Wyrd: Book One of the Witch War Trilogy - WATTYS 2018 WINNER!

Chapter 32: Where Will Grapples with his Past(s)

It was as if the tree rumbled, the earth beneath their feet shifting and groaning with malcontent.

"Fine," the Wyrd said. "Convince my daughter to stop this madness and I will grant you demi-God status. Immortality will be yours. The two of you lovebirds can choose to never grow old, to be together, forever."

Sky and Aman gasped. It was more than they'd ever dared dream.

Their eyes met, both filling with tears.

"I love you," they whispered to each other.

They stepped forward, still clasping hands, their decision made.

"The worlds you dispense of so cavalierly are filled with life, families and love. We can only do what's right. We must defend them. We choose," Aman said, "to fight you until you surrender."

"We fight," Skuld said. "Remember Mother, I know the future if you choose to kill Aman. And I know you will not like any of the outcomes. For once, just listen to me."

Uror simply turned her back to them and walked through the crowd of Gods up the steps hewn in the tree, leaving naught but a stagnant cloud of shame for her progeny.

All eyes were on her. She stopped abruptly midway up, turned back, projecting from her pulpit at the height of the first branches.

"I curse you, daughter of Wyrd, Skuld, knower of the possible futures. Always, shall your love of loves find you only to wither on the vine. Not once shall your love age. Never shall your love's soul see the splendor of Valhalla or true death until the day you concede, and the twin world perishes. Then his soul shall be obliterated, as if he never was. This as punishment for your disobedience!"

The curse rang out, prophecy and invocation.

What Will remembered after that was grim. The Gods and the tree dissipated like a dust of dreams. Then, he, Aman, was standing on the gallows, skin stripped bare. The lacerations screamed. He searched for Sky in the crowd, finding her gaze. He knew what was coming for them. He knew, but just as the trap door swung, as he fell, and as, mercifully his life ended, quickly, and what was coming was forgotten. Who he was, discarded, to be brought back, a resurrection in a foreign body.

Aman had been a martyr. He had known an extraordinary love, a love that had defied Gods and sustained worlds. Sky and Aman, their love, had been the sacrifice. Never would they know a long, happy life. They would never grow old together.

That was the price Sky and Will were asked to pay to protect the worlds they loved.

What Will had not been aware of was what his death had done to Sky. When he died, her heart had broken, shattered into a thousand sharp pieces and she, through her anger and vengeance, had been reborn. too. She had become Ware Liefde Se Wraak – True Love's Vengeance. The Gods' curse had crafted the only weapon capable of battling the intended Armageddon.

All Will could feel was pride when he realized, while lying on a grassy knoll in the Fae Kingdom of Tara, that Sky had been at war with the Gods for over 300 years. She'd been winning against all odds for centuries. The Goddess, the Valkyrie, the woman Will loved had been holding the mantle, fighting for their worlds relentlessly, as her heart broke anew each time he died.

Will knew now. He knew what Sky was so afraid to tell him. Why Sky was so afraid to love him. It would hurt. It would always hurt. To let him go.