Chapter 281

“What do you mean?” the Goddess asks, grinning at Jesse, clearly a little entertained and looking around the room as if she’s going to see Jesse’s mate hiding in a corner or something. “Of course you’ve met your mate – that’s how it works! My magical gifts can’t develop until your mate comes along to spark them – that’s why I gave you the mates. But also,” she laughs again as she shrugs, “for fun.”

A little pulse of shock goes through me as the Goddess admits this – both that Jesse has a mate and that, somehow, he’s met her. And the confirmation that magic develops once you’ve met your mate…god, but that’s important news.

Down our bond, I feel Jackson go still – anxiety turning in him as he wonders why his magic developed so soon before he met me.

“I – I’m sorry, Goddess,” Jesse says, pressing his hand to his heart. “But my wolf and I – we have not found our mate. How can I have accessed my magic?”

The Goddess frowns, humming deeply and reaching for Jesse again, pressing her hand to his forehead and concentrating this time. Then she sighs, putting her hands on her hips.

“Well, that’s odd – you truly have no memories of meeting her,” she says, clearly frustrated. “But…if you have your magic, then you have met your mate. Or,” she shrugs, “she has met you. The spark is biological – if your body came close to hers – if you smelled or sensed her, even if you were, perhaps, unconscious? It would have been enough.”

The Goddess shrugs like it could be anything and turns away from my cousin, even as Jesse’s eyes go wide because…well, it’s a very creepy thought, isn’t it?

Still, there’s no time to rest on it as the Goddess turns to me at last, her face breaking into her most beautiful smile. “And there she is,” the Goddess says with a happy sigh, flitting to me next and likewise taking my face in her palms. “My little granddaughter,” she laughs her tinkling laugh that sounds like bells and joy and moonlight, looking over her shoulder at Cora and mom as she wrinkles her nose. “Looks like me, doesn’t she?”

“Yes,” Cora says with a happy little smile. “Yes, she certainly does.”

I just stare up at the Goddess in disbelief because…there’s no way. There’s no way I can look at all like someone who is that beautiful.

“And what do you think?” the Goddess says, turning back to me and laughing again as she leans towards me, conspiratorial, nodding sideways towards Jackson. “Do you like my choices?”

I glance towards Jackson, who still just stares between the Goddess and I in awe.

“Yes,” I say, laughing a little too as I turn my eyes to Jacks, whom I love so incredibly much. I raise my hand to cover hers as it presses to my cheek. “Yes, I like him very much. Thank you.”

“Good,” she says with a happy sigh, straightening up. “You know, your gift is particularly complicated, my girl, and without –“

But then she stops talking mid-sentence and frowns at me, leaning forward to peer very closely at my neck. I breathe in sharply as something flares at the Goddess’s eyes as she suddenly turns her glare on Jackson.

As she does, everyone in the room – everything – goes completely still.

My heart starts to pound as the Goddess turns her gaze on me once again. “And where, granddaughter,” she says, leaning down towards me to glare directly into my eyes, “are your marks?”

My heart starts to pound and I again grip my desk, not knowing what to say. She blinks once and exhales slowly, clearly growing impatient.

“I – I’m sorry!” I sputter out. “I didn’t know – they haven’t given them to me yet?”

The Goddess’s eyes flare, suddenly filled with the fire that I recognize as part of my gift. “Do you think that this is a joke, granddaughter? That I have given you these mates for your pleasure alone? Why haven’t they given you their marks!?”

My chin trembles a bit because I know, already, that she’s not going to like my answer.

“They…they want me to choose between them,” I whisper, still staring up at her star-filled form, her gorgeous face. “They want to wait to give me their marks until…I decide which one of them to keep.”

A growl grows in the Goddess’s chest as she turns her head to glare at Jackson, who sits frozen in time next to me. As she crosses her arms over her chest, I begin to pant with anxiety.

“Jealous fools,” the Goddess growls, her eyes flaring again as she straightens. “Receiving the greatest gift directly from my hands and turning their nose up at it like that? Do they think that it is wise to reject my generosity?”

“Please!” I beg, shaking my head vehemently. “They – they didn’t mean it like that!” I press my hands to my chest directly over my heart, sensing that this is going very, very poorly and that it is all my fault.

