A Gift from the Goddess by Dawn Rosewood novel Chapter 73

Chapter Seventy–Three 

“... What the fuck are you doing back here?” Aleric asked. 

He stood in my doorway, arms crossed, staring at me like I was insane. 

But I didn‘t care. My mind was made up. There was no way I was going to have this conversation tonight. 

“No,” I answered flatly. 

“No‘?” 

“No, I‘m not doing this now,” I clarified. “I‘m too tired. We can talk later.” 

I rolled onto my side, facing away from him, and pulled the blanket up over my shoulder. Maybe if I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep, he would just leave on his own accord. 

“Aria, you need to tell me what‘s going on,” he pressed. “Joseph told me you came back over the border and I thought he was joking until I caught your scent by the stairs. Did something happen? Were you caught?” 

“No,” I mumbled, repeating myself once more. 

“Stop that. Regardless of how tired you are, this is more important. I need to know if something went wrong.” 

I groaned out in frustration but reluctantly sat up, my head immediately pulsing with a migraine.* 

“Nothing went wrong, Aleric. Just let it go.” 

“Obviously something went wrong or you wouldn‘t be here.” 

He was getting angry at me and it was only making me more irritated that we were actually having this conversation. 

“Fine then,” I snapped back, turning to look at him. “You want to know what went wrong? The entire thing. The whole plan. How stupid do you think Tytus is that he wouldn‘t find out that you were planning to hide me in the Silver Lake?” 

His eyes widened a little in surprise. “You’re joking, right? Cai didn‘t organise to move you somewhere else?” 

‘More like didn‘t want to move me somewhere else,‘ I thought, recalling our earlier exchange. And that was only after finding out about Caitlyn. 

“Evidently not,” I answered, not wanting to elaborate further on the other reasons I‘d returned. 

“So... what? You‘re just going to come back here and pretend everything is normal? That you didn‘t almost get killed here? After risking everything to get you out?” 

“I don‘t know, Aleric!” I yelled back. “I don‘t know, okay? I don‘t know what to do about me, or Tytus, or Cai ... and I *especially don‘t know what to do about you.” 

He paused, frowning. “...About me?” 

Ah, fuck. I’d said too much. 

“Wait, are you angry at me because of what I told you in the car?” he asked, piecing together my silence. 

I rubbed my eyes, hoping that this was just a bad dream.“...No.” 

But I didn‘t sound very convincing. 

Chapler Seventy–Three 

“Seriously? How is that fair on me? You were the one who was angry at me for originally not telling you.” 

... That did it. 

His words struck a nerve, igniting me once more despite my exhaustion. Crumbling that final piece inside me that still cared about what he would think once he finally heard the truth. 

“Fair‘? I asked him, my eyes now ablaze. “You want to talk about ‘fair‘, Aleric? What you said in that car was not fair– not fair to me. In fact, it was the cruellest thing anyone has ever said to me throughout my lives. I would have preferred it if you had just told me you were trying to get rid of me because at least that would be something I could believe and know how to deal with.” 1 

“Did you say ‘lives‘?” 

“I‘m sick of whatever this is,” I said, waving a hand towards him. “This version of you who is so goddamn unpredictable that I feel as though everything I learnt the first time around is completely useless. That it was meaningless. That I went through years of hell, living with your abuse, for absolutely no benefit. How i 

s that fair?” 

“Aria, what the fuck are you talking about?” 

“The truth!” I snapped, moving to the edge of the bed. “I‘m telling you what you always wanted to know! The reason I was so scared of you, the reason I always looked at you as if you were a monster. Because i n my eyes you were, Aleric. You were my torturer, my abuser, and you would parade that bitch Thea in front of me like a prized possession you loved more than anything; never caring what it did to me, never caring that it hurt me. Me, your mate.” 

“Aria–.” 

“I gave you everything,” | continued, my eyes now filling with tears. “Everything. Anything that was within m y power to give, I gave it to you. You wanted the world to kneel before you? I gave you the path to do it. You wanted my heart, my soul and complete servitude? I gave it to you. I let you lock me away, isolated 

alone in this room with nothing but an attendant who in the end threw me to the dogs. And it 

did it for you. I did it so that maybe you would love me... so that maybe you would just look at me, Aleric.” 

JOU 

I wiped angrily at the tears on my face and gritted my teeth. “And then suddenly I‘m brought back by Selene and told to fix it all, to stop it all from happening again. That if I don‘t then everyone dies. And so that‘s what I did. I worked hard to stop the same future from happening, to stop myself from becoming your Luna, to stop you from trapping and hurting me again... and to stop myself from ever having to love you again... because I couldn‘t bear the thought of living through your rejection twice. That alone had been more painful than anything else.” 

“What the hell is this? You‘re saying I apparently rejected you? Hurt you? ...None of this is making any sense.” 

A humourless laugh then escaped my lips, realising I‘d forgotten the best part. 

“Oh no, haha...Oh no, no no, not just rejected,” I said, a smile slowly creeping onto my face. “You see, to be reborn, you don‘t just get plucked out of thin air by Selene and sent back. No, no… you have to die first, Aleric. I died. And guess whose face I saw in my nightmares every single day?” 

He could see where I was going with this, his face quickly starting to pale, and my smile only grew despite my tears. 

“Yours,” I answered. “It was yours, Aleric. It was you who believed Thea over me, you who convicted me o f crimes I never committed, and you who held the sword as it came crashing down, slicing through my neck at the trial grounds. You killed me, Aleric. You killed me once I was no longer of any use to you anymore. And you wondered why I was so scared of you for so long? Why I‘m so angry at you now given 

Chapter Seventy Theo 

everything you put me through?” 

He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. Instead, he just looked at me, his eyes full of confusion, and, slowly, my breathing turned into sobs. 

I quickly glared down at my hands which were now balled into fists, tightened around the blanket beneath me, and watched as my tears hit the fabric. 

“...You don‘t get to dictate what‘s unfair this time...,” I choked out slowly. “And you don‘t get to say that you love me. It‘s nine years too late for that.” 

I heard him step closer towards me but, even once he kneeled down to eye level, I still refused to raise m y head. 

“Aria, look at me,” he said. 

“If what you‘re telling me is true… then there is literally nothing I can say that will make what happened to you okay,” he said, his expression serious. “Because the reality is... it‘s not okay. And I can apologise for those things if you want, to say that I‘m sorry but, at the end of the day, even if I did, it wouldn‘t mean anything. Yes, I‘m sorry that those things happened to you, but I can‘t look you in the eye and genuinely apologise for something I never did, and I guarantee you that it wouldn‘t make you feel any better even if I 

did.” 

“... I‘m sorry, Aleric, but... regardless of who you are this time, I can‘t be the person you want me to be,” || said, moving away from him. “I can‘t become a Luna again, always living in your shadow and hoping that what i do ensures my survival for one more day. I refuse to live in another war–torn world created by us.” 

I frowned, not seeing how it was all that much different. It still sounded basically the same as what I did for him in the past. 

“I know you want change, Aria. That much is obvious,” he continued. “You think I haven‘t noticed how messed up things have been? Hate me for the rest of your life if you want, but I would rather we work together than end up divided in a civil war for power, something that benefits neither us nor the pack. I‘m not so naive as to assume you haven‘t at least considered taking over once you‘re of age. Especially after what Tytus has done to you.” 2