Ryder pressed his hand to my lower back and urged me to sit down. If it hadn’t been for him I might have stood there staring at them for the rest of the day. I was half-disgusted, half-terrified.
“Your audience,” Isadora smiled politely. “We’re listening.”
I swallowed around a lump of nerves and got to business. “You have my mother,” I told them. They didn’t respond. They simply stared at me. “I would like her back.”
Enid’s face lit with amusement. “Back?” she snickered. “Was she yours to begin with?”
Veda laughed a tinkling sound that grated on my nerves. “I thought it was she that had you.”
“And haven’t we had you both all along?” Enid finished.
“I would like my mother out of your possession and into mine,” I clarified. My anger rose like a storm inside me, it gained ground and power and threatened to end this discussion before it really began.
“She is not yours to reclaim,” Isadora said sternly. “Her life is already ours. It’s a pity you came all of this way. It appears that you risked your lives for nothing.”
I pressed my lips together and tried not to explode. “She’s not yours to claim either,” I gritted out. My hand landed on my ribs where a tattoo was etched into my skin.My soul is free. “She is a person. No one can own her. No one can possess her. She should be free to leave.”
“Your ideals are simply adorable,” Enid laughed. “Look at your moral high ground! It’s simply glowing with purity.” She whipped her head to the side and met Isadora’s calculated glare. “She won’t be able to get the job done, Sister. She’s too clean. She doesn’t have what it takes.”
“She’s the only one that has what it takes,” Isadora answered. “Besides, we win no matter what.”
“Win what?” My chest tightened with warning.
“You’ll understand,” Veda grinned. “In approximately three more minutes.”
Isadora leaned forward, ignoring her younger sister. “We made a deal with Nix to watch over you while you aged. Eighteen is an important time for you, Child. Your powers expand every day, your crown settles more firmly on your head with each passing minute. When you were but an hour old, new to this world and yet more dangerous than every other baby born on that day, Nix offered something we wanted in exchange for our sight. We gave him everything he asked for. We watched over you while you aged. We protected you from needless harm. And we focused on the things that were to come in your lifetime. Yet we allowed everything.”
“You allowed everything?” I didn’t understand where this was going. Veda was wrong. Three minutes wasn’t nearly enough time.
“He asked us to watch, not intervene. Do you see the difference?” Isadora asked.
Warning bells blared in my head. Okay… now I was starting to understand. “What does that have to do with my mother?”
“Let’s start with the fact that she is your mother,” Enid sneered. “She gave birth to you. Her womb created you. Along with the help of your father, she conceived you. She also created your sister. Your mother has a greatness inside of her that is dormant until it touches a god. And then it’s as if she comes to life. Her powers burst into fullness and the offspring she spins are magnificent.”
“And powerful,” Veda added.
Ryder’s fingers dug into my back. I felt him begin to understand too.
“We could use Ava,” Isadora explained. “We could find a god that was capable of greatness and see what else your mother is capable of. We could gamble on another exceptional child and then we could wait… for years.”
“And it’s so hard to find good gods these days. The last one we picked… well… he wasn’t exactly a gentleman.” Enid’s longer fingernails pinched the silk of her gray, Grecian gown.
“And they didn’t exactly have a connection,” Veda snickered.
Enid grinned wickedly, “And who has all of that time?” The three Fates shared a snide look and laughed at her joke.
If anyone had time, it was these three.
Enid met my gaze and held it with hers. “It would be so much simpler if we already had access to one of her children.”
“A powerful one,” Veda grinned.
“One that was already close to coming of age,” Enid finished.
“Me?” I finally understood.
“You,” Isadora declared.
