All That Glitters.
Chapter twenty-one
Ione
You know when women say: 'Never speak well of a man, he'll make you eat your words,' they truly mean it.
I thought good things about Athanasius. It's been a solid eight months, and things have been going smoothly. Has Ms. Taylor taken to telling everyone who will listen that a demon lives in my house? Yes. She tells the same people that he torments the shadows in her home.
Athanasius tells me he's not doing that…anymore. Apparently, he took great delight in making her scream, but it grew boring after a week. So, after a thorough scolding about how fragile human minds can be, he decided to see if my body was as fragile.
It's not. I can take a good pounding, and I loved every minute, but that's beside the point.
I formally introduced him as my boyfriend, though he was still inclined to tell people that he was my master, Sir, please, you appear as a white man.
He quickly stopped doing that and instead told them I was his Chief Priestess or that I was his coveted consort.
Not much better, but he refused to say boyfriend.
"What is a boyfriend to a Primordial?" He snorted. "That relationship marker could end. This," He pointed between us. "Will never."
"I thought you said I could disown you? Call it off." I sighed as he paced behind me while I made dinner.
He stops, placing a hand on my shoulder to turn me around.
"Do it then." He smirks, his red eyes on my lips, the black ones on my eyes.
"We both know you will not," He takes my chin between his thumb and forefinger, surprisingly gentle for a primordial of death and darkness, lifting my face toward his as he smiles, split-tongue briefly sticking out.
"I harbor great affection for my favored consort, and I know she feels the same.
You will ascend with me," He pecks my lips, turning away, all wide back and gruffness.
"I will be triumphant when you admit you love the idea of power. "
Anyway.
I had to take him to visit my sister when she had her baby, that went surprisingly well.
He didn't hold my niece, but he stared at her and said he found it uncomfortable that she could truly see him.
New life staring at him always made him uncomfortable because they were unaware of their upcoming destination to him.
Morbid.
He did however, ask his sister to bless my precious niece, and Luciara was delighted to do so.
Now…did I think about what could happen from that?
No, what's the harm in a blessing? My darling niece, little Rhiannon, is now a Disney princess.
Birds and small animals come to her naturally.
When she sits, flowers bloom. Athanasius says it's fine, the birds will protect her, but my sister finds it odd that robins and sparrows sing outside Rhiannon's window every morning announcing to the world that she is awake.
He's heard no word from Moireth on the last wizard, and honestly, I'm a little happy for it. I understand the need for vengeance and all that, but sometimes there's a murderous glint in his eye when he talks about 'dredging the canals of humanity with bleakness.'
So as fall came and went and winter was upon us, he began to grow impatient, hearing nothing.
Until one night. We'd fallen asleep after a bout of him trying to seduce me. It worked, but if he starts off with how round my ass is one more time? My head was on his chest, he had two arms around me, I think I was dreaming, then I felt him stir and a light presence entered the room.
"Come, I have news." Moireth whispered, as I kept my breathing level. They were trying not to wake me, but it was the way she whispered that made me pretend to be asleep. Sharp and concerned.
Athanasius slipped from under my body, and covered me with the blanket before following his sibling from our room. I gave them a little bit before I got up and quietly followed down the stairs to hear them speaking.
"I know where the bastard is, but…" Moireth pauses. "I have reservations on what we are to do after."
Athanasius says nothing. He crosses his upper arms over his chest, and Moireth places their hand on his forearm. "Continue." He speaks lowly.
"I will always do as you say and as you ask. You are the first of us, this is ingrained," They pause. "Is this the right thing to do?"
Athanasius rolls his lower eyes. "Isn't this area of knowing your territory?" He sighs, rubbing his head. "What do you feel?"
Moireth smiles and shrugs. "I just don't think you'll like the outcome."
"Don't think I'll like the—" He stutters. "I have been trapped far longer than you!" He growls.
"Keep your voice down." Moireth cautions him.
"No," Athanasius snarls. "Trapped, alone, wondering, confused, and waiting.
In the dark? Yes, that was fine, but thinking, remembering, and reliving that betrayal the whole time.
The humans look forward to you. They welcome you, they have always feared me, and if they weren't so stupid, they'd have realized that doing this to me?
