Page 47 of Once Written in Gilded Blood

Venus acknowledges me and nods slowly. Pluto reaches over and presses his thumb to Alira’s forehead and whispers a few words that I can’t quite make out.

Alira’s eyes flash open and she sits straight up as if she too has woken up from a bad dream. Her hair is chaotic and she seems as disoriented as I was.

“Do you remember now?” Venus asks, looking from me to Alira.

My head throbs painfully and I wince, gritting my teeth as flashes of memories swarm my mind. The festival, the king taking Alira, her finding the flowers…our battle that resulted in… I lift my head and stare at Alira, tears brimming in my eyes.

“We killed one another.” My voice breaks, and I let my eyes fall to where I plunged my sword into her ribs.

Alira’s memories seem to be intact, and her eyes move to my chest, where she let her arrow find my heart. Her expression shatters, no anger or hatred, just sadness.

“Where are we?” She looks around, taking in everything, including the two docile gods sitting across from us before returning her somber gaze to me.

My heart is in shambles. All I see is her the moment her blood stopped pumping through her body. That dull, lifeless gaze stared right through me.

I realize she’s looking at me, expecting an answer. My mouth moves, but my thoughts still linger on our last moments above. “I woke up here… We are in Mortem.”

Alira’s eyes narrow a fraction with distrust, but her eyes shift back across the room and catch on the two gods entertaining us. She looks over Pluto relatively quickly. It’s easy to identify him—he’s the god of death. He’s the most obvious, always surrounded by shadows and smoke that cling to his heels.

She stares longer at Venus, brows pulling low and eyes analyzing every feature of the goddess.

I see it the moment she recognizes who she truly is.

Alira’s jaw feathers. A confused and hurt flicker of emotion moves through her expression before she forces a steady one. “Why are you here? Why have you come to meet me only now that I’m dead?” There’s pain in her tone as Alira takes a few steps back, looking at the three of us, at me, as if I was in on it somehow. I don’t blame her for being so distrusting. I fucked up and ruined that part of her.

Venus extends her hand to Alira. “Please sit, we have much to discuss and not much time to do it.” The goddess’s voice is smooth like silk.

Alira stands there and stares at her mother, fisting her hands at her sides in defeat before heading over to one of the stone seats, making sure to choose the one that’s farthest from me.

“Go on. It’s your mess, after all,” Pluto chides Venus.

The goddess takes a long breath, keeping her eyes on the dark pools of water instead of on us. “I’d been waiting for a daughter for centuries. Of the children I had, you are the only one, Alira.” Venus looks at her, and my little godling stills. “I was so overjoyed at the future I envisioned for both of us, but the Fates had never shone brightly on the demigods, no matter how much the gods tried to keep you safe.

“Fate is fickle like that, you know. If you go against the natural order of things, they will push back. Demigods were never meant to be in this world. You were seen as abominations. At least, that’s how the Fates saw it.”

Her words are cold and cruel, even though her voice isn’t. It’s clear she doesn’t mean for us to take it any sort of way, but I can tell Alira’s heart is breaking. This is the first time she’s met her mother, and instead of catching up on missed time, we are getting a history lesson.

It shows me how different our mothers are. How differently we were raised.

Venus goes on. “I was so consumed in my fear of what fate had in store for you that I went looking firsthand. It was a very foolish thing to do. I still don’t know whether I regret it or not. All I know is that my daughter still lives, even if it has been against all odds… I’ve never been able to let the cards lie. Not when it came to you, Alira.”

Alira’s eyes widen, and she shrinks into herself as if she might break any second. “You went to the Fates to see my path?” Alira whispers, searching her mother’s face for the truth.

Venus nods empathetically. “I did, and they gave me the answers I was looking for. They foretold a terrible life, one that you suffered unbearably in. Used for your gift by the demigods your entire existence until you died with all of Alzhor in the war against the demons. You are all abominations to them. The Fates had been planning this for centuries. They told me that there was a way you could escape this cruel, awful end. With the help of wisps. A wish, and one simple curse.” Her words echo around the dreary cave, only the sounds of dripping water in the background accompanying her smooth voice.

One simple curse? My heart aches. The only curse Alira has had that I’m aware of is…

No, it cannot be. I’m a part of this too? But…

Venus looks right at me, her eyes unmoved with time and misery. “I led you to that village so you could find the demigod knight who led the attack that killed your mother. I sent the wisp so that you could see my daughter and have hatred born into your heart. I did it so that you would pray to Pluto to set a curse on her because it was the only curse that would allow her to live even if you killed her over and over and over.”

Every muscle in my body tenses as I try to swallow the dread that’s building in my throat.

“The time-loop curse… It was…the only way that Alira lived?” I search my hands, sprawled open on my lap, and force my eyes up to Alira. Her attention is still set on Venus, but she feels my gaze and flicks her eyes to me. There’s so much turmoil there. Confusion and despair that I feel as deeply as she does.

It all feels like a trick.

One game of chess that the gods have played for decades. Were we all just pawns?