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 it.

a nerve, igniting me once more despite my exhaustion. Crumbling that final piece inside me that still cared about what he would think once he finally heard

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

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

s that fair?” 

fuck are you talking about?”

the reason I always looked at you as if you were a monster. Because i n my eyes

“Aria–.” 

to give, I gave it to you. You wanted the world to kneel before you? I gave

but an attendant who in the end threw me to the dogs. And

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

JOU 

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

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

humourless laugh then escaped my lips, realising I‘d forgotten the

out of thin air by Selene and sent back. No, no… you have

see where I was going with this, his face quickly starting to pale, and my

as it came crashing down, slicing through my neck at the trial grounds. You killed me, Aleric. You killed me once I was no longer of any use to you anymore. And you wondered why I was so scared of you for

Chapter Seventy Theo 

you put me

out. Instead, he just looked at me, his eyes full of confusion, and, slowly, my breathing turned into sobs.

into fists, tightened around the blanket beneath me,

don‘t get to say that you love me. It‘s nine years too late for that.”

once he kneeled down to eye level,

me,” he said.

shook my head, wiping at my face.

me,” he

I just shook

“Aria, look.” 

finally meet his gaze, to meet his green eyes

make what happened to you okay,” he said, his expression serious. “Because the reality is... it‘s not okay. 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, I‘m sorry that those things happened to you, but I can‘t look you in the eye and genuinely apologise for something I never did, and

did.” 

“You have time

and looked back down at my hands,

that you were wrongfully convicted of crimes you had no part in, that you died for those very charges,” he continued. “And yet you want 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 there i s nothing I can say to make right what happened to you, but I hope that my actions over these last few years have at least proven to you that, whoever the fuck you‘re talking about...

he was

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*

never given me a reason to not trust him. In fact, he had proven to me time and time again that I could. And yet I still refused to let myself give in. On even the small chance that things turned bad once more, I

you 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,

nupied scrantyce 

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

different. It still sounded basically the same as what I

together than end up divided in a civil war for power, something that benefits neither us nor the pack. I‘m not so naive as to assume you haven‘t at least considered taking over once

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 very doom I was trying

it was

true then this was the

the last thing I ever expected to hear from his mouth This would

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