Chapter 26 – Keto
KETO
My eyes open. I don’t know where I am. I’m not in the water and not on an island. The sky above me is a crisscrossing of wood that makes no sense.
And my throat hurts. It’s so painfully dry that I suddenly want nothing more than a drink.
I struggle to sit up and someone is instantly at my side. Clark. He lifts my back and presses a water cup to my lips. I drink and drink, not stopping until the cup is empty.
When he draws it back, I can’t stop taking in deep breaths. Had it just been my imagination, or did I die?
“Wh—?”
“You’re in the gargoyle sanctuary,” he explains, his voice soft.
I’m… where? Oh no, the sanctuary!
“Am I a prisoner?” I ask, my heart racing.
Clark shakes his head. “No, we’ve spoken to the Elites. They don’t want you as a prisoner anymore. They understand that you were only doing what you had to. You’re here because we brought you to Hephaestus.”
The blacksmith god?
I see movement out of the corner of my eye and turn slightly. A massive man rises from a bench. Metal of every kind lies scattered about the table, and not far from him is a raging fire in a metal container of some kind.
“Good morning,” he says.
The god’s voice is deep, a rumbling that comes from his chest like the voice of an ancient tree. Like most immortals, he appears to be a young man. His dark beard is long and tangled. His arms are bigger than my head. He screams of power.
This… this is the man that made my collar for me. Who made Cerebrus’ collar for her.
Rage uncoils inside of me. As he leans over my bed, I react without thinking, punching him square in the face. He stumbles back, and I know it’s more because of surprise than that I actually harmed this mountain of a man.
“Keto!” Clark shouts.
“You bastard!” I try to scream, but my voice comes out nothing more than an angry whisper. “You did that to me. To all of us.”
I see the moment he understands. His face falls, and a misery comes over him. “I’m sorry.”
“That’s not enough!”
He turns his back to me and goes to the table. Turning back, he holds one item up… a broken circle. And then another item, a tool of some kind.
“I removed your collar.”
My hands fly to my neck. My bare neck. Beneath my fingertips are a sea of scars… but the metal, it’s gone.
“We brought you here right away,” Clark says, and there’s nervousness in his voice. “We were afraid that your brother would hurt you again when he was reborn in the Underworld.”
I nod, shocked, still stroking my bare neck. “You did the right thing.”
He looks relieved.
I’m amazed. Am I… really free? Free forever?
“I can’t believe it,” I say, and tears form in my eyes. “He made me do so many things. He controlled me for so many years.”
Clark shushes me. “We know. It’s okay.”
I slowly rise, and Clark helps me, his touch gentle.
“I’m alive,” I say.
He gives a ghost of a smile. “You are.”
“And free.”
His gaze runs lovingly over my face. “You are.”
I throw my arms around his neck. “It’s… a miracle.”
Maybe I cry a little. Maybe I cry a lot. But Clark holds me all along, stroking my back and murmuring words of reassurance.
At last, I pull back, feeling silly. “I’m sorry, I just can’t believe it.”
He touches my face hesitantly. “It’s okay. You deserve it.”
I try to stretch, but my muscles feel strange. “How long was I out?”
He doesn’t answer me for a long minute.
Nervousness blossoms in my belly. “How long?”
“A month.”
My jaw drops. “A month.”
He nods. “You were almost dead. If it wasn’t for your creature—“
I can’t believe it. My body must have undergone a lot of trauma to need that much time to heal.
A shiver moves through me. Flashes of my beating roll through my mind.
I don’t want to think about that. I don’t want to remember that.
“Well, I’m alive now.” I sit up straighter. “And I have something important to do.”
“There’s, uh, more,” Clark says.
I shake my head. “I don’t care.” Turning to the blacksmith god, I level him with my most serious stare. “Will that tool remove any collar?”
He nods. “Yes.”
“Even Cerberus’s?”
His entire body stiffens, and his eyes fill with regret. “Yes,” he says, his voice no louder than a whisper.
“Then I’m going to her and we’re going to free her too.”
I straighten my back and push away from Clark, standing fully on my own two feet.
“Keto—“
“No, she’s suffering. Like I was. I won’t be able to rest until she’s free.”
I stumble toward the god and take the tool from his hand without a word. It takes me a second to figure out the way out of the building, but then I continue stumbling out the door, looking for a body of water.
Outside, the other gargoyles are walking up the path. I freeze. They all look as much of a mess as Clark. Thinner. Paler. Their hair a disaster.
“Guys—“
They take off toward me. Arthur pulls me in his arms, squeezing me gently, and then the men are holding me, and talking all at once.
I laugh. “I’m fine. I promise.”
“You’re awake!” Arthur exclaims.
I laugh again. “Yes, and I have something to take care of.”
They all freeze. Max speaks slowly like I’ve lost my mind. “You need to lie down and rest.”
