same.
“Yes,” Zach answered proudly, still in awe because Sophie was sitting right beside him. “Sophie, this is Hunter and Drew, the other Winston brothers.”
He took a few minutes to explain what had happened to him after he’d found her sickbed empty, assuming she’d already been buried in a mass grave. Sophie asked a few questions, but she mostly listened. He noted that although she’d physically changed, she still got the same contemplative look on her face when she was processing information.
“You didn’t die?” Hunter finally asked, sounding curious about what had happened to Sophie.
She shook her head. “No. I was taken by the Evils.”
“You made a deal,” Zach guessed.
The room went silent, and he was fairly certain that his sister didn’t want to admit that she’d sacrificed her own life to keep him from dying. In fact, she’d been so worried about him that she hadn’t cared what happened to her in the process.
Finally, Sophie looked at Zach. “I wanted you to live. I didn’t want you to get sick. I foolishly agreed to go with the Evils if they’d let you stay safe, well, and healthy. I admit that I wasn’t totally aware of what was happening or who the Evils really were. My fever was so high that my thoughts were muddled, but I knew I wanted you to be okay. I knew I was going to die from the smallpox, Zach. My fate was already sealed.”
Zach’s eyes clouded over. “But you might not have—”
“Don’t, Zach,” Sophie pleaded, cutting her brother off. “Even though I was a child, I knew I was going to die. I sensed it.”
He let out a masculine sigh as Sophie put a gentle palm on his cheek, comforting him. His sister was trying to make him feel better, even though he’d screwed up so long ago. He reached up and curled his fingers around her hand. “I can’t believe you’re here. You’re alive.”
“It was always meant to be this way, Zach.” He heard Athena’s voice behind him, making him realize she must have popped back into the room. “Had she not gone with the Evils, she would have died.”
“Then fate sucks,” he grumbled as he slowly released Sophie’s hand. “Why did it have to be so hard for her?”
“Because she’s Kristoff’s fated mate,” Athena replied, meeting his stare when he stood up and faced her. “It wasn’t her time to leave the Earth, but it also wasn’t their time to be mated. She was still a child.”
“So she was committed to what had to have been like an eternity in the demon realm,” Zach angrily shot back at the goddess.
“Would you have gone through anything in order to be with Kat?”
Kat was everything to Zach, and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do, nothing he’d regret if that was what it had taken to be with her. He would have spent thousands of years in the demon realm if it eventually led to being with the mate he loved. “Yes. I would have done anything for my mate. You know that.”
Athena nodded. “Your sister will eventually feel the same way. Give it time. It’s over. Don’t let your anger dampen your joy of seeing her again, and finding her alive.”
“Did you know Sophie was in the demon realm?” Zach asked Athena suspiciously.
Even though Athena wasn’t technically a goddess anymore because she’d become a radiant and then a mate to Hunter, the technicalities didn’t mean shit. She still had the powers of a goddess, even after she’d given some of them to Hunter. And Zach knew damn well that she still got knowledge from the oracles at times.
Athena shook her head slowly. “No. I didn’t know. I was given some garbled information, and I suspected Kristoff’s mate was being held in the demon realm, but I wasn’t certain. And I swear that I didn’t know that his mate was your sister. I was as surprised as you were.”
“I’m here now,” Sophie said as she stood, and then moved to stand close to her brother. “The past doesn’t matter. Like Athena said…it’s over now.” She