I completely believed that.
“I love you,” I whispered as she blinked out of existence with another soft smile.
I dropped to my knees, and a breath whooshed out of me. I lifted the ring up, the small gold sigil delicate in nature, and I put it in my pocket, hoping like hell it would stay there. I felt a tear stream down my cheek, my breathing a bit uneven as I tried to rationalize what had just happened—Had I really just spoken to my mom?That was impossible, right?
The ground underneath me shook. I looked around in confusion, noticing a barrier in the distance. It was gold and seemed to shoot all the way up into the sky—far past anything I could see.When the hell had that gotten there?I made my way towards it, the soft winds brushing against me. My eyes widened as the land dipped into a valley—but not one I could go into, as I was completely warded from it.
In the center of it all?Maya.
Her delicate form was curled up in a bed of grass, and she appeared to be sleeping peacefully. I raised my hand to the barrier, wanting to touch it or try to pass through it, to go to her—
“Don’t.”
This time it was a familiar voice—the man from the prison, the one who had unsuccessfully, if I was to believe my mom on not being dead, sacrificed his life for us to escape from. I turned to look at him, finding that he looked vastly different than he had in the prison. The bands on his wrists were gone, and his wings, instead of being smoky in nature, were now full angel wings with silver and black feathers.
Holy shit—was he an angel? Like anactualangel? During the last Cosmos War, the angels had fallen, their realm destroyed by the gods…so to see one in person was a bit disorienting.
“Don’t what?” I demanded, my jaw clenching as I tried to not show how surprised I was to see him.
“If you value your luck in surviving so far, don’t touch the barrier. It’s not a magic I recognize, which means it’s either hers or it’s something different. I tried to touch it and it nearly caused me to black out.”
“Fuck,” I muttered, looking back at Maya.
“She has to overcome his fucking magic herself before we can go to her,” he hissed in frustration, obviously upset over the concept.
“The Master? Or is it Ry?” I asked, remembering what my mom had called him.
“You know his name?” the man asked with a curious tilt of his head, looking alarmed.
“My mother called him that. She appeared to me.”
He nodded in understanding, as if unsurprised. “Yes, Ry is his modern name.”
Something occurred to me then. “Why are you here? Aren’t you immortal?” At least I had assumed he was, considering how damn long he had been alive for. If Maya was being reborn, it made sense why I was here with her, but what the hell did he have to do with this?
A shadow passed his gaze. “I don’t know. I’m immortal, but not with those bands on. They negate my magic, and if I used them to go against Ry, it would cause my true death.”
“Which is why you were hesitant to destroy the stone,” I noted, remembering that he hadn’t originally brought up the option. “You knew you would die.”
“Something that didn’t bother me if it wasn’t for the fact that I feared Maya still wouldn’t escape, which was unfortunately true,” he bit out. “I thought I would be able to find a different way, even after he arrived.”
“So you should be actually dead.” I didn’t comment on the way he spoke about Maya, feeling defensive over the way he was looking at her before his gaze moved back to me. I knew now wasn’t the time for violence, but I didn’t like the idea of him being close to her—I didn’t fully trust him, even if he had sacrificed his life for us to escape.
His eyes darkened. “I should be, but instead I’m here… I don’t understand why.” The last was an admission I could tell he didn’t like to make.
Letting my magic out, I realized I couldn’t feel my full connection with Maya—not that it had been severed, but almost as if there was a wall separating us. I started to understandwhyhe was here as I appraised him curiously, nearly letting out a defensive rumble.
Apparently it didn’t matter if I trusted him or not. I had a feeling he would be around from now on…if we ever left this weird fucking limbo.
“The two of you have a bond.” I had no idea how he didn’t realize it, but I couldn’t leave it unstated.
His brow dipped. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Yeah, he didn’t know.Wonderful.
“Focus on her. You’ll see,” I said, unsure how to feel about that. My initial reaction was distaste and possessiveness, only to remember that he hadn’t predicted this. Not only had he wanted Maya to escape, but he had assumed he was going to actually die.
My brow furrowed, not fully sure how to handle this situation. Honestly, it was the least of my worries considering everything else.