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Chapter 623

Chapter 123 : The Night God

*Lena*

“Easy now, not too fast. That’s it–”

The Night God patted my back as I gulped for breath, shivering in the stunning cold that was embracing me like a wet blanket. I opened my eyes, sucking in a shallow breath as I looked around.

“What’s going on?” I cried, rising to my knees.

The withered old man pursed his lips, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his khaki trousers as he looked down at me with a fatherly look of disapproval.

“You offered yourself to the sunstone in exchange for Xander’s life, remember?” he quipped, shrugging his shoulders.

I blinked up at him, then looked around once more, taking in the familiar space.

I was in the ancient temple of the White Queens, the one tucked inside an ice-covered cove only accessible in the dead of winter, the same temple we’d passed through to journey between Andromeda’s realm and my own.

“Why am I here?” I looked toward where the doors should be, one on either end, but found none. The walls were cold and empty, covered in cobwebs.

The Night God plopped down in one of the dusty pews, stretching out his legs in front of him as he sighed audibly. He didn’t move like an old man at all, I realized.

“Because I didn’t think it was very fair to give up your entire mortal existence to save someone’s life when he shouldn’t have been in that position anyway,” he answered calmly, almost casually.

“So this isn’t the realm of the gods?”

“Of course not. This is just another pocket between the realms the gods created to play house, Lena. You can access the realm of the gods all you want without a sunstone, you know. So can your mother, and every… what do you call them? Dream Dancer? Ha, such an odd name for what it really is.”

I was genuinely stunned into speechlessness. I stared up at the man, the god, who looked more like someone I’d run into at the grocery store than a being with unlimited power.

“Xander is one of the good ones, Lena. His powers of shadow are not weak like he thinks; he just has a better grip on them than his relatives and ancestors. He could have saved himself. He could have killed my good-for-nothing son without so much as touching him. Do you know why he didn’t?”

head as he leaned forward, his hands resting on his

Xander knows what he’s capable of but refuses to accept that he’s dark at heart. Does that make

“Barely–”

not until paranoia and greed took hold of him and twisted him into what he became toward the end of his life. That was the curse he passed down through his line, you know. It was fear–fear of his family, fear of his own powers, fear of what was to come when he passed across to the spirit realm. Xander was the first person ever born of Lycaon’s line to never fear or doubt his powers. He was the

you

was incredibly stupid of

who only chuckled

become the Moon Goddess. That’s my destiny, the reason I was born. The gods wanted me back, and I made the decision to give myself to them so

flatly, leaning back against the pew. “The gods don’t have a use for you, not in their realm. Not yet. You would have just been another soul drifting through space and time waiting for a home. You were meant for your own realm, Lena. One day, when you’re old and withered and wise, you will return to the gods and sit atop your throne in

“Gossip?”

my own realm when my children were young and unruly. They wanted more, always, like all children do, but I couldn’t give that to them, not all of them. I would have bent the world to Narcissa and Andromeda’s whims. I would have done the same for my son Typhon but–” he heaved an uneasy breath, shaking his head. “Nikolas wasn’t as powerful as the rest of the children of the night realm. When I created the lower vampires, he saw an opportunity to rule them

my knees onto my bottom. “Tell me how

much to

that’s wrong,” I argued. “You created the Moon Goddess, who created

gifted her your realm,” he corrected, sniffing

to be

you

daughter,” I said, raising

exhaled through his nose,

because the wolves led them to food, you see. They began to worship the wolves like gods. Leto was one of those early people, but she was different from the rest. She had a… natural talent for healing. She was never afraid. I watched her stare death in the face many times, and she never once backed down. A blight swept through her village one winter and killed almost everyone. Even gripped by the

“You loved her?”

snow-covered tundra. I gave her a moon stone, a sacred gem tied to me as the God of Night in particular. She took

“And…”

I came to her often as a wolf. I came to her more than I should have. Once, I changed from that wolf to man, and she was… obsessed with that transformation. She wanted to do it, to

the moon

he said quickly, his eyes downcast. “That’s

what is

life. When Leto blessed her people with the mate bond I knew… I knew what she was trying to accomplish. She wanted to keep her people safe. The villages were constantly at war over countless things. Being like the wolves, being a pack, that kept them loyal and safe. The people who found their mates tended to stay in the village; they tended to breed and grow families, which meant the villages prospered.

made her and her

I gave them their own realm, you know, your realm of light. I gave Leto that power, but she never used it. Lycaon was the realm builder, the only one to tap into that power. Like me, that was his last gift to his people before he met his mortal end. The powers of the stones aren’t forever. He lived for hundreds of years and fought for more time until