32. Mendax
32
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“T ickets please.” A young woman stepped from behind a small wood counter and held her hand out, palm up.
We handed her our tickets, and I fought the urge not to jam them down her throat just as they had been upon delivery. I was in the lead, so I missed the chance to see Caly’s face when she realized we were in a concert hall.
The woman led us to the circular area of chairs in the center of the large hall. Lights as hot as the sun beat down on the area. Three darkly cushioned stools were in the brightest parts of the light.
“Stand here please,” chirped the lady as she positioned us a few feet in front of the stools.
“What is this?” Caly asked. I could feel her panic through the bond.
“Quiet please,” the old woman snapped, and I reached out to snap her neck before rethinking it and returning my hand to my side. I needed to make sure the Fates held up their part of the deal first. I needed to know Caly would be safe forever.
Caly’s father walked out from somewhere in the dimly lit surroundings and nodded to us as he stood behind us in the dark. Heavy thuds echoed as he wheeled out a large gold harp with only a few strings. Aurelius cleared his throat, and the sound echoed through the concert hall. The hero offered to help Zef when he rolled past to which he silently shook his head and continued until he’d positioned harps in front of each of the three seats. He stepped back behind us, receding into the shadows of empty risers of chairs.
My breath stilled in my lungs as the three Fates walked the same path Zef had taken in a single-file line. I wanted to grab Caly and get her little mortal body out of the room as fast as possible.
The first sister walked meekly to the first stool. With the lights so bright, I was able to get a better look at them than I had the other night, and my nerves jumped as soon as I saw the familiar features of the woman in the first seat. The resemblance was striking, and there was no way they weren’t related. The first Fate was the woman with wild brown hair who had greeted us the first day here.
The one I had beaten the shit out of.
I ran my fingers through my hair and tried to convince myself that it didn’t mean anything. They would still hold up their end of the deal.
When I had come to see them before, the only lights in the concert hall were the flickering flames that spread across different parts of the walls. There had only been two of them, but I couldn’t see their faces.
The first Fate looked up and winked at me, and it felt like my ribs broke with the pain that tore through my chest. They were going to kill Caly because of what I’d done. I’d assaulted one of the Fates.
Fuck!
The second sister, this one with blond hair and similar features, walked out proudly with a little excitement in her step. She bowed before sitting next to her sister at the harp with only half the strings attached.
The third sister came out with a completely different look to her. She had similar features in the nose and chin but looked tired and wise for as youthful as they all appeared. Unlike the others, who were dressed in red robes similar to ours, she wore all black with the hood of her robe being the only one that was up over her hair. Slowly, she made it to her seat with the harp full of strings.
The first woman stood and bowed before softly speaking. “As you may remember, I am Anastasia. I am the spinner.” She pulled a white moth from the pocket of her robes and walked to the half-strung harp. “I create life,” she said as she placed the moth on the top of the harp.
The bright light focused in on the little creature on the harp as it moved to its position above where the next string would be, almost dangling from under the top of the harp. The fuzzy-looking moth suddenly flew back to the woman, leaving a small white caterpillar where it had been.
I heard Caly’s gasp as she watched the caterpillar twist and twirl, dropping lower and lower, leaving a string in its wake until it reached the bottom of the harp and climbed back up the string, making a tiny cocoon around itself and disappearing. The first sister sat back down with the mother moth on her finger.
The bench creaked against the floor as the second sister rose with a smile. She walked out from behind the harp and bowed gracefully. “I am Genome, and I am the allotter. I play the threads of life.” She returned to her bench and adjusted the large gold harp. The lights from above shifted over her as she stretched her long fingers across the harp and played a tune that was similar to what we’d been hearing since we arrived. The woman lost herself in the music, and for a few moments, it was almost as if I had taken Caly to the orchestra instead of a death sentence.
After a few moments of her beautiful music, Genome sat back with a smile and watched as the cocoon broke open and a crimson-red moth emerged, fluttering its new wings as it stretched out on the string.
The third and final sister stood and stepped to the front, just as the others had. “I am Morta, and I am the decider of death.” Her low voice echoed as she removed her hood. A black crow sat on her shoulder, nearly indistinguishable from her glossy, black hair. “I sever the strings of life.” She turned slowly and walked to the harp where she stood for a moment before the crow on her shoulder flapped to the red moth on the string and, with a sharp snap of its beak, closed the winged creature in its mouth and cut the thread in half before returning to Morta’s shoulder. She lifted her hood, shadowing herself and the crow once more before she sat.
My eyes snapped to Caly, afraid I was suddenly going to see her slumped on the ground dead, but I was relieved to see she remained standing quietly next to me.
The middle sister, the blond one, stood once more and cleared her throat. “You three have been brought here after you went against the rules of fate. Calypso, you were already tied to Aurelius through the theft of your sister’s powers when you bonded with Mendax, the Smoke Slayer, is that correct?”
Caly shifted uncomfortably. “I suppose so, but I didn’t ask for either?—”
“Thank you.” The woman cut her off. “As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, the trial has already happened, and your fate has been decided prior to the present time.”
The three of us exchanged panicked looks. My fingertips smoothed over the pocket of my robe, searching for comfort that never came.
“The trial has already happened?” Caly asked loudly.
