A Home for Misfit Monsters

Chapter 21 - Not This Time. Not In This Life.

"Tonight?! How has he found you?" Callie exclaimed, swirling around in the sitting room in a panic. "What happened, Gavina?"

Gavina brushed a hand over her short platinum locks before she looked across the room at Ezra and sighed. "Our brothers have been planning this attack on you and Rhia for centuries. The hunters they sent to kill your bloodline are nothing compared to the gods they've been harvesting."

Ezra gripped Rhia's hand. "What do you mean?"

Gavina leaned forward, staring at the carpet with her eyes pooling with tears. "These gods haven't gone through their trials. When they were born, Godiran and Sephyr turned them, so they don't know anything but being a hunter and killing Rhia."

Rhia's hand shook in Ezra's as she dug her nails into his skin. "Does that mean Vynri won't be able to change them back?"

"I don't know, but there are hundreds of them and from what I overheard, Godiran wants you dead too, Sae," Gavina said, wiping her tears. "From the sound of their plan, they don't care if I survive, either. They want the core and your powers, Rhia."

Ezra closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. "Because they want to take over the game and the only way to overthrow the Elders is with the power Gia created."

"I should've killed him back then," Rhia whispered. "I thought I was teaching him a lesson with my curse, but all I did was give him time to figure out how to do what you and Godiran came here for." She slid a hand over her face. "And I walked right into his trap with the deal I made," she said as a tear rolled down her cheek. "I'm so stupid."

"You're not, Rhia," Ezra said, tugging her hand from her face. "Everything that's happening is because of me. Gia was right to try to hide you and this world," he said, catching the tear rolling down her cheek. "You were never supposed to get caught up in the celestial gods' madness." He looked away from her to his nephews and the gathering of demons, ghosts and werewolves that he'd come to love and care for. "None of you were."

"That doesn't matter now," Rhia said, pulling away from him as she stood. "I'm not going to let Godiran or Sephyr or any celestial god come here and take my family from me." She looked back at Ezra as her human glamor melted away and she stood in flowing skirts of golden silk and ivy. Her horns glimmered in the late morning sun, creating a halo of light above her and the fire burning in her three iridescent eyes licked up his arms and simmered deep in his soul. "We hold the power here and we aren't going to let anyone take our home from us."

"My goddess." Ezra stood, shedding his glamor as he took her hand. "No, we aren't," he said, placing a kiss on her palm. "We have everything we need to end this."

Rhia nodded, turning her gaze to their family watching them in an awed silence. "I know this wasn't the fight you were expecting, and it's not going to be easy. If you're not prepared to fight with us, Ezra and I will do everything in our power to protect you."

"No," Nina said, rising from her chair beside Carter. "Families don't bail when it gets tough. We stick together and we're not going to bail on you and Ezra, right?"

"That's right, Nina," Carter said, standing up beside her and shedding his glamor revealing his towering godly form of obsidian skin and black and gold horns. "I'm not going to run from this. I've done enough of that. I'll fight with you."

"So will I," Vynri said, standing beside his brother.

"Us too," Jin said as she and the demons stood with her.

"Werewolves stick with their pack and this family is ours," Sully said as he, Mack and Jenny stood with their arms crossed and grit shining in their eyes. "We're not going anywhere."