Chapter 11
Everything had happened so quickly, Calliope barely had time to ascertain it all. One moment she was kissing Theo as he declared his devotion for her once more, and the next, he was chasing divining light across the room.
Her heels clacked on the floor as she sprinted toward him, Isabelle and Spike’s voices calling out to her. But it was Mars’s voice she responded to.
“The lights are shining!” she called out, chasing Theo through the crowd until she’d come to a stage on the other side of the room.
His wings were the first thing she saw. Outstretched beyond the wingback chair he had settled in. No, the throne he had settled in. On stage, a woman performed, kneeling before a man wearing a dark, tailored suit.
Theo stopped just shy of the chair, and Calliope could see the faint violet energy circling the chair.
“Chuck,” Mars called, and Calliope froze.
She could not tear her gaze from Theo and Mars, nor could she tear it from Pegasus.
He turned in his chair, his bright blue eyes catching her gaze.
Soft, golden blond hair fell in his eyes, covering the illuminating glowing horn on his head, and he looked no different than the last time she’d seen him.
Timeless. Angelic. He was decked out in his usual white suit with gold accoutrements, his wings spread out and large, like a threat.
“Mars, how good to see you.” His voice was smooth, carrying that air of cockiness that grated on Calliope’s nerves.
“Calliope...” He looked up at her, pinning her to her spot. His smile was faint, a ghost of one, if any.
But it was his eyes, full of ache and pain and fear, that resonated with her. They were not the eyes of the man she remembered. The one who loved himself above all else.
“Chuck,” she swallowed sharply as all the memories came flooding back.
The good and the bad.
He looked Theo up and down as Isabelle, Spike, and Lorelai flanked her side.
“Who are you?” Chuck asked.
Theo took a step forward. “I am Calliope’s mate.”
His truth was her spark, and the moment he said it, she felt the energy between them grow. Lines of violet energy culminated around Chuck’s throne from where he sat it and she could not help but move. She knew the truth, and there was no more denying it.
Chuck scoffed. “Oh, Callie, sweetheart, don’t tell me this is what you’re into now.” He looked at Theo with an annoyed glare. As if Theo was not a human, and certainly not worthy of being her mate.
“What I prefer is none of your business, Chuck,” she said as she took her strides toward the man.
Chuck rose, and the sight made her stop. His wings did not fold. He kept them open, if only to appear menacing.
“You have something that belongs to Callie,” Mars said, flanking the pegacorn’s left side.
Chuck turned to raise an eyebrow at Mars. “Oh, is this how it is now? I call you and you don’t answer, but if Calliope calls, you suddenly have time to see her?”
Calliope stepped forth. “This is not a game, Chuck. It is my life.”
Theo wrapped his arm around her waist.
Chuck shook his head, his feathers tinkling like chimes as they stretched from his motion.
“Of course it is a game!” he bit. “It’s always a game with you, Calliope. Except you are always changing the rules. It is exhausting.”
Theo stepped forth. “You have no claim here, Chuck E. Cheese,” he bit. “Your thread is open. Callie doesn’t want you. Please, let her go and give us the diviner.”
Chuck snarled at them. “And you think she wants you? Oh, how tragic.”
Theo growled and Calliope noted the faint purple energy surrounding Theodore.
Chuck stopped in front of Theo.
Mars stood beside his right side as Spike flanked his left.
“Give the diviner back,” she said solidly. “I know you have it, I can see the threads emanating around you.”
Chuck crossed his arms. “No.”
Mars advanced on his friend. “Chuck, come on, don’t do this...”
Chuck snapped at him. “Do not pretend to care now, Mars! You have no idea what I have been through, what I—”
“You do not need to hold Calliope’s fate hostage,” Spike called. “The diviner won’t make her love you.”
Chuck laughed and Calliope felt tears prickle her eyes.
“I don’t want her love,” Chuck growled.
The light of the stage lit him up, making him look like a devil in white.
Theo closed the gap between him and Chuck. “Then it shouldn’t be so hard to let her go,” he said through his teeth.
“You fools, I don’t want the muse,” Chuck bit. “I want my mate.”
