Seventh Seal - Jacquelyn Faye Page 0,93

Almost like black water, the shadows poured in through the gaping wound as I ran.

Ran to catch my falling father.

The shadows swarming behind me didn't stop as my arms wrapped around him and stopped him from crashing to the ground. Blackness completely enveloped the bitch as she cackled in the success of her deathblow. Wordlessly she died as the shadows tore her into pieces no bigger than my Fidget.

"Dad. Dad! Aodh!" I whined pitifully as his labored breaths came slower and slower.

"It is okay, my daughter."

"No. No, it's fucking not. Hang on!" I pulled the slick spear from his wound and tossed it away even as it severely burned my hand. "Heal!"

He shook his head. I poured my power into him, holding my hand over his gaping wound and moving it up to his heart. Back and forth, trying to get the wound to heal and his heart to keep beating. Candace plopped to the ground across from me and lent him her power, too. Josie just knelt by his head, soundlessly sobbing. He reached up and took her hand in his.

"It is okay, my daughters. You're both safe now. Be good to each other. Take care of each other. And your mothers." He winked.

I poured every ounce of power I had left in me into him, and still it wasn't enough. "No. No. You fight, damn it!"

He just smiled and closed his eyes. "I cannot. I may be a god, but I am a god of the night. A spear of the day… Even I can't fight against that," he whispered. And stopped breathing. "I love you both. All of you," he said to my mother, nodded once, and I watched in horror as the light left the god of night's eyes.

"No. No. No, no, no." Pain gripped my chest. Everything we had worked for…everything. It was for nothing. He was gone. Truly gone and nothing would ever replace the hole in my heart I had just filled.

I wailed.

Josie sobbed.

Mother closed her eyes. Tears fell down her cheeks. It was the first time I'd ever seen my mother cry. I never wanted to see it again. The three of us touched him, and beneath our hands, he faded away.

"I am sorry, my sisters."

We all looked up to stare in shock at the goddess herself standing where the shadows batted around the remaining pieces of Belenus.

Reaching down, she smiled and whispered, "Shoo." They scattered before her moonlit presence. The remaining pieces of the goddess of the day, she scattered to the wind. As she stood and stepped forward, her husband coalesced behind her. His antlered head twinkling in her light like exquisitely crafted silver. She was the moon, he was the sun, but in darkness even his bronzed skin was pale.

"We were so close," I said forlornly, sobbing before her, my lip quivering.

"And now you must move on. It is what my brother would want."

"And that was what my sister deserved," the Lord said solemnly. Day and night, moon and sun. They truly were two sets of siblings, married to their opposing forces. But now we were truly without half the gods.

"No. You are not," the goddess said with a smile, reading my thoughts.

Gently she reached out and caressed Candace and Josie, closing her eyes in rapt pleasure.

Josie and Candace looked at each other as power filled them. I smiled as I realized what she had done, imbuing my sister and her lover with power that needed new hosts. Night and Day couldn't have found better avatars. Much better than my father and his insane ex-wife. Hopefully, my sister and her love would bring a little more balance to the world. One day.

"Well, since the night has a new goddess, can I give up my power and go back to being just a Dot?"

The goddess laughed. "You stopped being the goddess of night when you came into your own power. No. Things are going to become much more interesting in the future, goddess of darkness." She winked.

"Oh, come on."

"Well, the creatures of darkness need someone to look out for them. Who better than that which they already adore?" To reiterate her point, the shadows began to swirl and dance around me.

"Well, that hardly seems fair. The sun and the moon. The day and the night. There can't be darkness without light, and I don't see myself getting married anytime soon."

The goddess chuckled. "Your guide back to the mortal realm has arrived." She nodded behind me.

I turned to look and groaned.