The Everlast Series Boxed Set

by Juliana Haygert

  Nadine broke us apart and took three steps, probably knowing that if she didn’t do it, I never would.

  She wiped the tears from her eyes. “All right, what do we do?”

  Pain seized my chest, but I pushed through it. For her, I endured it.

  I conjured a dagger in my hand and pricked her index finger with it, drawing blood. I did the same with mine. I took her palm and smeared my blood on it, then did the same with her blood on my palm. Next, I placed her bloodstained palm over my heart and my hand over her chest.

  “Ready?” I asked, my voice alien even to me.

  “Yes,” she said, loud and clear. How she was hanging on like that, knowing that she would die any second, baffled me. “My Soul Oath is complete.”

  “Your Soul Oath is complete.” I held my breath.

  Nothing happened.

  I clasped Nadine’s shoulders. “You’re still alive,” I said in wonder. “Are you feeling okay?”

  She nodded. Then her eyes widened and she shook her head. “I feel … dizzy and weak.” Her knees shook and I caught her before she could hit the floor.

  “No, no, no.” I knelt on the floor with her in my arms.

  “It’s okay,” she whispered. She rested her hand on my face and tried to smile. “I’m happy we had a few days together.”

  I kissed her hand, my eyes on her. Please, please … I didn’t even know to whom I should pray. “Nadine …”

  She took a slow breath and her body grew heavier in my arms. It was as if her batteries were running out. “Be happy, Micah.”

  Nadine closed her eyes and her hand fell to the side.

  “No.” I knew what was coming, but I still couldn’t believe she was gone. I just couldn’t. I rested my head on her chest and tried to listen to her heart. Nothing. There was nothing. Her heart wasn’t beating.

  I screamed.

  Levi’s hand squeezed my shoulder. “I’m sorry, brother.”

  I jerked my shoulder, making him release me. “No! It’s not over!” I stood with Nadine in my arms. “I’m the god of death. I can block her soul’s entrance to the underworld. I can bring her back. I can do something!”

  Ceris approached me. “She’s gone, Mitrus. By the Soul Oath. You can’t cheat it.”

  “But you can honor her,” Levi said. “By doing what you promised. Give her body to us, we’ll prepare a proper ceremony for her, meanwhile you can bring her family back to life.”

  “No!” I roared, taking several steps away from them. “No. I’m not ready to let go.”

  “Mitrus,” Ceris started.

  I knelt on the floor again, holding Nadine. I buried my face in her hair and cried like I had never cried in my thousands of years.

  “Oh, darling,” I whispered between sobs. “I love you. I will always love you. Forever.”

  Her body trembled in my arms and I pulled away just enough to look at her face, to her arms, to examine her. When I was human, I remembered reading somewhere that some dead bodies jerk as if they had been electrocuted. It was a normal response. And yet, I couldn’t help but hope.

  “Nadine?” I asked in a low, careful voice.

  I dared not breathe while I stared at her for a long time, hoping, wishing the tremor in her body meant more.

  A strong and powerful aura exploded from inside her.

  I gasped and stared at Levi and Ceris as they gaped at Nadine.

  Nadine’s eyes fluttered and she moaned. I let out a loud, happy gasp. Ceris and Levi rushed to my side.

  “Hi,” she croaked, opening her beautiful green eyes and staring straight at me.

  I touched her face. I caressed her cheek. She was here. She was alive! “You’re … you’re …”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I’m Diana. I’m Diana?” Her voice was still weak, but it was her voice!

  “By the Everlast,” Levi muttered somewhere from beside us.

  “How … how is this possible?” Ceris asked in a shocked tone.

  “Right now, I don’t care.” I wound my arms around Nadine and pulled her to me. “I can’t even begin to describe how happy I am right now.” I inhaled deeply, savoring her scent. Gods, she was here with me.

  “My sister … oh, my beautiful sister,” she whispered.

  I pulled back and saw her eyes filled with tears. “Your sister?”

