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Chapter Eleven
It comes back slowly at first, soft grass beneath my skin. The sickly-sweet smell of flowers. The lack of pain among the most noticeable no longer is my flesh burning, no longer do I feel the shattering silence in the bond brought on by their death. I sigh, peeling my heavy eyes open. The twilight lit sky hangs directly ahead of me. My eyes widen, watching as darkness evaporates slowly but surely, the world righting itself. Then it comes back like a violent slap to the face as I burst forward, a strangled cry leaving my throat as three sets of hands find my body. I lean into the familiar tingle. Strange and beautiful memories fill my throbbing head as tears leak down my cheeks. Every face, every name I’ve worn through the years, I remember it all. rememberthem... the Harbingers that have bled beside me through it all just like they swore they would that very first time. I smile up at three very teary familiar faces,my Harbingers.
“Welcome home love.” Everett murmurs, his chestnut hair even longer than Milo’s brushing his broad shoulders as he grips my face pulling me into his warm arms. Milo and Tate smile, staring at him with no small amount of wonder. Everett lifts his head, half laughing as he pulls me in tighter, letting go with one arm to grip Milo’s messy hair tugging him into him just as tightly. Tate following suit. I breathe them in, each one of their unique smells that sets my body on fire, remembering every life we’ve lived together. Every kiss and tear shed over several thousands of years. “I missed you.” He murmurs. Their faces look the same as they did in this life, our true faces lost to time, but I remember them like I saw them yesterday. I remember the day I was born, the stared at me like I was a woman sized thorn in their side. A gift they never asked for, a thank you they didn’t want… until Atropos all but shoved me into them. Until that first touch and none of us have looked back since. The sound of approaching footsteps isn’t enough to break us from our huddle on the ground, I don’t need to look around to know where we are.
We’re home.
Everett finds my lips, kissing me hard, the tinge of desperation there resonates deep in my chest making my heart flutter. He groans against my mouth, “You’ve no clue how long I’ve waited to do that.” Before I can respond, a soft giggle disrupts my train of thought. I try to sit up before I’m quickly scooted to the center of a triplet circle. Everett gives me a wink before scanning my nude body in a way that makes me press my legs together tightly. My arousal leaking through the bond making Milo snicker, although he seems to be a little shell-shocked at the moment. Same with Tate, who is staring at Everett like he’s got two heads. His eyes widen more when they pass his brother. I let Everett adorn me in the dress he had clutched tightly in his fist. My heart thumping, eager to seeher.My black hair seems longer, falling well past my bottom in the backless flowing dress when Milo helps me to my feet. I shove myself past the triplets stumbling from them and stopping short as Clotho steps from her sisters. Each of them as painfully beautiful as they were in her memories and mine. Her kind plump face lights in a smile, as her bottom lip trembles, “My daughter.” A sob leaves my throat as I find my way into her outstretched arms. Seconds later I’m smothered in the middle of the three of them. Each sister crooning sweet words.I love yous and apologies.Atropos obsessively combing her long fingers through my hair, giggling in her childlike way, her own snow-white hair braided down her back. “She’s been awake for less than ten minutes and they’re already plotting to steal her away from you.” The cold booming voice has me stepping away from the Fates. From my mother. My smile somehow growing wider when I see the cloaked skeletal man slowly approaching from the woods, his ornate silver staff etched with swirls and skulls like the river he rules over.
Archeron God of the river of the dead. The lake a pain, my Harbingers father. At least the one from their first round of life. Our true life.
He tries to scowl as I run to him, crashing into his arms and knocking him backwards. He uses the heavy staff to balance us, “Welcome home, little moon.” The triples aren’t far behind, Milo stops short, eyeing his father apprehensively unbothered by their nudity as Lachesis doles out more clothes, not that clothes are an important thing here. It takes some getting used to again. Marcaria their birth mother, goddess of the blessed dead,isunsurprisingly nowhere to be found. She stopped attending these greetings long ago. God’s aren’t well known for their familial instincts. I look back at my triplets remembering what they are, how they looked the first time we met. Much like their father, skeletal and worn from battle. Deceptively thin skin stretched around protruding bone. Their appearances had no impact on their power. They are warriors of the gods.
This appearance is certainly my favorite, I’m glad it stayed.
A deep grumble and heavy footfall are the next things to set my heart on a crash course, Lima. The tall bipedal creature snarls, liquid dropping from her large tusks. Her forest green skin as ugly and wrinkled as ever. I click my tongue, letting her know where I am before I take a step back, making sure my bare feet are extra noisy against the soft grass. She stills, crooking her head to the side to follow my movements. Milo laughs, finally breaking through the shock as Archeronslaps a hand down on his shoulder. Tate soon joining them. I click my tongue again, smiling wildly before taking off through the field next to the former opening to the human world. Which I can’t help but notice is closed off, I ignore the flutter of pain in my heart. She jerks after me, her long arms dragging as she follows my every turn. I giggle, so many questions and concerns running through my mind. None of it matters right now. I have them, I have all of them and I’mhome.
I remember who and what I am. My first name was Lathrise, daughter of the Fates. Soul shard of Clotho the Spinner. I was created for the triplet sons of Archeron, warrior gods of the dead. I have lived thousands of lives and loved them in every single one. They are mine now and forever and I am theirs.
