Prologue

Flashes of thunder whipped the celestial skies. The heavenly abode of the goddesses was utterly turbulent today for a crime of atrocious measures had been committed. 

A goddess dared to fall in love with a mortal. A shapeshifter on that. 

All gods and goddesses had gathered to witness the punishment befitting crime of such magnanimity. 

The god of thunder was livid, his wrath was piercing the sky, threatening to split it in half as his anger  thundered across the heavenly realm. 

"Bring her out." His furious command rang out, making the sentries hurry along. 

Nestled between the clouds, the realm of gods and goddesses; Axom lay in mourning. 

Clad in a sheen white gown with golden chains shackling her limbs, the goddess of love and beauty was dragged out by the armed sentries. 

Her anger surged and her heart terribly ached seeing her pet Gryphon thrashing and raging in pain for he had been restrained as well. 

Murmurs began as she came into view, barefooted, with her golden hair wide open. 

Chains clanked on the white marble floor as she strode forward without a sliver of remorse on her pristinely calm face. But her insides had liquefied from the agonising pain that coursed through her like a river of lava. 

Asara was made to kneel in front of her father, the god of gods; Arkiam. 

His yellow slit-like eyes were nothing but two bolts of thunder who wished to reduce his daughter to ashes with his deadly power. 

"Do you know what you have done?" He demanded in a furious growl, which resonated throughout the sitting arena. 

She lifted her head and stared dead in her father's eyes without a hint of remorse. 

"Yes!"

A meaningful pause she gave. 

"I fell in love," she righteously answered, throwing the audience and her father into an angered frenzy. 

He cursed, the thunder raged, his fury was beyond measure today. Mortals will feel the wrath for weeks down below on the earthly realm. 

"You shamed us. We gods don't mingle with other species, especially shifters. They are the lowest kind, barbarians and whatnot." Arkiam narrowed his eyes, banging his golden staff on the marble floor. 

Asara held her head high, there were no traces of guilt on her beautifully serene face. 

"Love liberates and we think too highly of ourselves. Shifters are simple people and I admire them for being genuine and loyal. They hardly lie, cheat or deceive others. Unlike us the so called gods. We are lecherous, we are cheaters, we hurt our partners, they don't. I think we are way worse than them." 

Loud murmuring, shaking of heads and whispers of shunning her followed Asara's words. 

Arkiam was beyond livid at his daughter's insults. She needed to be taught a lesson for her stubbornness. She should be made an example of. 

"Bring that lowly shifter." His voice echoed like a million thunderbolts and all of them fell on Asara, making her uncontrollably shuffle. 

"Leave him out of this," she wailed, knowing they would hurt him just to make her suffer. The tears collected in her violet eyes. 

How could they be so cruel?

Gods were supposed to be merciful? Weren't they?

The god of fire; Kalthian and Asara's forced betrothed soon stormed out. His long fiery hair kissed his straightened back. His eyes burnt with anger and he wanted to unleash all his wrath on the man he was dragging behind him bound in chains of fire. 

The murmuring ceased as the putrid smell of burning flesh dominated the air. The haughty gods and goddesses wrinkled their noses. 

Asara screamed an anguished scream which burnt her throat as she tried to break these magical shackles but she didn't possess that power. Her magic had been revoked, stored away. 

The chains seemed to be burning her flesh too, for she could sense his pain through emotions that flowed between them like invisible threads tethering them to each other. 

The man in burning chains with a naked torso was tossed by Kalthian in Arkiam's feet, a wave of pure disgust washed over Kalthian. He respectfully bowed to Arkiam and stepped back, closer to a writhing Asara. 

His wrathful eyes took his betrothed in and he felt cheated on. Not that it was ever a happy match, she never liked or accepted him but he was madly in love with her. There was this desperate plea in her eyes today and yet he chose to ignore it.

"Straighten him up," Arkiam ordered with a growl. Sentries shuffled forward and grabbed the man's soft brown hair and straightened him, making him kneel. 

His gold-hued eyes wavered to Asara as blood trickled down from his disfigured face, they had beaten him to mush. And yet he woundedly smiled at the woman of his dreams. 

"It's—f-fine, remain strong." His bleeding lips quivered. 

"Kael!!!" She murmured breathlessly, tears streaming down her face seeing his condition as her arms struggled against the chains–trying to reach him.

"You dare violate my daughter? You filthy shifter. I will ensure not only you but your generations will suffer because of this crime."

Kael turned to face Arkiam at the threat.  

"I only loved her, I would never violate her." The calmness of his voice and the defiance in his eyes made Arkiam's brows pinch together and his nostrils flare. 

'How dare he talk back to me? Doesn't he know who I am?' He thought to himself. 

"Silence! My daughter was never meant for scum like you. Therefore, I curse you and your kind from today onwards. You will be born again and again and die without getting together with your mate. If you do your people…" The rest of Arkiam's words were like the gong of doom for Kael. 

"Punish me, why my people?" Kael sardonically asked. 

"The choice is yours, your people or your mate." Asara gasped at her father's words. His decisions had always been final and brutal. 

"I, Arkiam Hasthire, the god of thunder hereby sentence you, Shifter Kael to death by burning alive. Make sure my daughter watches." His venom-laced voice hollowed deep in Asara's heart. Her shrill anguished yowl echoed in every corner and yet no one stepped forward to stop this barbaric act. 

The callous hands of sentries kept her in place and facing her lover, who had nothing but serenity on his blood-spattered face. 

"No, please. Kill me instead, let him go father. Have mercy," she begged but the realm of god's had gone deaf. 

"Kalthian!" Arkiam called out. 

"With pleasure," Kalthian snorted in bliss this moment was bringing him. 

He spread his hands, the molten orangish-yellow fire emerged from his arms, wrapping itself around him like a fire dragon. It snarled and raged before flying towards Kael and engulfing his bronzed and yet broken body in its scalding fierceness. 

Kael's pleading eyes flickered to her.

"Close your eyes, I love you." The silent whispers of his she understood.

Rancid smell impregnated the air, combined with Asara's scream of pure agony, the fire that burnt her beloved was reflected in her pained eyes as she bent over from the agony of it. 

Kael was burnt to a crisp, leaving behind charred remains and a broken Asara. 

Her tears fell in abundance and they seeped through their realm and hurled down to the abode of the mortals. A rare flower bloomed where her tears touched the ground. 

And then another sentence was passed and this was for Asara Arkiam, sealing her fate.