Chapter 9 #2
“It would be helpful if you could remove the ring.” He wiggled the fingers of his left hand.
As if in a trance, she studied the ring.
Hope surged. She might do it.
She shook her head. “We have determined this is not the right moment for the ring to be gone.”
Did that mean there would come a time that one of the Fates would remove it? His thoughts scattered and his heart raced. “Did you shove her into my life for a reason?”
“Nothing is without purpose, Domini. Death wanted you. We were not ready to share you with Death.”
“I was ready to die.” You gave me a reason to live. Something to care about.
She smirked.
“I swear I will protect her. But what if I get caught?”
“Don’t, for now. Do you think we unlocked this new power of yours for no reason?”
Oh.
“They will eventually catch on that you’ve formed an emotional connection. It’s inevitable. You must believe there is life on the other side of what you will be forced to do in that moment they catch you.”
“I won’t kill her.”
“You will choose the path that will hurt her the least. The cost for you may be terrible.”
For her, anything.
“Good.” She smiled. “Do you remember what I told you a century ago? Love is like death. It’s inevitable.
There is still much for you to learn before love hits you hard.
You think you already understand love and have labeled it a fantasy.
Perhaps it is for most. Please realize, love is so much more than desire. ”
“I don’t love her. I’m not supposed to… I’m not capable of it.”
“Not capable?” She laughed so hard that she leaned forward. “How ridiculous you are at times for one who has lived so long. Perhaps, you don’t call what you feel for her love. Let’s label it obsession and desire or perhaps need. What’s the longest you’ve gone before you checked on her?”
He dropped his gaze to stare at his toes. “Two or three days.”
“Do you check on her only because you’re making sure she’s safe? Be truthful.”
He still stared at his shoes when he shook his head. “I like seeing her. It soothes me.”
“She enervates your soul. Let that sink in. Without her, what would you become at this point?”
He’d failed to prevent the prophecy. His heart pounded so hard his chest ached.
Should he seek death to avoid it? If he did, what would happen to Evie?
She needed him now more than ever. He sensed the two of them hovered on the edge of a new phase in their relationship, not in the physical sense but developmentally.
She continued, “That silly Mage Conclave has made you believe all of you can control destiny.” A head shake jingled the long earrings she wore.
“They’ve treated you poorly out of fear.
Most have not realized you would regulate yourself to protect others without their interference.
There is much at stake. Death cannot have you yet.
” She looked toward Dojin and pursed her lips as if disappointed and…
angry? “When they seek to hurt you today, use the new power.” She disappeared.
They planned to hurt him today?
He had to erase this conversation from his head. This was the most Atropos had ever shared with him about his own life and potential future. She’d given him much to ponder later.
“She enervates your soul.”
That was a lot of terrifying to contemplate. It sounded like without her he’d fade into non-existence. That might be right. Without the responsibility of protecting her, he didn’t know if he’d have a purpose.
Disappointed in his kind, he sauntered back to Dojin.
“I ordered food for you. They have the most fabulous hummus here. Greece, you know.” Dojin waved at the table. “Please, eat. You look starved.”
His stomach rumbled, but he didn’t eat. When they seek to hurt you today…
Dojin looked refreshed, as if he’d been sleeping well and maximizing his meals.
Why wasn’t he forced to constantly fight inhuman beings until he was so exhausted he prioritized sleeping over eating?
Maybe Dom needed to reevaluate his priorities.
He wasn’t caged such that he must always stay in his domain.
He could leave to get food or meals. The problem was that the trips to human cities for supplies were tedious.
He spent most of his time calming human minds of their instinctual panic in his presence.
“What did that being have to say to you?” Dojin glanced across the street where she no longer stood.
“I’m not at liberty to say.” He watched that mage closely.
The mage seemed more nervous than usual, almost jittery. “How often do you chat with deities?”
“More often than I’d like.”
After a huge bite of hummus, with his mouth partially full, Dojin said, “Guess I understand why they’d like you. You’re more disciplined than any other mage I’ve met. You’ve also got more fighting experience against…well, everything. At least more than anyone else I know.”
