Page 146 of Alien God

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

Wylfrael

By the time I crashed down into Sceadulyr’s courtyard, night had fallen, and all the other gods were gone.

“Come out, Shadowlands god!” I screamed into the star-pricked sky. “Come out here and face me!”

I need not have shouted so. He peeled himself out of nearby darkness, like seeping liquid freezing into something solid before my very eyes.

“I do not remember inviting you back here after your earlier insolence,” Sceadulyr said, walking agonizingly slowly towards us. I ignored his words, holding Torrance up, like an offering, a terrible homage to what I’d done.

“Save her,” I gritted out. “She is dying.”

Sceadulyr normally schooled his features into whatever emotion he wanted others to see. But even he could not hide his shock at what he saw in my arms.

“She’s dead, I think you mean,” he said, silver pupils large as he stared down at my bride. “And, if I am not mistaken... is that not the very sword you cut me with in my own home, Wylfrael?” The shock on his face melted into a taunting sneer. The cursed god was enjoying this. Enjoying my pain, enjoying how I suffered. “Clearly, you are entirely too careless with your blade.”

“Save her,” I hissed. My arms shook. “Save her, or I will destroy you and this entire world.”

I meant it, too. The agony inside me expanded like a storm, howling, burying everything. I’d kill him. I’d kill everyone. No one else deserved to live when she did not.

Especially me.

Sceadulyr’s silver gaze was flat and merciless.

“Your threats bore me, Wylfrael. Tell me why I should help you and your pathetic human mate when you have nothing that I want.”

My arms shook even harder. I’d never felt like this – so helpless. So weak. I hated it almost as much as I hated myself.

“I do have something,” I said, hoping against hope that it would be enough. “I have a star map.”

Sceadulyr tensed slightly.

“And?” he said. He sounded like he did not care, but I knew that he did.

“And I will lend my powers to you. I will open sky doors for you, sky doors anywhere, for as long as you want.”

I didn’t want to owe Sceadulyr like this. But there was no other choice. I was on the brink of begging him.

“Take the deal I offer,” I hissed. “Take it. If you save my mate, I will help you find yours and restore your star map.”

Sceadulyr regarded me emotionlessly for so long I thought he’d refuse.

But then, in the casually sudden way one might announce what they intended to eat for breakfast, he said, “Alright. I’ll do it. Bring her inside.”

“Thank you,” I said tightly as I followed him into his palace.

“I don’t want your thanks,” Sceadulyr replied. “Just your star map.”

He led me into a room at the base of a tower that had some furniture and directed me to put Torrance down on a chaise longue with a white linen cushion. Sceadulyr frowned as I did so.

“I hope you know you’ll owe me a new cushion if she bleeds all over that,” he muttered.

It took every ounce of stone sky will inside me not to smash his head in.

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