My wife is staring at the woman who birthed two of my children. I shift, glancing at her.
Her eyes burn, red and angry, thorns twisting around her, pulling her hair up.
"Do not address my husband so wantonly," Monika narrows her eyes. "I am his wife. You will speak to me."
She's angry with me, isn't she? And him. I take stock of my son, eyes burning with hatred for me. He despises me. I didn't even know he existed.
Still, I keep silent. Out of respect for her, my Goddess, my wife. I cannot shame her more than this.
"Do I need your permission to speak to the father of my children?" She muses.
"Yes," Monika states matter of factly. "It is the respect you show a wife. The respect you show a Goddess."
This is terrible.
How...how didn't I know? I can't stop looking at him. How didn't I know he existed? Shouldn't I have felt it?
"Oh, that's sweet," She smiles. What was her name? It doesn't matter. Monika's going to kill me. "You think because you can hover above the ground you're a Goddess."
Monika goes silent. She smiles softly. Her eyes fade into their normal brown.
I am acutely aware that Monika can separate what she prefers to do, from her duties as Goddess of War. As my wife. She will go to war she will kill for her duty. Her family.
But it does not bring her pleasure. As I watch her expression, watch the godly wrath fade away, I am certain that whatever she does next, she, Monika, will take great pleasure in.
She will mean it.
"Do you believe that you've won some great prize?" Monika smirks. "You caught a wild god in the pits of despair, opened your legs and so happened to get pregnant."
" He doesn't know what you look like. He doesn't know your name. He didn't even know this child existed. Nor Nathaniel until you dropped him at his door and fled."
A tendril wraps around that woman's throat, Monika hoisting her up in the air.
"Father," Nathaniel murmurs. "Stop her."
I blink. It is his mother, and I'm sure he's regretful.
"It is her right as my wife. I will not stop her," I inform him.
He frowns.
"This is all very tedious," Azareal steps forward from his mother's grasp. "This woman's quarrel has nothing to do with you and me, Slade."
His lips quirk up. "There's the only thing I want you to do, Father."
I look my son in his eyes.
"Burn, Father."
"Nathaniel," the woman says opening her arms. I look back at my son, a frown on my face. "Come to Mother."
Nathaniel looks at me, his feet beginning to move as he slowly crosses the line between me and her.
My heart aches.
Monika's eyes widen, as she drops to the floor, looking at him. Nathaniel paused as he reaches her.
"Nathaniel?" She whispers.
He ducks his head in shame.