| |
“I THINK YOU ACTUALLY may be a goddess now,” Reyfyre said as he surveyed the apartment littered with broken furniture and our discarded clothing from his vantage point on the edge of the tilted bed.
I breathed a chuckle out. We had destroyed the place in our wild lovemaking. I guess death and destruction bred one hell of a sexual appetite in both of us.
“Thankfully you didn’t bring me to the boat. Otherwise, we would have sunk the damn thing.”
A laugh ripped from Reyfyre, and he threw his head back with it. It rippled his abdomen and bounced off the walls with a musical quality. When he calmed down, he splayed his arms wide on the bed.
His euphoric smile faded away. “I’m not sure what to do with myself now that we’ve succeeded. I honestly thought I would never see this day.”
“What do you think they did with them?” I couldn’t help but ask now that all my itches, and then some, had been satiated by this wonderous man next to me.
The tilted television clicked on with a twitch of Reyfyre’s hand. Of course, the scene at the ball with me wielding the hammer was the news of the day, along with our battle with the guards. Once that looped through, a new scene had both of us sitting up.
Thor and Odin were bound and beaten and on display in Times Square. I couldn’t tell whether Odin was breathing or not. But Thor was still alive as people continued to beat him. It was as brutal as anything they had done, and a sense of wrongness overwhelmed me.
I climbed out of bed and rummaged through my smashed bureau for clean clothes. I still had blood streaked on my skin, so I opted for a quick shower.
Reyfyre stepped in the shower with me, and his hands began to wander.
I knocked them away. “Not now.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I thought that’s what I wanted.” I waved absently toward the bedroom and the television still droning on. “But it doesn’t sit right.”
“He’s getting what he deserves.”
“No, Rey. Justice should be swift and severe and merciful.” I stared up into his blue eyes as I soaped up my hair. I rinsed and slid by him, giving him the shower while I toweled off in the bathroom and dressed.
By the time I combed out my knotted hair, he was standing next to me, doing the same.
“You’re going there, aren’t you?” He put down the comb and folded both our wet towels over the bar before he pulled on a blue T-shirt the same color as his eyes and tucked it into his jeans. The points of his ears peeked out of his wet hair. Without the glamour, he was even more stunning. A fae glow kissed his skin, distracting me.
“Yes. I need to make this right. Brutality for brutality’s sake is no better than Odin and Thor’s tyranny. We need to be better.”
His sigh followed me out of the bathroom.
I searched the mess and found Reyfyre’s boots. I tossed them to him and righted the table and chairs, looking for mine. He attempted to straighten out things as well.
“Found them.” He pulled out my boots from under the crushed side of the bed and tossed them to me.
I slipped them on near the door as we surveyed the damage.
“I don’t think much is salvageable.”
“Well, when you’re done doling out justice, we can come get our clothing and go back to living on the boat,” Reyfyre said. “Until we can build a marble home we can’t destroy in a fucking frenzy.” His grin surfaced like a fresh beam of sunshine.
We turned away from the mess and stepped into the hallway.
People in the building stopped and bowed as we passed, making my mood just a little fouler. The same with on the street. They scattered, letting us through as if we were royalty.
When we got to Times Square, the murmurs preceding us swept through the crowd and they parted like the Red Sea had for Moses.
Odin’s body was still. Multiple stab wounds dribbled thick, dark blood and he just swung in a slow circle from his wrists with his legs bent and his toes anchoring him to the ground. It was a gruesome sight.
Thor wheezed with each breath and one eye stared out of a slit. The other was completely closed. Blood dripped from his lips, and his legs couldn’t hold his weight.
“Come to gloat,” he mumbled through broken teeth and swollen lips.
“No.”
He lifted his head with a wince. “He certainly is.”
“Rey has a right to his feelings. You slaughtered his parents.”
His lips tilted in a bloody smile. “I slaughtered many.” His smile fell as someone passed by behind him and slammed a punch into his kidney.
“Enough!” I yelled, and my wings ripped through my shirt.
The crowd backed up with wide eyes.
“You could have ruled by my side,” Thor whispered as his gaze traveled over my wings.
“No, Thor. You were always too arrogant and self-centered. You have no clue what justice and mercy are. I hated everything you stood for, even back on Asgard. Freya was the one who taught me what mercy truly means.”
“And yet you killed her.”
He was much more talkative than anyone else in his situation would be.
“Yes. In a kill or be killed situation, I will survive, but it wasn’t without scars. You don’t seem to have any remorse for what you have done.”
“I am a god. I do not need to justify my actions to you.”
I put my palm up, and Reyfyre handed me a dagger. It was as if he read my intentions. “I am a warrior. The protector of this realm. And you are no longer a god.” I slammed the blade home in his chest to the hilt. With a vicious twist, I pulled it out of Thor’s heart. “It is not as quick a death as beheading you, but your death will be mercifully quicker than your father’s.”
“I will be waiting for you in Valhalla,” he gasped.
“No. I think you’re heading to Hel, my friend.”
He coughed blood, and I stepped back so it wouldn’t splatter on me.
I spun to the crowd. “What you did was not justice. It was cruel and brutal, just like they were. Do better. Find mercy in your punishments. Protect your humanity, for God’s sake!”
I walked away from the dead bodies with the dripping blade still in my hand, and my wings fluttered in aggravation. Reyfyre matched me step for step as I mourned an entire conglomerate of realms. My home. Reyfyre’s home. And countless others decimated out of greed for power.
Thor could have been magnificent, but he fell into the same trap his father had slipped into.
I studied Reyfyre with a side-eye. Both of us were the last of our kinds. And I wondered whether there were other survivors from different realms here, hiding in the dark like we had for the better part of a year. Hell, Reyfyre hid in the shadows all his life.
Someday, maybe we’d seek them out, but for now, the sea was calling.
THE END
Sign up for J.E. Taylor’s newsletter to receive a Bonus Epilogue!