He cast a wry look in my direction, but said nothing.
He’d been watching for me for so long, and here I was, greater than my dreams. His jaw worked back and forth, reminding me of how I had watched the muscles in his chest and stomach do the same as he ran in slow motion through the forested grounds. I’d always found the way his face twitched slightly on the left side when he was thinking particularly endearing.
But now isn’t the time to be distracted.
His expression remained unreadable.
A sigh escaped my lips as I looked up at the constellation of stars above. I knew all the colors of the constellations by heart, and the stars were incredibly bright. In a way, they seemed so close and familiar, but at the same time, they were away, unreachable. They lay over and around me, almost as if they were burning. Too bright.
For a moment, I was seized with the desire to turn and run, as I had done so many times before. To leave and never return, abandoning everything and everyone I had ever known. But I was stronger now. I’d learned to embrace and accept my weaknesses. They were not daunting. In fact, within my own weaknesses, I found strength.
I had conquered them once. I could do it again.
I looked at him again, knowing he would realize I wasn’t leaving.
“Good-bye,” he finally said, his voice deep and heavy.
I dropped my physical form, and instantly, I found my wolf form. This was the natural form of my goddess. My body was sleek and luxurious, and my fur was a coat of red, my favorite color. Sometimes, other goddesses thought it was cute, but to me, it was a sign of power. It meant the color of my blood, the very essence of my life force.
I hadn’t always been a wolf—my life force had been once changed and manifested as a bird, a swallow.
I quickly rushed toward my lover, growling and baring my fangs. I am not to be trifled with.
I looked him straight in the eyes and bared my teeth, too. His eyes sparkled as he laughed quietly.
In the next moment, he had his own wolf form. His was pure white, with strong hints of gray. At first blush, demon wolves looked very unlike regular mortal wolves. But it was their eyes that gave them away.
His wolf body reared back, and the two and a half minute chase began.
His wolf body suddenly shifted, and in the next moment, he had hold of me, pressing his teeth deep into my shoulder. Hard enough to draw blood. His fangs dug in, sending pleasure and pain through my body. In a second, my wolf form reduced down to nothing but my skin, and I took flight.
My arms were spread out as I glided through the growing mists, my face upturned and my hair fluttering. I inhaled the scent of earth, and actually smelled the cinders of a new year. This all had to be a strange dream, I thought.
For my lover and I were destined for this outcome since the beginning. It is the way of the gods.
The ancient gods are few in number, and the goddesses are many, with power residing in each of us. However, amongst us, I was the only Queen of the Underworld, with my realm of death. A realm which nobody left and entered as they pleased. Its gates lay locked by my hand. Its key also lay in my hands, and it could not be destroyed. Never in the celestial kingdom could this realm be destroyed. Only one could freely leave and enter, and I gave respect to my gods and goddesses who had deigned to give the power of life and death.
My lover and I had known each other since childhood. He loved me, and I loved him. I had bound myself to him in the past, and he had bound himself to me. Our destinies were always intertwined. We had both served the gods in the mortal realm, and our deaths, our roles and the path that followed us were all preordained by our gods.
Since we were little, so many centuries ago, our paths had been set.
But that was all being a part of our destiny. Fate had had dominion over us and our actions, even if we could not see it at the time. The human realm was nothing if not full of strange coincidences and happenstance. Many thought it was not so, and were convinced that fate was simply the path created for them by their own actions. But in my book, it was all destiny. The way of the gods.
What was a woman to do when she must be told who to love and be with, and that she must be with him by an arbitrary time? The world would have to have come to an end before I forsook him completely. I had loved him too much, even in the distant past. The connection was strong and unshakeable. Destined. As a goddess, I could not possibly have had the full range of choices that mortals did.
The dead were the only ones who did want to remain dead. I had set my demons and servants to my side, then, and now I had armies under my command. It was all my destiny. My destiny.
In moments like these, I envied my fellow goddesses. They had their humans and were allowed more than a single life. Access to more of their souls as they departed from the mortal realm also placed a thread of power in the mortal realm. The thread they left behind could conjure small wonders, as long as they could nurture it. The thread held tremendous magic, enough to make large things happen. Seasons shifted, years changed, and great and small. But only the thread in their bodies would remain. They were as parasites to their might and sometimes as insidious as a pestilence.
It was amongst this other world that I could not go. Not yet. Like I said, destiny. I could not be still from my duties.
My lover and I crossed the hills, and he flew up high. I stretched my sinuous tail and darted around the trees and bushes, luring him to me. He was fast, though, and kept a close eye on me.
