Page 333 of The Edge of Darkness

The tether throbbed again, and again, gaining strength with each pulse, as my light fed energy into the bond. Then, shadows burst forth, scattering like wild horses on an open plain. Niall’s essence and mine collided—ignited. A tangled mass of love and light and dark.

Relief rushed though me as I watched his eyelids flutter, but the moment he opened his eyes fully, I froze. His irises were churning, like swirling pits of molten gold, completely different from the honeyed glow they used to give.

He stared back at me with a strange seriousness, scanning my face as if his memories were muddy or slow to return to him.

A few seconds later . . .

“Auren,” he said quietly. His voice was startlingly smooth, with unmatched allure, and that same deep timbre that I knew and loved, but there was an edginess to it now—a dark vein of unknown origin that I could not ignore.

I touched his cheek, still trying to make sense of what was happening. Trying to convince myself that he was truly alive and unharmed.

The hole in his side had closed, leaving a white scar in its place. It was the only evidence that he had been injured. Other than that, he looked . . . perfectly renewed.

Before I could say anything, his attention shifted to something behind me. I followed his stare, turning to find Torin standing a few feet away, watching in silence.

I sat back, allowing him to rise, and when he did, he reached back for me. I took his hand, feeling the newfound grace with which he moved—the same grace I now possessed.

The moment Torin saw his eyes, she fell to her knees, her mouth parting in awe and fear, as if a ghost were standing before her. Quieter than a whisper, one word escaped her lips with a shuddered breath . . .

“Erebus.”

The witch goddess stared up at my mate like he was the harbinger of death.

Karios was also staring at Niall, processing. When he swung his bewildered gaze to me next, I could feel the weight of everything he wasn’t saying. He studied me for a long moment, long enough that I felt laid bare by his stare.

Even now, being a goddess, I recognized my place next to the god-king. I sensed it in my soul. He was the head of the hierarchy. How Lyceius could have gone against him was unfathomable to me. Every bone in my body was ready to bow in natural submission.

He finally spoke, but his tone was tense. “It seems that my kernel of power also gifted you something I did not expect, or predict, Daughter.” He lifted a brow at me, as if to implore me to come to a certain realization. “I am the god of beginnings and creation . . .”

And then it hit me.

I slowly turned to Niall. “I gave you life?”

Karios stepped closer. “He was burned out past his core. There was nothing left to sustain him. When a fae burns through their power like that, there is no coming back from it. But you gave him a way back to himself—a new beginning. You . . . ascended him.”

The prophecy rang clear in my head. The gods will rise upon a new age.

Gods.

More than one.

Some part of it made sense, but the rest didn’t. “So, you’re saying that, somehow, whatever I did to bring Niall back, also made him a god?”

“Yes.”

“But I—I didn’t know . . .” I stared into Niall’s strange eyes. They were now like Karios’s, Lyceius’s, Æbon’s, Torin’s, and Skadi’s, churning in constant motion. “His eyes . . . they’re changed.”

“As are yours, goddess,” Karios said. “It is the mark of a god.”

“How?” I whispered.

Karios tilted his head. “I am still trying to figure that out. My best guess is that the gift of creation somehow entwined itself with your power, and was just enough of a spark to change him, though it has never happened before. No other god on Gaia has ever been capable of creating another.”

The thought of what I’d unknowingly done threatened to overwhelm me as I stared at my mate. He was alive. Alive, and changed.

Then, something else dawned on me, something Aremis had said back in the wraith’s cave . . .

Power can be bestowed by a god . . . Imbued . . . And power that is given in that way is just as good as blood.