My brother's flight is interrupted by the horde of damned souls that still have wings. There are only a few of them, but with his fiendish son in his arms, he can't fight them off.

I can hear the child screaming in his arms, his terrible cries making me wince even down here on the ground. I don't know what happened to that child, but whatever it is, that thing isn't normal.

Thane lands only a few steps from me as we race into the graveyard at the temple of Death. I bump his shoulder, internally smirking at the growl he sends my way. We scramble, together, toward the warriors battling against the remains of the Love's army.

Roaring, we both rip through the first line of attackers. Past my Recondites, past his fully-shifted demon warriors, we crash into the enemy.

I see Hanish fighting three of the undead. Laughing, I thrust my claws through the chest of the Forgotten closest to me. It crunches through bone and flesh, protruding through the other side. The undead continues to gnash its teeth and swipe its claws, despite what should be a fatal wound. I yank my hand back out, catching the spikes on my knuckles on it's ribcage. I pull the rib out of its chest. It screams, faltering, finally falling to its knees.

"Hanish," I grin at the Recondite.

"Captain?" he asks in wary disbelief.

I keep going, not pausing in the dismantling of Love's army. It's a fast succession of death and mayhem to the temple doors, my brother's warriors make quick work of the Forgotten army alongside my Recondites. War has emptied into Death and the army that has been laying siege in this city is breaking on our swords and claws.

Battle is a different type of fight than I am used to. Instead of avoiding one monster's teeth and claws, tail and horns, I am avoiding the blades of the undead every which way I turn.

But, Love's army of Forgotten is like one giant beast, and my body falls into the rhythm of death-bringing even if my mind is still playing catch-up.

The ground is muddy from blood and gore before long. The white stones of the broken cairns are speckled red and pink. Warriors from both sides are caught in the death throes, their screams of fury and agony mixing into a terrible cacophony.

Glee fills my heart. This is my purpose.

I see the flutter of black wings in the corner of my eyes. Turning my head just a fraction, I see gargoyles, Momo and Mishu, flying into the temple.

They wouldn't leave unless it was to go to Mara.

Dread fills me. Is my Sprite in the shattered temple of Death? It is unsafe in their without this battle taking place. The very structure of the buildings is ripped apart. Now? Now, it's a death trap.

I spin and start fighting my way toward the temple. Before I've taken down even one more enemy, my brother is at my side, fighting as well.

We hate each other, but in this moment, we will fight the common enemy together. Because behind those walls is Mara.

A partially-shifted demon leaps at us from the ruins of the mourning garden basilica. Thane lets him leap over his head. I take the impact, holding the Tasuri upright with my claws in his throat as my brother rips off his head. It's perfect synchronization.

"You aren't as useless as you look, pretty Lordling," I insult him.

He simply smirks, "I got the looks and the smarts, huh little brother?"

I grit my teeth, slamming a male's head into the solid wood doors three times until his skull splits open and spills his brains all over the ground. "Just the looks, lordling. Such smooth, unscarred skin." I stab one of the Forgotten through his gut. "Never been in battle?" I mock Thane.

He grunts, heaving the twitching corpse of his latest victim onto another attacker. "Just that good, actually." Another body goes flying. "You wouldn't understand."

I scoff. "You're the weaker one," I tell him with pure resolve as he hacks apart a shifter that resembles a lizard. "I'm the one who rescued her from nature itself."

"I'm the one who rescued my Lady from you," he taunts.

I snarl his way as we duck past the fallen walls and down the hallway of the temple. I look at the destruction of my Sprite's home with guilt boiling my insides.

I'm the one who rescued my Lady from you.

Asshole. I wasn't going to hurt her.

I feel it and stop my brother from barrelling into the sacred temple just in time.

"What the fuck?" he hisses to me.

"Inanji is in there, the Love goddess is here," I tell him lowly.

He swears colorfully, but approaches the gaping hole where the doors are with much more caution.

"Come inside, my males," I hear the familiar voice purr with increasing dread.

We step inside the room and both of us exhale in relief. Mara is here. She is alive. Lividly angry, but alive and whole. Disheveled, her red hair hanging in tangled knots down her back, she is still utterly exquisite.

"Step away from my Lady," Thane speaks first. Hard eyes are fixed on the goddess.

I look at Love, encased in the body of Sera. I'm surprised that she chose this body to possess. Inanji is nothing if not superficially arrogant about her appearance and Sera's face is badly scarred. Her body is that of a female warrior, hard and muscled, nothing truly soft about her. An attractive female, but not to Love's exacting and narrow standards.

