34. The Threads of Time #2
There’s a small creek with water clear enough that I can see the stones at the bottom.
Jade, Amber, Sapphire, and Emeralds are only a few I can make out from here, but I’m sure there are more if I were to wade in and pull them up for a closer look.
But that’s not my purpose, at least I don’t think so.
I turn, looking for that shadow, and my breath catches in my throat as I see a body floating in the pale pink water downstream.
“Gruesome, isn’t it?”
I turn to find someone in a pale yellow robe walking out of the tree line. Their robes cover them from head to toe, but I can see their manicured hands and delicate slippers as they come closer.
“Definitely not a picture I would hang up in my living room,” I reply.
“No, not my first choice either,” she chuckles, her voice seeming familiar. As the figure comes closer, she reaches up and pulls her cloak that’s covering her face and hair down, and I physically buckle, falling to my knees.
“Oh no, sweetie. It’s okay,” Liliwen—my birth mother—says, rushing closer to me, and grabbing my arms, trying to catch me.
I blink, attempting to see her through the tears, but everything is blurry as my mind tries to make sense of what's going on.
“How?” I choke out. “How is this possible?”
“Don’t worry about the practicalities, sweetie.
We were both blessed that Seren came to find me before my powers tried to seek out someone else on their own.
In this case, I was able to pick my own successor.
” She runs her hands down my cheeks, catching the tears flowing freely without my permission.
“I’m so lost,” I admit, shaking my head. “Nothing makes sense anymore.”
“I know, sweetie, and that’s why I’m here. That’s why you needed to see my sisters. They are here to help you understand and know your purpose. You need to know the complete truth.” She pulls away from me for a moment and grabs my hand. “Come.”
She walks me upstream, where she has me splash my face with cool water from the stream and sit down beside her.
“I know this might be selfish of me, but may I braid your hair?” Mom asks, and at this moment, she could ask for anything.
“I would love it.” As she sits on a rock, I get comfortable in front of her as she begins telling me the information I need to know.
“First of all, you have two fathers,” she begins.
Thank the Fates, Dad already revealed that news because that would have been a horrible bomb to drop on me right now.
Thanks, Mom. Now I see what attracted you to Dad.
You guys both have a special way with words, like smacking someone upside the head with a frying pan when giving someone bad news. My word—talk about being blunt.
“Yeah, dad already dropped that on me,” I deadpan. “You guys have that truth bomb skill in common, by the way.”
“Yeah, he had a way with words,” she laughs. “What most don’t know is that Aaron is your father, but he’s not the only one who would show up as yours.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Aaron and Adam are twins. When Adam was made, so was Aaron. They share the same DNA.”
“So they both would show up as my father, technically?” I can’t keep the horror out of my tone.
“I do believe so, but I would rather not test that theory and have you within their grasp. The only thing that would have been distinguishable is if Lilith had only slept with Adam once. She had no idea the second time it was Aaron,” she continues on, and she’s exploding my mind so much that I can’t keep up, so instead I back up.
“Wait a minute. Pause," I say, lifting my good arm to halt whatever information dump she’s about to throw at me. “You just said you’d rather not have me within their grasp, but just before my happy ass found your marble and came into this… whatever we call this, I just saw Anwen, and I’m pretty sure that’s Aaron,” I spit out.
Mom lets out a scoff, but I continue.
“No, don’t scoff at me.” I turn to look at her.
“Because before I went down Muscha’s tunnel of death,” I throw up my arms and wince in pain, forgetting my bad arm in the sling, “I was with Cain, who apparently is my brother, which he was just trying to convince me that we should band together to rule the world and take down our evil father, or whatever half-siblings are supposed to do. I don’t know.
I was barely listening to his half-cracked plan.
But now you’re telling me it’s all true!
?” My shoulders drop, and a groan slips from me as I cradle my arm against me.
“Come now. It’s not the end, even though it might seem that way.
” She coaxes me to turn back and begins to play with my hair once again.
“Yes, Cain is your half-brother, and Aaron was the man who was able to trick me into believing I was lying with Delvin. It wasn’t until later that I learned what he really was. ”
She pauses, and I turn to look over my shoulder, finding her eyes are focused on her body in the stream.
“It’s one of the reasons I was taken from you.
” Her voice sounds haunted as her hands move in my hair, but I can tell she’s not really with me.
She’s away in another memory. “It was Aaron who came to me and told me what they truly were: Skinwalkers.” Her voice takes on a haunting melody as a scene unfolds before my eyes.
Aaron shows up along the bank in all black, with a cocky smirk, while another Liliwen stands proudly with fire in her eyes and glares back at him in the scene.
“He proudly announced they were the only two Skinwalkers in the world, and he didn’t want me, nor my child, ruining what he had planned.
He wanted my power and needed to be the third Fate.
So he asked for the power,” my mother narrates behind me, horror and disgust displayed across Liliwen’s face in the scene at his question.
I can’t hear them, but the visuals are enough.
His brow pulls down in anger as he spits out his words, taking menacing steps towards her.
“At least he asked first before deciding to take what he wanted,” Liliwen says before the images disappear. “I’ll spare you how I died. It wasn’t pretty, but the main point is, he did get power, just not the power he was hoping to get, but he doesn’t know that.”
“He didn’t?” I turn once again and look up at her.
She cocks an eyebrow and smirks, and I totally see where I get it.
“Is he using the Sulks to do his bidding?” she asks, and it hits me.
“He wouldn’t have to if he truly had all of your power, would he?”
“No, in fact, if he did, he could drain and kill the Sulks for good,” she tells me.
So Anwen in the living room wasn’t really Aaron in disguise. She was the real deal? Thank the Fates.
“If that’s the fucking case, why aren’t the other Fates taking care of all of this?” I growl, getting angry at them fucking with everything in my life except what would really help out the world.
“I understand you’re upset, but as we were created, we had limits we were bound to.
You, on the other hand, are not. You have mates, and through them, you are connected to the Four Horsemen, and to Heaven and Hell.
Your constraints are practically non-existent.
You have a different course to follow and will reshape the world as it once was.
This is the reason why Cain is insistent on getting you on his side. ”
She finishes with the last braid, and I bite my lip before asking, “Why’s that?”
“It’s because you’re the only one that can defeat him, sweetie, even with that mark. But not with any normal weapons.”
Yeah, that doesn’t paint me as a big target. Who decided this for me? I want a refund!