Ash flinched, then met her stare with quiet gravity. He let her fury wash over him like a wave he knew he deserved. ‘Mal must learn first,’ he said. ‘Mal must b-become the God-Killer. And f-for that… she needs time.’
Adriana shook her head, her voice cracking with disbelief. ‘She cannot become the God-Killer, Ash! Have you never heard the tales? Her mind will rot from within! She will tear the world apart!’ She rose abruptly, the stone chair scraping across the floor in protest. ‘She’ll go after all the gods. Every last one of them!’
Ash nodded, calm as still water beneath a stormy sky.
‘And by that time Vera, or as you ri-rightly call her, Eris, will have arrived,’ he said quietly. ‘Just in time to f-face Mal.’
Adriana’s eyes widened in horror. ‘You mean for Mal to kill Eris?’
Again, he gave a single, solemn nod.
‘But Mal…’ Her voice faltered, trembling on the cusp of despair. ‘She will no longer be the wyverian you once knew. Can you not see that?’
‘I can.’
She opened her mouth to protest, but fell silent as surprise flickered through her expression. ‘And still… you’re willing to let it happen?’
‘It is the only way,’ Ash said, his voice soft yet immovable.
‘No!’ Adriana shouted, slamming her fist upon the stone table with such force the dust upon it scattered into the light. ‘There must be another way. Keir, Cronan and I, our entire lives were spent protecting her, guiding her, ensuring this very fate would never come to pass. I won’t allow it.’
Ash’s attention dropped to her clenched fist, his head tilting with measured slowness. Then, lifting his golden eyes, he met the woman’s stare. Not as a king, nor a prophet, but as someone who saw through the veil.
‘Yet this,’ he said, voice steady as a blade’s edge, ‘this was Mal’s plan from the b-beginning, wasn’t it, Themis?’ He spoke her true name, the one buried beneath centuries, the one only gods dared whisper. ‘Hades and Mal conspired for this. For her to b-become the God-Killer.’
Adriana stepped back, her expression contorting with sorrow as ancient grief flashed through her features.
‘You tried to stop them,’ Ash continued, ‘all those years ago. You joined Hecate. You helped her s-stand against them.’
A heavy silence fell. Then Adriana’s voice, low and edged with warning, ‘How much do you truly know, Ash Acheron?’
A faint smile ghosted across his lips. He turned his eyes towards the doors of the temple, the light beyond them gilding his features in quiet defiance.
‘All of it,’ he whispered. ‘I know all of it.’
Many make the mistake of thinking that tales are merely that; tales. Simple stories spun by firelight, meant to entertain or pass the time. But if we truly listened, truly heard the words beneath the words, we would come to realise they carry something far greater.
Something important.
Something vital.
Tabitha Wysteria
‘Get up,’ Mal ordered, yanking the covers from the sleeping witch without a hint of gentleness. There was no need to wonder where Allegra had been hidden. In this desolate castle where only a chosen few were permitted to dwell, no soul wandered uninvited. It was clear that Thanatos had offered the witch shelter.
Allegra bolted upright, her eyes wide, still shrouded in the fog of sleep and confusion.
Mal stood at the foot of the bed, arms loosely crossed. ‘You’ve five minutes to ready yourself. Then my training begins.’
‘And if I refuse?’
Mal tilted her head, eyeing the witch with a detached curiosity, as though she were observing something caged.Despite her time in Hell, Allegra looked unchanged—her skin still held a lovely brown richness, and her dark curls bounced with every flicker of movement. There was a resemblance to Vera, yes, but Allegra’s features were thicker, rounder and unmistakably more beautiful.
‘What was it like?’ Mal asked, her fingers brushing across the black linen sheets. ‘Hell. Tell me, what was it like?’ She didn’t need to look up to sense the tension that rippled through the air like a drawn bowstring. Allegra had gone rigid.
‘Dreadful, I imagine,’ Mal mused, her voice low, the silence pressing in around them like mist. ‘A place you’d rather not return to.’ Only then did she lift her gaze, slowly, until her eyes met Allegra’s. ‘You have two choices. You either teach me... or I send you back.’ She offered a shrug, cold and unbothered. ‘The decision is yours.’
And with that, Mal turned on her heel, her voice echoing as she strode from the chamber. ‘Five minutes.’
