Page 163 of Between Fear and Favor

“Do you bring me Zaphus as consolation for summoning me here and stripping me of my immortality?”

“What?” I asked, eyes widening in horror. That hadn’t been our intention at all. I fought against Em’s shadows, wishing she’d let me stand beside her. There was no reason for her to hold me back, and yet nothing worked against her. I considered using Hanwen’s divinity to tunnel beneath her barricade, but it would take too long. Instead, I hoped she’d feel my desperation down the bond as I called her name.

A tremendous roar from above brought my eyes skyward. I’d expected Irses to find us eventually, but Lux and Shika had found us as well. I wasn’t sure what they could do against a goddess, but their presence brought me comfort.

“I only intended to ask for your favor, goddess,” Em said. “He and the Nythyrian queen sought to destroy the Three Kingdoms, and we simply seek your help.” Em’s skirts turned her lower half into a brilliant blue blur, while her golden-brown hair whipped in the wind.

Nor sobbed beside me, and Dewalt pulled her against his chest.

I was helpless.

“The Three Kingdoms should burn,” the goddess bellowed, and everything went white.

Chapter 74

EMMELINE

As the goddess’sfire erupted, I threw every bit of my divinity into protecting the people sheltered behind me. The meager shadows I’d used to shield myself disintegrated the moment her flames touched them, but I was able to extinguish my dress rather quickly.

“We never intended to?—”

“Of course not!” Aonara screamed. “Just as Zaphus didn’t intend to kill one man I loved while blaming the other. And now, you’ve taken me away from all I had left. The Three Kingdoms are a scourge. Nothing good has ever come from those cursed lands. Rhia blessed him to save my child, and he raised him to be a monster! Every blessing is a curse in the hands of mortals.

If I’m stuck here, in a mortal body, unless I can somehow join Soren in the eternal lands, I will raze it all to the ground.”

I had no idea how Larke Umbroth and Aonara were one and the same. How the goddess, who had lived for thousands upon thousands of years, could be the same woman who had sent the Three Kingdoms into yet another war. But there was no time to ponder that.

All I knew is I needed to stop her. From destroying Rain, from destroying the Three Kingdoms, from acting on a fury so deep I could taste it.

The Supreme’s corpse smoldered nearby, caught up in her flames, and embers from his torched cloak floated in the wind, sailing over the cliffside into the strait. The water behind him was choppy, even the sea seeming to react to Aonara’s presence.

“I’m sorry for all you’ve lost. But there is good in this world. Some of the best of it stands behind me, and I will not let you hurt them.”

Everything moved slower. Aonara lifted her hands, summoning a brighter light than I’d ever seen, and I moved. Without thought, without hesitation, without fear.

Two sides of one coin, lives forever adjoined. Everything finally made sense. We’d both been blessed—it didn’t matter how. Our shared divinity, our shared bond—had created what we were.

If Rain was the Beloved, it only meant one thing.

I was the Accursed.

I’d been touched by Damia, the death-bringer’s constellation freckling my body for a reason.

Running toward the goddess, all I could do was flood the bond with love. Flood it with hope. Flood it with everything I would never get to say.

The fate of our kingdom was bound by lovers, and as I tackled the goddess over the cliffside, trying to stop her heart as her flames burned me alive, I hoped our love had been enough.

Chapter 75

LAVENIA

My brother’sprayers did not go unheard.

The moment I heard his voice, panicked, I knew where he was. Not far from the coast, I hoped I could make it to him in time.

“Rainier needs me,” I said, not willing to explain hearing his pleas. There was time for reflection on my new gifts later. I grabbed Mairin’s hand, not wanting to leave her behind. Foxglove hurried to nestle against Mairin’s neck, and I couldn’t deny the tiny seaborn who had saved me.

The water around me heated and swirled, and I told it where I wanted to go. Within a few moments, the water had grown far lighter, the color that of the Mahowin Strait, and I knew I had arrived.

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