  She extended one hand to me and I took it without hesitation. A cold seeped from her skin to mine, bringing forth hidden memories, memories I had no idea had been buried inside me. Nadine was Diana, the goddess of courage and wisdom, and she had had a twin sister, Neena, the goddess of justice and honesty. When Neena fell in love with a human, she abdicated being a goddess to be with the man she loved, passing on her powers to Nadine—Diana. That was how she had become the goddess of courage, justice, wisdom, and honesty.

  “By the Everlast,” I muttered, suddenly overwhelmed with the burst of new information. “That’s … how could we forget you?”

  “Forget her?” Ceris asked. “What are you talking about?”

  Nadine pulled her hand from mine and gave it to Ceris. The goddess gasped. Then she repeated the process with Levi.

  Wiping at her tears, Nadine pulled away to look at me. “I’m happy to be alive too, but honestly, I’m curious about a few things.”

  The Fates popped in behind us.

  “We can explain,” Nay said.

  40

  Nadine

  Micah and I stood, but he kept me tucked into him. It seemed he needed to touch me, to feel me, to be sure I was really here. I wasn’t complaining.

  “You finally found out who you really are,” Mani said.

  “About that,” I started. “Did Ceris know who I was? Am? Or would be?” It was all so confusing.

  “No, she didn’t,” Mani answered.

  “We merely pointed her in the right direction,” Nay said, looking at Ceris. The goddess only nodded.

  “Oh-kay,” I muttered. “Next question. Micah’s and Victor’s soul found new hosts just a few years after their deaths. How come my soul stayed adrift for thousands and thousands of years?”

  Mani took a step back. “You were the first goddess to find out what the Black Thorn could do. Sad and lost after your sister’s death, and against your own principles, you created one to kill yourself. Since you were out of the Everlasting Circle, you knew your death wouldn’t affect the balance of the world, so you did it. Because you couldn’t endure eternity without your sister, you killed yourself without remorse.”

  “You caught even us by surprise,” Lavni said. “We felt your soul drifting away, and at first, we didn’t know what to do. So we imprisoned your spirit, hoping someday we would be able to use it.”

  “Several millennia passed,” Nay said. “Then Mitrus and Levi killed each other.”

  “With the help of Imha and Omi,” Micah added under his breath.

  Nay ignored him and went on. “Their souls found new hosts on their own, and we realized we could set your soul free again and guide it to the right host.”

  “But it wasn’t easy to find the right host, until we sensed a tiny little thing forming in your mother’s womb,” Nay said. “We knew you were the one destined to become Diana.”

  It was too much to take on at once. So … I had always been Nadine and Diana? That sounded so crazy and impossible. But after all I had seen and lived through these past few months, I had to come up with a new definition for crazy and impossible.

  I let out a long breath and asked my next question. “What about my sister? Where is she? Why hasn’t she come back like I did?”

  “Neena is happy in the underworld with the love of her life,” Nay said. “She abdicated her immortality to be with her lover, thus dying a mortal’s death. Because of that, her soul—her mortal soul—went directly to the underworld and she wo—”

  “She won’t be back,” I whispered. A heavy feeling revolved in my chest—a painful longing I was sure would never dull. How could I suddenly miss someone so badly when minut
es ago I didn’t even know about her?

  “Any more questions?” Mani asked, her tone flat and bored.

  That jerked me out from the pain within. “Yes,” I said. “How was I forgotten by the other gods and goddesses and why?”

  “Time is a funny thing,” Lavni said.

  “So many years passed from the time of your death, that first the tales of your life became a legend, and then you were simply forgotten,” Mani said.

  “The truth is, you were always in the back of the gods’ and goddesses’ minds, but since they hadn’t heard your name in so long, it never came forth,” Nay said. “Until now.”

  “I have one question,” Ceris spoke up. The Fates turned to her. “Levi and Mitrus remembered who they were when we were at the Cathedral Rock. Shouldn’t Nadine have remembered herself then?”

  “And we became full gods when we found our scepters,” Victor added. “Nadine found her spear and didn’t become Diana until now.”

  Mani answered, “Nadine didn’t remember she was Diana at Cathedral Rock because it’s a portal to the Clarity Castle, which is a part of the Everlasting Circle, and Nadine wasn’t a part of the creed.”

  “As for touching the spear and not becoming Diana then, well there are things not even we know the answers to,” Lavni said.