" He thumps his chest. "Was the stupidest fucking thing they've done since leaded gasoline or letting those pale ones set to the seas. "
"Athanasius," Moireth attempts to comfort him.
"You have other things to look forward to now, and we are inevitable, your grasp is one that can never be shaken.
Death will always come to claim them, and just as the sun rises, the moon will follow and cover this realm in darkness.
They attempted to stop the inevitable, it failed. "
My heart begins to beat faster, and I have to temper my breathing listening to them. "We will ascend again, and you may do what you will, but do not stand in my way." He states.
Moireth inclines their head.
Athanasius's tone turns gentle. "Gather the others. We will kill the mage and then have vengeance."
Taking a deep breath, Moireth licks their lips.
"What will you do after you sit on your throne of shadow and blood?
" Their eyes narrow. "Don't pussy foot around it, to assume this realm in your true form means you will kill Ione," Moireth tilts their head to the left.
"In order to bring the destruction you wish, you must walk this plain in your true body, a sacrifice of your avatar is needed. "
"I am aware." He answers coldly.
My heart falls into my stomach. My hands are cold. He'll kill me? No, that's not what he said. He said we'd be together, nowhere in what he said implied that I would die. Unless…I'd be some kind of ghost?
Moireth clucks their tongue. "I don't think you want to do that."
"I don't," He breathes. "I…she is—"
"Hasn't this world suffered enough? Just the way it is?" Moireth finishes.
Athanasius snorts. "You mean to distract me?"
Moireth shrugs.
"Is this your destiny? Favored sibling?" He asks.
Moireth chuckles, low and dry. “Best not let Luciara hear you say that.” They pause, drawing in a slow breath.
“Funny thing is…” A slight tilt of the head, a glint behind their eyes.
“I don’t make anyone’s destiny.” Moireth taps a finger to their temple.
“Like fate, it isn’t something handed down.
It’s built—choice by choice. What you take, what you give, what you reveal to another.
I’m not the path. I’m the hunger that makes you walk it.
” They lean in, voice softening. “So, the question isn’t what destiny is. It’s what you're choosing. And why.”
Athanasius scoffs. "When this is over, where are you going?"
Moireth smiles. "Caspian wishes to see the stars and realms, I am bonded to him, and so I will take him."
"Do you love him?" Athanasius asked.
"Not the way that you love Ione," Moireth explained.
"I have seen his soul in others before him who have served me.
It keeps coming back to serve, tied to me so closely, wrapped in the design of who I am like this is the path we are supposed to be on.
I dote on him like he…is my child. He sees in me an older sibling, a dear friend.
I love him, but not like your raw emotion for your consort.
" Before he can reply Moireth continues.
"Do not say that you do not. I can feel it.
You have never threatened one of us before, your twin at that.
So, what will you do?" Moireth smirks. "Think carefully. "
That's when it happens. I never saw it coming from him. Isn't that how it always happens? A foolish heart that doesn't hear you calling, and just falls? It heeds no warnings, and then you feel like a destitute fool for being wrong.
"I do not love her like that." It's a whisper, and half of me wants to think I didn't hear him correctly.
"We do not lie. It is beneath us." Moireth objects. "You've changed, you bend the rules for her and what is love if not doing the highest good for someone else?"
Athanasius stares at her, silence passes between them. "Go, Moireth, and tell the others to be ready. On the solstice we will move, the mage is weakest then."
"As you wish."
Slowly, I make my way back to my room. Not to bed, but to the bathroom.
It wasn’t what he said—it was the silence after.
The kind that hangs between people like a thread snapped too suddenly.
And in that moment, something inside me folded in on itself.
Like paper creased too many times—fragile, softened, worn thin.
My chest tightened, not like heartbreak, not yet, but like forgetting how to breathe in a room that suddenly felt too small. My fingers went cold. My ears rang.
As I closed the bathroom door, locking it, I stared at myself in the mirror and tried to convince myself that this was all just a game anyway.
I was having fun. But I didn't believe what he said, even though I heard it, that's not what I felt and he was just saving face. But inside, it felt like everything was rearranging itself. Every memory, every touch, every time he looked at me and I thought I saw something real. All of it slipping through me like water I couldn’t hold.