Page 2 of Dark as the Cursed Abyss

“If you wish to speak to me alone”—Farah struggled to move her legs once more—“it might help to release me from whatever hold this is.”

Giselle’s lip curled up in a snarl, revealing one of her sharp canines. It was not shaven like her father’s monstrous teeth, but rather a natural, elongated ivory spike. “Are you so frightened of being near my kind, spy?”

“I fear no gods, Grechi or Olympi.” Farah’s neck twitched and she flinched slightly away from the woman, but not enough to be noticeable.

“I am not talking about the gods, dear girl, although you should fear them. Your father never did and now look where that has gotten him—beholden to the most vile of us all. A slave to power and retribution at the sacrifice of his own free will.”

The hold on Farah’s feet loosed and she turned to stare down the Goddess of the Moon. “My father dug himself that grave. Power was always the diamond he coveted, whether it was with your sister, or the Olympi he aids in resurrection. I, however, am not so easily swayed. Nor do I cower before those that think they can control me.”

“I do not wish to control you, or persuade you like my daughter one day might. I only wish to warn you of the true history between my sister and your father.” Giselle handed Farah a worn out piece of parchment, creased so deeply from time.

Farah tried to stop her with her hand. “I don’t need proof of the history between Avra and my father. I know it well. They were lovers, set to complete the Mysteries before you interfered. They never finished the trials and in Hespali that is a bound law—no marriage should be blessed if those who wish to bind themselves do not prove their right to do so. He fled, met my mother, had two children, became a wretch—or possibly always was one. Your sister never forgave you for it and now you wish your daughter and the daughter of her former lover to smooth things over for the sake of our lands. Am I missing something?”

Eyes dilating, Giselle cocked her head to the side in a slow and daunting manner. “Yes, my dear girl, you are missing the most important part of all.”

Wolves—they never got to the point did they? “And what might that be?” Farah questioned, reluctant to hear whatever ghastly thing Giselle might spew.

“That there was a child. A child that without the blessing of the Mysteries, was sacrificed to the Fates. A child’s death that Avra always blamed your father for.”

A child.

Khalid and Avra had a child.

This changed everything.

Chapter Two

Chloe

“Do you have to leave?” Chloe whined, sitting cross legged at the bottom of a plush bed draped in lavender and white crochet blankets.

Her brother’s seer leaned against her desk, or rather the desk she had used the past few weeks since returning to Nexos from the endless chasm of Aidesian. Thalia’s psychí was curled around one leg, her tail hooking the seer’s calf. The underworld took a toll on the young woman and the creature as well, more than most in this court cared to admit. When Thalia first returned, she was barely conscious most days, in and out of a fitful sleep. The small white cat had more energy to her, but still only enough to waltz around the room, not hunt in the woods as Alexander explained Mykonos loved so much. A curse, Thalia called it, for leaving a realm that no mortal should venture into. A curse that could never be broken.

Chloe watched her over those weeks, becoming enamored with the small daimon that seemed to terrify both her brothers. The unadulterated fear in Dimitris’s eyes brought a simple kind of joy to Chloe, especially as he sulked most of his days in the corner of this very room. Always brooding and complaining about being there, but never leaving of his own accord.

Men.

What idiots.

Her brothers, equally at the top of that list.

“You know as well as any that I would rather claw my own eyes out than spend the next few months with the young prince.” Thalia clacked her nails—nay, claws—against the wood. “I would much rather have you as part of my crew than some inexperienced rake.”

Inexperienced. Chole wouldn’t say that word described her brother Dimitris well. He was actually quite the opposite, one of the most skilled ship captains on the isle. Her brother had even built his ship, the Aphrodite, from scratch, no magic to be seen. Dimitris happened to be experienced in other things as well—those that got him into a fair amount of trouble over the years. Those Chloe would rather not recount.

Chloe uncrossed her legs and slid to the end of the bed. He was her brother afterall, she could think of one nice thing to say about the male. “He can be useful…sometimes, that is…with his hands.”

Thalia’s face turned bright red as she lost her grip on the desk and knocked her elbow back into the wood. “His…hands?” she coughed out.

“Yes, of course. As much as I hate to admit, he is quite the woodworker. Must have picked it up from our uncle.” She brought her cheek to her palm and let out a sigh. All those little figures he crafted as a child paid off. “Most of the items in this room he made himself.”

“Yes,” Thalia replied, oddly breathy. “I’m not particularly concerned if he can make a proper chair or not. I am concerned he will not take his responsibility seriously.”

“I am not sure that’s ever something he’s done.” Chloe popped up from the bed and gave a slight shrug. “But sometimes it helps to have a brute around. Good for protection against other insolent men.”

For a moment it looked as if Thalia smirked, but her face quickly turned stone-like. “We will need more than just brute force with what we are tasked to do.”

“Won’t we both,” Chloe sighed. She padded over to Thalia and wrapped her arms tightly around her neck. “I will miss you, and your little creature!”