"Now, Thane, who is threatening who, here?" Inanji says.

He growls so low that I may be the only one who hears it. Of course, Mara is the one who is armed, twin blades flashing in her hands as she stands with her back to the pool. Behind her, perched under a tall piece of a stone cornice that has fallen, are Poppy and Harku.

I hear the clamor of battle at my back and growl. The fighting is coming this way. My family is stuck here with an unstable goddess and an army of undead Forgotten is finding its way into the temple.

Momo waddles past us, right between our legs, dragging the hissing and spitting spawn of my brother behind him. The fiend is covered in blood, mostly around its mouth as if it's been eating corpses.

Inanji starts to laugh. "Oh, look, Mara. Now your family is complete! Let's see, an absent father, a dead mother, a rejected, unwanted child, your ugly little pets, and now this vile creature of your own making. Your family is just as hideous as you."

I growl and take a step toward the bitch. Thane is the one who pulls me back. "Be smart for once in your idiot life," he hisses in my ear.

Inanji laughs. "The best part of all, Mara... two lovers, you little slut, neither of whom are faithful to you. And, Thelios," she addresses me with a wicked smirk, "let me assure you that she has spread her legs for your brother. Right here, actually."

I wince internally, but I had assumed that they were lovers. After all... "You've been telling me that for weeks, now, Inanji. Were you expecting that to sway me?"

"Now, now, Thelios," she smiles at me. "Don't be angry with Mara. She can't help but whore herself to your brother. After all, the little freak drinks your blood, doesn't she? You and your brother feed her. Just like Thane's son. He drinks blood too, Mara."

My sweet Sprite looks pale, a little sickened as she glances at the squirming toddler with his glossy skin and shiny hair slick with the blood of others.

Thane takes a step to the side. "Princess, stay there, near the pool." He nods his head to me, telling me to take the other angle. The sounds of battle are coming closer. Soon, we'll be trapped in here with a crazy goddess.

Inanji laughs again. "Your warriors need your help, but here you two, are. She is just a drain on your lives."

We both manage to walk next to Mara. I want so badly to touch her, but just as we reach her side, the battle spills into the room.

"What do you want, Inanji?" Mara asks calmly. "What do you possibly think will happen now?"

Inanji is still laughing as she makes her offer. "Well, Mara. Enlal insists that you be allowed a choice. My auntie wants you to choose your Fated." A gleam of pure avarice flashes in her too-bright eyes. "You have her sympathy, little female."

"My choice?" Mara muses. "You always hated that I had a choice, didn't you, Inanji?"

The goddess of Love snarls. "You are not special, you little bitch. You will no longer usurp my place. I've had one of your males already. For years Thelios has been fucking me. And Thane? Well, he killed you to be with another female."

Mara sways a little. Inanji's words are a direct hit. I'm not sure if Thane heard Inanji's words. He is fighting one of the Forgotten who managed to creep through the battle lines across the room.

"I am your Basru Captain, My Lady," he says as he dispatches the soldier with a clean cut across its neck. "I am sworn to you, regardless of what she claims."

I feel rage pour through me. "I have never betrayed you, Sprite."

Inanji laughs. "Tell the truth, Thelios. Death told you that you had a Fated waiting for you. He even told you her name, who she was. You weren't content to wait for her."

Mara flinches at my side. "My father told you about me in the Underworld?"

I can't answer for a moment as another fallen soldier attacks me. I can hear Thane shouting instructions to his Basru. As much as I want to pretend that I am the Recondite Captain, I know that right now most of them consider me their enemy. I am alone. Just like I've been my entire existence except for those few months with Mara and Poppy.

"I'll never regret anything more," I snarl at Inanji as she smirks at us.

The goddess merely smiles, "regrets don't erase what you did, Thelios. So, Mara, go ahead and choose."

"You are a bitter female, Inanji," Mara says quietly. Her fingers slide along my wrist. Her touch is warm and so beautifully soft.

"Sprite?" Just her name. It's all I can say, but in it I'm begging her, pleading for her to choose me. Love is hissing in outrage, the sounds of warfare fading as Mara turns to look at me with those unfathomably dark eyes.

My Mara kisses my chest and I smile, my eyes sliding shut. I can heart Love hissing in anger, but it doesn't matter anymore.

