Page 291 of Venom Sweeter than Honey
The brothel.
Lucen.
Thessaly...
My heart clenches with grief.
Thessaly could continue to live out his life in peace if he never met me.
Would never have to die at the hands of my father’s henchman.
Even from here, I can hear Thessaly scolding me.If you think I wouldn’t have chosen the gift of knowing and mentoring you—you are gravely mistaken, child.
The sound of his voice, even if only in my mind, almost makes me smile.
I could save myself the heartache of ever having to say goodbye to Azrael. To endure his death, no matterwhenit occurs, by avoiding him altogether. He’d have no bargain to make. He would continue to live.
But Lazarus...
They are the same person,I try to tell myself.
It feels like a lie.
And neither would be my soulbound.
The image of Persephone’s stunning face appears in my mind, as she stands beside Mors on her ship—beautiful and radiant, even in the stormy dark.
The curse of his loneliness would perservere...
Her presence persists.
Possibilities spark like a sputtering flame inside my skull.
I’m far too selfish to try and change his fate with Persephone, not to mention it would be utterly catastrophic, but perhaps I can somehow ease the aftermath.
Even if only in some small way—as Levi did with the note he sent me in Caerwynath.
What if I sent Levi back to him...
Fuck, I can’t do that, or Lazarus would never come to be.
My thoughts wander back to Tempus, the god of forward-moving chronological time.
I’d bet anything Azrael’s lust for death began when Persephone rejected him. When Tempus revealed their fate—and that of all the worlds, should they be together.
Resolution fills me, although there’s no guarantee what I have planned—a tiny, seemingly insignificant alteration in Azrael’s history—will work or make any difference... but I’ve spent my entire life living on hopes and prayers, and by some miracle it led me tothree soulbounds.
“No.”
Levi arches a brow. “No?”
I shake my head. “There’s nothing else I would change.”
Well, nothing else that I would haveyouchange.
His brows knit together. “Even if it would save you, and potentially others, suffering?”
The burning at the back of my eyes returns.
