Page 144 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

“Because it doesn’t surprise me that nature adores you, too, my beautiful friend.”

The silly man was never going to drop it. Tilting my head back, I looked up at him. “Maybe they have no choice.”

“Do you know that spiders will cut off a weak, sick or injured limb? Starfish detach their limbs, too, for the same reasons. As do humans. I’m sure that if they had felt danger or rot from you, they would have detached themselves from you. But they haven’t.”

“What if they can’t?”

“Nature would find a way.”

“How do you know so many facts about spiders and starfish?”

“Rain told me all about them one night. Didn’t let me sleep until I repeated it all back to her.” He pressed his brow to mine. “Any success with magic?”

I shook my head. “I don’t even know what’s wrong. It just stopped obeying me. It’s there, I can feel it, but it’s like there is a brick wall in front of it now.”

He sighed. “Maybe you should reconsider throwing the Solstice ball.”

“Not this time. This is the perfect opportunity for Isliners to mingle with Isjordians.”

“They will be forced to.”

“Perfect plan. No?”

“You’re evil,” he crooned, kissing me. “So, so evil.”

I tilted my head, studying Krig’s statue before me. “This is your doing, isn’t it?” I asked, my voice booming around the empty temple. “What the hells do you want from me?”

Balling a fistful of snow, I threw it right at it.

Skadi shook her head. “Out of everything, that somehow feels like the most disrespectful thing you’ve done in this holy place.”

My eyes drew shut and I shook my head. “You know, Skadi, you know what is happening to me. Why won’t you tell me what is happening to me?”

“Are you in the habit of speaking to what cannot answer you?” a chilling voice whispered in my ear, and I jerked forward.

The tall, blue haired man chuckled as he studied the temple space. Dressed lavishly in more blue and white, he crossed his hands behind his back and circled me. “You are one fabulous creation of nature, Thora. That nature being I, of course. Every holy entity insisted that Nubil and I interfere when one of my blessed decided to play God and mess with the rules creatures older than any god put to preserve life.”

Was I hallucinating now? After a little glimpse between the statue and him, I asked, “Then why did you not?” Well, now I was talking to the hallucination. I normally never entertained my hallucinations with conversation, though.

“Because life was already dying in this and many realms. And chaos is at the centre of life and death. Your existence would be pure untameable chaos. We took a bet and wildly…hoped, as you humans would say. You would either destroy this and many other worlds, or you’d save them. We played the game of odds.” He circled me, pointing at me. “Look at this. Clearly, I am favoured.”

My hallucination was aggravatingly accurate. “A game, that is all of this is to you?”

The odd god tilted his head up to the skies and shut his vivid blue eyes. “On the contrary. This was a war. And I am the God of War.”

“Does that make me and my siblings martyrs?”

“No war I’ve led has ever had such things as sacrifices. You either die a loser or live as a winner. There is no sacrifice in war, only those willing to fight.” Looking back at me, he opened his eyes. “I was willing to fight.”

“For your pride.”

“For this realm.”

“So desperate for prayers?”

“Desperate to not see loss. The God of War might I be, but I’ve lost, too. More than most. Beneath the snow you tread on, I’ve buried the heart of the one loss I will never forget.”

“Touching,” Malik’s voice boomed around the temple. “Very touching.”