Page 65 of Gods of Prey
Jovie touches the locket again, and I swear I can see it pulse with soft, dark light. “Thank you,” she whispers.
I sink back into my chair, running my hands over my face. “If the council discovers this...”
“They won’t,” Sebastian says firmly. “We’ll make sure of it.”
“And if they do?” I ask.
The room falls silent for a long moment before Sienna speaks.
“Then we face the consequences together,” she says. “All of us.”
I look at her floating there, this goddess who’s spent millennia paying for one act of rebellion and is now willing to risk everything for another, and I realize something that terrifies me. I’m starting to understand why she’s making these choices.
And worse, I’m starting to think she might be right.
“This changes everything,” I say quietly. “The Divine Council will sense the Death magic the moment Jovie enters Aurelys.”
“Then you’ll hold on to it when we go. Keep it safe until Jovie is ready,” Sebastian replies.
I meet Sienna’s eyes across the room, and in them I see the same desperate hope I’m feeling. The hope that maybe, just maybe, love really can triumph over divine law.
But I also see the fear. The knowledge that we’re all walking a razor’s edge now, and one wrong step could destroy everything we’re trying to protect.
Jovie unclasps the necklace and hands it over to Sienna, wincing when the metal glows and sears her skin as it gets closer to its owner.
As I watch her, I can’t help but think that maybe she’s exactly what both realms need—a mortal woman brave enough to carry Death magic and face down gods for love.
The question is whether any of us will survive long enough to find out.
19
Sienna
We’re only on the third day of watching my brother play mortal teacher and he’s driving me insane.
I hover near the ceiling of Sebastian and Jovie’s apartment, invisible to them both as he carefully explains the concept of divine energy to his mortal wife. She sits cross-legged on their couch, eyes bright with fascination as he demonstrates by making a houseplant bloom with impossible speed.
“Try it,” Sebastian encourages with a gentleness in his tone that I haven’t heard in years, placing his hand over hers. “Feel for the life force in the plant. You won’t be able to manipulate it yet, but you should be able to sense it.”
Jovie closes her eyes, concentrating. After a moment, she gasps. “I can feel it. It’s like warmth, maybe? But also movement?”
“Exactly.” Sebastian’s smile is radiant, proud. “That’s the first step to understanding how Aurelys works.”
I drift to the window, checking the sky. The clouds have been gathering wrong for days now, swirling in patterns that don’t follow natural weather systems. Revel and I have been tracking the signs, and they’re getting worse.
“How long did it take you to learn this?” Jovie asks.
“I was born with this power,” Sebastian says, then catches himself. “I mean, born as a god and bred to be the God of Life. My mortal lives were different. In those, I had to relearn everything each time.”
“Must have been confusing,” Jovie murmurs. “Remembering who you really are.”
“It was.” His voice grows distant. “But this time was different. This time, I had you to ground me.”
I roll my eyes and phase through the wall to escape the domestic bliss. Revel is in his apartment, standing at his own window with a deep frown creasing his brow.
“It’s getting worse,” I say, materializing beside him.
He doesn’t look away from the street below. “Three car accidents in two blocks this morning. All involving people who should have died last week but didn’t.”
