“Draven you’re not making much sense to me.” I complained making him smile.
“It’s your gift, Keira. It’s the power of your heart and how you open yourself up to people, my kind, them all, to the idea of knowing such a heart. You let them in and they instantly see the gift you have given them. But not only do they take this gift but they treasure it, they believe in it and they will stop at nothing to protect it.” I shook my head and was about to tell him he had it all wrong, that it was impossible, that I was only one girl...just one mortal girl. But he didn’t let me. Instead he took my head in his hands to cease my shaking and said,
“Yes. That is your greatest gift as the Chosen One. You are the one they all follow and that is why for the prophecy to ever happen they needed to send you on your journey to find me.”
“But I still don’t understand why!? I mean, what did they gain other than me discovering the truth?”
“Think about it. Think about your time in a different light. It wasn’t the goal they wanted you to reach but all the important points along the way. Sigurd your guardian and chosen King of the Ouroboros, one who refuses to take his position in our world.” Draven held out his finger as if crossing them off a list.
“Then there is the Alpha of Hellhounds, Cerberus, another King of a different kind yet one too bitter and lost in his grief to take the last steps to the throne. And even your little friend Percy, who braved the wrath of the hand that gave him his greatest fear but all for you. I can even go as far as meeting my own father in a level of Hell that no mere mortal would ever survive. Yet you did. So ask yourself again, why…why does it take one single heart of such purity and strength to change and challenge the frozen hearts of men who for centuries have said no and denied who they truly are.” When Draven had finished I was left dumbstruck but with only one thing that came to mind,
“But I’m from Liverpool.” To which he threw his head back and laughed.
“Maybe the fates are a fan of the Beatles.” Draven teased making me too burst out laughing. I think this was something we both needed after such an intense conversation. It was as if I was about to believe all that Draven had told me because let’s face it…who would? But some of it at least made sense after all, if this great prophecy meant it needed Sigurd and Jared in the picture then I could certainly see how the Fates could have used me to get their way.
“So what about these?” I asked as I looked down at his bare forearms and saw the raw scarred flesh that I could now see was in the shape of a Pentagram. Only it was strange and made up from a series of smaller symbols I had never seen before. There was also a circle around each one and these too held their own symbols. Draven lifted his arm and looked down in disgust.
“Do you remember me ever coming to you in your dreams, Keira?” I knew the instant he said it what this was about.
“You’re of course talking about the night with…uh…”
“My brother, yes.” He said looking down at his scars and clenching his fists. I thought back to that night that up until now I thought was only a dream.
“Back then I lived in the shadow of your absence, going through the daily motions barely living a life but I still managed to preserve my control. Oh don’t get me wrong, there were many times, too many to count when I would fight within myself to take back what was rightfully mine. However I always replayed those despised words of warning back to myself and I would resist. But then the nights came and it was where I found I was at my weakest.”
“What do you mean?” I asked softly placing my hand over his where he held one over his forearm, as if hiding that part of himself.
“I guess it’s simple really, my mind and body would crave you to the point I would project myself to where you were and I would wake hating myself even more for doing that to you.”
“Oh…I see.” I said not really knowing what else to say.
“But it was when I took control of my own Brother to get closer to you. I knew then that it was no longer safe for me to be free at night.” This was when it all started to really click into place and I said the name I had been hearing for the last year.
“Tartarus.”
“Yes, Tartarus indeed.”
The rest of the night I sat and listened to the tortured tale of a grief stricken king who was forced to give up who he believed was his queen. And by the end of his story I had cried for, not only what I had been through but now also what he had been through as well.
He explained about Tartarus being a prison in the deepest bowels of Hell but first he had to tell me about why such a prison was created. So he began to tell me about the Titans. Before the Earth knew mortal men it was said there was a great battle of Immortals. For many years they were a peaceful race until they first discovered that they could kill one another, branding them immortals no more. It was the greed for gain in power that started the War of the Heavens and was led by an immortal called Cronus.