Page 162 of Between Fear and Favor

The ground stopped shaking.The heavens split open, and the sun was almost blinding as it shined down. On the ground behind Rain, I sat in his shadow, looking down at the bones and blooms before me.

I blinked a few times, thinking it was just a trick of the light. My grip on the dagger loosened, and it fell to the ground. Mouth agape, I looked up at Rain. With his blade unsheathed, he took a defensive stance, ready to protect me from whatever threat the goddess might pose.

But it should have been me guarding him.

I looked down at my palms, turning my hands over and searching for what I knew wasn’t there. My breaths came faster, and my mouth dried out. Eyes darting from the pile of blooms and bones to the man who had saved me and loved me and protected me for so long.

Tears filled my eyes, and all I could hear was the thundering pounding of my heart.

Because I hadn’t cut my hand.

I hadn’t had a chance. The moment Rain passed the final flower to me, and I’d set it atop the Supreme’s bones, we’d summoned the goddess.

Rainhad summoned the goddess.

His blood, only present on the tip of a thorn, had been enough.

“You,” I whispered, staring at his strong back. Taking him in. Understanding swept over me. “You’re the Beloved,” I said.

But he couldn’t hear me. Blinding white, as if delivered from the sun itself, a woman stepped out of the light.

Chapter 73

RAINIER

Aonara’s long,straight hair was white, like my daughter’s. Her eyes shone white, just like Elora’s did when she was angry.

And the goddess was furious.

“How dare you?” she screamed, and divine fire encircled us. I didn’t regret having my sword at the ready, but against the might of a goddess, it felt futile.

Nor screamed, and Dewalt covered her. We’d been stupid to allow them to come.

“We only seek your favor!” Em shouted, running past me to stand between me and the goddess.

“Em, get behind me,” I bellowed, but she ignored me. Expending more divinity than I’d ever seen her use, she used her shadows as a barrier between the rest of us and the goddess.

“You seek my favor by forcing me to the mortal plane? Do you know what you’ve done?” The woman’s voice was bone-rattling, both deep and high at once. It was unsettling. I could barely look at her, the glow of her white eyes near blinding.

“Em,” I pleaded, trying to use my own divinity to thwart hers. Though I might have shared her gifts, they had only been an extension of hers, and she quickly overpowered me. I could barely see her through the shimmering black barricade between us.

Aonara stepped closer, peering through Em’s barricade. As her gaze penetrated the shadows, two beams of light cutting through, I held my breath as she took each one of us in.

She didn’t linger on Dewalt, moving quickly to Nor. She tilted her head, almost in recognition, but she moved on. As her eyes rested on Lasu and the Supreme, the fire she’d created to encircle us all flared hot.

The Supreme gaped at the goddess. With an open mouth, he fell to his knees. “I’m sorry, Larke. Oh gods, how?”

“Do not speak to me with that name,” the goddess boomed, and I merely stared between the two of them. He had called Aonara by a different name. The name of the woman he’d betrayed and tried to resurrect. “You are long dead to me, Zaphus.”

My heart was a stampeding creature in my chest. “What in the gods’ name,” I breathed, unable to follow. Aonara had ruled as a goddess for millennia. How could the Supreme think she was Larke?

“You,” Aonara said, pointing an outstretched finger toward me.

“Do not look at him!” Em shouted, focusing more of her shadows on the barrier in front of me. Before the goddess’s gaze could penetrate it, Em stepped forward. “Your grievance is with me, and me alone. I am the one who summoned you!”

The goddess laughed, the flames flaring in correspondence with the noise. “You take ownership of this, then?”

“Yes!” Em cried, and then we all began to move. Em’s shadows gathered Nor and Dewalt, dumping them in a heap beside me. A breath later, Lasu joined them. And then she turned. Leaving the Supreme unprotected, she moved, forcing the goddess closer to the man she seemed most angry with. With her back to the sea, I wondered what Em could possibly be planning.

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