Page 46 of Rhuyin

Rhu squeezed my hand and looked at me in confusion.

“I can hear them,” he said.

I looked around in confusion.

“This is Our space,” the older woman said. “This is a place between. We cannot control what happened in your world, but here, we set the rules.”

“What are you called?” I asked.

“I am Kitty,” the younger woman said.

“I am Kate,” the older woman continued.

There was an uncomfortable pause, and I realized they were used to their Third speaking next.

“You are Hecate, Goddess of Magic,” I said.

I felt Rhu stiffen next to me, our hands still clasped.

They nodded and Kate smiled, and something in my chest loosened. The love of every mother in the world was in that smile.I’d seen it so rarely in my own mother, I had treasured every memory of it.

“We are. And you are two of Our Sons,” she said.

Rhu and I looked at each other then back at her in alarm.

“Not by blood,” Kitty hastened to add.

Rhu squeezed my hand and chuckled.

“Good,” I said grumpily. I had some decidedly unbrotherly feelings toward this man.

“What do You want with us, my Ladies?” Rhu asked, and I couldn’t help but admire his composure.

“We do not usually interfere in the mortal world,” Kate said. She began pacing around the crossroad, her boots occasionally kicking up a clod of dirt.

“But things are getting out of hand,” Kitty continued.

“Elus has upset the balance of the world with his support of the Alexandrian kings. If we don’t act, and quickly, your world will be destroyed.”

The pronouncement echoed in the open air.

“Okay, back up a minute,” I said, my mind chasing down trails of thought.

“Gods are real? Or am I hallucinating? It’s got to be one or the other…” he muttered.

“If you’re seeing things, I am too,” Rhu interjected.

“That’s exactly what a hallucination would say,” I responded and was met by Rhu’s grin. “But getting back to the point, if the gods are real…”

I paced a few moments, the anger building in me as I considered everything they had said so far.

“If the gods are real, what thefuckhave you all been doing?” I demanded, fury surging through me. “War. Famine. Slavery. Why have you let all this happen?”

Kate looked at me, her eyes now filled with sorrow.

“We have been doing the best we can,” she said. “We are limited in the amount of power we can exert in the mortal world. We cannot upset the balance any more than it already has been.”

“How did Elus get around that?” I asked. “Sounds like he’s not playing by the rules, so why should you?”