Even if I must break the threads of fate, I would do it. She was not going to belong to anyone but me. Maybe this was why I belonged in Hell, because I was a selfish man. But the stars should have never let her cross paths with me. I always get what I want, and the only thing I wanted was this flirty goddess in front of me. I hesitated before leaving.
She wouldn’t remember me until we saw one another again, but I wondered how long that would be. Hopefully not too long. I traced over her face with my gaze, memorizing it in my mind. Then I pulled my magic from her mind and disappeared.
?????????
When I left Ardella, I immediately went to the home of Avesh, the God of Knowledge. The building was too white for my liking, blending in with the cloud that it sat on hovering over Elloryon. I needed to hide that I was a God of Hell, so I glamoured my face to look more like a regular fae. If anyone had answers about getting my siblings and I out of Hell, it was him.
He was surprised to see me when he opened the door. Avesh was shorter than me by a least a foot.
“Can I help you?” His voice was timid.
“I was sent here to look into curses for a king and wondered if you had time to help me?”
His dark eyes traced over me, slowly, and I worried that he could see through my glamour. To him, I should appear as a servant with poor clothing and long hair.
“I will never turn down someone wanting to learn.” He opened his door, and I walked in. The space was vast, but Avesh quickly walked past me, and I hurried to catch up. We walked up the left side of a split staircase. My gaze swept across the ungodly amount of space in the foyer.
Avesh led me down a hallway that seemed to go on forever. My fucking gods, how long would we be walking for?
“It’s quite the work out.” Avesh looked at me over his shoulder and smiled.
After a few more minutes we came into a vast room that must have had a million books in it. Books flew past our heads, maps floated around the space, and globes spun around.
“Damn.” I sighed as I took in the overwhelming space filled with mahogany shelving and ladders.
“It is incredible,” Avesh said, like this was his first time seeing it too. “What kinds of curses did your king wish to learn about?”
I hesitated for a moment unsure of how to get him to bring up my parents' curse.
“He said he wanted to learn about the oldest curses to exist.” I shrugged.
Avesh nodded. “Then we should discuss Malamay and Diath.”
Thank fucking gods, that was simpler than I thought. I nodded, nonchalantly, like I wasn’t dying of excitement inside.
Avesh held his hand out and muttered something I could not hear before a loud whooshing noise started in one of the lower levels of the library. It only took a few moments before the book landed in his hand. He led me to a cozy sitting area, and I took the chair opposite of him.
He flipped open the book and I stared at the picture of my parents. Disgust filled me about what the heavens and their gods made my father do.
“This curse is the longest-lasting curse in history,” he stated.
I sat forward. It was about damn time. I wanted to ask him where he got this book, but I couldn’t ask too many questions without being suspicious.
“I heard about this, but I thought it was a rumor,” I lied. “Didn’t they have a bunch of children that were sent to Hell?”
Avesh smiled like he did every time I asked a question. He was too fucking eager to talk about this, so I knew he would spill something about the curse with hardly any input from me. I wasn’t sure how much he was allowed to share about it, but if he knew the answer for how it could be broken, then I would get it. He had to know something, otherwise I was fucked.
“Seven. The seven cardinal sins, which are now the Gods of Hell.”
“So, they are real.”
“Of course.” He nodded as he looked at the picture of my parents. “Most stories are rooted in truth.”
“Why don’t they just leave Hell?” Playing dumb was the best way to get him to overshare.
“They can’t,” he sighed. “When the old gods sent them there, they made sure their souls were tied to it, so they cannot leave for long periods of time or sometimes at all. The old gods worried that they would cause havoc after what their mother did—they felt that they couldn’t be trusted. But sometimes, I wonder why they are not trying to break their curse.”
Praise this little naive heavenly god in front of me.
