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She doesn’t wait for me to agree, pivoting in a rush of skirts and setting off for the village. I expect her to shift and make a grand entrance to her own celebration, but she walks until she disappears from sight.
Once she’s gone, my eyes are drawn back to the trees and the mist that climbs their trunks. I feel that familiar tug in my gut, and I ache to explore it, despite the goddess’s warning. She didn’t tell me not to go in there, only to be careful.
But it’ll have to wait until another day. Soon enough, I’ll have time to wander past the creek and introduce myself.
Chapter Five
“Síra’s boundaries are holding, my lord. As are the boundaries around Meren.”
“And all the souls who should be in each are accounted for?”
My sentry inclines his head in confirmation. Garrick’s technically a mortal. Or a half-mortal. A demigod general killed in battle so long ago I don’t remember the exact date. I do know he fought on my side during the war between the gods, and he was one of the earliest souls I governed after the truce was called.
He’s been here so long he knows the Shadow Realm as well as I do. He’s watched the power that created it, that holds it together, slowly fade over the last few decades. The only thing keeping it at bay has been my blood. And lately that isn’t working as well as it once did.
“Did you find the forest guardian that escaped?”
His mouth thins, and his shoulders square before he answers me. His tell for bad news.
“No, my lord. Not yet. We’ve scoured the forest around Lady Aeris’s territory and have seen no sign of the beast.”
“Cast a wider net. If you need more men, you can have them. I don’t want it wandering further into Acaria and doing real damage.”
Or I’ll never hear the end of it from my brother.
“Of course, my lord.”
“Was there something else?” I ask when he hesitates to leave.
“When was the last time you fortified the eastern border, my lord?”
“A few days ago. Why?”
“You might want to have another look.”
His tone is all business, but his eyes are apologetic. I nod, dismissing him with a wave of my hand. His boots make no sound on the floor as he crosses to the door and closes it quietly behind him.
I lean back in my chair and conjure a glass of liquor. The dark amber liquid burns a trail down my throat. The new distillers have outdone themselves with this batch. It might be the best one yet.
Thunder rumbles in the distance, drawing my gaze to the wide window looking out over the dull, gray terrain of the Shadow Realm. I didn’t want this place when my brother offered it as part of our truce. But it’s as much a part of me now as I am a part of it. And I don’t know why my power is seemingly no longer holding it together.
Lightning travels from cloud to cloud before forking down to the ground, and I fill my glass again to drain it in one swallow.
I’d rather be out there inflicting torture than in here wondering what the fuck is happening and how the fuck I’m going to fix it. A drop or two of blood used to keep the realm and its boundaries strong for years. Now I need buckets of it to barely make a dent.
I don’t want to think about what will happen if the Shadow Realm becomes devoid of power and reverts to the wild, untamed thing it was before the war.
There certainly aren’t any mortals alive who remember what it was like when the dead danced among the living. The darkness roamed the land, infecting everything it touched.
I might not be so intent on stopping it now if not for my own sense of self-preservation. I might enjoy giving the mortals who’ve never seen me a real reason to fear the God of Death.
Power ripples like a coming storm seconds before someone knocks on my door.
“Come!”
The faint scent of lavender and rosemary follows her in. Then there’s another smell, a stronger one, and my lip curls in disgust.
“You smell like mortals.”