“Then let me go, Chuck. Sever this thread so we can both be free,” Calliope said through a choked sob.
“I can’t!” Chuck hissed. He slid his hand in his pocket, and Calliope gasped as he brought out the diviner. He held it in his hand like it was nothing more than a crystal, as if it did not hold fate in its core.
“Chuck, put the diviner down,” Mars said cautiously. “Take a breath. Let’s talk about this.”
Calliope noted Chuck’s eyes blaze bright, cerulean. He was close to shifting, and she knew such a thing could be dangerous in a room full of people. Because when Chuck shifted into his true form, his light would blind those who could not stand the sight.
Humans.
And the Den of Sin was packed with them tonight.
Chuck’s wings bristled. “Talk? Since when does Mars, the God of fucking War talk?”
Theo moved closer, but Calliope pushed him back.
“Theo, I need you to turn around and—”
“I am not going anywhere, Callie. Not now, not ever.”
Calliope did not have time to argue. She could not think, she could only act on impulse. The spark inside of her warmed as Theo held her close, and the room heated. Violet light surrounded Chuck, his blue eyes flickering to white and lilac.
“Chucky, seriously. I know you’re frustrated, but you’re in the Den, there’s people here, you can’t—”
“You think I don’t know that!” Chuck yelled. He gripped the diviner tight and Spike cursed as Lorelai and Izzy called out for him to put the diviner down. Bright light poured through the cracks of his fist.
“I came here with this bloody fucking stone that’s supposed to work, but it doesn’t fucking work!” Chuck yelled, his body now shaking. His wings fluttered, and a crowd was starting to form.
“It doesn’t work, Chuck, because you can’t force love!” Calliope bellowed.
She pushed Theodore aside as she took two strides toward the pegacorn on the verge of a shift.
Perhaps it was foolish and dangerous, but Calliope knew what Chuck—what Pegasus—needed. She always knew what her patrons needed. Because they were her patrons, not her friends or her family or the loves of her lives.
“The diviner forces it all the time,” he snarled. “That is why it was created, Calliope. You know that. You were there.”
Her heart slowed at his words. She did know. She knew when the diviners were forged, how important they would be for the gods and supernaturals alike. No more needless deaths or heartbreak. Love would be as simple as touching the stone and following the light.
But the years went by and buried the diviners, and gods and goddesses and supernatural shifters and monsters and every other creature had faded to chasing destiny on their own. Making their mistakes, their choices, their masterpieces all on their own.
Without a silly rock.
“I was there,” she bit, staring up at Chuck’s glowing eyes. “And so were you,” she said, tears pooling in her eyes. “You can not force the hand of fate, Pegasus. You must let fate take its course.”
Chuck crushed the stone in his hand and Calliope gasped as she watched the debris slip through his fingers.
“Pegasus...” she breathed his name, his true name, as the lights in the room started to cut out.
Chuck’s shoulders shook as Calliope dropped to the ground, reaching for the debris, the broken pieces of the diviner.
“No...” she cried, the tears falling like rain. Diviner dust slipped through her fingers.
“What have you done?” she asked. She stood, the diviner debris slipping through her fingers and her spark ignited. Passion, anger, guilt, sadness... it all caught like fire on dry leaves.
She lunged for Chuck, and moments later, she felt Mars at her side, grabbing the shifter as Spike grabbed the other side. Between Mars and Spike, Chuck thrashed, hissing, snarling growling, and then Calliope saw the tears.
Streaming down Chuck’s angelic face. She saw his grimace of pain, heard it in his voice.
“Fate forced my hand,” he cried. “And now I am alone.”
Mars and Spike held him but he stopped thrashing.
“Fate is not real,” Chuck snapped, his voice edged with anger and pain, but not just any pain. Pain of loss. And it was at that precise moment, that Calliope understood the man she knew had changed.
He’d loved. And he’d lost.
His lover, his friend. His sense of self.
And in that loss he turned desperate, aching for the love those he loved had discovered on their own.
Calliope gasped at this realization, her eyes going wide as she stared up at Chuck’s glowing, sad eyes.
But it was Theo who stepped forth.