Revealed by P. C. & Kristin Cast Page A

my brother, not my Goddess.”
    “I speak for your Goddess!” Erebus’s light flared, burning so brightly that even Kalona could not help but recognize the divine and borrowed power of Nyx he wielded. “When first you Fell from the Otherworld you wreaked havoc upon the humans who attempted to succor you until Nyx heard their cries and answered the prayers of their Wise Women, calling together and allowing them to use the Divine Feminine within them. Thus was fashioned A-ya, she who entrapped you for generations.”
    “I remember well what happened,” Kalona snarled. “I do not need you, or Nyx, to remind me of that dark time.”
    “Silence, you fool! I come with an edict from Nyx!” Erebus blazed. “I do not remind you of the time. I remind you of the reason behind it. You rejected your Goddess, and in your attempt to replace her you used and cast aside many women, until A-ya was created. Then you recognized the spark of Nyx within her. That is why you were vulnerable to her. That is why you loved her.”
    Kalona looked away from Erebus. There had been a time, in the not so distant past, when he would have arrogantly denied his brother’s words and used his own immortal power to cast him from the mortal plane and back to the Otherworld.
    But Kalona had changed. And the truth in what his brother said burned him more than did the harsh light Erebus had inherited from his father, the sun.
    So the winged immortal remained silent, still as a statue, as Erebus’s Goddess-touched words continued to batter him.
    “But you would not remain imprisoned. Even entombed in the earth, wrapped in the arms of she who was breathed to life by Nyx, still you yearned for that which your arrogance had caused you to lose. So you sent out your cloying whispers, seeking another who had been touched by Nyx—one who might fill the emptiness within you. Since the moment she was Marked, Neferet was special to the Goddess, because of, and not in spite of, the horrors she had survived. But she was, indeed, a vulnerable young fledgling. That is why Neferet was susceptible to your call. That is why, after she completed the Change, you convinced her to free you.”
    Kalona wanted to flee—to run from his brother’s hurtful words, but something within him bade him stay and hear the edict Nyx had sent Erebus to proclaim.
    “And because she, too, was only touched by the Goddess and not Nyx incarnate, Neferet failed to fill that emptiness within you. Her failure turned to poison. Do you deny that you thought you loved her, just as you believed you loved the maiden, A-ya?”
    “I deny nothing, just as I acknowledge nothing. Speak your edict and begone. Your words weary me.”
    “Look within yourself. It is not my words that weary you. The day you can admit the truth about your past and accept full responsibility for all the evil you have loosed in this realm, is the day your load will begin to lighten.” The anger in Erebus’s voice softened, though the power of his Goddess-enhanced visage continued to blaze. “Then you met the fledgling, Zoey Redbird, and you were instantly drawn to, and angered by, her connection to Nyx. You wanted to seduce
and
destroy her.”
    “But I did neither!”
    “Only because Zoey’s connection to Nyx is, indeed, strong, and unlike A-ya, she is a woman, fully formed with a will of her own and, unlike Neferet, she is not damaged. Zoey Redbird’s heart is loyal and true. Though your actions almost destroyed her. Do not forget you shattered the child’s soul. Do not forget you trespassed into the Otherworld, risking Nyx’s wrath. Because of that the Goddess herself interceded on her daughter’s behalf.”
    Kalona looked away again, remembering that brief, bittersweet moment when he, once again, had been in the presence of Nyx.
    She had not forgiven him, and Kalona had wept tears of bitterness and regret.
    “Neferet trapped my soul and used the power of Darkness to command me to do her bidding. I did not