No, I said in my mind. I won't give in to this temptation. I don't know who you are, but you won't trick me into betraying my husband.
This isn't a trick, Alaric growled. I'm your friend, and I'm trying to help you. You know what? It doesn't even matter; your lovers are finding you, and you will remember them on your own. I'll just have to work with Faerie behind the scenes this time.
Faerie? I asked, but he was already gone.
“An angel.” Odin held my face between his palms as my wings folded behind me. “It's perfect.”
“The Host may not think so,” Azrael said.
I looked over and found Azrael standing with Toby; both men staring at me as if I belonged to them. I frowned at them, but I couldn't fault them for it; I'd encouraged them to such conclusions.
“What are you saying?” Odin asked. “The Angelic Host is going to come after my wife?”
“I don't know.” Azrael glanced over the stunned crowd of humans. “But I think it would be best if we took this conversation elsewhere.”
Odin nodded. “I'll open the wards to you; meet us in Valaskjalf.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
We all traced to Odin's silver hall; the Native American gods, Thor, and Azrael, along with Odin and me.
“Help yourselves to some mead,” Odin said to our guests. “I need to speak with my wife privately before we deal with this.”
Odin took my hand and led me up the stairs at the back of the hall and into our bedroom. He waited until the door was shut firmly behind us before he said anything.
“Tobadzistsini wasn't the only man I saw with you in Munin's vision,” Odin said.
“Yes; you mentioned that there were others.” I already knew what he was going to say, but I asked him anyway, “Who else did you see?”
“Azrael,” he said. “There a few more in addition to them, Vervain.”
“How many is a few?” My heart started to pound.
Alaric had said that there were six other men. If Odin said the same, it would take me a step closer to believing Alaric.
Odin frowned and seemed to be counting.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I screeched. “You have to count?”
“There were seven of us, including myself,” Odin said. “Vervain, now that I'm calm and can think back on it rationally, I realize that we were happy.”
“We are happy already,” I said as I internally freaked out. “Right now.”
“I know,” he murmured. “But something feels off.”
I caught my breath at his words. Odin felt it too. It was looking more and more as if Alaric were telling the truth. Was I really in the wrong time?
Timeline, Alaric popped back into my head. Your history has changed, and so has your present.
I thought you left, I sounded surly, even to myself.
I was still watching over you, he said defensively. Now, it looks as if things are starting to right themselves again.
Again?
I told you; this is your second go, he huffed. Pay attention, Vervain; the lives of your loved ones are at stake.
Their lives? I went suddenly cold.
Yes, and if I told you which loved ones, you'd really freak out. So, I'm not telling you. Just know that you want to get back on the right path. Let those memories return. And to give you even more proof that I'm telling the truth, here's a head's up; Nyx killed Persephone.
“Nyx killed Persephone?!” I shouted out loud. “Who the fuck is Nyx?”
“Who are you talking to?” Odin gaped at me.
“Oh... I... ”
Just tell him.
“A voice started talking in my head today,” I confessed. “He says he's the Consciousness of the Void, and his name is Alaric.”
“Like the Visigoth?” Odin asked.
Precisely! Alaric laughed. Leave it to Odin to catch that.
“He seems to be familiar with you; with all of us,” I went on. “He's been telling me that we're on the wrong path; our past has been altered.”
By Nyx and Aion, Alaric added.
“By Nyx and Aion,” I said with a shrug. “He said Nyx killed Sephy.”
“Nyx is a Greek goddess,” Odin mused. “I suppose it's plausible that she'd kill Persephone. With the lack of evidence, it could have been anyone, but a fellow Greek makes more sense than a random stranger.”
“I can't understand why anyone would want to kill Persephone,” I whispered. “She was the kindest woman I knew.”
It had been years since Persephone had been murdered, but I still felt the ache of her loss.
Nyx has a daughter with Hades, Alaric said. There was an incident involving their daughter recently—in your other timeline—and Nyx decided to get revenge. She teamed up with Aion; who had a beef with you over what you did to his father, Zeus.
I didn't do anything to Zeus, I protested.
Not in this time, you didn't.
“Alaric says that Nyx has a daughter with Hades. Something happened with that daughter and it upset Nyx,” I said to Odin. “She wanted revenge on Hades and teamed up with Aion, who wanted revenge on me.”
“What did you do to Aion?” Odin scoffed.
“Not Aion,” I explained. “His father; Zeus. I evidently did something to him.”
I can't tell you any more about that other time, Alaric said. Just know that you need to kill Aion to get back to it.
“Alaric won't tell me what I did,” I relayed. “But he says that we need to kill Aion to return to our true time.”
“Our true time,” Odin said as his gaze lowered to my belly.
My hands shot to my stomach as I gaped at him. “What will happen to our child?”
“If this child is meant to be, it will be born,” Odin said, but I could tell that he wasn't convinced.
What about my baby,
