by K. C. Hamby
Jealous bastart.
“Now, there are more coming for this wonderful event,” he adds after smoothing his hair from his face.
Hades seems excited for the future company, but Falen loudly groans.
“I didn’t realize burning me at the stake was going to have an audience,” Falen grumbles, glaring at him from over Alina’s shoulder.
“There are a lot of measures that have gone into your creation, my dear. For example…”
“If you are about to give me some fucked up, evil version of the sex talk, shove it up your ass.”
I laugh a bit at Hades’ momentary shock and growing annoyance. He hates interruptions and Falen has some gall to interrupt him as much as possible, that’s for damn sure.
Hades rolls his eyes and glares at Alina. “How could you let her have such a foul mouth, Alina? I thought you raised her better than that.”
My lip curls up to snap at him to defend their ma, but Alina steps forward and she’s suddenly not so nice looking anymore. Wrath fills the air, reminding me of what happens when messing with a ma bear’s cub.
“I’ll have you know, asshole, Falen is her own person. She can say whatever she wants.” Alina clicks her tongue and eyes the god with massive disdain in her posture. “Especially if it’s telling you to shut the hell up. And I have a mind to give you a taste of exactly how I feel about you after what you’ve let happen to her. Be glad I’m allowing you to talk at all.”
Falen’s mouth falls open and she breathes out a laugh, eyes sparkling with wicked elation.
Hm. So Falen didn’t turn into the person she is just out of spite like I’ve previously believed. She’s absolutely gotten her attitude honest.
Hades’ slight shock morphs into a delighted smile. “My, the Thana women are quite vicious. Seems to run in the family.”
As he finishes speaking, Hecate appears out of a plume of smoke from beside him, followed by some scary woman with a necklace of sheers strung around her dark neck.
“You should be aware of this, Hades,” Hecate agrees and smiles fondly at all of us. “I would have thought you would have been smarter by now.” She twists her lips and shakes her head, mocking the god.
She’s not in her usual garb of a black-veiled dress. She wears a black pantsuit, showing off her slim, muscular build. Her hair is pulled into a black braid sliding down her back. The crown of horns still rests atop her head and the triple moon Mark is printed upon her forehead, though. Ever the goddess.
The scary woman beside her cackles at the exchange and the sheers around her neck clink together. She’s terrifying, but beautiful.
I don’t think I want to be acquainted with her at all.
Before scary lass can introduce her intimidating self to us all, another plume of smoke appears on the other side of Hades and a man who looks…slightly familiar steps out. I’ve definitely never met him before, but something about him…
The air is deathly silent around us, almost stale with the lack of movement.
Alina gasps from beside me after taking in the tall, very large and muscular male with raven black hair and black, endless eyes.
“You!” Falen roars and runs toward him in a blur, wrath pulsing off her skin.
“Fucking bastard!” Ash yells and follows her with just as much furious enthusiasm.
“Nina,” Hecate states like a command.
Nina sprints in front of them both and holds up her hands. Falen and Ash both smack into an invisible wall face first and fall back on their arses.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” I whistle, and Nina’s lips turn up only a wee smidge.
“I’ve been practicing,” she comments, and the words are strained as she puts all her focus back on the wall she’s manifested out of literal thin air.
Falen punches and kicks against it, but Nina holds strong.
“How fucking dare you show your face!” Falen screams, pointing at the man as she presses her entire being against Nina’s forcefield. She wants to be in the man’s face, to tear him to pieces.
“Stop hiding behind Nina like a goddamn coward!” Ash screams, hitting the wall until his fists are bloody.
The blood left behind by his knuckles lingers in the air on Nina’s shield for a moment before dripping to the ground.
The man watches without the slightest hint of interest in his endless black eyes.
“Who is that?” I ask their ma, stopping myself from immediately running to heal Ash. He must need this temper tantrum something fierce.
Far be it for me to interrupt.
Alina bites her lip for a second before her shoulders drop. She looks at me with pools of sorrow and longing flooding against the amber of her irises.
“He is their father.”
Chapter 38
Falen
Absolute wrath fills me until my body could burst into flames at the sight of the bastard.
How can he have the audacity to show his fucking face here? The last time I saw him, he was quite literally disappearing from the side of the pyre as Mom’s body burned. He didn’t even stick around to see if Ash and I would be okay without him.
Kill him, the Monster pushes.
I’m fucking trying, I scream back at her in my head until it pounds. I can picture his death, my hands around his throat, squeezing until his face turns blue…
But Nina’s wall stays intact. If I wasn’t so goddamn furious, I would take the time to be proud.
“Falen, Ash, you seem to be acquainted with…”
“That’s a fucking understatement,” Ash snaps at Hades and gives the wall a few more bloody punches.
The scent of copper fills the air and drives my sanity near the breaking point.
“Don’t interrupt,” Hades scolds with a disapproving glare. “You and Falen both need to learn it is far too rude.” He fixes his coat and brushes off the shoulder. Clearing his throat, he tries once more. “Again, you seem to be acquainted with Silas. Or, as I fondly refer to him, Lord Thanatos.”
