Page 16 of The Winter Goddess

The Fourth Death

That death was the gentlest. And when I took my first deep breath in months, I knew I was again in Tara. The tightness in my chest was gone and I was back in my immortal body, quick and light and strong.

The walls of the palace were the palest yellow, the first light of dawn spreading across them. I heard the other gods gathering, felt Danu’s presence at my shoulder, but I ignored them all. I wrapped my arms around my knees and closed my eyes, remembering Mór’s face. Her blue eyes, the golden freckles sprinkled across the bridge of her nose, her long black hair, glossy as obsidian. Mór, my Mór, had come back, even after I’d told her what I’d done. Even after she’d learned the truth of me. So even though I wanted to rage at Danu because of her silence, her rejection, I swallowed all my anger and pride and slowly lifted my chin, looked into Danu’s huge green eyes, then got on my knees before her.

“Please send me back to her. I don’t care if she doesn’t remember me. I just need to be with her. I need to see her again. Please,” I begged. “I will ask you for nothing else. I just need to be with her. Until the end.” I reached my hand out to Danu as I had not since I was a child, waiting for her, but she only looked at me with a deep and remorseless pity.

She did not reach back.