Page 27

DIANA

“Close your eyes, angel.” Odious whispers against my lips as we stand in front of the fireplace.

The heat from the flames licks at my feet as I anxiously await his instruction. He told me he had a birthday present for me, and I begged him to tell me what it was, but he was so keen on keeping it a surprise. After an uneventful dinner that seemed to drag on for an eternity, I came back to my room alone, waiting for the guards to execute their usual rotation so Odious could sneak in.

I huff in annoyance and place my hands on my hips, but I close my eyes. I feel the warmth of his body leave my side, and I hear him stride to the other side of the room and open a drawer, then gently shut it. The floor creaks under his heavy footsteps as he circles me and then stops at my back, his sculpted chest puffing up and down against me. His breath tickles the back of my neck, and I have to fight myself not to lean back into him. He gathers my hair in his free hand and drapes it over my left shoulder, his fingers lightly caressing the my exposed skin.

A clicking sound pierces my ears, followed by the squeaking of a hinge. I feel the slight breeze his arms create as they move to settle in front of me, and he drapes something cold and metal around my neck.

My hand flies up on instinct to touch it, it feels like a stone, or a crystal attached to a metal plate. Odious secures the clasp around my neck and kisses up and down the soft spots of my right shoulder. His arms snake around my waist, pulling me closer to him. I finally lean into his touch and let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. His body molds perfectly to mine, like he was made to fit me.

When we share small touches like this, I want to melt my flesh into his so we never have to bear a moment apart. My mind and body have never been so drawn to another like him, not even to the dead man slumped in the cell beneath the palace.

“Can I look now?” Excitement explodes in my words now that I know he got me a piece of jewelry. He knows how much I adore wearing gems. The cool metal settles my rising temperature as my heart beats faster in anticipation.

His hands cover my eyes. “Did I say you could open your eyes?”

He moves his other hand to my hips and spins me around so that I’m facing him. He removes the hand that was on my hip and drags it up my body until it reaches where the necklace is. He splays his hand flat on my chest, feeling my quickly increasing heartbeat. The cold metal does nothing now for my hot skin as my blush intensifies and trickles down my neck.

“What’s got you all excited, angel?” Odious’ silky voice taunts me as he slides his open hand down further to lightly squeeze one of my breasts. I release a soft moan at the friction my dress creates against my nipple, and Odious purrs in response. I feel his hot breath on my chest as he leans down and licks the skin surrounding the necklace, then repeats the half circle by replacing the wet trail with kisses.

“Open your eyes,” he whispers in my ear. I give a whole-body shiver as his deep voice cradles my ears. He removes his hand from my eyes, and I open them.

It takes a moment to adjust to the light, but as I look down, I gasp. “Odi, it’s beautiful.”

Lying on my chest is a small, tear-shaped ruby dangling from a silver chain. Just by looking at it, I can tell it’s the most expensive piece of jewelry I’ve ever owned. I turn it in my fingers for a moment before I feel an indent on the back. I flip it over to see an engraving of the letter O.

“I had it made the day after I first laid eyes on you.” Odious gently grabs my chin and tilts my head up to look at him, pulling my concentration away from my newest prized possession. A territorial look swirls in his eyes as they dart all around my face. Suddenly, I feel completely exposed under his stare, as if he can see beyond my flesh and bones and directly into my soul.

“Only you are worthy of my tears, Diana. No one brings me to my knees quite like you do. Whether it’s tears of joy or sadness, it is my honor to shed them only for you.” His words sing a declaration of passion, of love. The rising panic that this could all end one day begins to fog the blissful feeling I should be reveling in.

I reach up and cup his face. “You had it made after we only met once? What if I turned out to be a pain in your ass?”

He chuckles and kisses my palm. “Who said you’re not a pain in my ass? It would just add to the list of reasons why I love you.”

My heart skips a beat when the word love leaves his lips. Every time he utters those three words, I fall head over heels all over again. Those words had caused my undoing during our intimate moments more times than I can count.

“You know it’s rude to insult a girl on her birthday!” I lower my hand from his face, and he snatches it, draping my arm over his shoulder as he pulls me into his chest.

