Page 480 of Kingdoms of Night

“Who?”

Somehow, he met my eyes. “My mother.”

CHAPTERSIX

My breathing was the loudest thing in the room. The revelation was hard to swallow, like a dry lump of bread needing to be washed down with any kind of clarification, because what kind of son gets cursed by his mother?

What did he do to earn such ire?

Senseless panic crept in as he approached, and I raised my arms, searching for my dagger.

“Looking for this?” Out of his cloak, he removed my wavy dagger. “I have seen only one of these before—when my mother’s husband attacked Mahala.”

There was no way he didn’t understand what this meant, and I knew what that spelled for my fate.

He came closer, and my blood chilled. “Is this why you’re here, Meissa?” He twirled the dagger, examining it with detached interest. “Have you come to kill me?”

Was there any use in denying it? “I was sent to rid us of the beast that eclipsed our nights, and came to spare my sister from dying at his hands, in the hopes that he would die at mine.”

“I see.” On the last twirl, he extended the dagger, handle-first. Shaking, I took it, and waited for him to sic that lurking dragon on me.

He held out his arms, chest exposed. “Do it.”

“What?”

“Kill me.”

“But-but you’re a god!” I spluttered.

“I was. Now I’m a prisoner of this curse, unable to continue my prior purpose, or take what was given to me.” Tamuz came to a kneel before me, head on level with mine. “I’ve done what should have freed me, and I don’t have time to try again. Might as well give her what she wants early and leave on my own terms.”

His hand wrapped around mine, making me gasp in between rising sobs as he brought the blade to his chest. “Go ahead.”

This was what I had come here to achieve, an opportunity I couldn’t have dreamed of—but couldn’t take.

I couldn’t do it, from both the weakness and the faltering drive.

Why couldn’t I do it?

Trembling harsher, I raised the blade to where his throat ought to be and he tilted his head, showing me a neck made of three shades of grey, not quite solid, but stark against the surrounding blackness.

I should just do it quickly, and then truly throw myself off the platform before his courtiers caught me. I would have done what was asked from me by all, including who I executed.

Instead, this would no longer be a quest to slay a beast, but murdering someone who suffered along with us below. Someone who’d saved my life from an unplanned but welcomed end.

Hesitance kept us in place for excruciating minutes, until his fingertips brushed my arms. “What happened?”

In the filtered sunlight, my bare forearms were visible, revealing the handprints that marked them like tattoos.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” I licked my dry, trembling lip. “Why would a goddess, who birthed you, curse you? Did she not want to share the skies with Mahala?”

“She wanted tobeher, on par with the Sun, singular and bright, not share worship with her husband among the stars.” He stroked my forearms, touch cool on my burning skin. “When Mahala refused to concede, and instead offered her a role managing lunar aspects as I did, it enraged her. She attempted to overthrow us both, to take the whole station for herself.”

“But she failed?”

“Because instead of aiding her efforts, I did all I could to fight her off.”

“And she cursed you for it.”

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