Standing at the foot of the lake, she smiled as she turned to watch the group lounging around with her thoughts trailing back over those in her life. Gods, mythicals, and the human priest Matthew—who she had come to know as her friend, and Daemon had come to hate when the priest had become infatuated with him.
The rest of them found it amusing, Daemon hated it. He and Dirdos had experienced a brief fling, but it hadn't lasted, and they had fallen into an easy friendship once more, while Dirdos had turned his eyes back onto her, much to her amusement.
Letari and Hunter were in the water, the hybrid tackling her, and she shrieked, trying to throw him off her but he kept a hold of her. Their love was deep and resonating, something Etani was very glad for, though she was always wary of the man. They would be getting married in a year or so, Letari keeping the man chasing her, and he enjoyed the game, trying to pin her down with a ring on her finger, but she was enjoying the chase too much to agree just yet.
The ring on Etani's finger felt like a weight and spun it often when her thoughts returned to Neah. She had to wonder where he was, but she refused to let her mind linger on him for too long.
Dirdos approached slowly when Daemon pulled out a flute, and she lifted a brow at his offered hand, bowing to her.
Accepting his hand, she smiled as he pulled her into the dance and it felt good, the best she had felt since she had been a child.
Happiness swelled inside her as the dragon led her around in the grass, spinning her to make her long hair whirl around her and then pulling her back in, dipping her backwards and kissing her on the cheek to make her laugh.
The moment was utterly perfect, listening to the laughter of her friends with the warm sun beating down on them, the warm hands of Dirdos on her body and the music flowing around them.
She didn't notice when something had changed, relishing the joy that filled her heart and ballooned outwards to fill her being.
She felt as though she were glowing, Dirdos' smile met with her own and she tingled all over.
It was Malik that alerted her to something wrong, and the music cut off as the vampire moved, running forward, and flinging out his arms.
Anubis didn't so much as pause as the long-handled axe came down and something inside her shattered, a terrible rending that had her staggering back from the dragon.
The field had gone silent, her body turning slowly to see the form of her beloved Malik falling, his head split cleanly down the middle like it was nothing, and the God was coming forward.
For one terrible instant, no one but the God moved while her body and mind recoiled like a bowstring, vibrating.
"Malik!" the word was a terrible, drawn out, and agonised scream that ripped itself from her throat and everyone moved as one, the Gods stepping forward to restrain those around her, keeping them back as a terrible, blinding loss ripped its way through her and she felt herself breaking, her mind ripping apart her soul and howling inside her as she lost that precious, irreplaceable creature that was her scion.
She screamed, pain ripping through her mind, and with a viciousness, she slammed down into herself and tore away the bindings that constrained her.
The world around her flashed to white in an instant as the restraints on her shattered, frost covering the ground and the edge of the lake freezing over, all in a perfect circle around her as she screamed her loss, her agony at what had been done to a part of her soul. Malik had been hers, Malik belonged to her, and she had promised to protect him.
She had sworn he would be safe with her, and she had let him down.
Dirdos was no longer at her side, but she didn't care, she had eyes only for the God and her scream of pain turned into a scream of fury.
Drawing her knives from the small of her back, she flooded magic into them, and they grew, extending out from foot long smooth blades to four feet and jagged, claw like, and designed to rend his flesh. She was going to destroy him for what he had done to that precious, sweet man.
"Anubis!" she screamed, and he bared his teeth at her, the axe held ready.
Launching herself forward, she threw herself at him, her knives flashing in the sun as he parried her frenzied attack, slashing and hacking at him with each blow sending a flurry of frost outwards from her to mar the grass.
Her skin was glowing with the runes of Winter, her body vibrating as the magic screamed for blood, and she drew it.
Her knife slid into his thigh, and she ripped it free, large chunks of his flesh tearing free of him and blood splashed the ground, turning the perfect white scarlet.
He screamed his pain, but refused to give in, his axe whistling through the air, but she parried it, driving her blade upwards and shoving him back from her.
He staggered, and she lunged again, forcing him into a limping retreat under the force of her fury, her blind rage at what he had done.
Her mind reached out for him, and she laughed as she found him, wanting to crush him into a speck of dirt.
A terrible scream came from the lake, and she knew that scream, a sudden fear rushing through her at the sound, and throwing the God back from her, she turned to face the new threat.
Letari was struggling to get to her, but Hades was holding her back, her and Hunter both, and they were both desperate, everyone was desperate to get to her, to stop her or to help her, she didn't know, but they were trying frantically to reach her.
There was nothing she could do for the others, but her sister in the arms of Hades? No, that was not going to happen.
She needed to protect the one thing she had left, and she started forward for the God, only to have Anubis step between her and she slammed to a stop as he moved too fast for her to see.
She didn't feel it at first, only seeing him standing before her, and it was confusing, her magic disappearing like someone had blown out a candle. An odd, shimmering pulse escaped her, flattening the grass in a wave.
Someone was screaming, several someone's, all of them screaming her name but she couldn't really hear them, her chin lifted to see the face of the God who grinned in triumph.
His eyes lowered down to her chest, and hers followed, trailing down over his form, and following it along his arm to where his wrist disappeared into her chest.
She couldn't feel the wound, but she felt it when his fingers curled slowly around the frantically pounding muscle, his talons slicing the flesh around her heart as he reached for it.
She couldn't understand what had happened. It didn't make any sense to her, and her brain seemed to have stopped working almost entirely.
He had ripped his way straight through her, and then it dawned on her what he had done.
He had shoved his hand through her chest, and those were his fingers curling around her heart.
It was somewhat ironic, really, given the number of times that she had done that exact same thing, but it was hard to find it funny in that moment, even though she would have laughed at any other point.
"I'm going to keep this nice and safe… Until we need you," he said slowly, and it took an eternity for his words to process in her brain.
Anubis was the God of the dead. He protected the dead… he could keep her dead, and there was nothing she could do to stop him, or to free herself from his grip.
"No…" she breathed, but she could do nothing, watching as his hand withdrew and she saw it.
Oddly, she didn't really expect her heart to look entirely normal like that, red and still pumping in his hand. She thought it would look black, or some other colour, green perhaps? Something to indicate what she was, the monster she was.
No, it was human shaped, red, and it beat a slow, steady ten pumps per minute like it always had, at least nearly always. It no longer raced, it was calm and relaxed as though nothing at all had happened.
She had to think it was a bit of a traitor to be so relaxed when her world was crashing down around her. Why was it not racing as it should have been?
Because it was no longer reacting to her pounding fear. It was now calm in the safe grip of the God who would keep it. He was going to put it somewhere safe, and he was going to ensure no one would reach it to free her. She just knew it.
Surely, they would find it quickly and destroy it? They had to know that to destroy it means she could be free. How long would she be dead for this time? Months? Years? Who would be gone? She didn't know, and she felt a terrible fear as she thought of Kai and Versalis, what if they stopped loving her?
She couldn't move, she was frozen in place as her body went into a state of shock and a violent attempt to recover the missing organ, but it couldn't, that was too much damage for it to recover.
Lifting her head, she looked up at him as he held it between them as though it were an offering, and it continued to beat, taunting her.
"Goodnight, my darling little Goddess," he murmured, and he smiled, her body started going numb and she fell, the world going black before she hit the ground.