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Gossamer chiffon in grays and blacks cascaded down my arms, reaching to the floor. Delicate gold chains draped off my shoulders over the sleeves that split just past them. Layers of exquisite fabric hugged my frame, the bodice stitched with glittering sequins and gemstones. The material filled out into a skirt that flowed around me, and the gown was so intricately detailed that no mortal hands could have possibly made it.
“Mea paios.”My child. An ethereal voice echoed out through the stone hall. A thick accent rolled off her tongue; I didn’t know the language she spoke, but the voice sounded familiar to me somehow. The moment the strange language spilled from her lips, the voice reached into my mind, speaking in words I understood.
I raised my eyes to the back of the huge chamber. The shape of a crescent moon was carved out into the stone ceiling, letting the moonlight shine down, casting a glow down onto an altar. A pair of large stone horse statues, so intricately carved they could come to life at any moment, stood merged into either side of the altar’s pedestal. Furious energy was carved into their manes and muscles, as if they were charging into battle but frozen in time. Sitting atop the altar between the statues was a woman, arms draped on either side of her as she watched us from on high.
I couldn’t tell how old she was, but she didn’t much older than me. Her skin was as perfect as untouched porcelain and just as pale. Glimmering constellations danced across her nose and cheeks like dazzling freckles. Her eyes shined like the reflecting gaze of a nocturnal animal in the darkness, pale and shallow. A watercolor of shimmering white and silver hair cascaded over her shoulders, spilling like a waterfall over the edges of the altar where she sat. She didn’t glow in the way a light did; it was as if she absorbed all the surrounding light and reflected it off her very being.
As if she were the moon itself.
She pushed herself forward off the altar, flowing gracefully down to the floor. Her white silken gown and long hair pooled at her feet as she stood before us. Damien knelt, lowering his head to her. However, I couldn’t bring myself to move an inch. I stood there, speechless, unable to form any thoughts at the overwhelming presence of her.
Damien cocked his head, seeing me still standing. A brief moment of panic flashed across his face as he grabbed my hand, tugging for me to kneel beside him.
“It is alright, warrior. She knows not what she does.” Her voice was soft, like a bird singing on a breeze. The languages overlapped with one another, and yet I somehow was able to understand what she said. She glided toward me, her steps leaving no sound in their wake. Her hair danced around her as she walked, nearly weightless, as if she were underwater.
Her small hand rose to brush against my face. The moment our skin touched, my knees gave way, and I fell to my knees, my body weak and unable to hold itself up.
“You have been neglecting your feeding, warrior.” Her brows raised as she gazed down to Damien. “I will not tolerate the continuance of this weakened state. Be sure it is remedied upon return to your realm.”
He responded with silence. Her eyes drifted toward me, and the heavy gaze of those opalescent eyes felt like a weight pushing me down. “That aside, you’ve done well to bring her to me, warrior.”
He lowered his head. “Your praise pleases me, goddess.”
I felt dizzy for a moment. “goddess?”
Her perfect face turned to me. “I am the goddess Selene. Goddess of the Moon, and mother to the immortal race.”
She crouched down before me. Her knees tucked against her chest, arms crossing atop them. Her face rested to the side, perfectly balanced as her hair tumbled over her. Her eyes burned over me as she inspected me, looking over my body. “Your powers are returning to you, but your body is too weak to contain them.”
Damien seemed to tense at her words but remained silent. Her eyes locked with mine and I fell into the bottomless abyss that glowed like the moon itself. Her mouth didn’t move now, but her voice forced its way into my mind.
Why do you not tell him, mikros?Little one. A term so endearing for a creature so powerful. Why did I know that word?
I couldn’t bring myself to respond to her words in my head. I knew what she spoke of, and the fact that she immediately knew my secret shook me. She rose, knowing my thoughts, knowing my answer. Knowing that I didn’t tell him, not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t bring myself to. She glided along the stone floor as she walked away from us, like a ghost.
Her fingers drifted elegantly along the stone wall. “I designed the immortals to serve me in battles wrought by other Gods, to fight my enemies when I so needed. While they were unlike mortals, they were not Gods, so they could not survive the immense powers of one.” She approached one of the horse statues near her altar. Her small hand reached up to pet it, and the moment her hand caressed the stone surface, the horse’s head moved, coming to life as it relished in her affection.
“While they were of great use to me and served me well, they needed... assistance.” Those intense eyes looked to me again. “So, I bore you to the purest of immortals born of the elder blood, a child of both God and immortal, born of shadow and moonlight. Moira.”
My heart stopped at her words. Selene was Moira's mother? I, no, Moira, was the daughter of a goddess. I was human, so what did that make me?
“While I bestowed unique powers to each clan, no immortal alone could contain the complete powers of my kind. When you came into being, you were gifted with the best of both races. You were gifted with the ability to utilize each of the house’s magics and more—stronger, fiercer than they could ever be.”
I looked down at my hands. That was what Damien meant when he told me that I was different. I was never meant to be born human. I was supposed to be born an immortal like him.
She answered my thoughts. “You are a demigoddess, trapped in human form.”
Silence filled the hall as my world crumbled around me.
She turned from us. “This human form was not built to handle her powers at their peak.” Her words were casual, the thought of my body failing of no consequence to her as she spoke to Damien. She gracefully leapt up onto the altar. “They will destroy her.”
Air sucked in through Damien’s teeth as the words left her lips.
Was she talking about my heart? Was that why I was dying? Because I had some stupid power I wasn’t meant to have? Because I was born into a body I wasn’t meant to exist in?
“Is there anything that can be done, Goddess?” Damien asked, his head rising to look at her.
She met his gaze, her eyes souring at his question. “You are bold, warrior, to ask such things of me. You know that I am forbidden from meddling in the affairs of mortals.”
