began to glow an eerie blue as power entered the field. “You could, but you would break her mind. You force her memories to return, and you’ll never get her back. She has to want to remember. You think you could just make it so? You wanted her powerful, and she is.
“You wanted her to lose parts of herself, but she didn’t need to lose them. Those parts, the humanity that you thought held her back—it didn’t. Someone is holding her back. So, you need to ask yourself who that could be, Ryder? That fucking humanity, it is rare, and it is who she is and a huge part of why she’s so fucking beautifully fierce and loves your family. She stood outside your bedroom and threatened to take me on to protect your family, Ryder. So, stop assuming you can just rip parts of her out to make her accept what you need for her to ascend. You can’t take the piece of a person that make them into who they are and rip them out without damaging consequences.
“She didn’t need to fucking sacrifice her humanity to grab her power. She just needed to feel secure enough to do what is needed of her. What you ought to do is ask yourself why your wife didn’t feel safe enough to grab what was rightfully hers to take?” Thanatos muttered. “I’ve watched you both struggle to rule, but here’s the thing: It’s not about who has the power or who is stronger than whom. It’s about finding a balance, and if you can’t find it together or take her as she is, you will lose her. She’s an amazing woman, so don’t think there’s not a fuckton of us men hoping you fuck up and we get a shot with her.
“Good luck, you’re going to fucking need it. The creature only ate her favorite memories, which were of you and your children. Lucky fucker,” Thanatos groaned before vanishing with the reapers in a cloud of dark smoke. I turned, studying Synthia as she watched me, her eyes narrowed as if she was plotting my murder.
“Fucking great, she’s reverted back to a fucking guild enforcer, and I’m enemy number one, again.”
Flames of Chaos
by
Amelia Hutchins
Chapter 1
Exhaling a long, shaky breath, I stared at the lights of the city below the cliff I stood upon. Haven Falls, a city of immortal beings that weren’t even from the Human Realm. A place that haunted my dreams and lived in every nightmare I’d ever had. It was nestled between winding valleys, hidden within them to remain a secret from the mortals whose realm we lived in. I’d stood in the same spot long enough for the day to become night. The town had turned from a bustling hub of activity to a lighted dreamscape.
I’d been twelve when my Aunt Aurora had taken us away from here, away from the cruel brutality of the immortal realms from which we’d come. This place held no appeal and no good memories for me. It was the center of everything I hated; everything I wished to burn down and feel the ashes of the wreckage between my toes. I’d dreamt once I had burned it down, leaving those who stood aside and watched me being tortured, brutalized, and terrorized by my mother, in ashes.
My sisters didn’t share my vision of this place, nor had they endured what my mother put me through trying to end my life. They relished being home, seeing their old friends while helping me search for my twin, who had been missing several months now without a single sign of her.
My eyes lifted toward the galaxies of stars above and then lowered to fall on the oldest of my sisters as she moved to where I stood.
Sabine was everything gentle and motherly to us since she was the oldest and had been present for every set of twins being born, and also because our mother was a heartless bitch. We had to learn quickly to depend on one another in order to survive. Stopping beside me, she peered up at the stars before she spoke.
“Once we enter the town, they’ll know we are