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wouldn’t matter.”
    “But who is to say that they would love me?”
     
    ***
     
    Was he serious? She studied him for a long moment. He was. “Dres and Nella will love you. You are their father.”
    “But that doesn’t mean an emotional connection would be guaranteed. We are both aware of many stories in which children and fathers do not often agree. Why would our babes be any different?”
    “Why would Dres and Nella be the same?” He never called them by name. He hadn’t even wanted a say in naming them, even though she had asked. She would never understand him.
    He was the last god in any of the worlds she would want to father her children, but he was the first one who had ever offered. Which showed exactly how sad and pathetic she had been.
    She did not regret the night they had shared, or the children they had created. They had been Fated to do exactly what they had.
    The worlds needed Dres and Nella. And they needed her, to do exactly what it was she was supposed to. Her resolve returned.
    “You still have yet to explain why you left the babes in another’s care.”
    “I left our babes because the Fates made it clear I was supposed to come here .”
    “And you listened? The Fates can only suggest, they cannot insist.”
    “And fighting them leads to great heartache.”
    The Fates were the only beings of whatever origin that spanned all eighteen of the worlds. Controlled the beings of all the worlds. They terrified her.
    Yet there were so many of the Gaian gods and goddesses—and probably several of the surviving Evelanedean deities—who completely disregarded the Fates’ predictions.
    She definitely didn’t understand that. Every time she had ignored the Fates, she had suffered greatly.
    The Fates had told her millennia ago to avoid becoming betrothed to Jushua—that it would only lead to pain. How right they had been. He had been another she had grieved over his death.
    Yet he had survived the Fires of the Three Hells when they had raged over her beloved Evalanedea. He’d been out there in another world, his mother by his side.
    Her sister had been reborn over and over and over again. Until she arrived in this world to find a sword and set Jushua’s brother Estacles free.
    And then there was Dekimos, yet another of Jushua’s brothers. And how many of the original Dardaptos children had somehow been reborn into these times? How many of her own siblings? She had Nelanora and Jordan. And she had young Cassandra, mate of the Laquazzeana Nalik, though they had never met.
    Who had been Jushua’s older brother Kilan reborn.
    There had to be a reason the souls lost so long ago were finding their ways back to this place.
    “Go back home, Lotho. The children need one of their parents to care for them.”
    “And naturally, that should be you.”
    “Because I am female, and you are too busy making war?” She snorted at that. She was Evalanedean; such gender stupidity had never existed amongst her peoples. “Your age is showing. Might want to cover it up.”
    The way he continuously covered up the strong body she knew he possessed. He wore Gaian jeans and what she thought was called a hoodie. It was dark, as were the jeans. He looked like a slightly taller than average human male in the prime of his life, didn’t he?
    Why?
    One thing about Lothon Druids they were an extremely secretive and deceptive bunch. Who often hid among the humans. Why would he be any different?
    “Don’t be ridiculous. It has nothing to do with your gender. We had an agreement. In exchange for fathering your children, you agreed to care and protect them until adulthood.”
    “That’s not how I remember it.” No, he’d offered in a way she hadn’t been able to refuse. “I have a destiny to fulfill here. I cannot walk away from it. Even for the children. It is because of the children. If I do not do this, their safety will be threatened. And there is nothing I will not do to protect them.”
    “Nonsense. Nothing the Fates