The Wrath of the Fallen (Gods & Monsters, #4)

by Amber V. Nicole

stood inside a double circle, and I recognized the runes within the perimeter. It was a teleportation mark.

and I wondered if this wasn’t his true form.

You’re the King of the Otherworld. Umemri.”

“You are the gory, blood-soaked land, I wonder how to make peace with these butchers.”

I may wield Oblivion, but it seemed Dianna controlled it.

"I don't find quips or innuendos about my wife humorous, Iver, and if you make crude comments about her again, I will no longer concern myself with being your ally. I will have your head, and then I will have your city."

His dark hair was spiked around his head, and his eyes were so black there was no distinction between iris and pupil.

“The medallion allows us to travel to places that would surely invade the second your realm becomes a threat. With all due respect.”

Nydmjir. That was his name. Recollection hit, and I gasped, my breath sucked in so harshly my lungs hurt. I remembered that name. On Onuna, Reggie and I researched the history of the Ig’Morruthens and the realms. He was the son of the fallen primordial, King Ormjir, who started the War of Wars.

Our realm was not just a stopping point for the Primordials. It was an escape, a refuge where they could hide from what sat behind this realm, what watched and waited. I saw skin of the softest blue, the harshest red, and pale tan. There were antlers and what looked like branches nestled as a crown on another. Four great beings in four great chairs ruled over four realms.

“Gathrriel.”

“Burn me alive if you must. I’d gladly die by your kiss.”

Gods were scattered throughout the realms. Athos and Kryella were two of the oldest still alive, but many more had been born since Rashearim fell.

Arcelia. The original home of the gods. “I thought Arcelia was destroyed during the first rule of Pharthar.”

I’d search the world until I found him, and if not there, the afterlife.

No one else mattered. No one else existed. Samkiel was the center of my gravity, and I had no choice but to fall into him.

“No, I still hear the screams. I feel the dying winds and see the spiraling sky touch the ground. It is the beginning of an impenetrable darkness. The beginning of the end truly and all roads lead to one.”

“She was made differently than them, Unir,” Zasyn finally said. “Your intentions for her differed from what they were with them.”

but her mother, Victoria, was crafted by Elin. She was the Goddess of Light, and Dianna is her daughter. That light in her is what they have always wanted. What they stole.”

but none touched my goddess, my queen of flame.

When it comes to you, I’ll always choose you, no matter the consequences. The world can burn, and the realms can fall to destruction. If there is ever a choice between the two, I need you to know that neither the crown nor the throne means anything to me. None of it would matter without you. It’s always you. You are my priority. I may be a god, but you are the altar at which I worship.”

“Find my broken palace, Ayla. Consume all that is left of me and learn the truth. Then and only then will you have the power to stop what I could not.”

Perhaps that was the point. People were very good at hiding from truths that didn’t directly affect them.

“I love you.” I pulled back, my lips only a breath from hers. “Only you. Until there is nothing left of me, and even then, my soul will still know yours.”

I’d love her until my bones were ash. When my soul left this realm, and if Death was so kind as to allow us to start over, I’d find her in every life after and love her still.

meaning they would be met with the consequences if they abused their power. I was the consequences.

I think I have been following you my whole life, desperately waiting for you to turn around and see me.”

“Bow,” I said, the tension in the room growing.

“Kneel and pledge your loyalty to Dianna, the one true queen, or die for the false queen here and now.”

She had not won, and she had no idea who I was and what I was capable of. She would never break me, but I would destroy her.

She was not a monster. She was a dream, and I’d be a nightmare for her.