“Well, good thing your birthday isn’t until tomorrow. But I would be remiss if I didn’t make up for it, still.” He takes my other hand in his and holds it in the air, then begins swaying. We stay like this for a few minutes, swaying in the silence. I close my eyes and lay my head on his chest.

I am so blissful in these moments, just him and I in our little bubble. I could sway to nothing but the sound of his heartbeat for eternity and never grow tired. Images of us in old age flash before my eyes, still swaying just like this, and I smile widely at the thought.

Odious carefully breaks our connection, reaching into his pocket to grip something tightly in his hand.

“Diana, there is something I wanted to ask you—” Odious begins, but sounds of a commotion outside my door interrupts him.

We both look at each other, then to the door. He places the object back in his pocket and silently moves to press his ear to the door. I follow and rest the side of my head on the oak panels.

“If you do not let me in, I will rip your legs from your body and kick you down the hall with them.” Silia’s voice booms through the wooden door, and I roll my eyes. She’s so dramatic.

The handle begins to turn, and Odious runs to hide behind the door as it swings open. The impact sends me stumbling back a few feet, and I have to steady myself on the tea table in the middle of the room to keep from falling.

“Your guards are idiots.” Silia slams the door shut as she strides through the threshold. She looks unusually angry tonight. Anger is not a characteristic she often wears. But after the way she departed the prison cell last night, I suppose she’s earned the right to be bitter, though whether it was bitterness towards myself or the dead man, I could not decipher.

She meets me where I stand and pulls me into a hug. “Happy almost-birthday, Diana.” My shoulders sag in relief as I conclude her anger is not directed at me. I spot Odious over Silia’s shoulder as I hug her, and I send a wild look his way. For a moment, I forgot he was in the room, my mind otherwise occupied with the fact that my sister was here, embracing me for the first time in weeks.

His eyes widen in question, what should I do?

I return the glance and raise my eyebrows to say, I don’t know!

Silia pulls me from the hug and drops her hands at her side. I wipe the frantic expression from my face and internally cringe as I smile up at her. Without turning, she rolls her eyes and speaks to the dark corners of the room. “I know you’re there, Odious. You can leave the shadows.”

“Hello, Silia.” Odious emerges from his hiding place and comes to my side, taking my hand in his. “What brings you to our chambers this evening? We missed you at dinner,” Odious asks as he rubs his thumb over my knuckles.

“I hope I wasn’t interrupting, but I have some questions you may be able to answer.” Silia shifts uncomfortably as she speaks.

“You did, but nothing that cannot be continued when you leave.” Odious smirks while maintaining eye contact with her. My cheeks begin to heat at his implication.

Silia clears her throat and pulls a small book from her waistband under her cloak, “Have you seen this before?” She holds up the journal to Odious, and his eyes widen in shock.

“Where did you find this?” He takes the journal from her hands, and his eyes fog over, going wholly white. Odious stumbles back a step, ripping his hand away from mine, and grips the journal tight with both hands.

“What’s happening?” Silia breathes out and tries to reach for him. I grab her hand just before it lands on him. “He’s getting a reading. He is all right.” I try to ease her concern and move to pull up a chair behind Odious.

I push the chair to the back of his legs, and he sits, his eyes still lost in a vision.

It was quite something, seeing it for the first time. He had tried to describe to me in the past how his gift worked, but seeing it in person sends a ghostly shiver down my spine. The veins in his neck bulge slightly, and the brand on the back of his neck pulses with a bright red glow. Sweat begins to form on his forehead, and I want so badly to wipe it away and comfort him. But he’s told me not to touch him if he was getting a vision. He could mistake me for something he’s seeing in his mind and injure me in the physical world.

It doesn’t look like he’s in pain, but I know that it cannot be a comfortable feeling.

Moments come and go before his eyes return to their normal state, and his chest rises and falls from exertion.

“You saw her. That’s impossible.” Odious stares up at Silia in disbelief.

I reach over to him and place my hand on his shoulder. “Saw who, Odi?”