I squeal, reveling in the sound of everyone’s laugher as Lima snatches me with one of her gangly arms. My stomach flips before Tate lashes out with air, keeping me up long enough to be sure I miss her pointed tucks. I land on her wide, flat head as she grunts and jumps around excitedly. “I’ve missed you too,” Lima grunts again in response. Reminding me of the Blamoc I bonded with in the cave. My chest aches. The poor creature probably didn’t even mean to slip through. Blamoc are used to cart the undead mostly, a lot like mules except bigger and far creepier. They are gentle, kind creatures after they are blinded, otherwise their bloodlust consumes them. They kill each other indiscriminately, fight anything that moves until they are either killed or die from exhaustion. I hate that one met the fate that I did. If I had only known…I could’ve sent it home. That was what I tried to do…I take a heavy breath. Best not to focus on things that can’t be changed. The past is infallible as it should be. Once she stills, a familiar suffocating energy swirls through the field letting me know play time is well and truly over. I speak the ancient words Archeron taught me lifetimes ago, calming her before I slip down. The triples are beside me in a second, my heart hammering in my chest. Tate pushes me slightly behind them just ashematerializes in the field, blue flame and dense black fog nipping his ankles.
“Hades.” Lachesis says in greeting, her slender back held tight with tension. He doesn’t acknowledge her, his attention set on the men in front of me. His deep fiery blue gaze sets me on edge the way it always has, as his eyes narrow into slits, “It seems another congratulations is in order, I was relieved when I saw your familiar old faces pop up in my lake after all this time. What has it been centuries?”
What?
I turn towards Clotho’s ridged form. Even Atropos looks uncharacteristically angry. If Hades saw our faces in his lake, that means- “We were unbalanced.” I whisper. The memory I saw in that world floods back, the anguish in my mother’s voice. Everett grabs my hand tightly, my heart sinking low into the soil beneath my feet. Our souls…their original forms are gone. Damaged by our rebirth.
Oh.
“That you were, so much so the four of you nearly drug the Underworld into the cursed void.” He spits, blue flame licking the nearby grass. He takes a step forward, his long black cloak brushing over flowers as he approaches us, one thick eyebrow arching unbelievably high as the triplets tense in front of me, their energy swirling with a violence I missed.Relax, it’s okay.I push the words to them through our mind link, grateful to have full access to it now. They ignore me, their fists balled tightly.
“That was our fault, and you know it, Hades.” Clotho retorts, standing beside us with her sisters. “I intervened too many times, touched her and their reality out of necessity. Their world would have crumbled had I not acted.” Her voice is firm as ever, leaving no room for arguments. Hades is strong though, terrifyingly strong. Ruler and God of the Underworld, even he can’t touch time. They are the past, present, and the future. The Spinner, Alloter and The Inflexible.
They can’t be touched, that’s why they were banished to the Underworld. Even Zeus fears them.
“The balance on our side was righted with your return Lathrise, but we know the cost. All of your games playing with Fate are finally at it’s end, getting beaten to death by a mortal no less has upset the balance in that reality for centuries to come.” Something close to a growl leaves Everett’s throat, “You could change that, and you know it, it doesn’t have to cost us fucking thing Hades. She had no idea who or what she was. We never fucking do. We’ve made worse mistakes in the past and righted them without your interference. You can pull our souls out, you just won’t.” I hate the tone in his voice, the hurt bits.
That was our last life together, and he wasn’t there.
Being reborn again would only further upset the balance even if it could be done. If our souls could be strengthened a repaired. With no more headquarters, no more crack to guard, no more leak from the Fates first crossing, The Order itself is on its way out.
They don’t need us. Not anymore.
Suddenly my Harbingers, my warriors, are without a purpose. Since they were old enough, they have fought the battles of earth, protecting them from the things that lurk below in the blanked belly of the Underworld. Demons and creatures trapped by Zeus eons before even they were born. The former rotted souls of people cast into Hades’s river. Hades stomps, casting hellfire towards them in a show of authority, “And therein lies my point. She nearly destroyed the world you love so deeply. Killed the mortals-”
“Enough!” Milo barks, black tendrils soaking from his palms forming his spear. The near needle like point outstretched towards Hades, my heart halts in my chest. Without hesitation I watch as Tate does the same. His shadow formed Scythe hung at his side. Everett’s bow half raised at the god. Despite my better judgment and the sick feeling in my gut, arousal builds between my thighs and I’m abruptly aware of the fact that underwear isn’t a thing here. Something I’ll need to readjust to.
Again.
I send what calmness I can muster through the bond, met with their anger, love, and concern. I don’t hide the smile on my lips as I step forward. Reaching up on my tiptoes to rest my chin on Milo’s and Everett’s shoulder as I glare at the dark God. Determined to not play this game of provoking them even if he is mostly right. “Would retirement really but such an awful thing?”
They ignore me.
That won’t do.
I sigh deeply, sliding down off my tiptoes and lightly kissing Everett’s exposed back, and like always, he breaks first, “You know it’s not like that love.” I use the break in his focus to slip through their wall, placing myself between them and the dark God whose fire burns hotter at my proximity. I’m an abomination in his world, to him I’ll never be more than a gollum with the power of a demigod. Soul shards are more than that, but he’ll never see me that way. His heat prickles the skin at my back, “I’m sure we can find some way to fill our time.” I whisper, looking up from underneath my lashes at Milo, who breaks next.
“Stop being a brat.”