“Yes. During your attempts to get into Moirai, we were testing the three of you for your integrity, compassion, and competence. All things that we feel are deciding factors in who should remain paired and whose thread should be cut.”
The Fate looked to me, and for the first time since walking in the doors, I felt relieved.
“You should know that based on those three factors, we decided Calypso should die.”
All the air left my body as I waited for what was going to happen next.
“But Mendax offered us a deal.”
Oh, thank stars. I glanced to Calypso but had to turn away when I saw her big round eyes filled with heartbreak.
“No!” she screamed.
The crow on Morta’s shoulder cawed loudly, and everyone in the room went still.
“Mendax offered to take the last drop of power and soul to your sister in Tartarus and remain as a liaison to help fine-tune the process with Kaohs in exchange for cutting the tie between you and Aurelius and maintaining the bond so he may watch and feel you as frequently as he likes.”
I heard the soft pitter-patter of tears as they hit the floor by Caly’s feet.
“Of course, we would have to remove any traces of his memory from you, but as we’ve made clear, you’ll still be able to see and feel snippets of each other through the tie—excuse me, the bond. I’m sure you understand that all this is for your own good.” The sister nodded politely.
Caly’s heavy huffs of breath were enough to kill me there without the help of the Fates cutting my thread.
“However, that’s not how fate works.” The sister in black spoke as she rose to stand, and I watched a coy smile crawl onto her face.
No.
No.
No!
“We have decided to take Aurelius up on his collaboration,” she said.
“Wait, what?” I shouted.
The crow cawed again as it shoved its head out from behind the hood.
“What? Eli?” Caly said frantically.
“What collaboration? What will happen to Calypso?” I could sense the three of our hearts beating faster.
The first sister cleared her throat, looking between me and Aurelius. “As far as the tie goes, their lives are no longer dependent on the other’s survival.”
Aurelius locked eyes with me before he glanced at my pocket for a split second, then snagged my eyes again with a small nod. “You have the blade?”
My hand flew to the frosted-glass blade with the fern cross guard that held Caly’s blood. I searched his eyes, making certain I understood his meaning. Relief and respect washed over me as I realized what was happening. “I have it.”
The corner of his mouth pulled into a grin. “I knew you would. You’ve probably plotted this out a million times already. Bet you didn’t expect me to ask for it though, did you?” His grin fell.
“What is going on?” Caly cried.
“Aurelius has removed himself with the request that he be sent to Tartarus upon his death,” the first sister answered.
The crow cawed behind me, and I knew there was only a moment before it cut his string of life.
“Eli, you can’t die! Stop this!” Caly shrieked. Her cries sent shivers through my bones.
I took a step closer to Aurelius.
“I love you, Calypso, and I always will. I’ve never seen you as happy as you are with him and”—he coughed as his own eyes filled with tears—“my family has done so much to take your happiness away. I want to do this.” A tear rolled down his tan cheek. “I never wanted to run Seelie or be a prince. I just wanted to help you, and now I can. Use my powers as you see fit, Cal.” He smiled warmly and looked away from Caly to me.
“No! Stop! Don’t!” she screamed as she lunged for him.
“I need the pendant,” he said to me with a tremor in his voice.
I pulled it from my neck and tossed it through the air to him. He clapped his palms together, catching it in midair. Caly was almost to him.
“Mendax, don’t! Please! Stop! You can’t!” she screamed.
The crow cawed.
I took the remaining steps until I was directly in front of Aurelius—then hesitated. I never hesitated.
“You would have made a terrible hero,” he said with a warm smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Please make her happy. Oh! She really likes jokes with cats in them.” Another tear fell from his reddened eyes. “Those get her every time.”
He began to nod, and I shoved the blade down and onto the top of his head before he finished nodding. I always knew I’d kill the man, but I had no idea it would make me sad to do it.
“No!” Caly screamed as she knocked me out of the way, grabbing Aurelius and falling to the floor with him. “Eli! Please! Suns! Please, no! Please!”
She ripped the blade from the top of his head, but it was too late. His eyes fluttered closed against the golden, shimmery blood staining his face.
He had the ashes of Caly’s sister gripped tightly against his chest, holding on to Caly with the other as he gasped for air. He lifted the pendant and tried to speak, but the words were garbled and incoherent.
“How can I do this without you?” Caly cried, holding tightly to his chest.
He whispered something, and I had to turn away to keep myself together.
“Feuhn kai greeyth.” His raspy voice struggled.
Eternal love and friendship.
My palms flew to my ears to muffle the scream that tore out of Caly. I knew from the rasp of devastation in her voice that Aurelius was dead and gone from our lives forever.
I didn’t immediately run to her and gather her up in my arms like I wanted to. The pain that radiated through her end of the bond was so overwhelming, I struggled to think or act. It was obvious now that those two really did have something more than just a friendship; it was a soul-connecting relationship created by pain and suffering and solidified with the mortar of something I knew I would never be able to understand. The pain that surged through the bond in that moment was easily more pain than I’d felt in all the wars and battlefields combined, and it buckled my knees to feel it coming from her.
I watched her in awe. This little mortal creature believed herself to be weak, yet she took this pain like a true warrior.
Zef rushed to her and gathered her wailing frame into a tight embrace, and for once, I was glad there was another man comforting her, for I could not have risen from my knees with this pain for all the power in the world.