Page 46 of Once Written in Gilded Blood

“Venus?” I say with hesitation. Why would she be here in Mortem of all places? My eyes drift down to where Alira lies on the ground. My vision glitches, and I see her golden blood mixed with mine, black and metallic streaks staining her festival dress. Horror strikes me, and I take a few steps back, blinking and then seeing Alira clean and in the white dress once more.

What was that? My jaw flexes. I look back up to the gods, focusing again.

Venus is her mother.

The goddess doesn’t leave me with my questions for long; she slowly makes her way down the dark stones, jagged and black against her starlit robe. She truly is as ethereal as they say. I fear the day I’ll have to tell her that her daughter holds all her beauty and more.

Pluto offers his hand to Venus. She takes it and gives him a small bow of her head. It’s curious to watch them interact with one another. Pluto, with his hood drawn—it covers most of his face except when he lifts his head. Venus, with her golden thorn-like wreath that crowns her head, dripping with gold, each drop falling into the cream fabric and making it glint.

They have everything, though not wings, although I’m sure they could summon that quite easily if they wanted. Perhaps they just hide them from us.

They are very proper, like old friends meeting after a long time. I wonder how the two of them came to be acquaintances.

“Venus, it’s nice to see you.” He presses a kiss to the top of her hand and smiles. There’s a longing in his gaze that she returns with her meek smile. “I presume this has something to do with the vision you received so long ago. It’s funny how fast and slow time seems to go.”

She nods and gives her daughter a nostalgic look. “And yet time has passed more quickly than I could have ever imagined. Like I’ve been asleep and the last third of the century has been a dream.”

Pluto laughs and nods thoughtfully. “A dream after a dream. Nothing really feels all that real. Where we are, where we’ve been. But these two have kept us grounded for some time now, haven’t they? You’ve been busy, goddess.”

Venus’s smile vanishes, and she lets her eyes fall to Alira and me. “A game of chess, the mortals like to say. But it is love, and all the endless ways I will ensure my daughter’s fate is unraveled from the cruelness of the world she was born into: Faultore.”

A gilded tear rolls down Venus’s cheek. Pluto wipes it away with his thumb and presses a kiss to the top of her head.

Watching them makes the gods seem more human than deity, even more human than demigod. They are compassionate with one another and share in soft touches I’ve not seen demigods nor gods express. Not in the lore, books, or sculptures.

Perhaps they are beings that long for things they’re never meant to have. Just like most of us.

My brows knit, and I take a step toward them. “You said that a vision started all of this? What did you mean by that?”

Pluto shoots me an aggravated look. “How dare you speak to a goddess so boldly.”

Venus shakes her head and lifts her hand passively to Pluto. “It’s fine. He must have many questions, as I’m sure Alira will too.” She motions her hand to a small crevice in the cave wall for me to follow her toward.

I glance back at Alira, who still lies motionless on the cold ground.

“Would you mind carrying her down? It hardly matters if you were fighting aboveground; when you’re down here, you have to put your differences aside. You will listen to my tale,” Venus says somberly as she walks with an even pace down dark steps into a shadowy grave of stone.

“We were fighting?” I stare at Alira, heart hurting. “Why?”

Was it me who did that to her in the brief vision of blood I saw?

Venus regards me for a few moments before nodding. “You will remember shortly.”

I pause before taking a knee beside Alira and brushing hair from her face. Even now, she is the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid my eyes on. My chest wrenches at the thought of where we just were and where we are now.

I think we are dead. I can feel it.

Were we the ruin of one another? My throat tightens. What have we done?

I lift Alira in my arms and carry her limp body against my chest, taking the dark stone steps down into the crevice after Venus. Pluto trails behind me with his hands in his pants pockets. His black cloak is long, dragging on the floor behind him.

It’s odd how much they are like us.

We reach the bottom of the cave and come to what I think Pluto must consider as his lounging area. Black sofas and rock seats fill the space. Similar deep pools of water surround the island of rock we’re on, as there was upstairs. I can’t imagine Pluto ever having company down here, so I wonder why he would have a place like this.

The three of us take a seat, Alira still safely tucked in my arms. Venus looks at me pointedly, and I figure she wants me to put her down, so I set her gently on the rock beside me.

“Will she wake?” I ask.