I flinched.

Yes, and that.

Eilam let out a hissing snarl. “Another atrocity.”

“Do you truly believe we have created an immortal? A goddess in her own right?” Yarin eyed me up and down, a slow stroll of green eyes from tip to toe. “Presume there is only one way to find out.”

His left hand gripped my hair at the back of my head until my scalp burned. The right one suddenly held a golden, tooled knife, which glistened in the light of the hearth’s flame as it came toward my face.

“No!” Enosh shouted, reaching for the blade.

He needn’t have to.

On reflex, I shoved Yarin’s chest.

The God of Whispers flew across the room, hit the wall with a groan, then collapsed to the ground. Pieces of daub cracked from the wall, only to shatter into a puff of white dust until Yarin fanned a hand before his face and… giggled?

“I believe you are right, brother,” he said and struggled himself up, brushing the dust off his breeches, but it was a lost cause. “Oh, I commiserate with you already. Good luck putting this one in chains.”

Enosh frowned.

No doubt he might have considered it for a moment when I’d refused him my answer, but I might as well be above those things now and opened my hand.

“I need a knife.” It shaped right there in my palm, plain and a bit… crooked. “Thank you?”

“My love,” Enosh all but exhaled the words, “I did not put that there.”

Oh my god.

Oh my god.

Oh my god.

Cautious excitement pooled in my belly. Taking a steadying breath, I clasped the knife and brought it to my other hand. One cut across my palm, the blade so sharp it didn’t so much hurt as it burned. Blood percolated in the narrow wound, but not a single drop rose to the surface.

Because it closed too quickly.

Oh. My. God.

I was like them.

Terrible and cruel.

Beautiful and kind.

Perfect.

Exhilaration, fear, and confounded shock rushed through me. Until the ground shook, and a water jug stuttered off a wooden stand before it shattered on the ground with a splash. Only fear remained then, and I scurried into Enosh’s arms.

Had I done that?

Beside me, Yarin staggered over the shaking floor as if on sea-legs, laughing more heartily each time he banged his head on a beam or cupboard. “Enosh, get your hysterics under control.”

“It is not me, but her,” my husband snarled, then he wrapped me in the calming embrace of his arms. “Little one, you ought to calm your nerves before you accidentally bury us beneath a wave of bone dust.”

Everything shook harder.

I startled.

No, not me.

The boy did. With a cry.

That didn’t calm my nerves in the slightest, driving my pulse until wood moaned somewhere. “Get me away from here!”

Enosh lifted me into his arms and hurried out the door, passing an Arne charred to bones before the house, then lifted me onto the horse before he mounted behind me and clutched me to him. “Shh… calm, little one, or bone will rip the ground open and pull the world into darkness.”

“Interesting.” Yarin paced before us in the snow, right underneath some dormant maples near the village where he had shaped us daybeds. “What about the mortals’ thoughts near us? How much longer until that lazy bastard shows up with the wood? She’ll be a good girl and not tell anyone of what I’ve done with her. What if I’m the only one touching myself like this? Do you hear them?”

“God’s bones, no!” And if Yarin did, then no wonder he was the maddest of the lot of them. “Only the dead calling me mistress, but it’s never-ending.”

“Only Enosh’s powers are yours to yield, then. Good. A goddess yielding the power of all three would be disturbing indeed.”

“In time, their voices will be nothing to you but the constant patter of rain on a roof,” Enosh said where he slouched beside me with a smile on his face, one leg draped over my legs and one arm behind his head for support. “Nonetheless, this is… I am still quite stunned, truly.”

“Indeed. A woman undying for us to have for eternity.” Yarin opened his palm, letting sand form there that moved like the waves in the ocean as a tiny wooden boat drifted on the rolling motion as though it calmed him. “I have a strong inclination to go looking for a bride to kill and resurrect. So many problems solved at once. If only it did not require… Eilam.” Who had disappeared once more, leaving nothing behind but the echo of a growl. “Oh, this must vex him like nothing before. Where to now, brother? The temple?”

Enosh sighed. “I have given Eilam my word to abandon my vow for revenge and not let it take another life. In exchange, he agreed to never take her breath again.”

“A fool’s deal.”

“Quite so, but I had not anticipated my wife to turn immortal.” Enosh tossed himself up, plucked me from where I sat, and lowered himself back down with me draped over him. “None of us have. Our brother wants me… peaceful.”

Yarin let the sand drift from his hand, but it never reached the snow and simply vanished instead along with the boat. “A shame. I would have loved to witness whatever you had planned for the high priest.”

My shoulders slouched.

Why?

This was good, was it not?

I took Enosh’s hand and placed it onto my belly. Resurrected into a goddess capable of growing our child, what else was there to want? And with Enosh forced to abandon his goal for revenge…? Nothing.

Except…

I tilted my head back and looked up at him. “What of my father?”

“I shall try to find him while I ride about the lands once more.” Yet his long exhale let my head sink lower, right along with my hope of ever seeing Pa again. “Eilam also demanded that I open the Pale Court to all mortals again and ride the lands to spread rot.”

That lured a snort from me. “As if that is for him to demand. You promised me that a long time ago. And we still need that cradle!”

“Is that so?” A smug grin came to his lips, fingers clasping my chin to keep my gaze on his. “I daresay, wife, my promise came with certain… contingencies. Come to think, do you not owe me an answer?”

“I do.”

I lifted my head, letting my lips search for his. They came together in an unhurried kiss as we pressed against each other in this moment of complete peace, where the world finally left us alone. Until the ground shook once more, nothing but a tremble at first, but branches moaned louder as our kiss turned heated with need.

“That is disgusting!”

Enosh and I broke the kiss, looked over at his brother, and found the god wrinkling his nose at a near-skeletal arm that pulled itself through the snow with the tips of its fingers.

“The dead must think you at great risk, little one,” Enosh scoffed, but his hopeful stare betrayed the tension in him, the waiting for words I’d once refused. “Tell me, little goddess, what had you shake the ground just now, hmm?”

I brushed my lips over his, not in a kiss but a mingling of our breaths as I stroked my fingers through those heavy black strands of his. “And if I still won’t tell you? You can no longer make me.”

“Once again, you have not been listening, Ada, for I have never wanted to make you.”

A moment of silent understanding passed between us, nothing but quiet and invisible flutters amongst two people who had fallen in love unbidden.

I nodded, letting my thumb stroke over his bottom lip only to feel its tremble. “I love you.”

Snow fell from the branches of the maple as the tree trembled down into its roots, giving a moan that must have shaken the entire world for just one second.

“And I love you,” Enosh said. “Will love you until time ceases to exist. I shall search for your father as I ride the lands, and I will find a way to bring him home.”