Chapter 1
“I could have sworn my wallet was in here!” the woman in line in front of me wailed, frantically digging through her oversized purse.
Oh no. Already, my palms were itching with the urge to help her.
My instincts insisted that she was a human in need, and that was what I was here for.
What every agathos was here for. To ease the suffering of humans in need and silently guide them towards the path of light. To the goddess Anesidora’s path.
All I’d wanted to do was grab some cupcakes from the store for Verity Mae’s baby shower.
“Sorry, just give me a couple of minutes. I swear it’s in here.
I need this stuff, it’s for my son’s birthday party,” the woman said in a rush.
She didn’t look much older than me, late twenties perhaps, but there were huge shadows under her dark eyes, and her black hair was pulled up in a very mom-like messy bun.
I’d really hoped to get through today without anything bad happening, but that wasn’t the reality of my life. I was a dispenser of luck, and I couldn’t walk away from a human in need of some. Even if good luck for them meant bad luck for me.
“Let me help you look,” I offered quietly.
I’d pushed some of my agathos gift into my voice to soothe her and make her more amenable to my help, so she didn’t object as I stepped closer and rested my palm on her exposed forearm.
While I pretended to help her look in her purse—probably raising the eyebrows of everyone else in the store—I opened the well of my magic, letting some luck flow through me to her.
My palm tingled where it rested on the woman’s arm, but she wouldn’t feel anything except a pleasant, unexplainable heat that she’d promptly forget.
“I don’t see it here,” I said with a frown as I pulled my hand away. Apparently her good luck wasn’t going to be finding her wallet at the bottom of her overfilled purse.
“Here, let me,” a baritone voice said from behind me. A fancy looking middle-aged businessman stepped around me, holding out his credit card to pay for the woman’s groceries.
“Oh, thank you, sir,” the woman said, eyes welling up alarmingly fast. He gave her a tight smile before stepping back, looking immensely uncomfortable as the lady gathered up her bags, thanking him the whole way out of the store.
I paid for the cupcakes before making my way back to my car slowly, hoping something terrible happened between the store and my vehicle because otherwise I was about to have a very unfortunate afternoon at Verity Mae’s baby shower.
The car door unlocked easily.
I didn’t trip on anything on the way out.
No one had scratched the paint while I was inside.
So far, so good, which was also kind of bad.
The last few miles to Verity Mae’s parents’ house where the shower was being held were likewise uneventful. It was an enormous brick colonial mansion in central Auburn, surrounded by manicured lawns that didn’t have a single leaf on the ground, despite the fact it was fall.
Huh, I even managed to find a parking space not far from the house.
These were probably all bad signs. I checked my makeup in the rearview, finding nothing amiss in my heavily made-up-to-not-look-made-up face.
My brown skin was appropriately highlighted and dewy looking, opal-colored agathos eyes framed by natural-looking false lashes and winged eyeliner, long black hair perfectly curled at the ends, nothing between my teeth.
Suspicious.
I quietly let myself into the mansion, following the sounds of laughter coming from the formal sitting area. If my bad luck was that I was running late, I’d happily take it. Perhaps Anesidora would be feeling generous today.
“You guys !” Verity Mae squealed, clapping her hands once over her enormous bump. She was a tiny woman who was all belly at the moment, and I smiled to myself at seeing her in this stage of life she’d been so looking forward to.
Verity Mae’s blonde hair was looking particularly thick and lustrous, and she was dressed impeccably elegantly in a beige bump skimming dress that matched the party’s color scheme.
She was standing at the front of the room, in front of an entire wall that had been turned into some sort of white, beige and gold balloon display with globes of all different sizes.
It kind of reminded me of bubbling caramel.
The balloons continued up the wall and covered half of the ceiling, growing increasingly large in size, with plush teddy bears dangling from gold ribbons like they were being hanged from the rafters.
Or carried off into the clouds, which was probably what they had been going for.
Sugar , the amount of money they spent on balloons for this party could have probably furnished a whole nursery.
Which was their prerogative and not my place to judge , I chastised internally.
Today was a happy occasion. Verity Mae had finally found all four of her soul bonds and was expecting her first child.
No need to be negative just because I was single and lonely and bad luck was about to come crashing down on me at any moment.
