Rydon felt something flip unpleasantly in his gut at the look on Cassandra’s face when she turned to him. “Gods are clever, and Hermes most of all.”
“What did he do?” Rydon asked, even though a part of him already suspected.
Cassandra confirmed it with a look before she turned to Terena. “Daris isn’t just your eudaemon.”
“He’s her lover,” Croak snorted, crossing his arms. At the looks Terena and Gabriol shot him, he shrugged. “What? Not anymore, though. Lying bastard.”
“What else is he?” Terena asked, the words rough. Rydon took in the way her face had lost color and her right eye twitched. His gut twisted painfully as he waited for Cassandra to speak.
“Come now, goddess,” Cassandra crooned as she leaned forward, her arms on her knees. “You already know. Deep down inside? You knew in each of the last circles.”
Terena brought a hand up to her mouth, her hand shaking as she looked at the witch in horror.
“We are bound. He’s my soulmate.”
“Soulmate?”Croak snorted, looking between Terena and Cassandra. “How the fuck did you come up with that? Are you still drugged?”
“Soulmates are not real,” Gabriol scoffed, his large arms crossed at his chest. “They are the stuff of fairytales, stories for young girls and old maids.”
“They are real,” Cassandra replied, a hard edge to her voice as she glanced at Gabriol.
“The Fates bound you together,” Cassandra confirmed.
Terena barely heard the woman through the keening noise inside her head. She felt ill and elated, ready to jump out of her skin while wanting to run as far from this conversation as possible. There was no rational thought beyond the need to be near Daris, to see him, to touch him, and yet her mind balked at the idea of them being bound. Daris had no choice but to love her. Because the Fates had decided for him.
It wasn’t real.
That thought made her go ice cold, her body shivering so much she was relieved to feel Rydon’s warmth as he moved closer to her side, his face screwed up with concern.
“Why?” Terena asked after a quiet steeped in tension. “Why would they do that?”
Cassandra sighed and tilted her head back, closing her eyes. Terena’s nerves were screaming at her and she wanted to launch herself at the woman.
“I do not know,” the seer replied at last, the words doing nothing to ease the chaos of Terena’s thoughts right then. “Perhaps it is tied to your destiny. Or his destiny is as great as your own. But that is the answer to your question. You ported to him because your soul knows where his soul is. Always. At any given time. You will always find him. And he will always find you.”
“That’s some fairytale shit right there. I can’t wait to tell Sonah!” Croak muttered.
“It’s rare,” Cassandra said absently. “And it almost always never ends well.”
“What’s that mean?”
Cassandra’s lips turned down before dropping her gaze.
“So she can just port to wherever Daris is?” Croak looked at Terena with a raised eyebrow. “That’s not a very helpful power, sis. I hope you at least stabbed him when you saw him.”
“You are simple, boy,” Cassandra laughed. “They keep you around for your looks or your sword?”
“What do you mean?”
“Your looks, then.”
“I—”
“Do other gods portal? Port? Is that what it’s called?” Rydon asked.
Terena flashed him a grateful look. So many questions to ask, questions Hermes should’ve answered and didn’t. If this stranger could help her with more than just finding the amulet, Terena needed to trust her with how ignorant she was about being a god.
The woman didn’t seem to have any alliance to Hermes, that was clear, and if she was Apollo’s lover, he must’ve been the one to banish her here. And yet, if he was able to banish her to Elysium, why couldn’t the other Olympians come back without Terena’s help?
