“Are you listening, daughter?” Shea glared over his shoulder, shadows darkening over his face.
I could feel Asher’s strong gaze at my back, warning me to not take his bait. “Sheol is not just the realm of the dead. It is the afterlife for all of Faerie's creations." I repeated his last sentence, my eyes narrowing on him, imagining what it would be like to send him into a true afterlife while ignoring the very obvious fact that in a moment’s notice, he could swallow us up whole and I would have no way of stopping him.
Just then, I resented him more than I ever thought possible.
Glancing down at my own progeny, swinging her hand in Emon’s hold, I wondered if she would one day feel the same about me?
I shook off the feeling, now was not the time for self doubt despite it currently running rampant inside.
"Yes. That is correct and what you see before you is Eithne,” Shea continued, facing forward again with a proud smile that belonged on the face of a real father, not the god in front of me.
I glanced back over my shoulder at Asher with a hard glare, but he merely grinned, tapping his ear. Sensing the twitching smiles of the others and hearing another chuckle enter my mind from my soulmate, I rolled my eyes before schooling my face again, listening to the prattling of the death god and the hidden words he wasn’t saying.
“This world is where souls come once their physical lives have been extinguished, but not all get to experience this side of it,“ he continued on like a goddess damn tour guide. “Like all things this world must have balance.” The white sands arched up around him, siren-like in their evocative waves, and our group stepped closer towards Riella.
"What is the Eithne?" my daughter called out from between all the protective legs of her family, suddenly acutely aware of the conversation around her.
I frowned, glancing at the loyal fae who guarded her devotedly. Did I really consider them family now? It had been so long since I had any, that I almost didn't recognize it.
"Yes. We are your family,"Emon's voice whispered inside my mind, reading me easily."You are mine, I am yours. Which means you will be getting all my baggage too. Will you still have me knowing this?"he teased, but I could also detect the vulnerability in his question.
I shot him a glare but could not hold it fully. "Does it mean I have to share you, because I do not like to share."
“So I have experienced before, but that was with pastry…are you telling me that I am finally equivalent to your favored treat?”He purred softly in my mind.
That sound…goddess that sound, sent shivers down my spine and he knew it. His solid, powerful frame standing proudly and straighter within the light of low flying comets.
"The Eithne," the death god answered gently to my daughter while giving me a backwards look of annoyance, reading Emon and I’s exchange easily, setting him off balance and placing the game more in my favor, "is a place of solace where a soul is able to rest peacefully and live out their purest pleasures without the burden and strife the world of the living causes."
“Wow,” Riella gasped, leaning eagerly forward, reaching out to the white sands, stretching Emon’s arm with her.
Captured by her stunning innocence and her swirling green gold eyes, I watched as she tracked the galaxies above, her long wild tendrils of blue black hair falling away from her cherubic face, her bronze skin shimmering in the twilight.
"Look." She pointed, her soft musical voice a command none of us could ignore.
Heads raised in unison, we all watched in stunning silence as hundreds of stars shot across the sky, raining colorful dust upon our upturned faces, falling silkily over our bodies in a sparkling shimmer.
Releasing her hold on Emon, Riella reached upwards, cupping her hands to gather the stardust with bright curiosity.
"Taste it, granddaughter," the death god coaxed her softly, sending more dust into her cupped hands.
Both Emon and I instantly latched onto her arms, shattering her enchantment and stopping her from leaning in to taste the stardust.
“No,” we both growled, glancing at each other with reluctant amusement before turning towards the laughing death god, fury igniting in our eyes.
In one second, I pictured a hundred different ways I could eliminate that smile off his face.
"I promise you it is safe, daughter. See," he said ignoring our glares, gathering some of his own glittering dust and licking it. "Mine tastes like strawberries and cream."
Riella squealed with excitement planting her face head first into the pile of dust before we could stop her.
“Riella,” I admonished but she could no longer hear me, squealing again and licking eagerly at her hands.
Catching Emon’s worried look, he sighed.“Our cub trusts far too easily for this world.”
Glancing down at her, she laughed loudly, looking up at me with her face smeared in stardust. “It tastes like dragon fruit!”
I released her arm when her tongue came dangerously close to slobbering my own body.“I know.”
