We Unleash the Merciless Storm

That was the power of fear when manipulated by the right hands. It made rallying cries of lies. It made murderers. It made wars.

It was hard sometimes,” Sota said then, and Carmen bowed her head. “I don’t think it’s ever easy to make your own family,” she answered. “You’re not supposed to have to.” Sota nodded. “But we did alright, didn’t we?” His eyes, for once, weren’t serious or masked with painted-on mischief. They were open, almost vulnerable. Carmen had never seen him this way. “We did great.” Carmen stood, stepping forward. This time, when she reached for him, he reached back, and they hugged like the children they had been when they found each other.

How could something the gods supposedly denied feel like a baptism? How could it feel like faith?

Then she did. And it was everything. I thought I had enough, before, that I didn’t need more, but then she looked at me and it was like turning the lights on in a dark room.

The other women seemed to think these green eyes made Ari handsome. Carmen thought they looked a little fishlike. But, she was forced to admit, this wouldn’t be the first time the charms of a supposedly handsome man were lost on her.

Dani was part of her now, and try as she might, there was no fire hot enough to burn the memory of her—or the desire to get back to her—away.

The gods were only stories told by people in power to make oppression seem glorious, fated.

This was magnetic and imperfect and went by a million different names. This was the earth moving up to meet them and the sea crashing in and the stars and the moon and everything powerful Carmen had ever let herself feel. This was poles shifting. This was wars being fought and won and lost and won again. This was something she had never thought she could feel.

How could something that was said to be so wrong do all of that? How could something the gods supposedly denied feel like a baptism? How could it feel like faith?