by K. C. Hamby
I shut my eyes and shake my head. My demons…I don’t know how to face them.
“Hey,” Nina whispers and touches my cheek.
I lean into her hand with a grumble in my chest.
“You can’t face your demons with your eyes closed.”
My eyes open slowly as her words wash over me. “You’re pretty smart, you know that?”
“Please don’t tell me you’re just figuring this out, Faligator,” Nina scolds and rolls her eyes.
Words leave me as I laugh, so I pull her close and breathe in the lavender vanilla keeping me sane, keeping me here.
“So, how did it feel?” I whisper. “To shift for the first time, I mean.”
So much other bullshit happened, I completely forgot I never got to talk to Nina about her shifting for the first time. I mean, my Mate is fucking Lupi now. She can shift into a beautiful white as snow wolf, and I can share this part of me with her too.
Her lips spread into a smile against my chest.
“Amazing,” she whispers back. “Absolutely amazing.” She gazes up at me with love shining in her eyes. “I never knew how freeing it could be. And how painful. But it was totally worth the pain. I can turn furry!” Her eyes widen in excitement before her mouth drops into a frown. “Oh. That reminds me. The vision.”
My smile instantly drops too. Well, that joy was short-lived.
“Shit, how could I forget that? What was the vision?”
The energy in the room quickly becomes dark.
“I don’t know. This is the vaguest vision I have ever had. It started when my dad gave me a hug. The contact sent me into a spiral. When I opened my eyes, I was on the porch just like before the vision. But it was different because I wasn’t in someone’s body. I was just kind of floating there watching.” She clicks her teeth in her frustration. “But I was only facing the porch door. I saw my dad open it and look confused. And then I’m suddenly inside, watching from the couch. My dad asks if he can help whoever is at the door and I get a flash of…like…fear. I don’t know how to explain it. I felt it in my chest like I was the one experiencing the emotion in someone else’s body, but I couldn’t figure out who I was. And that was it.”
My brows furrow. “That wasn’t informative at all.”
“Right? And it was super frustrating and I’m not really sure how to interpret it because I don’t know what’s actually happening.” She huffs her frustration, and it blows wavy strands of her hair in my face.
She sits up incredibly fast. So fast, I flinch. When she peers down at me, her eyes widen. “Uh oh.” She yanks on the drawer of her old, white nightstand so hard the unicorn lamp nearly topples over.
“What are you doing?” I ask, but she doesn’t answer. She just keeps rummaging around, looking for something. She slams the drawer shut and sits up in bed with a notebook and pen, hand flying across the paper.
Oh, shit.
Not this again.
Fuck.
I wait, my foot shaking under the blankets, as she finishes. The vision and now this? If we could have a normal day sometime, that would be great.
But no. Something always has to happen. What’s going to happen tomorrow? At this point, if some god or goddess popped up and told us we have to stop a fucking zombie apocalypse, I would thank the universe for at least being consistent with its bullshit.
Nina puts down the pen and frowns at me after reading over the page. “Another prophecy.”
“Is it a good one this time?”
“I don’t think I have good ones.”
“Well, fuck.” I take the notebook from her and read the clusterfuck on paper that is a new prophecy:
The inner chaos can be tamed
When dark and light collide
Humanity may be returned
If by this you shall abide
Snakes of contract slither
Uncovering buried lies
Cut the head off at the source
And the plan in motion dies
If the Snake slithers past
The War of all Wars will rise
Death balanced by another
A reborn Nemesis takes the skies
A guardian will be stolen
But a heart will be returned
Dire choices must be made
To discover who shall burn
“Goddammit.” I drop the notebook and rub my face with my oddly soft hands. “Didn’t the very first one you wrote start with ‘The inner chaos can be tamed, when dark and light collide’?”
Nina nods. “Yeah, and we thought it was talking about us. But…I think it’s about you. We were just talking about how you should be both dark and light. I guess I was right.”
“Aren’t you always?” I ask and gently pinch her cheek.
“Finally catching on, I see,” she giggles and twirls her hair around her finger.
“Snake,” I whisper, looking back down at the notebook with my smile dropping. “Snake is what those Poachers called their source.”
And to think if I let my protectiveness get in the way and told Nina she absolutely could not spy on those Poachers at the bar, we would have no fucking idea what the fuck the snake part means.
I didn’t irreversibly fuck up the future. Brownie point for me.
“Oh, god. That’s right. So, the Snake is helping the Poachers get access to Olympia and…uh,” Nina looks down at the notebook. “And uncovering some lies. God, what lies? There are a lot of lies!”
“And apparently we have to kill this Snake, or we are all royally fucked in the ass with a cactus,” I groan.
“That’s…yeah, that’s the basic gist of it all, as usual,” Nina mumbles and flops back down onto the bed.
The Four
Hecate
The golden urn is warm in my frozen grasp.
It came to me like a magnificent white elk in a darkened forest; a vision, a knowing of when Nemesis shall be reintroduced into the world.
I already aspired many great feats for the soul I will mold with that of the wrathful goddess. She will be fierce and loyal, a true Alpha of her time. Adding the soul of this divinity will not overpower her, but better her and become a part of the spectacular being already prophesized.
