“Isadora,” I greeted casually.
Surprise lit her face and I wondered for a moment if she planned to kill me right this second. Finally, after long moments of weighted silence, she returned, “Ivy.” She turned to Ryder and said, “Orpheus.”
He jumped to his feet and shifted his shoulders uncomfortably. “I don’t actually go by that.”
Isadora rocked back on her heels and held his attention. “Does it matter what you go by? Do your feelings and opinions make truth any less true?”
I pushed to my feet and tried not to sway. I felt like paper in the intensity of the breeze. I waited for the wind to pick me up and toss me off the side of this mountain.
“We need to talk to you.” I pushed my hair out of my face and tried to sound firm.
Isadora turned back to me. “I can see that.”
“Please,” I gritted out.
“Please what?” she challenged.
“Please may we speak with you, and the other… two?”
I felt her impatience as she pursed her lips. “I expected more from you, Siren. Your lack of respect is troubling.”
I bristled at her condescension, but she had something I wanted and picking a fight with her from the start would obviously not work in my favor.
“I apologize,” I said through gritted teeth. “Allow me to begin again. My associate and I request an audience with you, oh, great and powerful Fate.”
Her clouded eyes flashed with lightning, but a small smile played at her lips. “Better,” she allowed graciously. She spun around and began walking toward the mouth of a large cave. Her gray robes billowed out behind her and danced in the wind, tangling with her massive length of hair.
“This is your last chance to back out,” I whispered to Ryder.
His tongue slid over his bottom lip as he considered me. “And miss this? I have a feeling the fun is just beginning.”
“Just don’t leave my side,” I warned him. “I wouldn’t put it past them to turn you into a slave or something. You’d be destined to feed them grapes and fan them with peacock feathers for the rest of eternity.”
He raised an eyebrow, “Peacock feathers?”
“Let’s just get this over with.”
We hurried after her. The wind hit so violently, I expected it to eventually push me over. I kept my head down and fought it with my remaining strength. The lip of the cave blotted out the sun when we stepped beneath it, but it wasn’t until we were completely in the mouth that the wind finally stopped beating my bare skin.
It was shockingly quiet inside the dark space. My ears still rushed from the blender of sound outside, but there was nothing but silence in here.
A torch flared to life along the wall and as we moved deeper into the cave, more of them came to life. Soon the dirt floor and smooth, domed roof were lit with bright, warm light.
Isadora led the way down a long tunnel. We followed in silence, fear mounting with each step.
I didn’t know anything about the Fates to have an idea of what would happen in their lair. I half expected them to cut me to pieces and use my virginal blood to tell the future. I tried to picture what it had been like for my mother over the last few months, the kinds of nightmares she had to suffer through, but I couldn’t even imagine what life had been like for her.
The bitterness I still felt for her, the residual trauma from her neglect and mistreatment began to fade in light of witnessing her real sacrifice for me. I didn’t know if we would survive Olympus or even the next hour, but I started to think about a future with her if we did. If we could shake Nix and escape the Fates, then maybe there was a relationship to be salvaged between us. Maybe we wouldn’t always have to hate each other.
Only time would tell.
The tunnel widened into a large cavern covered in thick, patterned rugs and decorated with luxurious, yet gaudy taste. I felt like we’d stepped into the inside of a genie’s lamp. Furniture in pink, neon green and yellow littered the space, covered in purple, red and royal blue pillows. Sheer fabric hung from the ceiling and draped over rock walls. More torches burned in the open spaces and caused shadows to shade the corners and stretch along the faces of the other two Fates. They sat on the center couch, waiting for us.
Veda lifted her childlike face and stuck her tongue out at me. The forked, lizard-like thing flicked over her upper lip and then disappeared back into her unholy mouth. I shivered before I could check my reaction. She grinned with pleasure, happy to freak me out.
Enid wrapped her slender arm around Veda’s shoulder and met my wide gaze with shrewd eyes. Her lips turned with a slyness that warned me something terrible was coming my way.
“Sit,” Isadora ordered. Her hand swept toward a mustard-colored couch opposite theirs. She perched on the edge of her seat, next to Veda. Seeing them lined up together was something else.
