin queens of Aryd are truly a marvel. No wonder my sisters began to fear their human creations.”

I open my mouth to ask what that means when I feel the force holding my hand to the glass give way. Careful not to lift it entirely off—I’m not sure how I opened the portal to this place or if I could get back—I make sure I’m free. And I am.

“Why don’t you come through and we’ll talk in here?” I ask instead of demanding more answers.

The goddess makes a face. “I can’t leave my dominion. Not yet. It is the only thing keeping me alive. And you’d better not come through, either.”

“Why not?” Vos asks.

“Because there’s no glass on this side and no way to make it, no sand in Allusian, so I’m not sure you could get back.”

I startle hard enough that my hand lifts and her image blinks in and out, making me press down more carefully. “That’s not possible. I can only connect my portals to ones that already exist. I can’t connect to… nothing .”

There’s no way. Right?

She spreads her hands wide in a goddess version of a shrug. “And yet you’re doing it.”

More questions without answers. If I survive these trials, someday I’m going to live a life where I have all the answers all the time. Not sure how, but I’m making it my goal from this point forward.

“Are these all the people with you?” Allusian asks me.

“Down here? Yes, they are.”

She dips her head, folding her hands before her as if praying for the right words. When she looks up, her expression isn’t peaceful, but a complete blank, as if she had to turn off all her emotions to tell us her story. I know a little something about needing to do that, so I quietly brace.

“When our mother, Nova, made the world, she made the six dominions, and then she made a home for the afterlives of all her creations.”

Afterlives.

I glance past her over the beauty of the lands. “So we are looking at the heavens.”

Allusian glances behind her as well, smile soft. “What you’re looking at is part of the heavens, yes. The hells are here, too. All seven. Power over all afterlife was given to me by my mother to rule. Just like each of my sisters got to choose how to create their own dominions.”

I have never, not once, considered who might be in charge of the hells. The heavens, I assumed, were ruled by the goddesses together. That must show in my face because Allusian gives a dry chuckle. “Humans don’t learn of me until they reach one or the other destination after they die. I am the goddess of death, courage, and the winds.”

The goddess of death. Terrific.

“Is that why you can’t leave?” Tabra asks, then slides me a questioning look like she isn’t sure she’s allowed to talk to this being, too.

Allusion’s face hardens to a mask of controlled fury, stirring unease in my belly. “The reason I can’t leave is because of my sisters .” She spits the word, glaring at the spot where the amulet lies under my clothes. “They were always jealous of my power. At the same time, they were also worried about the growing number of Imperium humans under their rule. So they decided to solve both problems at once. They cut my heart out of my chest.”

I wouldn’t mind sitting down about now. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that.

“How are you still alive?” Tabra asks, her voice filled with concern, and the way she inches forward, I think only the need to help Achlys stay standing is keeping her from stepping through the portal to give the goddess a hug.

Allusian shrugs. “I’m immortal. It takes more than that to kill me. But without my heart, my powers are diminished significantly. The only thing keeping me alive is the dominion my mother gave me that my essence is tied to. I can’t leave here without my heart.”

Merciful heavens. “What did your sisters do with it?” I’m almost afraid to ask because I think I might know the answer, and it’s horrible on a level that is incomprehensible to me.

Sure enough, though, the Allusian’s scowl turns fierce. “They fed pieces of it to their consorts and buried the rest.”

Everyone looks at Bene, and my stomach sinks to the floor.

Aryd’s consort.

We’ve all heard his side of the story. The mother goddess, Nova, saw that her daughters were lonely and gave them each a piece of her heart—Aura—which they fed to their chosen consorts so that they, too, would be immortal and have supernatural powers.

Their children were Imperium who made more Imperium with mortal Vexillium partners. Eventually too many. Enough that the goddesses’ consorts felt threatened. Paranoid that one consort might have more power than the others, they all ate a second piece of Aura together—and became the Devourers.

Only Bene seemed to hold on to his reason.

“That was Aura,” Bene says, with no conviction. In fact, he immediately changes his wording. “They told us that was Aura. The final pieces of Nova’s heart.”

“It was not Aura,” Allusian snaps. “Our mother gave the last of her heart to give my sisters their consorts. She is no more. What you were given the second time was my heart.”

Bene shivers again, even harder. I feel a little ill myself and my gaze slides to my sister, who is already staring back at me with lips gone white around the edges. “How could they?” she whispers. “How could they do that to their own sister ?”

Aryd has been helping me from within her glass prison. I know it. I learned to trust her because of it. This makes no sense.