The thought saddens me immensely. Mila, my fateful Prophetess is no longer of this world, but of the Fields in Elysia. She risked her life to inform me of the future for Nemesis, one Zeus seeks to destroy.
His day is coming. He will face the wrath of generations of wrongdoing, especially because of what I now know. What the bastard took Mila’s life for foreseeing.
That was my error, allowing Zeus to be knowledgeable of my Prophetess and her visions. He slain her because of her gift, but not before she connected to my mind one last time.
Mila’s sacrifice will not be in vain. By my own power and name, I swear it.
I will have another Prophetess, as foreseen by the dreadful Fates. She will be hidden, for more reasons than mine, and protected from the wrath of the greedy god until she is powerful enough to take her place within The Four.
Nemesis will be reborn and one in the square of Four to take down the dreadful dictator, Zeus. And I shall dance on his grave in bare feet, and nothing but celebration and wine will be singing in my blood.
Death will come in Four,
To the Thunder and Keeper.
One Death’s Creator,
The other, the Reaper.
One point, the Eye,
Strengthened by Moonlight.
The other the Fury,
Wrathful Justice’s might.
Now, I must put this future into motion. First with Nemesis’ soul and she will lay the path for all of The Four to walk upon.
And the pain will lead to Zeus’ demise.
Chapter 56
Edelina
“Anyway, back to your worries, mo chridhe.” I lean back on the grass, eyes set on Ash’s still reddened face.
“I would consider the confusion over fannies one of my worries,” Ash
grumbles, settling in beside me, picking at the long pieces of grass in his quite capable fingers.
I snort and make it extra obnoxious. “I mean your worries nippin’ at your arse, Ashy. Angus and your da.” I shake my head but manage a small smirk and a wink when he rolls those lovely eyes. “Angus hangs around with Raven. Nothin’ good comes out of bein’ around her. She’s this sickness, spreadin’ to anythin’ and anyone she touches. And as to how he pulled that shite last night, beatin’ you the way he did and getting’ you to Olympia, I dinnae, but I’ll be damned if he comes near you again. Whatever he is, whoever he is, he will be dealin’ with my sword shoved so far up his arse, the tip of my blade will come out of his gob.”
My eyes glow fire and I can almost feel the flames dancing in the too-bright irises. The air grows hot, balmy, and uncomfortable, seeming to react to my building rage as I watch Ash. Anger flows in our bond; fire following a path of gasoline.
I am hot head, but it has always only been figuratively speaking. I’m a Fury, yes, and I can wield fire with my sword, but I’ve never been so wound up and actually hot headed until recently. There are flames building in my blood, every little anger like coal in a furnace to push me harder and hotter.
I fear sometimes I may combust.
My muscles relax and cool when Ash sets his hand on my scorching arm and the flames recede in the bond. I blink away the fire in my eyes and I’m sure they are once again their normal, golden color.
I flick my gaze to the concerned face of my Mannie and give a small nod of thanks.
“Um, but your da, what he did wasnae somethin’ a da should ever do. He abandoned you and Falen when you were near pups. But, let me play Hades’ advocate here.”
“Don’t you always?” Ash interjects before I can open my mouth to continue. His devious smirk sets flames burning in me once more, but not all over my body.
Just in the parts I want him to touch.
“Mo chridhe, you keep givin’ me looks like that one and I’ll havetae take you right here and now,” I growl, eyes dilating.
Both of his brows give a subtle lift, surprised but not telling me not to have my way with him.
“Anyway. How’d you feel if I’d died and you werenae there to stop it?” I bite my lip, but in sorrow at the thought of my soul not being on the same plane as my Mannie. “You would be beside yourself, aye?”
He scoffs, and the warm wind blows around the longer hair atop his head. He leans toward me and a hand reaches out to gently caresses my cheek.
“Of course, I would, Eddie. I wouldn’t want to live in a world without you in it. But if we had a child?” He drops his hand and settles back into his place, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t leave them by themselves because I would love them. I would want to be there for them and try to be a good father. That and I know if you were alive, you would kill me if I abandoned them.”
I snort, giving him this point. “Aye, you’re right on that one.” I sit up myself and grab his hand, forcing him to look at me with a tug. “You’re a good man, Ash. And you would and will be a good da one day.” The thought of a little spawn of Ash and myself terrorizing the world gets my heart beating itself to death with a joy I’ve only felt with my Mate.
When we are ready, I want a family with him more than I can say.
So, I just settle with, “I’d be proud to have your child.”
His beautiful eyes fill with tears and, as they slide down his face, I kiss them away from his cheeks one by one.
“I love you, Eddie.”
“I love you, Ashy.”
He smiles through his watery eyes, but there is mischief in the depths. “And I would be honored to have you as my baby mama.”
I cough out a laugh and shove him into the grass before jumping on top of him. We roll for a moment, both of us wanting the upper hand, but I always end up on top.
Unless I wish otherwise.
“Dinnae tempt me. Makin’ a bairn or nae, you may drive me to practicin’ out here for the whole world to see.”