“No.” I shake my head. “I need to help Cerebus.”
All eyes go to Clark. “Didn’t you tell her?”
He’s slow to answer. “I didn’t have a chance yet.”
My muscles tighten. “Whatever it is, is it more important than helping someone?”
Everyone is silent. Steven brushes my hair back from my face and tucks it behind one ear. “You’re pregnant.”
What? Slowly I look down at my belly. I’m wearing a little white dress. But I don’t have a belly. In fact, there’s no evidence at all that what they say is true.
I glance back at them in confusion.
“You’re not very far along,” Steven continues. “But the healer confirmed it. You’re carrying our child.”
Pregnant? Me? With a child of my own? I touch my belly in wonder, imagining the little child growing within me.
It’s a miracle. More than I ever imagined.
But this news doesn’t change what I need to do.
“Okay. But I still need to help Cerberus.”
Max shakes his head. “I don’t think you understand. Gargoyle babies are rare. It’s almost impossible to get pregnant, and even harder to stay that way. You can’t just take off into danger, not when you’re carrying our child.”
I have this strange feeling I can’t explain. Like my collar is closing around my neck once more.
“I’m free,” I say, and then realize that doesn’t truly explain anything. “You can’t make me stay here.”
“I don’t think you’re explaining it right,” Steven says to Max, then looks at me.
Very gently, he touches my belly. “We’ve spent a month watching over you, making sure you were safe, hoping and praying that you’d be safe.
When the healer told us you were pregnant, we feared for you even more.
We can’t just have you wake up and leave… we can’t.”
“And I won’t be your prisoner!” I tell them.
Silence stretches between us.
“Keto,” Max begins.
I draw myself up. “Yes, that’s who I am. And I’m not ashamed. You might think I’m a monster. You might think I’m dangerous.” My gaze slides to Clark. “And you might think I’m a liar. But I don’t care. I won’t be ashamed of who I am anymore, or the things I’ve had to do to survive.”
“We don’t want you to be ashamed,” Steven says.
Arthur gives an uncertain smile. “We know who you are, and we don’t care.”
“You’re gargoyles!” I say.
No matter how much I care for them. No matter how much I want to be with them. I won’t allow all my happiness to depend on them. I’m free now, and I can have a real future.
Pregnant or not.
“We don’t care,” Arthur begins again. “We love you for you.”
I shake my head. “No, you can’t.”
“We do!” Steven emphasizes. “And we can’t be happy without you. We have nothing without you.”
Max’s voice sounds broken. “I know we couldn’t protect you when you really needed us, but we won’t ever let that happen again. We’ll care for you and our child in every way.”
Their words are like everything I want to hear and more, but somehow I can’t seem to believe them. Something’s missing.
Slowly, I turn to Clark.
Our gazes meet, and his expression crumbles.
“I’m so sorry. They were right. I let my fucking messed up past cloud my logic and I almost got us all killed.
My mistake got you hurt—“ His voice cracks.
“So hurt.” His entire body shakes. “And it was all because of me. I understand if you hate me. I understand if you can never forgive me.”
Time seems to stand still. I go over the events since meeting these gargoyles. I told so many lies, I hid so many things. Clark made some mistakes, but did I blame him? I searched my soul and the answer came with ease: no.
I blamed my brother.
I blamed his second-in-command.
I blamed the sea dragons.
But I didn’t blame him. “Do you feel the same way about me that they do?”
I hold my breath.
“Yes.” The word tears from his lips. “Even if I don’t deserve to.”
There it is. A feeling inside of me. The one that says this is where I was always meant to be. That these men were the ones I was always meant to be with. Only, this time, it feels right. There’s nothing missing, because I have the love of all my men.
Taking a step towards him, I pull him into my arms. “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.”
His voice is filled with misery. “It was.”
I shake my head and draw back from him, touching his face. “It was their fault not yours. They’re expert liars, Clark. You can’t blame yourself for falling for it.”
“I do,” he says, drawing himself up taller.
Leaning forward, I brush a light kiss on his lips. “You’ll forgive yourself one day. Trust me.”
His eyes shimmer. “I do…. trust you. With all my heart.”
I turn back and look at all my men.
Max clears his throat. “So, you’ll stay with us?”
“No,” I say.
Panic unfolds in their gazes.
I rush the rest of my words out quickly. “At least not until I help Cerberus.”
They all have the same mirrored look of relief.
I laugh. “When I’ve done that, I’ll stay with you. As long as I have water.”
“You do,” Arthur interrupts.
“And freedom,” I emphasize.
“As much as we can give,” Max rushes out.
Then I smile. “Well, let’s go help my friend and get on with our long, happy lives.”
They grin, and I’m suddenly kissed and spun between them. I laugh. The world looks brighter. The air smells sweeter. The pregnancy and my freedom haven’t quite settled in yet, but hope for the future has.
And it’s the best feeling in this world.