“I can’t tell if that was a compliment.” He palmed his knife beneath the table, ready for anything. “You should try being constrained for over a century and see what it turns you into.”
“Don’t tell them I told you this, but I think the other mages don’t understand you.”
They were so wrapped up in controlling everything about him and the world around them that the Conclave neglected the basics of mage magic: meditation, exercises, and study. “Do you think you understand me?”
“Not yet.” He lowered his voice to a whisper as if there were someone eavesdropping. “You’re interesting, but I’m not sure you’re actually as much of a threat as they seem to think. Of course, it’s a child of yours that’s supposed to end the world or something like that.”
“Why am I here?”
“They want you to travel to Rome and eradicate a certain businessman who is purchasing dark magic artifacts.”
“No.” The pleasure at being given a directive to deny them was heady.
“This is an order.”
“The Fates told me not to do it. I think that trumps the Conclave.”
“They did? Is that why one of them met you here?” His eyes widened. “That’s astonishing. And curious.”
Dom swirled the glass of wine that had been poured for him and sniffed. The liquid’s smoky fig essence teased his nose, but he didn’t sip. “Are we done?”
“Not quite yet,” came a new voice. His half-brother’s traditional gray robes fluttered around him as he sat across from Dom.
Gray hairs wove their way through his short, brown hair.
The color change was odd for their kind, who didn’t age.
Mages shouldn’t wrinkle or gray like older humans.
He’d have to research if there was documentation in his personal library of what it meant when this happened.
Dom leaned back and prepared himself for something terrible.
If anyone wanted to inflict pain on him, it was his brother, who now sat at the head of the Conclave’s table.
He hadn’t always been so malicious toward Dom.
Something changed after Dom’s prophecy. “Marik. Did they see you for who you really are yet? Did you get voted out as head mage?”
Dojin sucked in a breath, compressing his lips against a smile. He hid it by taking a sip of the wine.
Marik brimmed with conceit. He knew something or had done something. To me?
Dom’s hand tingled. He stared at it, realizing they’d somehow poisoned him. Something he’d touched? Maybe the wineglass. A hazy lethargy swamped his brain.
When they seek to hurt you, use the power.
“What were you doing last night?” Marik leaned forward to rest his pointy chin on his tented hands. His extreme facial features reminded Dom of a pious bishop with a stick up his ass.
They’d poisoned him with a truth potion. He forced out, “Regular day. Protect the world from evil shits. Save those who can’t fight for themselves.”
“There was a huge ripple in the Source.”
“Maybe it wasn’t me. Maybe it was. I was pretty pissed off yesterday at that particular shit.”
“You seem different somehow.” Marik squinted and tapped his lip. “What do you do for the Fates?”
“That’s between me and them.” He felt obligated to spew specifics on his relationship with the Fates.
Don’t. Do not speak. You read about how to get rid of poison.
When third-level energy was attained it could be used to purge potions from the blood.
To power the energy, he needed an emotional charge…
or so he’d read. He cloaked himself in the memory of Evie’s hug.
The power rushed him, surrounded him. Ignoring the increasing fog in his brain and Marik’s insistent questions, he harnessed the power.
He directed the energy to eliminate anything foreign by imagining the bits of potion inside his body.
With an imaginary pull, he removed it from his body.
His skin burned as if ignited with fire, like grains of sand were being pushed out through his pores.
He collected all the bits of liquid hovering around him into a sphere in his hand and chucked the remnants of potion at Marik.
Marik wiped liquid off his face.
“You’re at level three? How is that possible?” Dojin gasped. “Wow.”
Marik’s lower jaw had gone slack.
“Perhaps meditation and abstinence are the key.” Dom backed away from the table. “Try living by the Code instead of preaching about it.”
“You’re up to something,” Marik accused.
“I’m not at liberty to play human assassin for you. I can assure you I do not have any woman in my life we need to worry about. Never a pleasure, gentlemen.”
He saluted and left.