Page 31 of Gods of Prey
“Have you ever experienced love? The kind you’d sacrificeeverythingfor?” She slides her gaze over to me, and all I can do is shrug.
Sienna laughs, the sound hollow and echoing off the buildings around us.
“I’m not surprised your mother didn’t want to share our transgressions. I’m not even shocked to hear that you agreed to take on this role without questioning it. But our crime doesn’t matter. The punishment we’ve received is worse than any crime we could have committed.” She pauses, glaring down at the pavement at our feet as her form flickers with emotion. “So tell me, Revel, great and righteous interim God of Life: How am I supposed to drag my brother away from the one thing that has made him happy in centuries? How am I supposed to condemn him back to this punishment when I know exactly what it costs?”
The raw pain in her voice strips away my defenses. For the first time, I truly see her. Not as the sarcastic, difficult goddess I’ve been sparring with, but as someone who has endured unimaginable suffering. Someone who, despite everything, still loves deeply enough to question her own mission.
“You shouldn’t have to,” I hear myself say, surprised by my own words.
Sienna goes still, her form solidifying as she stares at me. “What?”
“You shouldn’t have to,” I repeat, stronger now. “Either of you. The punishment is cruel. Excessive.”
“That’s...not what I expected you to say.” She drifts closer, suspicious. “You’re the one who’s been pushing to get Sebastian back to Aurelys at any cost.”
I run a hand through my hair, frustrated. “Because that’s my job. That’s what I was told to do. Maintain the balance.”
And haven’t I always done this? Blindly follow orders, regardless how I truly feel?
“And now?” she presses.
“Now I think the balance can go to hell.” The words feel like blasphemy coming from my lips, but they’re true. “Fifty mortal lifetimes of suffering is not justice. It’s torture.”
Sienna’s form brightens slightly, hope flickering across her features before she masks it. “The Divine Council won’t see it that way.”
“Then the Divine Council is wrong.” I step forward, my hand passing through her arm as I instinctively try to touch her. The cold sensation sends electricity up my spine. “I’ve spent weeks watching you both. Seeing what this punishment has done to you. It’s enough, Sienna. It’s been enough for a long time. I only wish I realized it sooner.”
She looks at me with an expression I can’t quite read. “Why do you suddenly care? We’re barely even friends. You stand to gain more if Sebastian and I are exiled or destroyed.”
I laugh, the sound echoing in the empty alley. “Friends? No. We’re not friends.” I step closer to her spectral form, close enough that I can see the individual lashes around her sage eyes. “But I think I stand to lose more going against you than anything else.”
Surprise flashes across her face, followed quickly by wariness. “Don’t mock me, Revel. Not here. Not about this.”
“I’m not mocking you.” My voice drops lower. “I’m saying that watching you, learning about you—it’s changing things. Changing me.”
Her form wavers, becoming less distinct. A defense mechanism, I’ve learned. She does this when emotions threaten to overwhelm her.
“You don’t even like me,” she whispers.
“I didn’t understand you,” I correct her, carefully using past tense. “There’s a difference.”
For a long moment, we stand there in silence, a god and a goddess’s ghost on a dirty New York street where she bled out alone. The weight of centuries hangs between us.
Finally, Sienna speaks, her voice barely audible. “If we defy the council, if we try to help Sebastian stay with Jovie...we could both be punished.”
“I know.”
“You could lose everything.”
I nod once. “I know that, too.”
She drifts slightly closer. “Why would you risk that? For Sebastian? For me?”
For me. She says it so skeptically. As if no one has ever gone out of their way for her. Like no one has bothered to step into the fray for her.
And maybe that’s been true. But not anymore.
I look at the spot where she last died, then back at her ghostly face. “Because some things are worth the risk. Because I’m starting to think the rules we’ve both followed for so long might be wrong.”
