I'm unlucky. I always known that. The child who killed her mother. The oldest sister. My father remarried 3 times. His wives kept dying, and with everyone, his eyes grew colder and colder. My brothers and sisters looked to me for everything. Of course, they did. I'm the strong one. Nothing makes me nervous. I know who I am. What I am.

I'm the unlucky one. The cursed one. The oldest.

I take the burden of those I love because they are burdened with me.

"Your sister can handle it. She's older."

And isn't it normal? Especially if you're a cursed person. If you bring calamity to everyone around you? I watch the sunrise over the horizon. Slade's hold on me is strong. He hasn't said anything, and I don't push him. It's been so long since I've been outside the walls of his estate.

I'm not sure what I was so anxiously awaiting. Nothing has changed. I disappeared no—I was murdered. Brutally in front of the gods.

And the world just kept turning. But what else would it do? Stop?

"Heh...it's nice to see everything is the same," I say.

Slade's chest is still behind me. I didn't want to believe him. I think I may be embarrassed. A god seeing me so pitiful. But he forgets to breathe. For long periods of time his chest just goes still. I glance back but he's there. Red eyes, staring straight ahead with bored determination.

His chest is so strong, a solid wall, holding me up. The warmth of his hand radiated into my belly.

"The same?" His voice rattles behind me. He chuckled.

It reverses in my ribs sending shivers down my spine.

"Do you think...I would allow my wife to be murdered silently? I am the God of war."

We get to the top of a hill, the landscape a mix of white and red.

I blink. "Is this..." I glance up at a familiar temple.

"Such disrespect cannot be tolerated."

My breath catches. "Tell me you didn't kill everyone here? You can't do that right? Balance and everything."

He says nothing. I turn around as much as I can a frown on my face, as I clench my jaw. "Right?"

Slade glanced away. "What does it matter to you. These people are not friends to you are they?"

I frown, my eyes darting about frantically. I get off the horse, scrambling onto the ground.

"Monika, you mustn't go far from me—"

I lose his voice, looking around the desolation. It changed. Because of me, well because of him but...because of me. I really am a bad omen. Look at what I've done...

His hand clasps over mine. "There are still humans alive here. I'm here to change that."

I turn around. "Don't! Please you can't! I don't...I don't want to be a bad omen anymore. Don't attach my name to this, please..."

Slade clenched his jaw, looking away. I fall to my knees, sighing.

Slade sighs behind me. "I told you you wouldn't like what you saw. Humans are so fragile that way."

I hold my hands in my hands. "Surely...do you feel remorse?"

Slade scoffed. "Remorse? There is no remorse for justice. They watched you dying. Should I have let them live?"

"Yes," I scoff. "Yes. Slade. You should've."

He frowns at me. "I have been alive longer than this nation. I will be alive long after it. These are bad humans. Rotten. And I have a few more to weed out."

I turn around. "Wait...you're here to start a war?"

Slade-like at me. Really looks at me. He pulls me up by my hand, setting me on the horse.

"You don't have to feel bad for people who wish ill upon you. You are not unlucky because you exist. You are unlucky because you are surrounded by selfish humans."

My eyes widened. "I...I want to see my husband."

He squeezes my hand.

"Ex...fiancée. I want to see him."

Slade looks at me. "Okay. I'll take you to him."