A Gift from the Goddess

Chapter 73

Chapter Seventy–Three 

“... What the fuck are you doing back here?” Aleric asked. 

He stood in my doorway, arms crossed, staring at me like I was insane. 

But I didn‘t care. My mind was made up. There was no way I was going to have this conversation tonight. 

“No,” I answered flatly. 

“No‘?” 

“No, I‘m not doing this now,” I clarified. “I‘m too tired. We can talk later.” 

I rolled onto my side, facing away from him, and pulled the blanket up over my shoulder. Maybe if I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep, he would just leave on his own accord. 

“Aria, you need to tell me what‘s going on,” he pressed. “Joseph told me you came back over the border and I thought he was joking until I caught your scent by the stairs. Did something happen? Were you caught?” 

“No,” I mumbled, repeating myself once more. 

“Stop that. Regardless of how tired you are, this is more important. I need to know if something went wrong.” 

I groaned out in frustration but reluctantly sat up, my head immediately pulsing with a migraine.* 

“Nothing went wrong, Aleric. Just let it go.” 

“Obviously something went wrong or you wouldn‘t be here.” 

He was getting angry at me and it was only making me more irritated that we were actually having this conversation. 

“Fine then,” I snapped back, turning to look at him. “You want to know what went wrong? The entire thing. The whole plan. How stupid do you think Tytus is that he wouldn‘t find out that you were planning to hide me in the Silver Lake?” 

His eyes widened a little in surprise. “You’re joking, right? Cai didn‘t organise to move you somewhere else?” 

‘More like didn‘t want to move me somewhere else,‘ I thought, recalling our earlier exchange. And that was only after finding out about Caitlyn. 

“Evidently not,” I answered, not wanting to elaborate further on the other reasons I‘d returned. 

“So... what? You‘re just going to come back here and pretend everything is normal? That you didn‘t almost get killed here? After risking everything to get you out?” 

“I don‘t know, Aleric!” I yelled back. “I don‘t know, okay? I don‘t know what to do about me, or Tytus, or Cai ... and I *especially don‘t know what to do about you.” 

He paused, frowning. “...About me?” 

Ah, fuck. I’d said too much. 

“Wait, are you angry at me because of what I told you in the car?” he asked, piecing together my silence. 

I rubbed my eyes, hoping that this was just a bad dream.“...No.” 

But I didn‘t sound very convincing. 

Chapler Seventy–Three 

“Seriously? How is that fair on me? You were the one who was angry at me for originally not telling you.” 

That did

Crumbling that final piece inside me that still cared about what he

now ablaze. “You want to talk about ‘fair‘, Aleric? What you said in that car was not fair– not fair to me. In fact, it was the cruellest thing anyone has ever said to me throughout my lives. I would have preferred it if you had just told me you were trying

say ‘lives‘?”

who is so goddamn unpredictable that I feel as though everything I learnt the first time around is completely useless. That it was meaningless. That I went through years of hell, living

s that fair?” 

what the fuck are you talking about?”

you what you always wanted to know! The reason I was so scared of you, the reason I always looked at you as if you were a monster. Because i n my eyes you were, Aleric. You were my torturer, my abuser, and you would parade that bitch Thea in front of me like a prized possession you loved more than anything; never caring what it did to me, never caring that it

“Aria–.” 

now filling with tears. “Everything. Anything that was within m y power to give, I gave it to you. You wanted the world to kneel before you? I gave you the path to do it. You wanted my

attendant who in the end threw

it for you. I did it so that maybe you would love me... so that

JOU 

and gritted my teeth. “And then suddenly I‘m brought back by Selene and told to fix it all, to stop it all from happening again. That if I don‘t then everyone dies. And so that‘s what I did. I worked hard to stop the same future from happening, to stop myself from becoming your Luna, to stop you from trapping and hurting me again... and to stop myself from ever having to love you again... because I couldn‘t bear the thought of living through your rejection twice. That alone had been more painful than anything else.”

the hell is this? You‘re saying I apparently rejected you? Hurt you? ...None of

my lips, realising I‘d forgotten

creeping onto my face. “You see, to be reborn, you don‘t just get plucked out of thin air by Selene and sent back. No, no… you have to die first, Aleric. I died. And guess whose face I saw in

with this, his face quickly starting to pale, and my

Aleric. It was you who believed Thea over me, you who convicted me o f crimes I never committed, and you who held the sword as it came crashing down, slicing through my neck at the trial grounds. You killed me, Aleric.

Chapter Seventy Theo 

you put me

opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. Instead, he just looked at me, his eyes full

into fists, tightened

don‘t get to say that

even once he kneeled down

look at me,”

wiping

me,” he

I just

“Aria, look.” 

gently grabbed my chin and raised my head up to finally meet his

And I can apologise for those things if you want, to say that I‘m sorry but, at the end of the day, even if I did, it wouldn‘t mean anything. Yes,

did.” 

have time to change, time to

grasp and looked back down at

to persecute me for sins I‘ve never committed? When have I, m e personally, ever hurt you, Aria? When have I ever given you a reason to not trust me? It‘s true that

knew he was

same thing I had been trying to convince myself of, but it still didn‘t lessen the sting. The cold truth was... I was never going to get my sincere apology. And the things that I went through were never going to be okay. Because the person I needed to hear the apology from was dead in another timeline that was now destroyed. *My* Aleric was gone. And, knowing him, it was likely that he didn‘t regret what he did to me,

could. And yet I still refused to let myself give in. On

are this time, I can‘t be the person you want me to be,” || said, moving away from him. “I can‘t become a Luna again, always living in your shadow and hoping that what i do ensures my survival for one more

nupied scrantyce 

“I never expected you to sit back passively i in the shadows as a Luna anyway. I just want you to help me make

much different. It still sounded basically

you want, but I would rather we work together than end up divided in a civil war for power,

this but had turned her down knowing the impact it would have on Aleric. At the time, I couldn‘t risk tarnishing our current relationship for fear it would lead to the

it was clear

offering was true then this was the

to hear from his mouth This would mean no Alpha commanding servitude from a Luna But

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