Negativity was very un-agathos, and I was really trying to work on that.
The balloons matched the tasteful cream-on-cream decor that every agathos seemed to share. The whole party was the epitome of neutral elegance, since Verity Mae had made a huge to-do about not finding out the sex of the baby.
“You have all spoiled me today,” she gushed, gesturing at the pile of gifts in the corner of the lavish living room.
I hovered awkwardly near the food table by the door at the back of the room, not wanting to pick through everyone’s outstretched legs to find a seat on one of the sofas. That was definitely inviting bad luck.
Verity Mae continued her thank you speech, expounding on all the many ways the goddess, Anesidora, had blessed her while I set the cupcakes on the table, wishing I’d improved my piping skills enough to actually bake for these events, and unnecessarily smoothed over the pleats in my pale pink skirt.
A few of the guests had already noticed me enter and were giving me the discreet pitying looks I should have been used to receiving, but never failed to make me uncomfortable.
I was surprised Verity Mae had even invited me. Plenty of the other women in this room stopped bothering years ago, to avoid the awkwardness of my presence.
“I need to get into that cake, like right now, ” Verity Mae continued to a chorus of giggles, gesturing at the cream-colored five-tier cake, complete with fondant teddy bear topper on the table next to me.
“So, I’ll keep this brief. My guys and I are so excited to meet this little one,” she said, smiling genuinely as she rubbed her belly.
The hard edges of the bitterness I was trying to suppress at feeling like the odd one out, and surrounded by reminders that I’d probably be alone forever softened a little at seeing her happiness.
“We are so honored that he or she will have such a wonderful community around them, and we are so grateful to you all for this amazing day,” Verity Mae added, beaming at everyone in the room.
She had a carefully honed talent for making someone feel like she was speaking just to them, even in a crowded room.
I clapped along delicately with the rest of the women present—my agathos peers, the women I’d grown up with, played with, volunteered with and visited the temple with—smiling along like I fit in with them.
Truthfully, I didn’t and we all knew it. That was why I didn’t blame them for not wanting to invite me to celebrate their milestones when I was so far behind on reaching them. That I’d moved half an hour to Milton was just an additional convenient excuse for all of us to avoid these situations.
“One more thing. It felt like my journey took so long,” Verity Mae sighed, unnecessarily fluffing her hair as her eyes went glassy. Her pupils were the same inhuman swirl of lavender, teal and gold as mine, as everyone’s in the room. Agathos eyes, a mark of the goddess Anesidora.
Idly, I wondered what color humans saw Verity Mae’s eyes as. Blue, probably. I’d been complimented on my dark brown by humans before, though I’d never see them that way. Láthe biōsas was one of the goddess’ primary commandments for the agathos.
Live hidden.
Humans were never to know about us.
“...and that is why I wanted us all to make a special prayer to Anesidora for Grace Bellamy.”
My wandering attention returned to the room instantly as every set of eyes swiveled to me in what was possibly my worst nightmare.
“Oh, that hardly seems necessary,” I protested weakly, shrinking in on myself as though I could disappear into the decor. Maybe I could hide in the balloon wall?
Was it hot in here? It felt hot.
“Grace B!” Verity Mae laughed. “Don’t be embarrassed. I’ve been in your position—well, not quite your position—but it took so long for me to meet Marcus, it felt like it would never happen, and I appreciated all the prayers people gave me to help me on my journey.”
I didn’t miss the chastisement in her tone, and I doubted anyone else did either.
“You’re, what, 25 now?” Grace M. asked sympathetically, sitting the closest to me.
She was also pregnant, with her third—or was it fourth?
—child. Sugar , I should definitely know that.
When we used to play tennis together as kids, I couldn’t have imagined the different directions our lives would take.
“Yes,” I replied, clearing my throat. “25. And no bonded,” I added with a strained laugh like it didn’t bother me at all. No sirree, I am fine. Nothing to see here. Please, everyone stop staring at me.
“Maybe you’re looking in the wrong place?” Serenity asked from Grace M.’s other side. “Have you ever felt the call? Perhaps you should consider visiting your ancestral home. Where’s your mother from again?”
“Canada,” I volunteered with a tight-lipped smile, very familiar with where this conversation was going.