I fell to my knees on a sob, hand extended toward my beloved, fingers stroking her beautiful face. Would I ever hold her again? Once, I had told her that it was enough to know that she lived. That I didn't need to make love to her to love her. I would be content with her being in the world, alive again. But I couldn't be content with this. Her soul darkened by evil, her body used by a man born of that evil. No, better her be dead than trapped in this blasphemy.
“Vervain,” I choked out the word. “He doesn't love you as I do. He doesn't know you, sweetheart. I am your husband. I have always been your husband.” I took a deep, strengthening breath and stood. “And I will save you from this. I failed you once, but not this time, my love. Not this time.”
I had lost Sabine, but I wouldn't lose Vervain. Five hundred years had passed while I waited for my wife to return to me and that whole time, she'd been trapped in Hvergelmir. I didn't know. I had been wrong, and I didn't know. If I hadn't given up and bargained with Mimir for that book of soul spells...
“Soul spells!” I shouted. Then I looked at my wife, writhing beneath another man.“Hold on, baby, I'm about to save your soul.”
“Odin,” I whispered against a sold chest. “Odin, I'm sorry.”
“He's not here, my star,” Viper whispered in my ear. “I am here. I'm with you, and I won't let go.”
“Then her suffering is on your head!” Star sneered. “I wash my hands of this!”
The Star's voice shifted into another.
“You want me to rally the Egyptian Pantheon against our wife?” I snarled at Vervain's other husbands. “Are you out of your minds? I'm not fighting her. What if she gets hurt? What if she hurts one of us? When she does come back from this, she'll never forgive herself.”
The pain in my chest was growing every day. It had spread to consume my entire body and I had thought that it couldn't go any further. I had thought to myself; well, this is it, absolute heartache. But no, it got worse. Even worse than when I lost Lusaset. I wasn't coming back from this. I was a dead man walking, my body just hadn't realized it yet.
“Re, no one is going to fight Vervain,” Odin explained. “The battle will be a distraction, nothing more. We just need to get her there, somewhere not warded by that damn star. When Vervain is out in the open, we can trace to her and grab her.”
“And then what?” I grimaced at him. “Her star will only steal her back.”
“Not if we can take over Vervain's mind first,” Arach said with one of his stupid, faerie king grins.
“And how will you do that?” I crossed my arms and faced off with him. “Faerie magic? That's not going to work, Dragon.”
“Dragon magic,” Arach countered. “Blood magic, to be exact.”
I slid into a chair and leaned across the table toward him. “You have my attention.”
The heartache was too much. Not only mine but that of all of my lovers. One heart is not built to hold so much pain. I screamed again, struggling to push it away, hoping I'd pass out from it. But emotional pain isn't like physical. You can't pass out to escape it. It won't let you. Even if you manage to sleep, it will follow you into your dreams.
“I've got you, my love,” his voice in my ear again.
Who was he? Did I love him? I must. I loved so many men. He had to be one of them. But I couldn't remember which one. The only memories I had didn't belong to me.
“This is enough, Toby,” my brother growled. “You have suffered and suffered for this woman. You gave up your chance to have a real relationship so you could be with her. To share her with six other men. And now, the bitch has gone bad. Enough already.”
“Don't ever call her a bitch!” I snapped as I grabbed him by the front of his shirt. “I love her, Naye. And I fell in love with Vervain because of you. Because you decided to bring her here. Because you tortured her and turned her into Ata. Vervain has suffered too and yet she brought me back from the Void. She made a place for me in her heart and her life at great cost to herself. So don't stand here and act as if I'm the victim.”
“Fine!” Naye shoved my hands away. “You're not the victim, but you're not being treated fairly either. She married the rest of them but here you are, hanging on the edges, her boyfriend.”
“It's too soon to talk to her about marriage,” I muttered as a horrible shivering started in my chest.
My brother may be an ass, but he was right. I felt like an afterthought. Yes, she loved me. Yes, she made time for us. And yes, I was happy with her. But I wanted more. I wanted to at least be an equal. I wanted to stand at an altar with her and hear her pledge her eternal love to me. But she was too busy having babies with her husbands for that. And now...
“It doesn't matter,” I said hollowly as I fell back onto a couch. Doba hopped up beside me and laid her sleek head in my lap. I pet her absently. “She's gone, Naye. Vervain told us to never return. She threatened to kill us if we did.”
I shook my head at the absurdness of that statement. Vervain