  “But we do have a couple of theories,” Nay said. “We think Nadine was unconsciously so against the idea of being something more than a normal human—”

  “Against or just scared,” Mani added quickly.

  “—that her powers and her soul were tucked in her too deep, locked away, never to be found,” Nay explained.

  “Until the Soul Oath killed Nadine and, before her mortal soul could drift away, Diana’s soul awoke and absorbed her mortal one.”

  “Wow,” I whispered, feeling overwhelmed.

  Micah tensed beside me. “So, the Soul Oath is paid?”

  “Yes,” Mani said.

  “And I’m immortal now?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Nay said.

  I sucked in a sharp breath, needing time to process such news. I had been so used to the idea of dying, it would take me some time to get used to the fact that now I was going to live forever.

  Holy shit, I was immortal!

  And my family would come back to life soon, and I would see them again!

  “Thank you for winning the war and imprisoning Imha and Omi,” Nay said, catching my attention. She looked pointedly at each one of us.

  And just like that they poofed out.

  A new wave of happiness filled my chest as Micah embraced me and spun me around. “You’re here.”

  With my arms around his neck, I laughed. “I’m here.”

  He set me down and stared at me, as if he was afraid I would disappear if he stopped looking at me. I pressed a hand to his chest, just above his heart and felt his strong heart beating against my palm. Which reminded me …

  I snaked my hand under his shirt and placed my palm over the center of the poisoned web spreading through his chest.

  “Darling?” he asked, a question in his eyes. He lifted his shirt and looked down at where my hand met his warm skin.

  And I healed him. Just like that.

  Micah gasped as the dark web faded from his skin. “What …?”

  I shrugged. “Healing powers. One of the advantages of being Diana, I guess.”

  Without hesitation, Micah leaned down and kissed me. It started like our last kiss. Slow and soft. Just a brushing of our lips. A promise. A remembrance. Micah startled me then by claiming my mouth with his and deepening the kiss, making me wish he could kiss me enough to leave a bit of his soul in me.

  “So.” Victor cleared his throat.

  Micah raised his hand and was about to throw a bolt at his feet, but I grabbed his arm and didn’t let him.

  We turned to Victor.

  “To celebrate that Diana is back and will live forever with us …” Victor waved his hand to an empty spot beside the thrones. Bright lights moved like spiral snakes until a new throne appeared in its place. “This one is for you, Diana.”

  I gasped. “Are you sure?”

  Ceris smiled at me. “Of course. You might not have been a part of the creed before, but after all you did for us, you sure are part of it now.”

  Slowly, I walked to my throne and sat down. I rested my hands on the armrests and leaned against the high back.

  “I could get used to this,” I said.

  Micah sat on the throne beside mine and reached out, taking my hand. “Welcome to the Everlasting Circle, Diana.”

  Thank you for reading The Everlast Series!

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  About the Author

  While USA Today Bestselling Author Juliana Haygert dreams of being Wonder Woman, Buffy, or a blood elf shadow priest, she settles for the less exciting—but equally gratifying—life as a wife, a mother, and an author. Thousands of miles away from her former home in Brazil, she now resides in North Carolina and spends her days writing about kick-ass heroines and the heroes who drive them crazy.

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  For more information:

  www.julianahaygert.com

  Also by Juliana Haygert:

  www.julianahaygert.com/books/

  Free

  Into the Darkest Fire

  Tested

  Secret Santa

  Rite of the Vampire Saga

  The Vampire Heir (Book 1)

  The Witch Queen (Book 2)

  The Immortal Vow (Book 3)

  The Everlast Series

  Destiny Gift (Book 1)

  Soul Oath (Book 2)

  Cup of Life (Book 3)

  The Everlasting Circle (Book 4)

  The Fire Heart Chronicles

  Heart Seeker (Book 1)

  Flame Caster (Book 2)

  Willow Harbor Series

  Hunter’s Revenge (Book 3)

  Siren’s Song (Book 5)

  The Breaking Series

  Breaking Free (Book 1)

  Breaking Away (Book 2)

  Breaking Through (Book 3)

  Standalones

  Playing Pretend

  Captured Love

  Dazzle Me