Chapter 28

Author's Note- I think I need to do stuff like what happened in the previous chapter more often! I LOVED all the reactions I got… you all had me laughing!

Eliena's violet eyes snapped open and she sat straight up in a fluffy bed. "Where am I?" she asked the empty, cavernous room.

"Welcome to your realm, Eliena," a voice replied. Eliena looked and saw the Goddess standing there.

"My realm?" she demanded.

"Yes. This is your home as the patron goddess of Tortall and monarchs," a deep male voice told her. Eliena saw Mithros appear beside the Goddess. Eliena jumped out of bed.

"A goddess? You mean I'm dead?" she cried. "No… I can't be dead! I can't be—" she caught sight of an image in a mirror. She looked and saw her mother, her father, Leo, Daine, and Numair around her body, crying. "My mother's crying," she murmured, touching the image of her mother gently. "She never cries." She saw how Leo looked—he seemed to have aged ten years. "Oh, Leo." Eliena wiped her eyes and turned to Mithros and the Goddess. "You have to send me back. My work there isn't done—I need to go back!"

"You can't," Mithros told her. "You're already dead."

Eliena swore. "They need me. Ask the Goddess here—she's mother's patron!" Mithros glanced at the tall goddess, who nodded.

"I cannot remember a time when I saw Alanna cry other than when Jonathan left angry from the desert," she replied. "The Lioness does not cry."

"So send me home. They need me. Leo needs me." Eliena's eyes were pleading. "Please. I'm not ready to be a goddess—I need to live my life before I can advise other people on theirs." The Great Gods exchanged a glance.

"Close your eyes," Mithros told her. Eliena did so, and felt a tingling sensation fill her body.

When she opened her eyes, she saw her father and Leo on either side of her. The queen was holding Jonathan, while Numair and Daine had embraced Leo. "Mother, stop crying," Eliena said. The Lioness's head snapped up, her famed violet eyes rimmed in red and swollen.

"Eli!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around her daughter and hugging her tightly. "Mithros, Eli, you're alive!"

"Yes… but I won't be for long if you don't stop smothering me," Eliena replied. Jonathan hugged his daughter, and Eliena saw how he must have looked when his parents died—like a lost little boy.

"I can't believe you're alive," he whispered. "I...Goddess, Eli." He started to cry again, and it was Eliena's turn to hold her father.

"Its all right, father, I'm fine. I promise," she soothed, smiling at her mother, who was trying desperately to put back on her Lioness face.

"Were you…?" Numair asked, and mouthed in the Divine Realms?

Eliena nodded. "Come here, Daine." The king stood beside his wife, smiling at his daughter and wiping his sapphire eyes. Daine hugged Eliena.

"I'm glad you're alive, Eli. I wouldn't know what to do without you," Daine told her. Eliena smiled at her friend.

"I know, Daine. I'd be lost without you too," Eliena said. They hugged again. Numair kissed her forehead.

"It isn't natural to defy death twice, you know," Numair remarked. "But I say you're worth it." He smoothed her black hair. "Its good to have you alive, Eliena." Silently, Numair, Daine, Alanna, and Jonathan left, leaving Eliena and Leo alone. Eliena climbed out of bed, and went to her window, which had the curtains drawn. She winced as she put weight on the leg that had taken the arrow.

"Ouch," she muttered. Leo was by her side, holding her up, before she could say anything else. She turned in his hold, smiling at him. "No kiss?" Leo slipped his hands in her hair and pulled her tightly against his mouth. Eliena felt all the emotion that he'd felt when she died. He let her go, and Eliena thought she might die all over again.

"Goddess, Eliena. I thought…oh, Eliena." He buried his face in her neck, holding his love tightly. Eliena squeezed him back, blinking tears from her eyes.

"I know, Leo, I know," she whispered. "I couldn't leave you, I couldn't." She held him at arms length and wiped the tears from his eyes. Eliena smiled at her betrothed. "You look so much older…and so lost." She searched his hazel eyes, smiling falling. "Don't do this to me, Leo. Just don't." She stepped out of his arms and went closer to the window, hugging herself. "I…I don't deserve it."

"Eliena, what do you mean?" Leo turned her to face him. It was his turn to search her eyes. "What don't you deserve?"

"You love. I don't deserve to be loved by you," she replied, looking down. She bit her lip and met his eyes again. "I'm not the girl you think I am."

"Goddess, Eli, you're talking in riddles! I've known you for seventeen years—our whole lives! What do you mean you aren't the girl I think you are? I know you Eliena. I know you in every way possible!" He kept his voice low. Eliena shook her head.

"No, you only think you do. You don't know…" her voice drifted off. "Leo, I—" she took a deep breath. "I slept with Neal."

Author's Note- anyone sense a growing DRAMA? REVIEW.