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“Help me on the monkey bars, Hades!”
“Up you go,” he said, and as he took hold of her legs, Katerina approached.
“What is it you would not ask?” she said.
As Imari swung from bar to bar, they followed.
“I need your gift of prophecy,” he said.
Katerina wasn’t in the habit of using her abilities as an oracle to help him outside the work she did for his foundation. She might comment on the potential success or failure of one of his endeavors or organize timelines for the greatest outcome, but he had never asked her for anything like this.
He continued. “There is…a creature called the ophiotaurus,” Hades said, his voice quiet, his words slow. “In ancient times, a prophecy foretold the death of the gods with the burning of its entrails. I need to know if that prophecy still exists.”
Katerina stared at Hades for a long moment and then looked away.
“The ophiotaurus,” she murmured and then was quiet.
Imari came to the end of the bars.
“Catch me, Hades!” she said and let go.
He snatched her about the waist and spun with her in his arms. Her screeching laugh filled the park and made Hades smile.
As he set her down, she ran for a swing.
“Push me, Hades!”
As they followed, Katerina spoke. “If a person slays the creature and burns its entrails, then victory is assured against the gods,” she said.
Silence followed her answer.
It was as Hades had feared—the prophecy remained true.
Imari began to swing, and Hades pushed. She giggled as she rose higher and higher, a happy backdrop to their somber conversation.
“What will you do?” Katerina asked.
“Try to find it before anyone else,” he said.
The creak of the swing filled the quiet between them.
“What if you don’t?” she asked after a moment.
“Then I suppose we will all die,” he replied.
Hades realized as he vanished from the park that he had left Katerina with an ominous prediction.
In truth, he did not know what would happen if someone found the ophiotaurus before him. It was possible that anyone might kill it out of fear, not realizing the true importance of the creature or the danger they would suddenly find themselves faced with.
If the ophiotaurus died, it would not be as important as the person who killed it according to Katerina’s prophecy. Whoever slayed the creature must burn the entrails. Then victory would be assured against the gods.
The gods.
He knew there was no sense in trying to figure out who would be a victim of the prophecy. The Fates would not divulge the future they had woven, and it was possible they had only done this for their entertainment. During the Titanomachy, the ophiotaurus had caused such a melee as both sides scrambled to find the creature that would end the war, but in the end, it had all been for nothing. The Titans had managed to slay it, and Zeus’s eagles had stolen the entrails, foiling the prophecy.
The Fates’ message had been clear: there was no easy end to this war.
But things were different now, and it was possiblethey wished to usher in a new era faster. He could only guess as to their motives. His fingers curled into fists as he felt his control slipping away. That was the worst part of dealing with the Fates.