“Bortis, the Goddess of Birth and New Beginnings. She gave you this journal.” Perhaps he cannot only see into the future, but into the past as well.

“I—no, our librarian in Eza, Vex, gave it to me. She said the answers I seek lie in it.” Silia holds her hands out in defense, taking the question as an accusation.

“No, it’s her. I saw her give it to you. She also gave you a key, yes?” Odious sets the journal in his lap and runs a hand through his long, raven-black hair.

He rises from the chair, setting the journal down on the seat. “When did she appear?”

Silia and I exchange a look of confusion before I speak up, “She has been working in the library far before my father took over as king. She is a spirit, or so I thought. I cannot say how long.”

Silia holds a hand to her chest, seemingly searching for something. “You’re saying Vex is not a spirit?”

Odious shakes his head. “She is indeed a spirit, but still of Bortis. This is most unusual.” He opens the journal and flips to the back, staring at blank pages.

“This is a journal detailing The Fates and their Council. All twelve Gods and Goddesses of the Council are listed, as well as their backgrounds. It was written by the Gennos, the God of Music and Poetry. He enchanted it in a way that the journal writes out answers to questions you ask it. Such relics went missing centuries ago.”

“That’s why Vex—Bortis—said that everything I needed to know would be in it.” Silia’s brows furrow in concentration, as if she’s retrieving a forgotten memory. “She also told me to tell you The Council is very excited to meet you.”

Odious rips his attention away from the journal to look up at me.

“Me? Why me?”

Silia shakes her head and gestures towards the journal. “I don’t know. Maybe we could ask it?”

Odious holds it up, and I take it from his hands, staring at the blank pages.

“Why did Bortis want to relay a message to me?” I ask.

After a few excruciating heartbeats of staring at the empty pages, words begin to form. The breath is knocked from my lungs, and I wait for the writing to cease.

“When The Fates wrote that one member from Hecate’s bloodline and one from Zothos’ would be bonded, they sent down Bortis, The Goddess of Birth and Beginnings, to watch over them and guide the daughter born of Hecate to the path of discovering who she is. Since Bortis left the temple, there has been a vacancy in the Council, so the Fates wrote your birth into existence to take Bortis’s place. The Fates knew there was a price for doing this—to give a life, one must take. It was written that your mother must die for you to be born.”

“What does it say?” Silia’s voice is muffled by the ringing in my ears.

“Who am I?” When I speak the words to the journal, I see out of the corner of my vision that Odious and Silia exchange a puzzled glance.

Then, two unmistakable words appear on the page.

Bortis, reincarnate.

I drop the journal as I cover my mouth with my hands. Although the words were not spoken aloud, they echo painfully through my head as I back away from Silia and Odious.

He snatches the journal from the floor and reads those dreaded words. Silia moves to Odious’ side and reads over his shoulder.

All I can do is stare at him, at Silia, as I see the horror slowly appear on their faces.

“What does this mean?” My hands begin to tremble, tears pooling in the corners of my eyes. My arms go numb, then my face, as my pulse throbs behind my eyes. I’m panicking, and the feeling is debilitating.

I want to run and hide under the bed like a child who has just been told that the bogeyman is real. What does any of this mean? What the Hel is a Fate, and why did they choose me to take her place?

Silia rushes over and carefully pulls me to the floor. “Breathe, Diana, please breathe. You’re having a panic attack.” Black dots cloud my vision as my head begins to feel lighter. I just want to close my eyes.

Odious joins us on the floor and takes my hands in his. “Deep breaths, okay? In and out.” He places one of my hands on his chest and takes one deep breath, then another, and another.

“One. Two. Three.” He calls out the breaths as we take them, and I watch Silia give him a painful look. My head becomes less fuzzy as Odious cups my face and brings his forehead to mine. “Better, angel?”

“Yes,” I breathe out and grip my necklace tight. He smiles at this gesture and kisses my temple, then lifts me into his arms. He carries me to the bed and lays me down, sliding me under the plush sheets.

“Rest, my love. I will be by your side should you need anything.” He places one last kiss on my temple as I close my eyes.

Yes, sleep sounds divine right now.