The bite of pain makes my eyes spring back open. Mara's face swims in front of my eyes, She is crying, pale and scared.

I think I see her mouth "I love you," but it's just wishful thinking, isn't it?

I look down. The black ebony handle of my own damn knife, one of the blades I gifted to her for our wedding, is buried in my icy heart.

---

Thelios falls first. As much as I love him, I don't trust him. If he doesn't remember me then I can't depend on him. He's fighting alongside Thane, but everything is happening too fast. I have no time to ask them questions, to talk to either of them. I can only hope Thelios forgives me.

My father's words echo in my ears.

Flesh is Flesh

My daughter

We are Death

My hands are shaking as I turn to Thane. His eyes are wide in disbelief. Inanji is screeching in anger. In her eyes I killed her favorite brother. That bitch. They're my twins.

"Father always says 'flesh is flesh,'" I whisper to Thane. Understanding lights those greys.

"I live and die for you, my Lady," he murmurs.

I told Thelios that I love him, but I can't bring myself to tell Thane the same thing. I hate that about myself.

"Do you want me to do it, Princess?"

Inanji has knelt next to a slumped-over Thelios. He is already dead. The blades he gave me where placed on him by my father. They are powerful blades, able to bring death instantly.

She is futilely trying to stop Thelios' body from falling into the pool. I have to do this now, before it stops distracting her from my plan.

"Do it yourself?" I ask him. I swipe angrily at the tears.

"You want me to... to send you to the Underworld? We'll find our way back through the tombs of the Forgotten. I just- close your eyes, Princess."

There's a soul-deep agony in his eyes. He doesn't understand. Thane believes that I've chosen Thelios, while Inanji thinks I killed him. They're both wrong.

"Oh, Thane," I say. "Kiss me goodbye first?"

He nods and pulls me gently into his arms. To Inanji, it must look like a lover's embrace and nothing more. I palm the other blade in my hand. Thane's head dips, his lips brushing mine. Fearful of the bite of his blade in my heart, I barely let our mouths touch before I slam the knife into his back.

His eyes widen on me in horror. "No, Princess," he chokes out, blood bubbling up in his mouth.

I shove his body with both hands, sending him stumbling backward into the pool. He falls into Thelios as Inanji screams incoherently.

Both of my males hit the surface of the water and sink underneath. The pool bubbles and froths, red blood floating to the top of the oil.

The sounds of battle come back in a rush. I am shaking so badly that I can barely stand.

I've never killed before. Never taken a life. Now I'm a murderess of two males, both who own my heart. I truly am sorrow and shadow.

"Mama!" I turn, hearing Poppy cry out. I race to her side. She is clutching Thane's little hellion child by his hand as he hisses and growls at... well... everyone. Except Poppy. When I grab the children, my hands are blood-red.

"What have you done?!" Inanji screams. "You killed them both!"

I turn to her, letting my own smile of triumph cross my lips. "Death never dies, Inanji. Now my father owns their souls, both of them."

"What did you do, my Lady?" Lier is by my side, his face a mask of horror as he watches my males sink below the surface of the pool.

I open my mouth to explain, but he swears, loudly, then scoops me up, tossing me over his shoulder. I cry out for Poppy, but she is grabbed by Ililie while Thane's child is snatched up by a shocked Grey.

They turn and sprint from the room. I scream, twisting and fighting Lier's hold. I'm not ready to leave the bodies of my males. I need to make sure that they are buried properly. I need to know that their souls are safe in the Underworld.

They are in the pool

They need no burial rites

My father is laughing. The sensation of overwhelming celebration fills me. The Underworld is rejoicing in this victory.

Lier's shoulder cuts into my belly. It's hard to breath. I don't know how I will find my own way to the Underworld. Ironically, I don't want to die. I can't leave Poppy here and I refuse to kill my daughter. Two deaths on my hands are enough.

I look down at my flopping limbs. My hands are bright red.

I killed my Fated males.

Bile rushes up, the euphoria of stealing their souls from Inanji's grasp is fading quickly. She got to Thelios in the Underworld before. Will she do it again while I'm trapped here in the above?

Hysteria is bubbling up. I'm hungry. Am I hungry or the pain in my stomach from Lier's shoulder?

My head is swimming. I look around, frantic to see Poppy before blackness overtakes me. My vision is fading, panic crawling up my throat. I can't see, can't hear.

I killed my Fated males.

I'm scared.