“You think I don’t!”
“You left her so no, I don’t.” He snarled back and for a moment losing that famous control of his.
“Careful old friend, you tread on broken skin this night.” I warned pushing away from the desk.
“Your love for the girl blinds you and you know it does. What I say is merely a truth you don’t wish to face.”
“Oh make no mistake, I fucking face it! Every damn day I was faced with it and meanwhile what is she doing but being kidnapped and being auctioned off like damn cattle by my enemies! So don’t you talk to me about love making you blind when I was the one to rip out my own fucking eyes in the Gods be damned first place!” I said letting my rage lose enough to flip my desk and make it crash into the wall hard enough to shatter like glass. Lucius didn’t even flinch but instead just crossed his arms and gave me a look I would have liked nothing better than to tear from his skull.
“You are forgetting one very important fact my friend.”
“And what’s that!?” I forced out whilst trying to calm my breathing enough to keep my wings from erupting.
“She came back to you.”
“She ran from me!” I reminded him making him laugh once without humour.
“And what of it, that’s what she does when she doesn’t want to face what she believes is the truth. But like a moth to the flame, she comes back to what she sees as her light in the dark.” I shook my head and said more calmly this time,
“And what if she doesn’t, she could be out there right now getting attacked getting…” I stopped when Lucius actually did start laughing,
“I think out of us all our little bird is one of the safest people alive right now, after all you maybe her light, but the rest of us are her moths.” I thought about that for a moment and realised he was right.
To think some of the most powerful beings of my kind, each a King in their own right and each one putty in her mortal hands. All of them willing to risk their very vessels on this earth just to protect something they didn’t fully understand but knew nothing else mattered. Everyone was drawn to her and each had played a part in her journey in keeping her safe and each I knew would still act as such. Which begged the question, did this all have something to do with the prophecy?
“Ah, now I can see you’re finally asking yourself the right question.” Lucius said looking as if this was something he had been waiting for all along.
“You thought the same thing didn’t you?” I said losing the last of my anger as my focus was centred on something far greater.
“Just think about it, think about what she has gained since knowing you? But then think more of what she has achieved since she lost you? She has done what none of us would have ever been able to do, something if I recall we ourselves tried to accomplish with little success.” The more Lucius spoke the clearer the picture became. He was right, there was a time when the plan was to reunite all the most powerful beings the Gods had given life to and join forces ready for the one day we knew would come…Judgement Day.
“You really think it could be possible?”
“If you would have asked me that question before meeting your Chosen, then I would still be trying to kill you but now…well, now I owe her not only my life but also for a life I never knew I could have.” I let Lucius’ words sink in deep and held them there until they became completely ingrained.
“So you need to ask yourself, what is the one and only thing that the Fates would need in making you leave?”
“Her death.” I released my biggest fears on a tortured breath.
“And in doing so she sets out on this prompted journey by the Oracle herself. The sole vessel of the Fates themselves is sent to your girl and guides her. Not only that but also binds her to the broken shadowed King of the Ouroboros and draws her a map straight to the bitter Cerberus, that he even took her to a place he vowed never to return.”
“By the Gods! I have been so blind!” I said knowing now in the depths of my soul it to be all true.
“I think my friend you will find in today’s terminology they call that ‘being played’.”
“The Fates set it all up!” I bellowed feeling the outrage build.
“It would seem so but don’t beat yourself up to much, as like I said, love can blind us all, it just so happens that after she left me to find you I had the time to see things clearly and do a little digging.”
“What do you mean?” I asked after running a frustrated hand through my hair and only just realising my mask was still firmly in place.
“I spent some time retracing the footsteps before she reached me. I found out what each of her unlikely guardians had done for her and then I waited. Once she came home after not finding the outcome she hoped for I put my people on her from afar and do you know what I found?” I growled at knowing he had his men watching her but decided quickly learning the truth was the most important thing right now.