Page 78 of Godbound
But the girl only sobs into her mother’s shirt, refusing to let go.
Seraphina grips the girl’s hand. “We have to go,” she orders, pulling.
The child’s wail is so piercing that the Fleshleeches screech in answer, their chains rattling as they lurch forward.
“Time is running out,” Kaelzar growls behind me, his hand landing on my shoulder.
A shiver rips through me. For a heartbeat, my thoughts narrow to that single point of contact, the roughness of his scarred skin against mine.
I suck in a breath, suddenly aware of how close he is. Too close. He’s a distraction I can’t afford. I shake him off, shocked by how that brief touch nearly tears me from the scene before me.
“Please take my mama,” the girl pleads, voice trembling. “Please. Please.”
“You’re my fifth,” Seraphina hisses, yanking harder. The child’s cries split the air, rising higher with each desperate breath.
The beasts surge, snapping their maws toward the sound. Their bodies strain so violently against their bindings that the iron stakes groan under the pressure.
The girl goes limp, collapsing at her mother’s feet, burying her face in her skirts.
Seraphina glares at the woman.
Tears streaming down her face, the mother swallows her grief and pries her daughter’s arms away, whispering something into her ear.
Then, just as suddenly, the girl stills. She lets go.
“I love you, Mama,” she whispers.
Something inside me breaks.
I take one step. Then another.
I know this pain. I know what it’s like to lose a mother because of the gods’ cruelty. I know it so well I can taste it, the iron tang of grief rising inmy throat.
I won’t let this child lose hers.
But before I can reach the woman, Seraphina’s sharp gaze snaps toward the nearest Divinity Gaze. Her posture changes. Her chin lowers, shoulders folding inward, just like when I saw her cowering before her parents at the Spectra Judicium.
A sharp breath hisses through her teeth. Then, abruptly, she reaches out and touches the mother. “Go.”
A low roar echoes from outside the crowd. Seraphina’s dragon, too large to force its way through the bodies, calling out in what sounds almost like approval. As if her Godbeast itself is proud of her decision to save one more soul.
I’m close enough to see the tension carved into Seraphina’s frame, her jaw locked so tight it could crack. She hates this.
“You did the right thing,” I say quietly, hoping the mirrors won’t carry my words to her parents.
I half expect her to whirl and strike me for saying it.
As if sensing it, Kaelzar steps beside me. But Seraphina only exhales. “The right thing would be saving them all,” she mutters.
Then, as if realizing she’s spoken aloud, her eyes harden. She bares her teeth. “What kind of Archpriestess would I be if I didn’t know how to make tough choices?”
“The old Archpriest made plenty of tough choices,” I say, remembering the bodies left in his wake, the deaths he justified to preserve the illusion of purity. “And look where it got him. Burned by the same gods he served so blindly. Maybe it’s the right choices that matter.”
Seraphina’s glare burns through me. Then she moves.
Half a breath later, she’s in front of me, her nose nearly touching mine. “You wouldn’t know anything about it,” she hisses, shoving me hard.
I stumble back, colliding into someone. Strong arms catch me, hold me.
