Twilight of the Gods ✔️

Chapter 10: Haydn's Heart

"I can't do that!" Julia exclaimed.

She was sitting on the floor of the cage, fingers tangled in her honey hair. The look of despair on her face was comical. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes and she wore a frown that pulled at the edges of her face.

"You can if you want to leave this cage," Daeva said. She sat calmly on the floor across from Julia, unwilling to budge from her request.

"It's not that simple. I can do anything else you want me to. Just not this. I swear it," she pleaded.

"Remove the Binding Chains and I will set you free." Daeva pointed to her neck where the chains lay beneath her skin.

"You're not listening to me. I can't remove the chains, at least not alone. All seven of us need to unlock them to take it out of your body," she explained.

Daeva mulled over her words. Damn Ezra! Leave it up to him to overcomplicate things. But that didn't mean Julia couldn't help.

"Do all seven of you have to unlock the chains at the same time?"

Julia looked away. "Answer me," Daeva said. After a moment of silence, Daeva let out a frustrated huff.

"What are you afraid of? I can't kill you. Nyx won't allow it." She stared at the Elysian for what seemed like an eternity before she finally lifted her head up to meet her eyes.

"I'm afraid of you. You're a monster." Daeva didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or cry. A part of her couldn't believe what she was hearing. Did the person who tortured her for several months just call her a monster? Her mouth tried to form words in response, but no sound came out.

"What did you just call me?" She asked this in a low voice, a feeble attempt to be gentle with the Elysian.

"You're not deaf," Julia sneered. "You heard what I said. You're a monster. You've got crazy red eyes and you don't even bleed the same as us." She stood up, staring at Daeva defiantly as if the bars of the cage had disappeared.

If Daeva was in the Mortal Realm, she would've dealt with Julia's insolence the same way she had done away with all those soldiers in the past. But things were different in Otherworld. The Elysians were different, operating within different rules. She's trying to provoke me. What does she want me to do?

"I am a God," she said calmly. "I look and bleed the way I do because of the magic in my body, a body you had no trouble eating for sustenance." She maintained eye contact, trying to read her intentions through the emotions she saw. All she observed was hatred, pure and simple.

"We are Gods," Julia spat. "The people of the Mortal Realm, whether they be Myranian or Ylivian, love us. They listen to us. They worship us. You are a murderer."

There it was, the Elysian war rhetoric. Bitter and acerbic like she was still living in the conflict. But Daeva never fought in the war between Gods and Elysians. She was merely caught in the aftermath when Ezra had invited her to Otherworld as an unwilling prisoner of war.

"I don't want to rule or control the mortals like you do," she said. "You heard the wish I gave to Nyx. I never wanted the Board. All I've ever desired was a normal life." Her voice wobbled a bit at the end despite her attempts to steady it.

What she said was mostly true. She wanted a normal life, but she also wanted to keep her power as a God. They had made her suffer for it so she felt that she deserved to keep it. It was the least the universe could owe her after robbing her of her past identity.

"I don't believe you," Julia said. "You've lied to me before." She had the impertinence to look hurt.

Daeva frowned. Perhaps the soft approach was ineffective.