He pushes my hair from my face and tucks it behind my ear. “Oh, no. I would totally not at all be down for that.”
He winks.
“Talkin’ out your arse flaps, arenae you?”
His smirk drops to a red-faced frown and I cackle to spite him.
“Well, that’s one way to bring the mood way back down,” he mumbles beneath me and I kiss him on the tip of his nose.
“Aye, well I dinnae think we were done talkin’ about your da.”
He sighs. “Yeah, you’re right.” He twists his lips in thought. “I know I need to find out what really happened and why our father left; I should get the whole story.”
I nod my agreement.
“But that means I have to…”
“Talk to me?”
I’m shoving myself off Ash and on my feet with my dagger in my hand before my Mannie can blink. I turn to the voice, ready to cut its cords with my blade…
“Ach, are you trynae get a knife in your throat?” I growl at the intruder and shove my dagger back in its sheath at my side.
“I’m not sure it would do much, Erinys, but I would appreciate the effort,” Thanatos, Ash and Falen’s da, rolls and regards me with a smile that looks devastatingly like Ash’s. And it is genuine.
Dobber.
“What the hell do you want?” Ash groans and pushes himself off the ground and up on his feet.
“I would like to speak with you, son.”
“Don’t call me that. You lost that right a long time ago.”
I slap Ash’s hand. He can be an arse sometimes when he is angered.
Thanatos sighs, waving off my concern with a grateful nod. “A fair request, Ash. I won’t call you son unless you ask it of me.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen,” Ash grumbles, and crosses his arms over his chest.
I roll my eyes at their grumbling. “What would you like to speak about, Thanatos?” I ask since Ashy is pouting and definitely won’t ask himself.
“Please, just call me Silas.” He knits his fingers together in front of his stomach and looks on me fondly. “I must say, you are the perfect Mate for my...well, for Ash.”
“I’d like to think so,” I reply, squinting at him. Where is this flattery going? Surely down a path I didn’t consent to ride upon.
“You are immortal, yes?”
“Aye.”
“And Ash is not?”
I clench my jaw and decline to answer. I knew this conversation was a trap. Gods are always looking for ways for someone else’s words to benefit themselves. Da of my Mannie or no, Silas is no different.
“No, I’m not,” Ash answers instead, voice ragged and rolling as tires over rocks.
Silas turns his attention back to his son. “Do you not want to be with your Mate for eternity?”
“Of course, I do,” Ash snaps, taking a small step toward Silas. “But that’s none of your goddamn business.”
“I’m giving you your Fate; I’m gifting you your only opportunity to be immortal with Edelina. Why do you decline?” Silas’ eyes are squinting, probably wondering how his son could be so fucking stubborn.
It’s terribly obvious he got it honest.
“I don’t want anything from you.”
“Not even for Edelina?”
Ash snarls, surging forward, and points a finger at Silas’ face, within biting distance. “I would do anything for her, get that through your thick head.”
“And I wouldnae force him to make a decision like this. Isnae my Fate. If he refuses, then that’s just what he does,” I tell the god over Ash’s shoulder, annoyed he is trying to use me as bait.
“A fine thing, truly.” Silas takes a step away from Ash’s wrath, gaining more space to speak. But the action is not a submission.
No, I don’t think Death submits to anyone.
“Let me just explain everything to you, Ash, and then you sleep on it. Is that fair?” Silas asks, black eyes on Ash, begging for this o
ne concession.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Ash grumbles, but crosses his arms over his chest again, settling in to listen.
“As I was, you are Fated to take up the name of Thanatos. You are destined to be the god of Death. You would, essentially, be everything light about death as your sister is dark. You would be in control of the ultimate end for everyone. Do you know how much power controlling Death gives you?”
“Enough to make you leave your kids?” Ash asks softly.
I grab his hand and give it a squeeze because that wasn’t snideness in his tone. It was sorrow. It was pain.
“I did not leave you and your sister because of this power. I loved and still love you both very much. Even when neither of you want anything to do with me. Even when you both would rather kill me yourselves. I know I deserve your anger. Maybe one day I will be able to explain everything, but that day is not today.”
“I get that taking this position gives me power, but if you knew anything about me, you would know I don’t give a shit about things like that. I was never Chosen. I was never told I would come into power like Fal was, so I learned not to want it. I’ve learned not to want a lot of things and I turned out fine. And I’ve definitely never wanted to be a god of anything,” Ashy snaps.
“I understand you are not power driven,” Silas acknowledges with a nod. “Why do you think that is? Because you were not raised to seek it.”
Ash straightens, eyes fluttering at his father’s response.
“Death, as all things, must have balance. Falen craves power even when she doesn’t know it. You don’t. You are both essential in the roles of Death in order to maintain power equilibrium.”
“Fal seems completely okay having all the power to herself,” Ash grumbles and stares at the ground. His hurt feelings burn his heart still.
Empathy shows itself in a sad smile on Silas’ mouth. “What neither of you understand is, without you, Death is not balanced. I cannot balance Falen as you can if you decide not to take your place. You need each other. Without you to counter her darkness, Falen may forever fall into the shadows of her soul.”