Chapter 1
Prologue
Even gods were young once. And when you’re young, you get bored easily. I don’t know about you, but that was the case for me. My sister was off with her friends, and I was left alone. I didn’t have any friends except my sister, and we barely hung out these days. Everyone thought I was too chaotic and unpredictable, but I was the deity of fire; what else did they expect? My sister was the calmer side of fire, the warmth, the beauty; they chose to ignore the dangerous side, to ignore me. My mother and father obviously had a favourite, everyone did, and it wasn’t me. So I gave up trying to get their attention a long time ago. I’m not trying to make you feel bad for me; I don’t even feel bad for myself.
That day I wanted to mess with some mortals, cause why not? No one pays attention to them anyway. All we care about is whether they offer us sacrifices and build us temples. All they needed to do was worship us and believe that we would actually care if any of them died. Of course, there are some exceptions when a god favours a mortal or even falls in love with one; it’s such a foolish thing to love a human, they die so easily. Those gods don’t realise that their love was doomed from the start. We are immortal as long as the people don’t erase us, but humans can only live for so long; that’s what makes their lives so special. They live every day to the fullest, knowing that it could be their last. To be loved by them so truly with their full heart. It makes me jealous that I will never be able to experience that kind of love again. But in reality, love is a cruel thing; it gives you everything and takes it away all too fast, all too soon.
Back then, I thought I would never fall in love, let alone with a mortal. But the universe works in unexpected ways.
It was technically not allowed to go down to the mortal world, as if humans saw us in our true forms, they would be burned to ash. Obviously, we found a way to bend that rule. If we disguised ourselves as humans, they wouldn’t burn up, and they also wouldn’t know that we were the very gods that they worshipped. Most gods went down to the mortal realm to see their favourite humans. I wanted to see how they lived, how they talked, but mostly I wanted to cause chaos. It’s in my nature after all. But that day was very different. I usually never had strong bonds with any of the people I saw; they were just a second in my life. I forgot most of their faces. Then I met a boy whose face I could never forget, even if I tried.
