The Lost God

by Sheila Masterson

“Yours is not an easy road, girl. It is hard to carry memory. It makes the mind chaotic.

Fear will be your catalyst, and only you can decide who fear will make you.”

He is a friend and confidant, and he would have more than just a usual guardian bond with your daughter.

With a soul bond, you could feel everything the other feels. It requires a great deal of trust.

It is a trade—an exchange. Like all magic, it requires balance.”

Despite its pitfalls, she wouldn’t have given up a direct connection to Rainer’s heart for anything.

Okay cuteeeeee

Cecilia Reznik, what do you seek? the voice asked. She replied as she’d been taught. Wisdom, memory, magic.

Only you can decide who fear will make you, the seer had said. Cecilia let it make her a warrior.

Beyond their connection, her expressive face meant that her crush on Rainer was the worst-kept secret at court. He was good enough to pretend not to notice.

What a sweetieeeee

Clastor—the god of all matter—infused some of his power into the caves with the help of four ancient witches.

The witch who completed the route would release the Lost God’s power back to the witches of their kingdom.

“I like to think that you and I are always going to be having some type of adventures together.”

Babes I’m praying!!

“Worrying won’t give you answers. It’ll just give your mind a thousand paths to go down with no ends to any of them.

severing of their bond by a seer—a rare but excruciatingly painful process. One of them would be banished while the other was forced to remain in Olney in shame.

Sincerity was warm and bright like sunshine. Anger was sharp and burning hot like a forge. Grief was sluggish, like being caught in molasses.

Memory magic was far from Sylvie’s only power. She moved the men of the court around her like pieces in an elaborate game to win her heart.

And so she is now my hero

“Your body moves like it was made for mine, Cece. Find me later if you want to know for sure.”

OKAY HOT MYSTERY MAN

“I’ve never seen you look more lovely. I saw you tonight, and I hated the idea of anyone else having you when you look like you do right now.”

“My dear friend, love makes fools of the best of us. Sometimes I wonder how much you know your own heart.”

Your heart is your true north, always. Follow it and see where it leads. It might be somewhere surprising.

I’m loving this

“We’re all victims to our place in this world, but men run the kingdom.

Fucking patriarchy 💀

I expect you could lay the world at your feet, Cece.”

Everyone at court has an idea of me—each one defined by my relation to the men in my life or the power I could bring the kingdom. No one really sees me.”

Well fuck me

“I find you very charming, especially when you’re holding a weapon,”

🤤🤤

“You deserve to feel that, Cece.” “Feel what?” Her voice sounded so small. “Desired.”

“I promise the next time I see you, I will kiss you like you deserve to be kissed, and I won’t stop until you’re trembling and your knees are weak,” the hunter whispered.

“I like you best like this. You look more like yourself,”

The two of them were an ecosystem. No matter how she might try to explain it to an outsider or even to herself, there was no language for it.

This is what love does, she thought as her eyelids grew heavy. It binds you together recklessly, whether you’re ready or not. Love needed no permission to grow roots and bloom.

“I could never leave you if I felt that,” she said. “I would still feel everything you feel if I went all the way home. It would be so much worse. You can’t ask me to do that.”

Predicting future traumaaaaa 😭

Conjuring that element also came with the death whispers—a warning sound that came before someone died—so

I hate that… 👀👀

A scar is a lesson learned.”

“Scars are just reminders of the things we’ve survived. This is just a sign that you are stronger than the thing that tried to break you, Cece.

“Now we match. Am I ugly?”

Why is this getting me 🥹

a wound doesn’t need to leave a scar for it to go on hurting. She’d experienced more pain in her life from invisible scars than ones the world could see.

I just like being there. I like story time. I like falling asleep knowing you’re safe.”

I love Rainier!!

“The way you feel everything is beautiful.

She could wish for Rainer—to have his heart, to give him hers. It was a silly, foolish wish, but wishes were supposed to make people believe in impossible magic.

“When you copy one of my memories, does it come with my thoughts? I never thought to ask before,”

IM SCREAMING OMG

It would have been easy to surrender to the rising tide of panic in her body, but she’d learned long ago that she had to master her fear. Fear was poison.

“Does one have to choose?” Cecilia asked. “Always.” “Then I chose love,”

“You see love as weak?” He sighed, sadness passing over his eyes. “You see it as a strength, but really it’s an exchange. It may make you feel more confident or happy, but even the powerful are ruled by what they can’t bear to lose.”

You fell in love with the first person who showed you kindness in a world that made you feel other. Haven’t you ever wanted more for yourself? Someone who would really see you?”

“My name is Xander Merleen,” he said. “I thought you might want to know since you kissed me and all.”

Loving this mysterious hunter 🤩

“Magnificent? I could kill you where you stand,” Cecilia whispered. “I know. That’s why I said it. I didn’t see it coming.”

anytime you were around, I couldn’t help but watch you. You have a way of pulling all the light in the room, Cece.

You can call yourself whatever you like, but I prefer goddess.”

Sir stopppp 🤤🤤🤤

“Goddess, don’t cry. I won’t die,”

“I haven’t kissed you enough to give in to death yet. Grimon would have to drag me to the Underworld himself to get me away from you, and I’m not sure the god of death could manage that with the way I feel.

“I think the way you rode in and shot that hunter through the eye on horseback was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Xander said.

The flattery is everything to meeeee