Page 74 of Dark Destiny: The Fates' Bargain

Yaaf and the others were not there yet.

"Please, sit, eat, be comfortable." Areana gestured at the couches.

"Your home is magnificent, my lady," Rohilah said shyly.

"Oh, it is not mine." Areana laughed, and the sound had such a beautiful musical quality to it that it raised goosebumps on Sullha's exposed arms. "The penthouse belongs to Amanda, and I am only a guest here, but she generously let me host this gathering here." She laughed again, and the effect was the sameas before. "My other accommodations would not fit even a quarter of us, even if I was allowed to bring guests there."

The harem ladies laughed nervously.

By now, they all knew why Lady Areana couldn't host anyone in her dungeon apartment, and even if she could, none of them would have stepped foot in there unless ordered to do so with a gun pointed at their heads.

No one wanted to face the former lord of the island, and he most likely didn't want anyone to see him in his diminished state. Sullha had never seen Navuh, but she had heard his voice transmitted over the loudspeakers in the enclosure, demanding the daily devotions.

Only the warriors had to drop to their knees and recite them. Thankfully, women were exempt, but they still had been forced to listen to them several times a day.

Glory to Lord Navuh the wise and the just.

In his guidance and mercy we put our trust.

With his bounty we thrive.

By his will we live, and we die.

We are all brothers in the Devout Order of Mortdh.

In his name we wage this Holy War.

She would never have to listen to that again, and for that and everything else she was grateful, and she owed it all to Yaaf.

He and the others were supposedly invited to the gathering, but perhaps they weren't allowed?

They were being treated as a security risk, so it didn't make much sense to bring them up here where the goddess was. Thenagain, Areana actually lived most of the time in the dungeon, right next to them, so it seemed no one thought them a danger to her.

Who were they threatening, then?

Maybe the harem ladies were afraid of them?

Tamira had told her how terrified they had been during the rebellion, cowering in Navuh's basement, but it hadn't been Yaaf and his friends who had attacked the mansion.

Yaaf had told her that they hadn't been anywhere near there. He had also told her that the harem had been a big lie. The legend that Lord Navuh kept the most beautiful women in the world, the daughters of gods, for himself was untrue on many levels. The ladies were daughters of prominent immortal families, not the direct descendants of gods, and Lord Navuh had never spent a single night with any of them. He had kept the harem for appearances, claiming the children born to the harem ladies as his, while they had been fathered by the harem servants. Areana was his one and only, for thousands of years.

Yaaf had also told her that Lady Areana was a goddess, which should have prepared her for the impossible beauty of her, but nothing could have done that.

No wonder Navuh didn't want anyone else other than her. Not even the gorgeous harem ladies could compare.

It seemed surreal to see the goddess holding Bianca in her lap and pretending to talk to her stuffed bunny.

Sullha sat on the edge of a couch and watched the breeding enclosure women interact with the harem ladies who had also been used for breeding, but instead of producing the rank-and-file warriors for Navuh's army, they had been producing fake sons for Navuh to adopt. Beneath the fancy clothes, the unparalleled beauty, and the command of the original old tongue, now changed over the centuries into what was spoken on the island today, they were not much different from her and the other breeders.

Since Yaaf hadn't said any of that was a secret, she had shared it with the others, so they knew who and what Areana was, and their response had been similar to hers. They couldn't understand how a goddess could love Navuh unless she was just as cruel and evil, but it was quite obvious that Areana was neither of those things. She was gentle and kind.

Children knew instinctively who they could trust, and both Tomek and Bianca seemed to have adopted Areana as their honorary aunt.

Mirumah seemed to have her doubts, though, and regarded the goddess with eyes that were not hostile but curious and a little suspicious. "You choose to live in a dungeon beside him when you could live here all of the time?"

Everyone stopped talking, Rohilah put her hand over her mouth, and Liliat sucked in a breath.

Areana just smiled at Mirumah as if the woman had asked her about the weather. "Thank you for asking me to my face. Most people ask it behind my back." She transferred Bianca to her mother.