Page 48 of The Scattered Bones

I waketo the sound of dirt crunching beneath boots, and I blink, forcing my vision to focus. Kaid had woken at midday, and with The Stranger’s help, I dressed him and fed him some broth. The movement exhausted him, and he fell asleep in my arms after only an hour, but it was a glorious hour. The brightness in his eyes burned a path straight to my heart, and I’ve never been so content just to sit and hold something. I hadn’t meant to fall asleep. I wanted to remain awake, to trace the lines of his face with my eyes, but the fiery sunset tells me I’d slept for a few hours. Kaid’s head still rests on my breast, his breathing steady, and I kiss his brow before searching for what woke me.

The sound comes again, farther away, and my gaze finds The Stranger. He’s walking into the sunset, and with anxiety crowding my chest, I slip out from under Kaid’s peaceful form.

“Wait!” I race after him, skidding to a stop in the dirt as he turns. “You’re leaving?”

“You don’t want me here, my child.” He smiles, cupping my face. “Not for this reunion.”

“I…” I trail off, knowing he’s right, yet his departure still nags at me. I haven’t gone without his voice for more than a few days, and I’m not ready to lose him. “Are you leaving me?”

“Sellah, my Sellah.” He pulls me into his embrace, hugging me tight. “I will never leave you. I swear it.”

I heave a sigh of relief against his chest, and he leans back to stare into my eyes. He says nothing, but an understanding passes between us. He isn’t my birth father. He’s not Hreinasta. He won’t forsake me.

The Stranger holds my gaze for a moment, then with a smile, he turns to leave.

“Who are you?” I capture his wrist, forcing him to face me.

“Have you not figured it out?” he smirks, his white eyes flashing. His are colorless, unlike the others with their faint irises, but they’re the same. The eyes of a god.

“Death,” I whisper, and he nods. “How? Hreinasta banished you. She eradicated your cult. How are you here?”

“Because of you, my child. Because of your faith.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I had no standing in this world or in the gods’ realm after she exiled me. Without the faith of the gods or mankind, I had no foothold,” he explains. “I wandered for centuries in the nothingness, searching for a crack, for an escape from my exile, and I found that in you. Your despair was so great that in the darkness, you longed for a way to undo your pain. You didn’t realize it, but your longing was almost a prayer, and I heard you. I was but a whisper when you first met me, but as your faith grew, so did my presence. My footing in this world is complete. The moment Kaid remembered you, your belief in me solidified. I now have an acolyte, and because of that, Hreinasta’s banishment has ended. It took but one believer to open the door. Although I suspect your husband will soon follow your lead.”

“Why…” I swallow, my throat suddenly dry. I’d unleashed Death. Had I made a mistake? Would the world burn for my actions? “Why did she abolish your cult? Have I condemned the realm by freeing you?”

“Oh, my child,” Death laughs. “You, of all people, should know Hreinasta isn’t the goddess she claims to be. When Lovec claimed you, you believed it was because you were both the same.” He trails his fingers down my nose where Lovec marked me in blood. “He had lost his wife, and you, your husband. When Udens granted you safe passage through the Vesi, you believed it was because you were not so different. You both understood the pain of losing those you care about.” He cups my jaw, and I realize what he’s about to say will break my heart. “You and I are the same. We understand what it is to lose love at Hreinasta’s hands.”

“No.” I shake my head, dreading his confession.

“I am a primordial god, as is she.” Death brushes my cheek with a long finger. “Life and death. The beginning and the end. Light and dark. Good and evil. We were the first, but at the dawn of time, there were three primordial deities, Hreinasta’s twin completing the trinity.”

I pinch my eyebrows at his revelation. The Pure One has no siblings. I served in her temple, yet none of her priestesses knew this.

“They embodied life, and in life, there is good and evil,” he continues, sensing my doubt. “Many believe I am darkness and evil, but I am simply death. The end of life. Only the living can be evil, and Hreinasta and her sister manifested the scales of morality. Hreinasta believed she was goodness and purity and her twin the expression of sin, but I didn’t see it that way. Both sisters were light and dark in their own ways, good and evil trapped equally between them. Hreinasta loved me, and trusting she was the holier sibling, she felt I belonged to her. I never did. I couldn’t. One look at her sister, and I was hers.

“Our love was unbreakable. It consumed everything in its path, but in her jealousy, Hreinasta killed her twin, hoping it would force me into her bed.

“I am death, though. Killing her wouldn’t keep her from me, so Hreinasta forced Valka’s hand. He bound my love’s soul to her body and carved her into pieces, her trapped spirit shredding as they cut her apart. Then he scattered her bones to the corners of the realm and burned her chest and heart to ensure I could never resurrect her.”

I inhale a horrified breath. Kaid hadn’t been her first victim. Hreinasta has done this before, murdering her own sister. “That’s why you told me it was fortunate I saved Kaid’s torso from the flames when we met?”

“Yes.” Sorrow paints his features as he speaks. “I can never return my love to life because they burned part of her soul. In death, a person’s spirit moves on, but if it’s bound to the body and then destroyed, there’s nothing I can do. Hreinasta knew that, and she wanted to ensure I never saw her again.”

“I…” I trail off at a loss for words and settle for slipping my hand comfortingly into his.

“Hreinasta hoped her sister’s death would force me to choose her, but my disgust only grew. I threatened war and carnage, and to save her image, the Pure One banished me with lies. I ceased to exist until you pulled me from the nothingness.”

“Why did she kill Kaid that way?” My anger at the pure goddess doubles with each passing second. “You were gone from this world. Returning the dead was impossible.”

“Because death is not cruel enough. Without her sibling, she now embodies both good and evil, yet she considers herself better than us. She believes herself so righteous that she became the very evil she loathes. Hreinasta despised you for choosing Kaid over her, as I loved her sister instead of her. She wanted you to suffer.”

I look back at my sleeping husband with fear. “If she hates me that intensely, will she come for him again?”

“You’re safe, my child.” Death tightens his hold on my hand. “You are mine, and I protect what’s mine. She won’t lay a finger on you or the family you two will build. Lovec claimed you, and he won’t allow suffering to befall you. Neither will Udens, and I suspect Varas still cares for Kaid after how he aided you at Valka’s temple. Elskere blessed your marriage. The wed gods won’t wish to see you parted since your bond pledged in their name helped you find his bones. Hreinasta won’t touch you.”

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