3. Kiera
KIERA
At Dom’s question, Vivienne pulled in a deep breath. Her eyes shut for just a second as she steeled herself for what we all knew would be a long story. After a second, she let that breath out and met her daughter’s eyes. “The Oracle got me out.”
Leo raised her eyebrow at the revelation. “Maybe they’re not so bird-brained after all.”
“Half the time I think they want us dead…” Spencer murmured.
But Viv was quick to shake her head. “The Oracle is a crucial ally. They are powerful, altruistic, even if their methods are… opaque at times.”
Already, it seemed that my lovers were having a hard time fully believing Viv.
And to be fair, while they hadn’t betrayed us yet, The Oracle did very little to bolster our trust. They were late to their own deadlines, purposefully cryptic with their orders, and had been meddling in Dom and I’s lives for god knows how long.
But while Spencer and Leo frowned, one steely nod from Dom told me that she believed Viv. And if she was telling the truth about this, maybe I could trust her with my own question, the one that had been eating at me since we arrived at her door.
“If you’re alive… my dad, is he…?”
The words stuck in my throat as everyone turned to look at me, but I forced them out anyway.
Viv blinked once as she adjusted to the change of topic, but I knew the answer before she could even shake her head. “No, sweetie. He… he wasn’t as lucky.”
“Right.” I shook my head, startled by the strained laugh that came up with the word.
I wasn’t sure why it felt so crushing to hear. Nothing had changed from thirty minutes ago. I knew he was dead — unlike Vivienne’s closed casket, I’d seen his body. And yet it was like those words had killed him all over again.
Before I could think of something else to say, Leo was rubbing small circles into my back as Spencer reached for my hand. But I wasn’t the only one taking it hard.
Across the kitchen, Dom’s jaw tensed, biting back bitter disappointment. Even Viv’s eyes seemed to sparkle with tears briefly before she cleared her throat. “I’m so sorry to have to tell you, Kiera…”
“No,” I shook my head, pawing away the tears that had started to paint my cheeks. “You don’t have anything to apologize for. It was a stupid question, I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.”
No sooner did the words cross my lips than Viv’s expression grew stern.
“Hey, no.” She furrowed her brow, pinning me with those familiar blue eyes. “Hope is never stupid, Kiera. Hope is what keeps us going. Don’t you ever feel silly for choosing to believe in the good.”
“Yes, ma’am…” I sat up a little bit straighter, startled by the command.
Vivienne leaned forward. “But I did see him one last time before he died.”
What? How?
As I tried to collect myself, Dom balmed her own pain by moving on to the next topic. A flurry of questions were lobbed at Viv: about the Oracle, Zeus, my father, her escape.
And as dizzying as the list was, Viv remained incredibly poised for someone who’d had four surprise guests after a decade of isolation. Clearly, she’d had a few years to prepare for this moment, to think of her answers.
So rather than diving into it all at once, Viv waited for Dom to rattle through her list before smiling at her.
“Those are all the right questions to ask. But before I get into all of that, we should get comfy. Because if you want to understand how we got here, we’re going to have to circle back to the beginning: to how I met your father. ”