chance this world has left. You intended to take the horde away from Faery. I sensed it. I felt it to my fucking core. You didn’t tell me, not because you couldn’t. You chose to keep this from me because you planned to do it and then allow me to learn about what you had done after the fact. It’s easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission, right?
“Our children are tied to this land, accepted by it. I am not going to sit back and watch you become mortal. Do you understand? I will not watch you age and die and be forced to go on without you. I will not watch my children age and die with their mixed blood that links them to this land. If we abandon Faery, we become part of the next world we join. The fae are creatures of nature, and if we seek to take them out of this world, into the land of mortals, we condemn them to become that.
“I am a goddess, Ryder. You cannot make that choice for me. You cannot ask me to give you forever and then plan to take it away without so much as a whisper. We are Faery and the fae who will not bow before any god who demands we do so. Bilé can bow before us, or he can die. You changed my life without asking me, and so I have done the same to you. You brought me here. You made me love this land and those who reside within it.” Ryder turned to walk away from me, but I grabbed his arm, stopping him.
“Ryder, you killed Adrian to have me, so you don’t get to leave me. I would have remained mortal had it not been for you hunting me during the Wild Hunt. You transported me through a portal, igniting the fate of this world. I set it on fire when I entered. Had you never brought me here, it would have been okay.”
“So you fucking poison me?” he demanded hoarsely.
“You brought me into this fight as much as my mother did. You don’t get to choose our path alone. I gave you Danu’s essence, but only you can decide if you want to accept the next step. Choose me, Ryder. Don’t leave me here alone. If you reject the essence of the gods, I will understand and honor your choice,” I said with tears running down my cheeks.
“But you need to understand this: I will pull away from you. I will begin to distance myself so that when you walk away, and I am left here to fight Bilé alone, I am not brokenhearted when I do. I fed you a sliver of my soul to combine the beast within you as one. Your beast was created to hold the essence of the gods, to make you into one. I was only meant to anchor you for a little while until Danu could figure out how to turn you into a new god to rule her people. I died, and she used her life to save mine. She used the essence that was supposed to go to you for me. I stole your title by dying, and now I am giving it back to you.”
“By taking my choice away?” he demanded, growing taller as he pushed me against the wall, squeezing his hand tighter around my throat.
“You are not listening. I chose to become a goddess. I chose you instead of death. Only you have the final choice on whether you accept the essence and evolve, or refuse and you will remain the same. I only gave you the chance to choose your next move.” His hand loosened, and then he stepped back, watching me as I remained against the wall.
“I have to choose what, exactly?” he snapped harshly, glaring at me with a lethal look that broke my heart. “You or my brothers’ lives, Synthia? I fought for them. I have continued to fight for them. If it’s between becoming a god and watching them die, you can bet your pretty little ass I will choose to save my brothers every time. I just lost three of them tonight. Three that I have fought with every-fucking-thing I