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Cora turns to mom and tells her what the Goddess said, acting as a kind of translator as she's done before because - apparently - mom burned up her bond with the

Goddess once in a desperate plea to save Rafe when he was just a baby.

As Cora does that, I take a moment to look around the room, to see everyone else as shocked and gaping as I am.

Cora looks at us too and her mouth twists in disappointment when she sees all of our reactions. "You know, I prepped you for this," she says, frowning. “The least you could do is stop gaping at her like a school of fish."noveldrama

As one, we all slowly close our mouths, and the Goddess laughs at us alongside her two daughters. I blink at her, still awed, because...it's the Goddess. Laughing at us.

"Well?" the Goddess says, perching

her hand on her hip and looking around at us impatiently - looking so much like my mom in this

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moment that makes my mouth fall open again. "You know I don't like having my limitless cosmic time

wasted. So? Did you call me here for a reason?"

"They have questions, mom," Cora says with a sigh, still looking at us with disappointment. "If any of them can get a word out, that is."

"Mom," Tony whispers, still awed. "She...called the Goddess...mom.”

Something about that - the stark way that Tony said that - shakes something loose in me and I look at him with a little grin on my lips. I open my mouth to speak, but Rafe beats me to it.

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