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“Well, depends on who you ask.” She took another gulp from her coffee. “Your dad was told a completely different story than I was. Only a few things were the same.”
“Like what?”
“That they were lovers,” she said. “They weredivinelovers—that was specified in the version I was told. In your dad’s, they were unholy infidels.”
Those were two drastically different opinions. “Can you start from the beginning?”
“It’s been years, kid, but I’ll do my best,” she said. “The story your grandma told me was that there were immortals. A bunch of them. They were creators, and lovers, and warriors, and parents, and everything in between.
“I don’t know exactly. I’m not sure if she did either. But to our people, they were adorned. They were incredibly powerful, and they used that power to teach us. To help us grow, to be better people, to eventually attain eternal life. That was the story, anyway.”
I was sure my face was still riddled with confusion. “By our people, do you mean the wolves?”
She nodded. “I guess, yeah. But your dad was a wolf too, and the stories he was taught were different.”
My dad was also a purebred wolf—born, not bitten. He’d grown up in Greece though. Perhaps that explained the discrepancies in the story. But…
“Wait, so everyone believes this?” I asked. “It’s not just an America thing.”
“Oh, no. This is a supernatural world thing. Every race knows the story to some extent. But like I said, everyone interprets it differently. There aren’t books on it that give us an exact description. It’s always been word of mouth.”
“Then what’s the same between them all?”
“That they were powerful, and that they were bound.” Mom sipped her coffee. “That’s what par animarum means. Paired souls. Your dad called them soulmates.”
My chest suddenly felt hollow, yet my heart picked up so fast that I was afraid it’d break my ribs. I wasn’t sure if that tight feeling was an after effect of the gunshot wound or if it was whatever this all meant.
“Are you alright, sweetie?” Mom reached across the table, taking my hand. “You look a little sick.”
I gave a quick nod. “Yeah, I’m good. But is that all? That’s the only thing that everyone agrees on with them?”
“Oh. Well, yes and no. Part of them being connected meant they were connected on every level. They could communicate telepathically,” —my stomach bubbled— “they could feed off of each other’s strength,” —a hair of relief— “and they could feel one another’s pain.”
Was I just shot again? Because it felt like I was just punched through the ribs.
“I’ve never heard anyone dispute that part.” She tossed a piece of strawberry from her fruit cup into her mouth. “And everyone seems to agree on the ending too.”
I fought the urge to swallow the lump in my throat. “And what’s the ending?”
“That a jealous god cursed them, broke their bonds, and killed them.” She paused to swallow. “Grandma said that’s why this place is the way it is.” She gestured around. “Why we have homeless on every street corner, why so many kids go to bed with empty bellies, why the world’s shitty. Because that god killed the par animarum and cursed them to live apart.”
My brows furrowed. “Because some soulmates were cursed, the world’s shitty?”
“Hey, I told you this is old to me too,” she said. “But that’s what she said. If you wanna know more, hold a séance.” She pointed to my donut. “If you don’t eat that, I’m going to.”
Stomach bubbling, I slid it across the table. “That’s the only part everyone agrees on? They were soulmates, and a god cursed them?”
Chewing the edge of the donut, she shook her head, holding her hand over her mouth. Once she swallowed, she said, “It wasn’t just that they were cursed. They were recycled. Like all of us are. He killed them, and they were reborn into new bodies. Now they’re roaming the world without any memory of that life and who they were to humanity. They’re alone. They don’t have their other half.”
I’d assumed all of that on my own. “Right, I get that. But is that everything?”
“No, two other things that I’ve never seen debated.” Mom gulped her coffee to wash down the donut. “They were lovers. So making love was what activated the bond.”
My stomach knotted at that parallel.
“And the last part of the story was that when they all find one another, there’ll be a war to take the world from the god that tore them apart. He took what was most important to them, you know? Each other. So they’ll destroy earth to get back at him.”
All the blood drained from my cheeks, and that knotted sensation in my stomach quadrupled in intensity.
