Wrath of the Forgotten: Descendants of the Fall Book II by Hodges, Aaron (best romance books of all time txt) 📕

blurred as tears formed in her eyes. “It wasn’t fair of me to treat you like this.” She blinked then, forcing herself to harden. “But our world, it isn’t fair, Cara. I don’t expect a God to understand, but humanity is only what our environment has forced us to be. When I was young, my future was stolen from me. I have spent every day since fighting to win it back. For years I worked to earn a place in the queen’s court, but in a matter of days that too was stolen away. I’m not sorry for doing what I needed to save my life.”

The last words left her mouth in a rush, giving way to silence. Cara still watched her, though to Erika’s eyes it seemed her expression had softened somewhat, as if the outburst had helped her finally understand something. Letting out a long breath, Erika swallowed the last of her emotion.

“As I said,” she added finally, “I wouldn’t expect you to understand. You’re a God.”

Cara shrugged. “So you say,” she started, looking uncertain. “But you’re wrong. I do understand. At least a little.” She raised her eyes to the sky, and in that moment, she looked more like a young woman than she’d ever looked a Goddess. “You say you lost everything, but at least you once had freedom. That’s something I’ve never tasted before. At least, not until Romaine found me in that forest.” A tear streaked her cheek. “I’m not even sure…not sure how my people will receive my return. It is a terrible crime for us to leave the mountains, let alone reveal ourselves to humanity. But after so many decades—”

“Decades?” Erika interrupted, eyes widening.

The hint of a smile tugged at Cara’s cheeks. “How old do you think I am, Archivist?”

Erika opened her mouth, then closed it again, unwilling to take a guess, though she would have said a human of Cara’s looks couldn’t be older than twenty.

Cara chuckled. “I would be close to fifty in your years, though amongst the Anahera I am still but a child.”

Erika shivered. She shouldn’t have been surprised that Cara was older than she looked. She was a Goddess after all, with the strength to hurl a man across a room as though he weighed no more than a few pounds. And wings. Yet it was still disconcerting, to look on the face of a teenager and know the soul within had seen fifty years of life.

“My night flights, they were my little show of rebellion.” Cara’s eyes danced as she spoke. “Is it still called the rebellious teen years? It seemed so harmless, flying from the mountains in the night. That is, until that storm. God, I was so stupid.”

“We all make mistakes, Cara,” Erika said, feeling more than a little strange to be comforting a being twice her age. How did new Gods even come into existence? Yet another question she would like to ask, though perhaps another time would be more appropriate.

Cara sighed but said nothing, and Erika settled back against the boulder. There had been few clouds during the day and now the night sky was an open tapestry of light, an orchestra of stars stretching overhead into infinity.

“I won’t run.” Erika’s head jerked up as Cara spoke again and she found the Goddess watching her. She frowned, not understanding, and the Goddess elaborated: “If you freed me, I wouldn’t fly away.”

“You know I can’t trust you,” Erika whispered.

“I know,” Cara said, nodding sadly. “You’re too accustomed to falsehoods. But my people, the Anahera, we do not lie. I don’t expect a human to understand that.” She smiled wryly. “But it’s the truth.”

Erika swallowed, and in her mind, she saw again a vision of Cara in flight, swooping down to pluck her from the clutches of the Tangata. How poorly she had repaid that deed. Her words now about the unfairness of the world seemed hollow, and to her surprise she found herself rising. Light lit her gauntlet as she reached for the shackles that bound the Goddess, but at the last moment she hesitated, a thought occurring to her.

“But you lied to Romaine, when you said you were Calafe.”

Red tinged Cara’s cheeks. “I…never actually said I was Calafe,” she mumbled. “I just…never corrected anyone when they assumed…”

Laughter burst from Erika at the Goddess’s words and she shook her head. “Now who is accustomed to falsehoods?”

Even so, she reached again for the shackles. She’d never used the gauntlet in such a way, but it felt right, to use it for at least one good deed. Not quite knowing what she was doing, she took the shackles between her fingers and squeezed. Magic lit the metallic fibres and she focused on directing it into the steel chains.

There was a flash as the gauntlet brightened, followed a sharp crack. Steel rang against rock as the locking mechanisms failed in both shackles and they fell from Cara’s wrists. Erika blinked, surprised it had worked so well, then glanced at the Goddess. When Cara made no move to attack, she turned her attention to the ankle chains.

Those too fell away and Erika backed away, waiting to see how Cara would react. The Goddess rose slowly, pulling the jacket from her shoulders. Freed of their confines, her wings spread wide with a sharp crack of feathers. Gasps came from the soldiers on the other side of the fire, but Erika kept her eyes on the Goddess, wondering if she had been wrong.

“I trust you, Cara,” Erika whispered finally. “I’m sorry I didn’t earlier.”

Before Cara could react, movement came from the shadows nearby and Maisie appeared between the boulders. The spy paused when she saw them both on their feet, then her eyes were drawn to the chains lying beside Cara. A frown wrinkled her forehead.

“Well, that seems like a bad idea,” she murmured.

Without saying anything further, she moved to the fire and sat. The cooking pot lay nearby and Maisie reached for it, moving as though to place