The Field of Forever came into view—a terrain of endless sunflowers under sunlight with clouds floating across the bluest sky, until they melted into a ridge of silver mountains lining the horizon.
The Void with such unique territories was supposed to be my home, but I’d found a home on Earth with my mates.
“This is it, the edge of the Void,” Dad said, looking at me with fatherly pride and love. “I was sent through here eons ago, chained and dragged to the pit of the Eternal Prison, and today, my heir freed me.”
“Oh, Hyperion, you sentimental fool,” Mom said fondly. “You’ve gone soft since we had our baby girl.”
Dad held Mom’s elegant hand in his large one. My eyes moistened a little. But it was time to leave, and we stepped off the golden carriage into the edge of the Field of Forever.
I breathed out, looking at the beautiful sight in front of me. “It’s so peaceful and lovely.”
“Don’t be deceived by its appearance, child,” Mom said. “All the plants here have teeth and claws. They shift at night and become cannibals.”
I shivered, widening my eyes, and my mates immediately drew their swords, looking alarmed.
Mom laughed. “But nothing will harm the child of the Void.”
My mates relaxed their shoulders and muscles, and Mom gave them a look. “The courtesy doesn’t extend to her mates, though. Men have to keep earning her favor and proving their worth.”
Mom just couldn’t get rid of her wicked nature.
I called my power. The wind of the Void chimed all around us. A stream of flame blasted out of me, tearing the air open. A doorway made of dancing fire formed in front of us.
The Living Flame could open a portal in any universe.
“And here’s where we say goodbye to our daughter and bless her and her mates for a safe journey,” Dad said.
Tears glinted in Mom’s eyes, and her horns turned pale silver.
“You’re a child of the Void,” she said. “Wherever you go, remember you always have a home here.”
Titans and archdemons were villains in the textbooks. Who would imagine they could both be great parents?
I was a product of conflicts between species, driven by the ultimate ambition of an archangel who lost the war against Heaven. My parents created me as a weapon to either win their freedom or help their rule. Yet when Mom gave birth to me, she changed her mind and loved me enough to forsake her hunger for power and gave me the opportunity to choose my own path. She wanted that freedom for me so much that she sent me to the other world, never knowing if I’d return.
Despite that beginning, I turned out to be the creation of love.
“Mom, Dad, you sure you don’t want to come with me?” I tried one last time. “There’s always a place for you where I am.”
Mom shook her head with a stunning, sensual smile and traded a look with Dad, and Dad appeared a goner.
“We’ll make sure the nasty gods and my fellow vicious Titans behave,” Dad said, his hand on his mace. “They’ll never come after you.”
“We need to go, Rosebud,” Zak urged gently.
The Void agreed to let me leave reluctantly. The longer I stayed in its dimension, the more attached it would grow.
I gazed at my parents, blinking back my tears, until Dad gave my mates a calculated, threatening stare. “Remember what we discussed about the wedding, demigods. It must be the most spectacular—”
Oh, parents!
“Dad, we have to go now! See you.” I waved a hand at them and rushed toward the portal.
The five of us clasped our hands tightly, so we wouldn’t be separated by any wind, any world, or any force, and together we stepped through the flaming doorway.
CHAPTER20
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