I brought my hand to her waist, gently kneading toward her spine and up along the muscle from there. Ah, gone were the times where a second’s thought had cured her ailments. No, the King of Flesh and Bone now rubbed his wife’s strained muscles until his thumbs ached.

Like a mere man.

My chest lightened at the thought, and how this woman had given me the responsibilities of a husband. Soon, those of a father would follow, turning eternity into a precious promise indeed.

How our child would place itself in this world remained to be discovered. Perhaps it would one day ride the lands with us, as I allowed Ada from time to time whenever her pleas became too pestering.

Or whenever she just left without my permission…

As much as death had emboldened her, immortality had turned her into a force to be reckoned with. She, too, had the power to spread rot. But mostly, she spread death, which angered Eilam greatly. Together, we had returned order to the lands beyond the Æfen Gate.

Across most parts.

Others would follow.

One ought not to expect mortals to worship their true deities after two centuries of absence. Not until we would tear down every temple and string every priest onto Ada’s tree. No, such transitions took time, understanding, and patience.

I placed a kiss onto the nape of Ada’s neck, her hair somehow darker than it had been, though she accounted it to the pregnancy. “Better?”

“No,” she said, running her fingers over the silken grass. “Perhaps because you’re pushing more fervently against the wrong part of my body. My pains are along my spine, not between my legs.”

“Yesterday, you claimed the opposite.”

I pushed my hard length against her thighs, and the way she braced to feel all of me didn’t go unnoticed. My little one had become rather insatiable as of late, demanding much of me. I gave her all the attention I could. The world could wait. My little one remained impatient.

“Spread yourself for me.” I took her hand and brought it to her buttocks, giving it a hard squeeze. “Open yourself wide and invite me in. Show me how much my little one wants my cock.”

She didn’t.

Of course, my woman didn’t, and instead, she reached behind herself to grip me, placing my crown at an entrance slicker with need than I had first assumed. “Is this invitation enough?”

“Quite sufficient.”

I pushed into my little one’s needy cunt, groaning at the way it gripped me so tightly, beckoning me deeper with how wet she was. “Dripping with lust, taking all of me so eagerly, my good little goddess.”

How sweetly she moaned, her back arched to allow deep thrusts while my hand cupped her belly. How strangely arousing this was, sensing the movement of my child against my palm while I drove into my wife.

And yet, Ada soon pressed a hand to her forehead, her hips stilling. “Not again.”

Another spell of dizziness. It happened often lately when she rested on one side too long, likely because the weight of the child narrowed the blood flow of an artery, but who could say? Her flesh and bone evaded my powers, but a good husband ought to work around that.

I slung my arm around her, helping her up as the leaves of the willow above us rustled. “Up with you.”

Skin braided itself down from the bony white branches of the tree, weaving together into a harness beneath her buttocks. Two thicker ropes formed beside her arms so she may hold on to it, creating a kind of swing that lifted her off the ground.

Stroking her thighs apart, I stepped up between them. I brought Ada’s hands to the ropes, then once more pushed inside her. Suspended like this, she gently shifted back at each thrust, only to fall onto my length with more energy.

“More,” she said as her knuckles stiffened beneath my hands.

I let my hands fall to her hips, holding her steady in the contraption of the swing as I fucked her harder. I observed the angle at which she shifted her pelvis, listened to the sound of her moans, and paid close attention to the rise of her nipples.

However much of a god I was, my divine wife left me stripped bare to the skills of a man. And when we reached our pleasure together, only to fall into each other’s arms after, neither of us could disguise what we had as anything but love.

Achingly true love.

For eternity.

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Chapter 28

OceanofPDF.com

Ada

One year later…

I stepped into the tavern, the air thick with the scent of sausages, herbs, and sizzling lard. It had brought many a patron to the rough-hewn tables that stood about, most decked with foam-capped tankards and wicker baskets that held slices of bread.

Men and women turned their heads, then bowed as they ought to as they mumbled, “My queen.” Amidst the occasional screech of bench legs over wooden planks, none dared to leave. That might have earned them my suspicion—something best avoided.

Because worse than a god in love…

… was a goddess out for revenge.

I walked over to the keeper, an old woman whose wimple hung as crooked as her back, and handed her a coin of goodwill. “How many?”

“Your Grace,” she said with a bow that lacked more grace than my own ever had, and jutted her chin toward the stairs. “First room to the right. Three priests and two men with swords.”

A sigh escaped me.

Five men?

How dreadfully boring.

But alas, such was our plight these days, chasing those last followers of Helfa from the small taverns, musty cellars, and secret hideouts in damp caverns.

I lifted the train of my dress, its fabric the sheerest skin, with petals of black beetle shells shaped like a thousand spring roses. Around each, white feathers shifted with each of my steps in lieu of leaves. A crown of fingers that had once pointed at me came together into a crown upon my head, scraping along the low-hanging ceiling as I ascended the stairs.

Traitorous mumbles soon resonated the corridor, hushed whispers and lies that came muffled from behind the door. A door I kicked open but a moment later, letting a priest tumble from a bench while the rest of the lot scurried into the corners.

“The Queen of Rot and Pain. My queen!” One of the priests, who hid a metal pendant in the shape of a sun behind his cotton tunic, raised his arms. “This is but a small gathering of friends, I swear it.”

The hairs bristled along my arms.

Oaths. Promises. Vows.

Nothing but lies.

Proven at my first step toward them, when one of the men unsheathed his sword in all his foolish courage. “We meant nobody any harm.”

Except for me and my husband with how they’d preyed upon us last month, when we wanted nothing but a peaceful walk with our daughter about the meadows.

My eyes fell to the pommel of the man’s sword, engraved with the spread wings of a falcon. “Ah, the crest of House Tertiel. Remind me, mortal, how long has it been since your lord bent his knee, vowing us his loyalty? Three months? Four?”

He slipped his hand from hilt to pommel, covering the symbol as though it could be made unseen. “I came of my own account.”

“I shall put your statement to the test once I come for the bones of your lord’s ailing wife.” What a fine new archway she would span by the Æfen Gate, along with these five dissidents. “For now, I am convicting you for planning an upheaval against your deities. Up, up, into the branches you go.”

“No! Please, Your Grace,” one of them shouted as chains of bone shaped around his wrists. “Please, have mercy!”

“Oh, but I do.” After all, in the generosity of my kindness, their souls would be allowed to depart to the Court Between Thoughts. “You are lucky my husband—”