Chapter 22 Kaira #3
"But his power, Kaira," Elandra jumped in.
"His power didn't die with him." The way she was looking at me made me feel uneasy.
Made me want to bolt and run. "His entire power transferred to the only other living being that could hold it, that could wield it.
His power, my dear child, went to you. His power lived in your veins even before the accident.
Even before Grimm helped you pass into the immortal realm.
Your soul, your blood, was always bound to this island.
You were destined for something bigger than any of us.
You were destined to destroy the God that corrupted almost every single being.
You are destined to destroy the God that is planning to use you to escape this island, to get out there and rule the rest of the world. "
My heart hammered in my chest as the pieces of information slowly fit the empty slots of the puzzle in my mind.
"That's why my mom ran away," I mumbled, more to myself than any of them. "That's why she wanted me to train. That's why she wanted me to know all those things."
"Yes." This time it was my aunt that spoke.
"My sister could see the future, Kaira. She could see you in her dreams, but more than that—she could see the different versions of the future that awaited you had she stayed.
" Aunt Alyana stood behind Elandra, placing her hands on the other woman's shoulders. "When the three sisters—"
"Fates," Megaira spat out.
"Yes, Fates. When they announced the prophecy of a child being born under the blood moon, she knew it was you.
And when they said that the child would be the God Slayer, the destroyer, the one that could be the deciding factor in how the scales are tilted, Zeus ordered for every child born within those two months to be killed.
He didn't care who they were. He didn't care if they were immortal children or not—he slaughtered them all. "
"That's why she ran," Megaira mumbled next to me.
"And why my real father stayed," I added, feeling the tears dripping down my cheeks. "That's why she never spoke of this place."
"Because she was terrified. Because she knew that once you came here, you would need to face the truth. You would need to decide which side you would belong to—the resistance or the court of a wicked God." My aunt was furious, her eyes blazing with a fire I hadn't seen before.
"Zeus is the reason we are all trapped here," Hades added.
"You don't know that for sure," Artemis argued.
"Don't I?" He glared at the woman. "Then tell me, Artemis." He came closer to her. "How is it that your dear father held traces of her blood? How is it that none of us could find out where he went or where he was when she died?"
"I—"
"You may think I'm crazy," Hades continued.
"You may think I'm generally insane for spending all these years trying to find the real truth, but one day you'll realize that it was your father who condemned us to this fucking hell.
One day you'll accept that it was your father who destroyed the only woman I would ever love, destroying my soul in the process.
" His chest rose and fell rapidly as he kept approaching Artemis.
The shadows I saw earlier swirled violently, hissing at the woman in front of him.
"And the only reason he did that. The only reason why he would want to kill her, the second piece of my soul, is because he's a narcissistic tyrant, desperate to hold all the power, unable to share even though he knew we would have never tried to take over his fucking throne. "
Apollo kept his eyes on Hades, slowly approaching them, but Hades didn't see him. It was as if he couldn't see any of them—any of us. His vision was zeroed in on Artemis and I had a feeling if he wasn't stopped, someone would get hurt. Someone that shouldn't get hurt.
Without thinking, without really realizing what I was doing, I stood up, jumping over Megaira's legs, thankful the table wasn't as long as the couch, and rushed toward the God holding violence in his hands, raising them toward Artemis.
She suddenly stood up, her hair blazing with cracks of fire I had never seen before, escalating the situation.
"You have no idea—"
"Stop!" I bellowed, placing myself between the two of them. My hands landed on Hades's chest, feeling the power beneath, ready to be released.
His hands landed on mine, that scent of death hidden within his shadows sliced through the barrier I'd unknowingly erected around my power, calling it out. And this time I didn't mind.
This time it wasn't fear or anger that called the power inside me. This time it was him—his presence, his anger, this call of his soul to mine, and as he looked down at me, I imagined a different place, a different time. Calmer than this. Quieter than my mind.
And as my hands fisted his shirt and his fingers wrapped around the back of my neck, the room around us disappeared, replaced by the emerald green colors of his shadows and the eternal void of mine. But as the shadows dissipated, I realized we were no longer in the middle of Elandra's living room.
Nowhere near close to her living room.