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I gasp in breath that tastes of shadows and memories and sacrifice. The emotional toll just as significant as the physical.

My eyes roll back in my head with exhaustion a moment before they snap back open at the sound of Hades’ dark roar of rage. I see him to my side, trying to reach me with a frightening desperation even as the mountain fights his attempts, pulling him further away.

He’s in his Gods’ Form. The rippling black muscle and veins of flowing magma would be terrifying to any other, but they are a comfort to me. A comfort and a pain. A pain because I can’t help but think of the last time, I’d seen him like this—the time I first had him like this. The time we conceived the daughters I’ve not yet felt inside me, but know they are there. A tiny spark of new life crafted entirely of love.

“There is no truer sacrifice than love’s sacrifice.”

I whimper again, pleading to the Fates, “Look at him. Look how he loves us.”

There is no answer.

I try again, “He won’t survive losing them. We won’t survive losing them.”

“The world won’t survive you keeping them.”

The mountain shifts again. This time I find myself sliding down at a speed that is terrifying. A scream rips from my lungs. Hades and Hydra roar, but it fades into the darkness I am pulled into.

I see two worlds simultaneously. It is as though they are layered one atop the other. One is elevated. The people are smiling and happy and prospering. The greedy governments have been stripped and cast aside. A new and enlightened ruling in which truly serves not only the people, but the globe as a whole, exists. It is no longer divided, each country having something to offer. Trade and enlightenment and genuine care become the currency at which we prosper. There are countries, but the divide is gone. Differences and culture are respected and celebrated. Learning is the highest wonder and spiritual awakening the highest goal. There is no more hunger or slavery or hatred or racial divide. No need to conquer or eliminate. There is comfort and encouragement and love.

And lurking beneath it in a layer that bleeds torment and anger is a future world in which we never escaped the path we’re now on. One in which governments rage wars at the expense of the people to line their coffers, and slavery is still as present as ever in the form of the working class taxed beyond the ability to sustainlife. A slavery to big pharma and corporations, their only intention to generate monetary wealth from the souls it feeds into its inescapable prison. Where races are blindly pitched against one another in an effort those in higher power use to throw attention off the crimes they commit. Where people are fed anger, and their only outlet is more crime. A world where the politics of vengeful, dark Gods bleeds into the governing’sof humanity—a world where, in a future not too far away, utter devastation steeped in hatred and fear spreads like a plague.

In one world, we’ve given our daughters. In the other, we have kept them for ourselves.

I can make only one decision. There is only one decision to make.

The mountain levels, saving my fall.

I pull heavy breaths of air into my lungs, my raw fingertips clutching at stone.

Tears leak from my eyes, and I swear I feel the saw of grief cut my heart in two.

Daring a look up the black mountain, I see that my path is finally stationary. Gone is the cloud cover that concealed the mouth of the cave. My path is clear.

And my battle is complete.

The path to the Moirai is different for everyone, not because they like to toy with us separately, but because we all have a different mountain within our minds that we must first climb before we can sit before them.

Much like I’ve always believed we must climb the mountain of life before we can bask in the loving light of God.

I don’t know why, but there is a deep comfort in that thought. A comfort that finally offers me the strength to begin the climb that will lead me to face my Fate.

Chapter

Ten

Persephone

Somehow,I crest the mouth of the cave as Hades does. The magma in the veins of his God’s Form moves as fast as the fire that flares in his eyes. Impossible heat caresses my skin even as it turns the stone beneath his feet the color of burning coals, leaving his footprints to cool in the wake of every step.

Seeing that mark of his heat now—it’s the first time I’ve truly realized how hot he burns. I don’t know how I am able to withstand his heat. It should incinerate me. I am only human.

“You are so much more than human. You are what has never walked before but will walk again.”

I shudder at the power of the voices in my mind and reach out for Hades’ hand. He curls his monstrous fingers around my hand, turning to face me. His heavy breaths are hot on my face as his fiery eyes scan me for injuries, settling on the single cut on my forehead.

“I’m fine,” I promise him.

“You are hurt.”