Nergal lay against the rocky earth, each pebble and ridge of the mountain foothill digging into his back as he stared up at the sizzling noonday sun. Its blaze burned into the backs of his eyes, heated the shiny scars trailing down his neck and onto his chest. He did nothing to stop it.
Let it burn him. Let him boil away until he evaporated into nothing. He deserved whatever ruin came his way.
A shadow came into view.
He raised a hand, squinted against the harsh outline the feminine figure cut against the sky. Nergal’s heart lurched. Had Kigal come to see him? To punish him for what he’d done? He shot upright, blinking rapidly to rid the blindness from his eyes.
“It has been a long time, Nergal,” she said. It was a voice he hadn’t heard in centuries, the voice of a goddess who had no r
