Chapter 666: The Weight of a Goddess

Selene’s gaze didn’t shift immediately.

She simply stood there, as if the weight of his words had landed somewhere expected rather than surprising. There was no flinch, no visible reaction that suggested offence or disruption. Only that quiet stillness she always carried, like the world moved around her but never quite touched her.

Then she spoke.

"You are angry with me," she said, voice steady, almost observational. "Not because of something I had done before, but because I appeared to Sophia recently."

Orion let out a short breath through his nose.

"That’s one of the reasons," he said. "Not the only one."

Selene didn’t interrupt.

So he didn’t stop.

"I’m angry at you for a lot of things," Orion continued, his voice sharpening slightly now, "but right now? This is what I care about."

He took a step to the left and then another, pacing the length of the floor.

"Do you understand what you did?" he asked.

Selene watched him without blinking.

"First," he said, voice tightening, "Sophia had to carry the weight of remembering my father and how he died in her presence, remembering how my pack was destroyed, remembering her old friends, her mother’s abuse—things that should never have happened."

His jaw flexed once.

"And then that hadn’t even settled," he continued. "You showed up and now she has to carry the thought... the burden that she changed fate itself. That everything that has gone wrong, everything that has shifted, is somehow because of her."

He paused, his gaze hardening.

"When the first real reason anything changed was because of you."

That landed heavier.

Orion’s voice dropped slightly.

"You’re the one who couldn’t judge correctly when it came to the person who was meant to give birth to her," he said. "You’re the one who set everything in motion, and yet somehow she’s the one standing in the middle of the consequences."

His hand moved once, as if restraining the urge to gesture further.

"If anyone is to be blamed," he said, "it’s Victoria and you for your selfishness. Not Sophia."

Silence followed.

But it didn’t feel empty.

Orion turned slightly, exhaling through his nose before continuing, more controlled now but no less sharp.

"Do you even know what that did to her?" he asked. "Do you know how it felt for her to hear that?"

A beat passed.

Then another.

His gaze lifted again.

"And then you had the audacity," he added, voice lowering again, "to tell her that Brynhild was supposed to be the successor of the night. Someone who is like..."

He shook his head.

"Someone who is a sister to Sophia. Someone who has no atom of evil in her even after everything she’s been through."

A short, disbelieving laugh left him, but there was no humour in it.

"You didn’t think about her once, did you?" he asked. "Not Sophia. Not what that would do to her. Not what it would mean for her to hear that everything she was tied to was... wrong."

His hand lifted slightly before dropping again.

"You’re a goddess," he said, voice biting now, "the fucking moon goddess. You’re supposed to be watching over them. The ones who still believe in you even when your decisions don’t even make sense."

"And instead," he continued, "you treat them like they’re disposable the moment it becomes convenient for you."

Selene’s expression remained unchanged.

But something in the air tightened anyway.

"There is only so much I can do," she said calmly.

Orion’s head tilted slightly at that.

"Is that your answer?" he asked.

Her gaze met his fully.

"I am a goddess," Selene continued, "but I cannot interfere freely. Not after I broke the balance once."

Orion let out a slow, incredulous breath.

"And whose fault was that?" he asked.

Selene didn’t answer.

Orion shook his head once, more to himself than to her, then exhaled deeply, like he was forcing something down before it turned into something else.

He stopped pacing.

Then looked at her properly again.

"If you’re done being angry at me," she said, "can I speak now?"

Orion studied her for a moment.

"I would prefer you didn’t," he said.

That earned nothing from her except a faint tilt of her head.

"You are headstrong," she said instead. "Perhaps as stubborn as Sophia is."

Orion didn’t respond to that.

Selene continued.

"I owe you an apology," she said.

That made him pause, just slightly.

"For what?" he asked.

"For attempting to wipe out your pack," she said.

"I have come to understand something since watching all of you," Selene added. "Corruption is not a plague that spreads uniformly. It does not consume everything it touches. It does not spread from generation to generation."

Her gaze shifted slightly.

"The people I assumed would be lost to it... were not," she said.

"And perhaps," she continued after a pause, "that is because of Sophia’s interference."

Orion’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"Because of Sophia," he repeated quietly.

Selene nodded.

"She gave your people a chance to remain unchanged," she said. "A chance I did not account for."

Orion didn’t move.

"Is that why you came here?" Orion asked her. "To apologise to me?"

Selene didn’t hesitate.

"Yes."

"I have already spoken to Sophia," she added. "And she even got angry on behalf of you and your people. I know you are already aware of everything we had talked about."

"I am aware I was wrong in certain aspects," she added. "And though I attempted to reach you before, this is only the second time I have been able to do so properly."

Orion’s eyes stayed fixed on her.

"The first time," he said slowly, "was when you told me to see her, isn’t it?"

Selene inclined her head once.

"Yes."

The silence that followed wasn’t heavy in the same way anymore.

Orion exhaled once, then asked, voice low,

"So why didn’t you just apologise then? You had the opportunity to do so, did you not?"