with, but only if you can forgive him his rage. Meet with him alone and see what happens. Hear him out and give him a chance to explain what is needed for him to end this war.”
“Why would you create me for a destiny that I cannot fulfill? Why give me something to love and then tell me to walk away from it? I don’t understand how you could be so fucking cold. You gave me a world to fight for and love, and now you expect me to stand witness as everything is being destroyed by your estranged husband?”
“Oh, sweet girl. All the greatest love stories have one thing in common. You have to go against the odds to get it, and you never stop fighting to keep it. You have to fight and want to fight because you love it enough to endure the pain. Anger is useful, wrath is powerful, but rage is devastating. You are grieving, and so is Faery, but there’s no balance here. You have to finish the task you started.
“You have to do what I asked, or Bilé will never stop destroying Faery. Create a balance, and you’ll know what to do to save the people and Faery alike. Let your rage out, little daughter. Let it out to play so the world will sense your power and bow at what you are to become. You are holding back because you think you can hold on to that little sliver of humanity. You are not human, nor are you fully a goddess until you destroy that part of yourself. Let the world hear you scream and watch it answer your cry for help.”
“You know you’re asking the impossible,” I whispered angrily, studying her face for any sign of betrayal.
“No, I created you to be brave in the face of destruction. I created you to dance in chaos as if it was no more than rain. I built the most beautiful mess of pandemonium and devastation that any world has ever known. Stop thinking like a human and think like a pissed-off goddess who just got her ass kicked. Buckle the fuck up, Synthia.
“You’re just getting started here. Finish what I told you to do so that you have what’s needed to soothe the grieving man ripping this world apart. Just don’t kill Bilé, or you destroy Faery and everyone in it, which includes your children. I have to go now, but I will be around soon enough. I brought you the Stag because he was the first thing I created in this world after the Tree of Life was planted. I am proud of what you’ve become. We all have to find where to plant our roots on our own, Synthia. If you can’t figure out where yours belong, Bilé will be more than willing to help you, I’m sure.”
I stared at Danu’s hand as Thanatos held his out to her. My heart raced as she placed her hand into his. He lowered his mouth to her hand, brushing his lips against the skin of her knuckles with a soft kiss. Her words echoed through my head as I creased my brow, uncertain what the hell she’d meant by her last words.
“She looks just like you, Danu. Though she is a lot less conniving and jilted.” I tilted my head, watching the tension in Thanatos’s body language.
“I know, she’s my daughter,” she smiled proudly. “What else would she be, other than perfect?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The brothers were sitting around the table, lost in their grief. Others mingled about, passing around ambrosia to those who had remained long after the funerals had ended. Lena and Lucian sat together, silently speaking with their eyes.
Callaghan studied Erie, who was on her third bottle of alcohol, while she talked to her sisters. She’d pause every once in a while, arguing with them or laughing loudly. Vlad sat quietly, taking in the details of what had happened, staring at us as we filled him in on the appointment of new kings and who we’d lost during the battle.
“So, Bilé just walked through the wards and killed them?” Vlad asked, moving his gaze between us as we nodded. “How