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WHEN DEATH CALLS

I shook my head at this, not understanding what she meant. Because surely, I didn’t just hear those words come out of her mouth. Hence why I uttered in sheer disbelief,

“Come again?”

“Yeah, what the hell does that mean, you had to kill her!?” my brother shouted, as he too was suffering the same bewilderment as I was.

“We didn’t understand it at the time, but this was the only way to bring her back from what he had done to her.”

I gritted my teeth but didn’t speak, for I needed to hear what else she had to say.

“His control… he…” she paused as if it was too much, forcing me to press her for more.

“He what, Lerna? What did he do?” The venom in my tone was easy to hear, as I was once again close to losing it.

“He locked her soul to his own.”

A hiss of air whistled through my brother’s teeth, whereas I outrightly growled.

“Meaning what exactly?” I forced myself to ask.

“That she had to die first before she could then be reborn,” she said, her expression crumbling at what she had to do.

“What?!” I snapped.

“I didn’t want to do it. But it could only be me. I had to be the one and at the same time, do it when death was calling for me to do so. For hundreds of years, I hid her body in its unconscious state in the temple with me. Knowing that if I woke her up, she would still be under his control, and he would find her. That the Hellish cycle would never end,” she said, now with tears in her eyes, and it was clear to see the toll this had taken on her all this time. Making me realize that I hadn’t been the only one living with guilt and the pain of loss. That was why she told me that she knew how it felt. I understood that now.

“But how was that possible?” Orth asked as Marcus muttered,

“Sounds like some twisted fairytale.” A comment we all ignored.

“We had a spell cast when trying to break her free of his control. One that would keep her suspended in time in an unconscious state, until the time was right.”

“Until the time was right for what, Lerna?” I asked with gritted teeth, as I had a good idea I knew what was coming. She lifted her teary eyes to Koro, who nodded for her to go ahead and tell us.

“Until I would have to force myself to do the thing I loathed to do the most… The one part of the plan I had no choice but to see through. The part where I had to end her life.”

“Fuck!” I hissed, knowing it was coming but feeling the effects of it all the same.

“We thought with you in the mortal world, it would have been sooner, but it was not. The Fates told us to wait for Death’s call and I did what I had to do when it came,” she argued as more tears fell, giving Koro cause to comfort her, turning her body into his and making me release a heavy sigh.

“That is why we need to find her, if he gets hold of her again, then I don’t know what would happen this time, or how we would bring her back from it,” Lerna cried and honestly, it was worse than I ever thought it could be.

“How did she come back?”

“I am not sure exactly. I heard Death’s call and did what needed to be done. After that, the soul I had protected disappeared, along with her living body, as it turned to stone. After that, it took me a while, but I discovered that she had been reborn a mortal, just like she had been fated to.”

“Carrick, the Death Dealer,” my brother said, quietly piecing things together, whereas my mind was spinning.

“What?” I uttered, even though the second he said it, those pieces started to make sense.

“He helped deliver Keira’s sister’s child, her father is an Angel, they fathered a child, and the vessel must have been destined for her, that would have been the call of death,” he explained, and Marcus agreed.

“That makes sense, his presence there must have acted like a beacon, leading her soul from the Elysian Fields and tethering it to the mortal realm. It’s the only explanation of how Frank, an Angel, would have been able to father a child. It was Fated.”

“Perhaps you’re right,” I said, knowing that this made sense but all the while wishing, for selfish reasons, for it to have been sooner.

“She was always supposed to find you,” Lerna added, making me grit my teeth when I thought back on our first meeting and how foolish I had been not to recognize who she was to me.

“She did,” I replied, not wanting to add that I had been too fucking stubborn to see it that way.

“But what of her illness?” my brother soon asked, making Lerna sigh.

“We needed to mask her presence as we got her back to our temple. It had to seem as if the Summoner Queen she had become under his control had been killed. To this we had to ensure her blood would not be recognized as belonging to Hades. My only guess is that it must have crossed over to her mortal body once she came of age. Something Koro discovered when he was trying to get her back to me and safely away from the Garmr.”

I felt my blood boil at this, knowing the pain and suffering she had endured and then to be kidnapped and near dragged to Hell!

“She was fucking protected!” I argued furiously, glaring at Koro now.

“No, she wasn’t, for you had failed, HellBeast.”

I went to lunge for him, but my brother knew me well enough to hold me back.

“You wanna say that to me again, dickhead?!” I seethed.

“Garmr had his minions in the mortal realm kidnap her and bring her to the caves. I turned up just in time to ensure that didn’t happen. But I couldn’t get her to cross over and without you claiming her, her blood was tainted enough that it was not recognized,” Koro stated calmly, something that only riled me more.

“A good job too!” I snapped.

“Yes and no, for it was clear that she was too vulnerable and had become too exposed. Garmr continued to pursue her, and soon Orson could no longer protect her.”

I growled at the mention of that arsehole’s name.

“That’s why he called you brother,” I gritted out venomously.

“Like me, he too took an oath to the Bloodstone Covenant. So, he agreed to help me, as he also owes me a life debt. You hadn’t claimed her like we hoped you would, so we took matters into our own hands before she could fall into Garmr’s,” he argued, making me lash out with the foolish reasons why.

“No, because I thought Lerna was my Chosen One and thanks to you two geniuses, changing her blood made it so she needed fucking medication… medication that changed her scent to a fucking HellBeast who relied on that shit!” I snapped, making Lerna wince.

“But he should have known who she…”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, he wanted her, sensed she could be his, wanted me to taste her but she didn’t have the same scent he would have recognized to know for sure and in my world, it is forbidden to claim a mortal unless it is Fated!” I told them, making my anger and frustration known. Again, Lerna looked guilty for this, especially when I continued.

“Now, had I known, then I would have claimed her at eighteen and she would have been protected better.”

“We can all point the finger at the mistakes that were made, Cerberus, but there were no guarantees in any of this. We did what we thought was best to protect her. To give her a chance at another life, one where she wouldn’t be used as Garmr’s personal power slave,” Koro reasoned, maintaining what they did was right, when I knew otherwise. For had they involved me in this from the beginning then we might not all be forced to watch the shitshow of events playing out now.

“But if you wish to continue to cast blame our way, then ask yourself this, had it not been for you thinking of her on the battlefield when fighting Garmr that day, then he would still not know of her whereabouts,” Koro added, this time making my brother want to kick his arse, now forcing me to be the one to restrain him after he said,

“Fuck you, blaming my brother like that!”

I released a sigh at this as Koro’s words hit home.

“It’s true, we have all fucked up here in regard to Ella, but the question now is, what can we do to stop it from happening again?” I said, which is when it utterly pained me to hear what the very last option was, when Lerna said…

“It’s simple, but not for you.”

“Why not?” I asked, having a feeling I wasn’t going to like the sound of what she said next.

“Because, HellBeast, you have no choice but to…”

“…Let her go.”