Goddess Revenge: Goddess Series Book 4 (Young Adult / New Adult) (25 page)

She shocked him off the cliff. She knew she was going to shock him to stop the fight. She didn’t think about the repercussions.

And she’d ended up killing him.

She cried and cried and cried as she squeezed against Adin’s lifeless body.

No warning. No goodbyes. No more love.

After several minutes, she heard someone approach.

“Legacy?” Lissa said hoarsely. “We have to go.”

“I-I’m not going a-a-anywhere!”

“She’s right, Legacy,” Olive said. “You can’t be here when Hades gets here.”

Her head snapped up. “W-what do you mean?”

“Adin is gone,” Lissa answered for her. “Hades is the god of the underworld. He’ll be coming here to retrieve him.”

“I-I don’t care,” she mumbled, easing her forehead onto Adin’s. She cried over him, looking at his pale face as her tears landed on his cheeks. “If-if Adin’s going to the underworld, then so am I.”

“No!” River yelled, walking over to her. “I’ll force you away if I have to.” His agonized tone was filled with determination to keep her safe.

She glared up at him. “Don’t you dare touch me!” she screamed so loud that spit flew from her mouth and the air swirled around her.

Lissa leaned down and stroked her hair away from Legacy’s face. “Legacy, we have to go. We have a lot of things to deal with, and we can’t do that here. Adin is dead.”

She cried out, screaming.

“Think about your mother, Legacy. She wanted you to have a better destiny than Persephone did. If you stay here and let Hades have you, it’d destroy her. You have to fight. That’s what Adin would’ve wanted.”

Adin’s words came back to her. He’d once told her he’d rather her be with a monster than with Hades. She knew how much he hated River, but no matter how much he hated River, he even more so hated the idea of Hades capturing her. She knew there was no way she could leave Adin on her own right now, but the reminder of his words gave her the strength she needed to walk away.

She kept crying as she slowly stood up.

She turned toward Lissa, and collapsed in her arms, sobbing. Lissa walked her to the car while she stumbled over her feet. She figured River and Olive were coming too, but she didn’t look to see. She didn’t care. She didn’t care about anything. She kept her face covered as she cried the whole way home. She could smell Adin’s scent on her hands from where she’d been touching him, so she kept her hands there. She couldn’t smell him on her clothes since she was covered in his blood.

When she got home, she saw River walking beside her, snowflakes drifting toward the ground as she wept. He opened the door for them and followed them up to her room. Lissa pulled down the covers, and Legacy crumpled into the bed.

She heard Lissa mumble something to River, but Legacy tuned her out. She didn’t care what she had to say. She didn’t care what anybody had to say at this point. She had nothing left to care about. She barely acknowledged when River climbed into her bed facing her. He stroked her hair, but as soon as he touched her, she blocked him out. She cried for what seemed like hours, but she really had no concept of time at this point. The agony made time stand as still as stone.

As her present round of crying eased to a level that was slightly less than hysteria, she became a little more aware she wasn’t alone in her bed, remembering River was with her.

She didn’t know why, but she looked up at him. He was still a little damp, stinking like fishy river water, his hair matted, and his face battered, bruised, bloodied. But the worst part was he was crying. He had silent tears streaming down his face.

His sadness added another ache to her bleeding heart.

“H-hold me, p-please,” she begged. She needed his arms around her, comforting her. She needed to know everything was going to be okay.

But she knew everything wasn’t okay.

River scooted closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. His crying was silent no more. “I’m so sorry, Legacy. I-I don’t even know w-what to say,” he said, squeezing her tightly.

She couldn’t speak even if she wanted to. She had nothing to say. There was nothing that she could do or think or say that could make this nightmare go away.

She continued to sob against River’s chest as he held her with one arm and stroked her hair with his free hand, trying to console her through his own misery.

River was upset for many reasons. Because of what had happened to Adin. Because of the role he’d played in Adin’s death. Because of how she would react to River now for that very reason. Because of what Adin’s death did to her and what it would do to her as acceptance settled in after her grief left. Though she’d never let go of that grief. Ever. The raw feeling would consume her until her dying day.

But she also knew River was upset for a much greater reason to him. He believed in the prophecy. He always had. The prophecy was she’d be with River as long as Adin stayed alive. Now that Adin was dead, she knew River was upset because what that meant for the two of them.

She was crying over her loss of Adin.

River was crying over his loss of Legacy.

They were no longer bonded by the prophecy that held them in its grip for over seven months. River and Legacy’s prophesied bond was no more.

Because Adin was dead.

The End

Author’s Note

Thanks for reading this book! If you enjoyed it, I would be very grateful for a review on Amazon. As an independent author without the backing of a large publishing house, attracting new readers is difficult and marketing is expensive. Customer reviews are extremely important on Amazon to help better position a book within search results and to help other readers select what they’re going to read next.

I will have a contest starting in April where leaving a review on any book in this series will get you lots of points… it’s the least I can do to show my appreciation for you taking the time to help spread the word about me.

Thanks again for reading this book, and I hope you enjoy reading about Legacy’s journey as much as I did writing about it.

About the Author

M.W. Muse is an award-winning, best selling author…under a different name. Her alter-ego writes in adult genres for multiple publishers, but her love of young adult stories geared for the upper end of that spectrum made her seek a new outlet for those young adult characters swimming around in her head. She still spends most of her time living in her other reality, but is looking forward to spending more time focusing on the lighter side of love.

www.mwmuse.com