My head snaps back enough to have my feet retreating. I blink several times as I step away from the wall and my father, taking in the shadows clinging to him; they circle his legs like they are waiting on a command from their adored master.
I glance to Ash and that darkness he has when we enter the Underworld…is the same. As I look to my own feet, I realize those shadows are clinging to me too.
Ah, fuck.
Ash stops punching Nina’s wall at Hades’ revelation.
“Excuse me?” I spit with a curled lip, purposefully exposing lengthened canines.
Our father steps forward, not showing any emotion on his face whatsoever. That hasn’t changed, at least. “You heard right, Falen. I am Thanatos. I am the god of Death.”
I look to Ash and he is furious, arms crossed over his chest, hiding his bloody knuckles as if they are a weakness he doesn’t want exposed.
“Can I trust you two to act like adults?” Nina asks, breathing a little hard, blood slowly trickling from her nose.
“Yeah, babe,” I grumble when I see the strain in the crease of her forehead. “Sorry.”
She looks to Ash with a raised brow, and I elbow him.
“Whatever,” he growls.
I want to slap the shit out of him for his attitude toward my Mate, but I know the anger isn’t for her. There is only one person who deserves that much fury and it’s not even Hades.
It’s Silas.
Nina relaxes her hands, and the invisible wall falls away from in front of us as if a curtain of electricity drops.
Kill him, the Monster roars in my mind, pushing. I take an involuntary step forward at the command.
You can’t kill the god of Death, you fucking asshat.
A laugh rolling through my thoughts is her only response.
“So why the fuck are you here?” I snap toward Thanatos. My father.
“Falen,” Mom scolds, walking up beside me and placing a hand on my tense shoulder.
“No,” I growl and shrug
her off. “I have a right to be angry. I have a right to be goddamn furious.” I point an accusing finger right at his all too familiar face. It frequents my nightmares when they aren’t about Burning, after all. “He abandoned us when you died. Your body hadn’t even stopped smoking before he disappeared. And we never saw him again. Until now.”
Wait, Hades said the role of the Death deity was going to be split between me and Ash due to unforeseen circumstances.
I take the opportunity for a jab at Silas.
“Oh, I get it. You’re abandoning your job just like you abandoned us, aren’t you?” I spit, a growl unconsciously slipping into my words.
I glare at Silas as I reach for Nina and pull her to my side. I want him to be hurt by what I say, I need it to stab him in the heart and twist, bringing him to his knees as he begs for forgiveness.
But Silas’ eyes are stuck on Mom, full of…of tears.
No. I refuse to feel sympathy for the dickhead.
“Alina,” he murmurs. It’s almost a plea floating on the air between them.
I turn to Mom at the sound of her name coming covered in emotion from Silas and she swallows hard, trying to keep a straight face. But there is pain there. And longing.
“Silas,” she acknowledges, almost a rasp as she nods in his direction. Her fingers clench into fists at her sides like she’s stopping herself from reaching out…
“Yes, well. As you know, Falen, you will be the goddess of Death along with your role as the sole Shadow Reaper. You will preside over souls, but more specifically, dark souls.” Hades announces to me, dispelling the super awkward tension flowing between Mom and Silas and every other person present, really. “Ash,” Hades glances to my fuming brother, “Your role will be that of the god of Death, presiding over the lighter souls. But you will find out more about that when you speak to your father.”
Ash snarls at the last word out of Hades’ mouth and I think the god is delighted he has gotten under Ash’s skin. His eyes surely light a bit with an annoying smirk.
“We should get started with the Burning, hmm?” Hades chimes in when no one deigns to say anything else by way of explanation.
Sure. Fine. Who cares about the fucking details, right? I have so many questions about all this bullshit. I don’t even know how to be a goddess. I’ve got the Death part down, I think, but everything else? I need it cleared up, but my stomach turns, keeping the questions all in my sealed lips.
“Not yet,” the terrifying woman I’ve been trying to ignore with cloudy eyes hisses.
I only had a second to glance at her before Silas appeared, but now I take the entirety of her in after I wipe the blood from Nina’s nose with my thumb. Looking at the woman is a task because she is so much.
Watching her gives me a sense of doom and unwavering dread that digs into my brain and makes a home in my soul. Her skin is perfectly dark, reminding me of dark chocolate, but the kind filled with poison ensuring a slow, horrible death. She’s devastating and beautiful; she has the kind of face powerful enough to draw you in with her looks and drown you in your stupidity with a smile on her face and her clawed hands around your throat. Her bone structure is sharp and unrelenting. There is nothing about her that could be mistaken for soft. Even her clouded, clearly blinded eyes have a way of piercing through your very being and tearing you to pieces.
I gulp and my throat is closing again. I don’t think I’ve felt this kind of fear before. It’s different than losing Nina. That was devastating, but I could have at least followed her into the Underworld.
This fear is something I have no control over. There is no running from it. There is no decision I can make.
This fear just…is.
“Falen, I am Atropos, the Unwavering. I am one of the reasons you are here.”
Atropos. The third Moirai—or Fate—who decides when life has come to an end for a soul. She cuts the string of life with those ragged sheers dangling from her neck.
