Chapter 171

Chapter 171
Isla
It took me a while to realise that what I was feeling wasn't just a shift in the air, or a change inside myself. It was coming from without. A goddess, a weak one who is just barely clinging to life, is using me in an attempt to make herself stronger to reestablish a realm that isn't just failing, it's already collapsed.
But a pocket of that realm remains. I heard the word in my head on the way here one morning. Everyone else in the carriage was asleep apart from the human familiar and a wolf tasked with the job of protecting us.
A female voice. Unfamiliar, yet known at the same time. Persephone. Goddess queen of the fae. They had forgotten about her over the centuries, so when the realm started failing, no one thought to call upon her.
If she is to be believed, she could have saved the realm.
She doesn't know that I know. The destinies, the highest of them all, already decided that the fae have grown too arrogant, too sure of themselves, their power too vast and too sure and big. They needed to be dealt with. They had to die - their realm not just had to be destroyed but crushed, utterly wiped out.
Persephone his in a bubble, a speck of universe the destinies and other gods missed, and now she wants to create new creatures - not quite fae but close enough - she can use to build a new realm.
The destinies spoke to me. I can't let that happen. I am the goddess in charge now. I am stronger the Persephone. I need to wipe her out.
Vladimir doesn't know why he feels it. He is trying t understand why Persephone is using him, but I do... now, I do. I didn't know when we left. "She wants to use you and your vampires," I say to Vladimir. "To make new creatures."
"Yes," Vladimir answers. "She told me. She... worked some kind of god magic to make it happen."
"It's not going to happen," I answer him. "The gods don't will it. The destinies want her to die along with the other fae gods. They tell me that even gods and goddesses die in the end."
"She will kill us if we don't cooperate," Vladimir says.
And I see him. For the first time I see him. The terrified man he truly is. Scared, and tiny, and easily persuaded... it's why Persephone chose him. He's a man, a vampire, who'd stake half a kingdom because he's afraid of his own death.
"You don't have to fear her. She's not as strong as she used to be. She's dying. All it takes for a god to die, is for people to stop believing in her."
"We still believe in her," Vladimir says. "You do."
"I don't worship her. Neither do you." I turn my attention to Aeron. "Do you? Do you worship her?"
He snorts softly and sips on the drink I made. Lauren is quiet, watching us with hooded eyes. She doesn't trust me, and I have no idea why. I didn't do anything to her, I didn't make a move on her maker, I couldn't care less if they lived or died.
But she hates me all the same.
"All we have to do is resist her," I say. "And she will die. It may be ten days from now, it may be 10 decades, but she will die."
"That is the problem," Vladimir says. "I have a hard time saying... no, to gods."
I laugh softly and nod. "Yes, I know. That is why you came here right? You wanted me to talk you out of it? Without Persephone hearing us?"
"Well-" he shrugs and gives me a sheepish grin -"Aeron, but if you can do it that will work fine too."
Aeron groans softly and pinches the bridge of his nose, as if this is somehow worse than the stupid war that was only meant to distract us. One day, I will tell them all how Persephone engineered that war to keep their attention away from her. Not just the vampires, wolves, and fae, but also the destinies and other gods. She knew, right from the start, that Faerie would fall, so she created the bubble where she could hid. The she started a war so no one would look at her.
I guess, at the end of the day, gods and goddesses are just as sneaky, untrustworthy, and terrified as humans and vampires are. Only, we pray to them, we want them to solve our problems.
And they can do it, they have the power. I have the power, I can feel it... but at the same time, I'm so, so scared. I still feel very human. At the core of my being. I am a vampire. I am a goddess. But inside, I'm frightened little girl with daddy issues.
"So what's the plan," Aeron asks. "We kill Persephone."
"We don't make her hybrids. They will give her power," I say and pull my leg up, resting my heel on the edge of the stool. "Vladimir can't be trusted not to do it. He allows fear to rule him, to make his decisions for him."
With a smile, my groom turns to his brother. "Oh, I think we all know that. So he stays here?"
"Yes," I agree. "Until Persephone's light goes out."
"Where do they go," Lauren asks abruptly. "Gods. When they die. Where do they go? They create their heaven and hell, don't they?"
I shake my head and smile. "Who knows? I suppose, one day, we'll find out. When we die, all questions are answered, aren't die?"
"What if we never die?" Lauren asks.
"Then I guess we'll never know. Don't concern yourself with the gods and the worlds of the gods. They become one with the creation. When we die..." I shrug and drop my shoulder, but don't go on.
Mostly because I don't know what to say next. All I know is that what is supposed to happen next, can't happen. "Maybe we should lock Vladimir in the dungeon. To make sure he doesn't give in to Persephone's demands."
Aeron says the thing I thought he'd say. "She'll find different vampires. Someone else she can... seduce."
"You are wrong. She needs me." I didn't know until right this moment. "She needs me because I'm the creator of worlds. She needs me and you and Vladimir because we make a triad - the thee of us can turn werewolves."
"Why the three of us specifically?" Aeron asks?
I shrug again. "I don't know. That part has not been revealed to me. But I am one of a kind. Vladimir can go. I won't give in to her. I won't do it."
"No," Aeron says to my surprise. "Vlad stays. Persephone can seduce him, find another way to get what she wants. There's safety in numbers, and Vladimir stays."