Page 128 of Courting War
Champion of Theoden
RIVER ORCUS, UNDERWORLD
Some souls floated in the River Orcus, some sat on its banks, and others picnicked beside it, gossiping and playing at an afterlife. Some souls frolicked in the water like mermaids, but none clawed, begged, or bartered.
No, they were happy and at peace.
It wasn’t the river foretold in story books or whispered about in the dead of night.
It wasn’t a warning; it was a welcome.
“What?” he asked, awed.
Erety giggled, her white wings folding into her back. An Angel of Death indeed. “It’s not as advertised.”
“Not at all.”
“Death is not a curse, Kellyn,” Erety said. “It’s a new beginning. A new awakening.”
Kellyn felt a jerk on his back. At his tether.
All souls were tethered to their bodies until their funeral. Kellyn felt like a puppy on a leash, waiting for his owner to release him into a field. He couldn’t truly enter his new life until thatleash was severed. But instead of breaking, it was pulling him back. Confusion riddled him.
He stumbled.
It pulled him back.
He stumbled again; the tether tight. “I don’t understand.”
“You’re not meant to stay here.” Erety smiled. “You’re meant for much greater things. After all, you won the heart of a death god triplet.”
His brow furrowed. “I—what?”
“Let the tether take you back, Kellyn,” she said. “Let go.”
Kellyn listened because he had made Theo a promise. He’d stop at nothing to get back to her.
Chapter Forty-Four
THEODRA
Determined Goddess of War
BALLROOM, CITY OF THE GODS
Turning on her God Sight, Theo saw Kellyn’s strings of life wrapping around his body. They were frayed and crumbling to ash but weren’t yet broken. That wouldn’t happen until his soul crossed the River Orcus. She couldn’t mend Kellyn’s strings. She couldn’t restore them to their mortal form because of the rules governing the god’s realms of influence, but . . . she didn’t have to.
All Theo had to do was braid them into hers.
And she did, softly lifting one of his fraying strings with a single finger. It felt like velvet electricity. Hard to hold due to all the energy, yet delicate and beautiful. With much less care, she folded her strings between her fingers and slowly and methodically laced the glittering silver and lilac strands together. As she moved, she wove all three of his strings into hers.
Theo held her breath the whole time, not wanting to get her hopes up—not wanting to risk it failing.
But she shouldn’t have worried.
Because as his strands touched hers, they solidified and remade themselves stronger—taking on the essence of thesurrounding strings. Absorbing the energy. Theo wasn’t bringing him back to life. She wasn’t stealing his soul from Death. She was simply braiding strings and letting them respond. It was a loophole she was willing to exploit.
Love was more important than rules.