The Goddess turns her eyes back to me and her expression softens, just a little. In a flash she is closer to me, bending forward, her face very close to my own. My breath stills in my chest to see her so close – to see…the infinity within her, the endlessness, the power.

“It is clear, little daughter, that you and your mates do not understand. So I will say this once to ensure that I am perfectly clear: I did not give you these mates simply because it pleased me to grace you with abundance. I did it because it was necessary to your gift – and because your gift is necessary to this world. Far, far more than you currently realize.”

She stares into my eyes, willing me to understand, and fear creeps into my soul.

“Why…why me?” I whisper, shaking my head. “Why give me this gift?”

“Because you please me,” she murmurs, reaching out and cupping my chin in her hand. I can feel her fingers like frost or morning dew against my skin as she slowly tilts my face from side to side, looking at all of its angles. “And because I saw it from the moment you were conceived – that the shape of your soul – your courage, your spirit, your slight tendency for recklessness,” she smirks here, “was the right match for this gift. Little fireheart.” She whispers the last few words and then releases my face, moving further away, just slightly.

I marvel, for a moment, that this woman – a Goddess, my grandmother – could have seen so much in me.

“Do not let the petty jealousies of those boys control your destiny, daughter,” she continues, straightening and folding her arms over her chest. “I gave them to you, and you are owed their marks as part of your birthright. You must claim them.”

“Why?” I whisper, shaking my head, not understanding. She raises an eyebrow at the temerity of my question, but I put my hands out to her, placating and pleading at once. “Please, I’m not questioning you, I just don’t understand – why do I need their marks with such urgency? Why can’t we wait?”

“Because,” she says, the fire in her eyes fading a bit, “your gifts will not fully develop until you have them. And many depend on the development of those gifts – all of us. It is not a small fate to which I have tied you, Ariel.” Something twists in me to hear the Goddess say my name and my eyes fill with tears. “You must rise to meet it. Demand from your mates what they owe you – and if they do not give it,” she shrugs and looks aside, her mouth tightening, “then…I will have to replace them with mates who will.”

My eyes flare wide as I leap from my spot at the desk, my chair skittering out behind me as I do, clattering to the ground. “What!?”

“I am not kidding, granddaughter,” she says, turning that fiery gaze upon me. “You will receive the marks or I will take my grace from these men and find you new mates deserving of you. It is your right and it is important!”

“But!” I sputter, glancing down at Jackson, horrified. “I can’t just – just – demand that they do it tonight! I –“

“Why not?” she asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

That eyebrow, that simple command, kindles something in me, and my own fire lights in my soul to match her own. “Please,” I say, a bit through my teeth, shaking my head and willing her to hear me, “I am listening to everything you say – but marks should not be demanded! They should be freely given – an act of love, of connection! I will…” I hesitate here, trying to figure out what to say and how to say it how to say it. I exhale slowly, trying to think of how to find a middle ground between what the Goddess wants and what my mates have demanded. “I will communicate to them that they have to give me their marks. But I need…time.”

“How much time?” the Goddess asks, considering me closely.

“How much time can you give me?” I inhale sharply, hoping to hell she says more than just a week. Because how – how could I do that?

She inhales slowly, tilting her head to the side. “Three months, granddaughter,” the Goddess says, her voice cool and smooth. “A quarter of a year – one season - and then…” she takes a step closer to me, locking her eyes with mine, making me hear her, “if you do not have their marks, I will reject these for you and find you more willing mates.”

“Okay,” I whisper, nodding once, holding her gaze. “Three months…I can do.”

“Good,” the Goddess says, a smile breaking onto her face, her voice again perky and cheerful. She raises a hand and somehow, instinctually, I know that she’s about to restart time – to bring us back into the conversation with the rest of my family and friends.

“Wait!” I call, desperate.

The Goddess turns back to me with a smile, almost entertained. “Yes?”

“Um,” I look down at Jackson now, my hand drifting towards him, wanting desperately to touch him. “Does he…does he have another mate? Did she…spark his gift, make it start?”

And then I look slowly back up at the Goddess, terrified at her answer.