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“Do you have any idea how dangerous it will be if the council got their hands on you? The last time a power-hungry maniac got their hands on a daughter of fate—”
“I know,” I broke in. “Midas slaughtered the council, overthrew the government, and named himself king.”
“No. That was the first time.” Hard, glittering eyes pierced me. “The last time was Despina Barba... and Maximos Damien.”
“DespinaBarba?” I rasped. “Your family?”
“My only family. My mother.”
Selene was still so strangely silent. I almost wanted her to talk. The oppressive silence that fell over us smothered me.
“Your mother was a daughter of fate too.” It wasn’t a question. “How can that be? I thought this power was rare.”
“It is rare,” he said, throwing himself back in the chair opposite. He was reclined and still looked tenser than a bowstring. “Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Three goddesses. Three demigoddesses. They aren’t like other gods who sprinkled their essence like rain. There are only ever three beings walking the earth with their power at any point in time. Only when one dies is someone else born with the power.”
I frowned. “But Madame Remis said it wasn’t like that. When we die, the god’s essence dies with us.”
He was shaking his head before I finished. “She was talking about regular demigods. Not you and me.”
“We’re not regular?”
“No. Everyone else has a piece of their god’s soul within theirs. But you and I are links. Connections. Bridges,” he said. “Fate. The past, present, and future must exist for every living being. Just like Elysian Fields, Tartarus, and Asphodel Meadows, and the means to get to them have to exist for the dead. When the gods scattered, they lost their ability to control and maintain those links. That’s why they were put inside of us.”
I nodded slowly. “That place,” I whispered. “That dark, empty place outside of time. I’m the key that opens its door.”
“That’s how my mother described it,” Sebastian said, snapping my head up. “An empty abyss outside of time.”
“Is it... okay for me to ask what her power is?”
His gaze drifted to the fire. For a moment, I thought he wouldn’t answer. “She had power over the present. Both a strange and miraculous gift, when it came over her, she’d suddenly see a clear vision of the lines of her thread, and the different actions that’d weaved them.
“For example, on the day they found out I was the gate to hell and came for me, she was in the kitchen making tea when a knock sounded at the door. The bridge to the present suddenly opened, and she saw that if she opened the door, the guards would throw her aside and snatch me. If she fought back, they kill her and take me anyway. But if she put down the kettle, grabbed me, and jumped out the window that instant—we’d escape.”
Fire danced in his fathomless eyes. “I didn’t even get a chance to put my shoes on. No clothes, no coin, no food. We just ran.”
“Oh my gods,” I breathed, covering my mouth. “That’s awful.”
“That’s Maximos Damien.”
“But why? All of that because you were a son of Hades? Or was it because we’re not... regular?”
“Both,” he confessed. “Children of Hades are given immense power, and bridges to hades have access to immense power. More power than children of Zeus in many cases. Maximos can’t have that. No one can be a challenge to his power. Not even a seven-year-old.”
I swallowed hard, uneasiness burrowing into my gut. Why did the more I heard of this man make me feel like he was someone I should never meet?
“But you got away, right? You and your mother were okay. You made it somewhere safe?”
Sebastian didn’t reply.
“What’s your power? How many times have you used it?” he asked. The subject change wasn’t lost on me.
It also wasn’t lost on me that I was having a civil conversation with Sebastian Barba. A few hours ago, after catching him beating the shit out of a crying Sisyphean, I wouldn’t have said that was possible.
“I can go back in time. I’ve done it twice,” I replied. “By accident. I’ve tried accessing it on purpose, but nothing happens. Honestly, I don’t even know how I do it on accident. One minute, I’m in reality, then the next, I’m in the dark place surrounded by threads.”
“That’s normal. I couldn’t figure out how to open the gates at first too. Imagine what that was like for a little kid? All the dead of the world surrounding me—screaming and begging me to allow them to pass to their final resting place.” He cringed remembering. “It takes time to learn how to open the connection when we decide to, but you can and will learn.”
I cracked the barest smile. “That makes me feel a bit better. Once I figure out how to control it and travel when and where I want to—”
