Quill’s brow furrowed. The ground stopped shaking. “I… I can feel it,” she admitted reluctantly. “It hurts.”
“That’s right,” Aeris nodded. “Paesha is in pain, and her magic is responding to that pain. We need to calm her down, not make things worse. Can you help me do that?”
The child hesitated, her eyes darting between Aeris, me, and the swirling mass of shadows that contained Paesha and Archer. Finally, she gave a small nod.
“Good,” Aeris smiled. She turned to me, her silver eyes sharp. “Keeper, I think it’s best if you step back for now. Your presence is only agitating things further.”
I clenched my jaw, wanting to argue. But she was right. With a final glance at the writhing darkness, I took several steps back, eyes locked with fucking Aeris, who somehow waltzed in here and took control as if she already had her fist around this family.
“I think you need to go further,” she said, bowing her head, though I could see the corners of her mouth lift. “You’ve done enough this day.”
If I hadn’t already had the satisfaction of punching my brother in the godsdamn face today, I’d be tempted to hunt him down for the release. I couldn’t do shit to her with this audience, and she fucking knew it. Aeris had me by the balls.
She knelt beside Quill, speaking softly to the child, her silver hair gleaming in the fading sunlight. The shadows around Paesha and Archer calmed slightly.
Aeris glanced over her shoulder at me, a triumphant glint in her eyes. “I said, you need to go further, Keeper. Your presence here is no longer required.”
The sheer audacity of her dismissal made my blood boil. This was my game, my rules, my fucking story. And yet here I stood, powerless and pushed aside by a goddess who should know her place.
I wanted nothing more than to unleash my full power, to show them all exactly who they were dealing with. To remind Aeris of her position in the hierarchy of the gods. But as I looked at the scene before me, Quill radiating untapped power, the other woman hovering protectively nearby, and the swirling mass of shadows that held Paesha and Archer, I knew I couldn’t risk it.
So I fucking swallowed my pride and walked away, even though leaving them in the hands of Aeris was probably the most foolish thing I could have ever done.
10
Paesha
Iclawed my way back to reality through a haze of rage and betrayal, each breath burning in my lungs as if I’d swallowed fire. The last remnants of the magical dome shuddered and dissolved, leaving me on my knees in dew-soaked grass, trembling with exhaustion and fury. Power still coursed through my veins like poison, wild and untamed, threatening to consume me all over again. This was not me. This was not who I was. I was more. And I belonged to no one.
Except that wasn’t true anymore. The weight of that left sorrow burrowed so deep within me, I wished I was back in the Maw, dying on the floor, rather than here, facing the reality of being owned. Controlled. Bound.
Alastor’s binding marks seared into my wrists, bands of darkness that felt like chains against my skin. They pulsed in time with my racing heart, each beat sending tendrils of his power deeper into my flesh. Black lines spiraled up my arms like growing vines, testing their reach. After everything I’d survived, after fighting so hard for freedom, I’d been trapped again, not by a crime lord’s bargain but by a god’s manipulation.
He owns you now.
You let him win.
You broke.
The voices grew louder, a chorus of whispers that gained strength from my despair. My Remnants swirled across my skin like moving tattoos, responding to their call, eager to break free and destroy. A battlefield of his magic and mine ran rampant within me. It was too much.
Too much. We’ve never been too much.
I pressed my palms against my temples, trying to silence the dissonance of whispers. That was when I noticed the quiet. Not just the absence of my own screaming magic, but a different kind of stillness. The kind that came with exhausted vigilance, with love that outlasts fear.
Moonlight painted silver streaks through the meadow, illuminating a scene that made my heart stutter. Quill lay curled in a nest of blankets near where the dome of uncontrollable power had held me captive, her wild curls falling across the fabric like spilled ink. Boo’s head rested in her lap, but his brown-tipped tail thumped softly against the grass when he spotted me. She’d stayed. Despite everything, despite the monster I’d become, her waning control over her emotions, she’d refused to leave. Though she shouldn’t have been here at all.
Archer stood a few paces away, a silent sentinel in the darkness. His sword was lowered but ready, those bright blue eyes reflecting fading starlight as he watched the last wisps of my magic fade into nothing. He didn’t speak, didn’t move, just maintained his protective stance between us and whatever might emerge from the shadows. The shadows that now lived inside me.
How long had they waited? Hours, based on the moon’s position and the heavy dew coating the grass. Hours of standing guard while I raged and screamed inside my cocoon of darkness. The binding marks flared, sending sharp pain up my arms. I bitback a cry, not wanting to wake Quill. The dark lines had spread farther, creating intricate patterns that seemed to shift and move of their own accord. They were changing, growing stronger. And with them, the voices grew bolder.
They’ll never be safe with you.
You’re his now.
His weapon.
His destruction.