Nina grabs my hand as Atropos glides toward us. But even Nina’s healing touch has nothing on this panic. Atropos is technically my ancestor, but I don’t feel a familial connection with her at all. In fact, I want to take three steps back with every step Atropos takes forward.
“When you are finished with your transformation,” she purrs, but it in no way reminds me of a cat. Her voice is the smooth gliding of a venomous snake upon the ground before it curls up for a strike. “You will have knowledge of everything you must do and how to be the Shadow Reaper.”
Well, that’s helpful, at least.
“I cannot speak for any added abilities you will gain because of your…unique genetic pool.” Atropos tilts her head in the direction of Mom, Hecate, and Silas. She knows where they are even without her sight. “I will expect no failures. I have been assured you are the best for this job.” She looks at Hecate and scowls.
“Nice to meet you too,” I mumble and take a step away. Her closeness makes my skin ice over.
Her lip curls, probably at my muttered attitude, but she simply steps back, nodding to herself like she knows something I don’t.
“Falen, are you ready?” Hecate asks, getting my attention with love in her eyes. And pride.
It only makes me feel a little better.
At least it pulls me away from the doom shaking in my bones.
“Sure, I guess.”
“Wonderful!” Hades exclaims from somewhere behind me, not bearing to sit quiet for longer than thirty seconds. “Then, without further ado, let’s begin.”
I turn just as he claps his hands together and a wooden stage-like dais appears in front of us.
Great. I get to be on stage when this happens. Awesome. Fanfuckingtastic. Just what my anxiety needs. A fucking stage to perform on.
“Edelina, Nina, and Ash, I will need you to back away and steer clear of this ritual. As you know, Edelina, it is very dangerous for you all to even be present,” Hades adds, looking to Eddie as if they share some private understanding. “If you touch the immortal flames when they are not meant for you, they will disintegrate your souls.”
“If you hurt them, if you hurt Nina, I’ll fucking kill you,” I snarl and must force myself not to claw his face off. Nina grabs me by the waist when I take a step in his direction, planning on doing just that, fingernails extending to claws in anticipation of ripping into his skin.
All I think of when I see him is what he let happen to me while he held me captive in the torture fields of Tartarus and away from Nina. My wolf is going insane with Hades being on the same dimensional plane with her Mate right now knowing what he can do or allow to be done.
“My dear, I don’t think I could hurt Nina if I tried. She is quite the powerful Prophetess.”
“Hey,” Nina interrupts, turning me around and pulling my attention to her with a stuck-out tongue aimed over my shoulder at Hades. “You’re going to be okay and so will we. I’ll see you on the other side of mortality, okay?” She smiles wide, eyes full of confidence in me and I relax a little at the small amount of healing she sends into my energy.
I never asked her to give me a deep healing like Eddie told me to. I didn’t want to seem weak. I didn’t want to be weak…but I think it might have been a huge mistake.
“If you say so. I love you,” I say instead of begging her to help my soul in any way she can.
“I love you, Faligator.” She stands on the tips of her toes and touches her lips to mine before releasing my hands and walking over to Eddie and Ash.
Not going to lie, the loss of her touch is like having my skin ripped off.
Chapter 39
Falen
They circle around me. Everyone responsible for my creation.
Mom, Hecate, Atropos, Hades, and...Thanatos. My father.
I was made for death. I’m the daughter of the death god, descendent of the unwavering Fate of death. Lupi. Assassin.
I am Death. In every way.
I look over my shoulder at Nina. She smiles encouragingly and gives me a thumbs up.
Ash crosses his arms next to her, still pissed at Silas’ presence. But he gives me a small nod for my benefit. Eddie stands next to him, lips pressed into a thin line, nothing encouraging in her posture.
She knows this is going to be awful.
Hecate begins a chant in Greek, but as soon as it starts, it sooner fades away before I can understand more than ‘We, of relation to the ultimate end…’; the words are replaced by a loud whooshing. It fills my ears as if I’m standing behind the engines of an airplane.
Burning cold seizes me from the ground and I dare to peak down at my feet.
Fire.
White, cold fire licks at my legs and I know it wants to devour me. I can understand its intention without a doubt in my mind.
Panic squeezes my lungs and I’m in a box becoming smaller by the moment, shrinking by each hitched breath crawling up and down my throat. The air is pushed out of my chest and I am forced to choke as the walls close in on me.
Walls of hungry fire.
Fire at my feet. Burnt flesh hanging by a shred of skin.
I look over my shoulder again, searching for Nina. Her face is covered with terror and Eddie holds her back, saying something in her ear. I can tell she is straining to keep Nina in her place…
Fal! Is a faint scream in the back of my mind.
The fire rises to my stomach and I can think of nothing else.
It burns.
I curse colorfully.
So cold.
The fire rises.
And burns.
It seeps into my veins, scorching through my body and taking turns melting and freezing the walls of my heart as it thumpthumpthumps faster than ever, pushing the flames through and aiding in its reign of destruction.
The fire rises until I am consumed by the freezing tendrils. They lick at my neck, scraping away at my skin.
Cutting me to pieces.
Ripping me open and bleeding me out.
Frostbitten blood drips down from my body, crystalizing before sizzling as it falls into the fire.