“I have asked myself that every single day for centuries,” Allusian admits heavily, then sighs. “My only conclusion is that because humans don’t learn of me until death, they knew their subjects would never discover their treachery. Even reincarnated souls don’t remember their past lives.”

Bene shivers again, the sand of his body making a scratchy sound. “We did not know—”

Allusian cuts her gaze to him. “I believe you, Benedornan. Aryd and Wildernyss were not there the day my heart was taken. This is Tyndra’s doing. The others…” She shrugs. “I’m not sure who followed and who was forced.”

Bene drops his head low, as if he can’t hold it up under the relief. “Thank you.”

The goddesses are monsters and Eidolon comes from the worst of them. “No wonder our ancestresses imprisoned them,” I say under my breath.

“No.” Allusian shakes her head. “Esha and Lillnya did that because of me. With what little power I had left, I was able to reach Lillnya because of her ability to control souls. I spoke to her through their father the day he died and told her my story.” She flattens her palm over where her heart would be, and her face becomes peaceful, as if knowing they were able to contain her sisters is filling the hole inside her. “I ordered Lillnya and Esha to do what they did in order to punish my sisters and save the world from their thirst for power. I fed the twin queens and their allies more power, my power, through the Alignment, which already draws from this dominion and from me .”

“Is that why the sovereigns all died?” Tabra asks. “The nymph told us…”

Guilt ripples over the goddess’s features. “I was enhancing their powers, too. That is how we kept Eidolon at bay. I did not realize that due to my weakness, I would not be able to control how much I fed them. Lillnya used too much of her own power while trapping my sisters, and I could not save her. I was able to keep Esha alive. Barely. But the others…”

Regret can be a palpable thing when someone feels it enough.

Beside me, Reven stiffens so hard I think he might crack a bone. “ That ’ s why,” he says to himself under his breath. Then he turns his gaze on me, searching my face, but I don’t think he’s seeing me. Not really. “You didn’t betray your bondmate. You were obeying a goddess.”

“Not Meren,” Tabra tells him gently. Reminds him that I am the one standing here now. Not my past self. “ Esha was obeying a goddess.”

“I don’t understand,” I say to Allusian. “You had them imprison Aryd and Wildernyss, too, even though they were tricked?”

Allusian winces. “I didn’t remember until a long time after it was all over that they weren’t there. That night they attacked me was all…a jumble.”

“That’s not the only mistake you’ve made.” Reven’s jaw hardens as he stares at Allusian. “Your imprisonment of your sisters caused problems here.”

“Problems?” She tilts her head.

“Don’t you know?” Tabra asks, stronger than before. “Don’t you speak to the souls who come to you?”

Allusian’s gaze snaps to narrow-eyed slits. It’s probably a good thing she’s low on power. “No. Speaking to them is impossible for now,” she says in clipped, distinct words. “Because I am missing the source of my connection to them. You can think of it as my powers being diminished, but I think of it as the source of empathy and emotions. What soul would trust a creature without those?”

Tabra lowers her chin, contrite.

“What problems?” the goddess demands.

“The protections your sisters granted to each dominion to keep their people safe from the Devourers are out of control without them here to regulate.” I quickly describe what’s happening to the dominions. “And Tyndra’s son is just as bad,” I add. “Eidolon, the King of Tyndra. He’s who is bound to me through a nymph’s curse.”

“This is not what I intended.” After a long, silent second, Allusian nods, then faces us. “I will tell you how to release the goddesses.”

Do we trust her?

“Bene?” I’m asking if we can trust her. He knows the history. He knows this goddess.

He bows his head. “Do as your goddess commands.”

Except my ancestresses did that and look what happened. “But—”

“She is the way we set this…all of this…right.”

I tell the others what he said. This can’t be my decision alone. We stare at each other, indecision written over all our features.

“I would not normally offer this,” Allusian says. “But to set your hearts at ease, I will make a promise, bound by what little magic I have left, to help you if you promise to help me first.”

“Mother Nova,” Bene squawks. “A promise from a goddess is no small thing.”

I suck in a sharp, hope-filled breath. If she’s true to her promise, that fixes everything. Everything.

“But only after you return my heart to me.” Allusian’s lips curl in a sneer of distaste. “I can’t have my sisters released until I have the fullness of my powers returned to me so I may protect myself.”

I stare at her, hope sinking to the bottom of my feet.

Damnation. Yet another side quest.

Vos steps toward the portal. “I think I know where your heart is buried.”