The color drained from her face. She yanked her hand from his and stepped back. “And who will these demigods belong to? You are the only god with a tie to Hell.”
He locked his knees to stop himself from going to her. “They will be mine, born—”
“No!” Her eyes widened. “Don’t say it.”
Arawn raised his chin. “They will be mine, born of humans.”
“Yours?” Gaze locked on him, she took several backward steps. “You would lay with other females? Get them with child and betray me?”
“Not betray.” He approached her. For each step he took, she retreated two. He stopped and balled his hands into fists. “Betrayal implies deceit. I am not hiding my plan from you.”
“Your plan is to sleep with other women!” Her eyes burned with silver fire while blackness bled into the swirling silver around them, and the strands of her hair lifted on a breeze that emanated from within her. “That is adultery and a betrayal of our love.”
“A love that should not exist.” He waved his arm to encompass the cold, stone tower room they occupied. “Love has no place in Hell. By the Triad’s own words, only suffering and pain should exist here. My purpose is to act as the Triad’s judge, jury, and jailer. I betrayed my duty by falling in love with you.”
Minerva pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes and breathed heavily as her hair darkened but did not respond. The need to go to her, to pull her into his arms, and to comfort her choked him. He couldn’t. All he had left to offer was his reasoning.
“The suffering of the mortals is my fault. I failed to protect them. If I hadn’t been making love to you, I would have sensed Dagda as he snuck to the lowest level of the Underworld and raped the earth of its power. He should never have gotten anywhere near the Well of Chaos. Those sinners who lived in the deepest pits called out to me, warning me of the fairy king’s plans, but your healing touch silenced them.”
Raucous pants sawed past his lips, and his fingertips burned from the pressure of his sharpened nails threatening to punch out. He fought the emergence of his alternate form. “Even the damned sensed the danger to the innocent where I did not! Never again!”
“You blame me for this?” Minerva pointed to herself. A tremor shook her hands. “I didn’t know what Dagda had planned.”
“No.” He took a step forward. “I blame myself, and I will sacrifice everything, including an eternity in your arms to stop him.”
“Our love?” Tears welled in her eyes. “You would sacrifice our love?”
“I will always love you, even if you never forgive me for what I must do.” Arawn held a hand out to her. “Reach out to me through our bond, and I will take your pain. Anytime. Anywhere. You need never to comfort me or look upon me again if that is your wish.”
“It is not my wish!” She fisted handfuls of her hair and tugged but dropped her hands a moment later on a low groan. “I wish you to forget your plan and stay here with me.”
“So we can both watch humans being violated and killed? Is that what you want?”
Without anyone to stop them, the fairies and their creatures caused suffering and pain beyond anything the humans had ever known. Each scream the mortals uttered made them stronger and increased the Triad’s anger with the other gods. Mostly, though, the deity’s wrath focused on Arawn. Only right, he had allowed them to escape in the first place.
She shook her head. “Of course not, but—”
“Then I must do this. No god can walk on earth, but my children will have the power to do so.”
“I understand your need to avenge the wronged. I feel the compulsion to do the same, and if I thought returning to Dagda would stop him, I would sacrifice myself in a minute.”
A growl rumbled his chest. “You will not. He isn’t—”
“Sane.” She sighed. “I know this, which is why I have not gone to him. He might want to own me, but the chaos he’s allowed into his soul has corrupted him. Making me his slave is no longer enough.”
“You have spoken to him?”
Her dry, bitter laugh cracked on a sob. “I have not entered my realm in all the years we have been mated.”
“How do you…” Arawn glanced at the circle where she’d sat crying. “Dagda has told your handmaidens his plans.”
“Yes.” Her shoulders drooped. “Through them I have learned just how demented he has become.”
“Then you understand why he must be stopped?”
“I do, but”—she turned her tortured gaze upon him—“you will find pleasure in other women’s arms. And you expect me to forgive you knowing this? How? How can I, Arawn? You will give them the one thing I yearn for.”
“I do not know how. I can only hope you will.” Unable to bear the hurt in her expression, he closed his eyes. “I wish there was another option, but I have discussed this issue with the angel Michael. He agrees. An army of demigods who answer to me is the only way around the Triad’s law.”
“Michael?” Venom dripped from her voice.
He opened his eyes. “He is the wisest of the angels, and—”
“He is—” She snapped her mouth closed. Anger tightened her features. “It is impossible. The Triad cannot break its word, and it has decreed that gods cannot walk on the mortal realm. You will not be able to step foot upon the earthen soil, let alone bed females.”
The change in topic stirred his unease, but he wouldn’t push her for the reason behind her animosity toward the angel. He needed her compliance, both to enter the heavens and to keep her heart open to him.
“Which is why I need the Triad’s help. I will give up my godly powers and take the body
