Chuck’s wings bristled.“Talk?Since when does Mars, the God of fuckingWartalk?”
Theo moved closer, but Calliope pushed him back.
“Theo, I need you to turn around and?—”
“I am not going anywhere, Callie.Not now, not ever.”
Calliope did not have time to argue.She could not think, she could only act on impulse.The spark inside of her warmed as Theo held her close, and the room heated.Violet light surrounded Chuck, his blue eyes flickering to white and lilac.
“Chucky, seriously.I know you’re frustrated, but you’re in theDen, there’s people here, you can’t?—”
“You think I don’t know that!”Chuck yelled.He gripped the diviner tight and Spike cursed as Lorelai and Izzy called out for him to put the diviner down.Bright light poured through the cracks of his fist.
“I came here with this bloody fucking stone that’s supposed to work, but it doesn’t fucking work!”Chuck yelled, his body now shaking.His wings fluttered, and a crowd was starting to form.
“It doesn’t work, Chuck, because you can’t force love!”Calliope bellowed.
She pushed Theodore aside as she took two strides toward the pegacorn on the verge of a shift.
Perhaps it was foolish and dangerous, but Calliope knew what Chuck—whatPegasus—needed.She always knew what herpatronsneeded.Because they were her patrons, not her friends or her family or the loves of her lives.
“The diviner forces it all the time,” he snarled.“That is why it was created, Calliope.You know that.You werethere.”
Her heart slowed at his words.She did know.She knew when the diviners were forged, how important they would be for the gods and supernaturals alike.No more needless deaths or heartbreak.Love would be as simple as touching the stone and following the light.
But the years went by and buried the diviners, and gods and goddesses and supernatural shifters and monsters and every other creature had faded to chasing destiny on their own.Making their mistakes, their choices, their masterpieces all on their own.
Without a silly rock.
“I was there,” she bit, staring up at Chuck’s glowing eyes.“And so wereyou,” she said, tears pooling in her eyes.“You can not force the hand of fate, Pegasus.You must let fate take its course.”
Chuck crushed the stone in his hand and Calliope gasped as she watched the debris slip through his fingers.
“Pegasus...”she breathed his name, his true name, as the lights in the room started to cut out.
Chuck’s shoulders shook as Calliope dropped to the ground, reaching for the debris, the broken pieces of the diviner.
“No...”she cried, the tears falling like rain.Diviner dust slipped through her fingers.
“What have you done?”she asked.She stood, the diviner debris slipping through her fingers and her spark ignited.Passion, anger, guilt, sadness...it all caught like fire on dry leaves.
She lunged for Chuck, and moments later, she felt Mars at her side, grabbing the shifter as Spike grabbed the other side.Between Mars and Spike, Chuck thrashed, hissing, snarling growling, and then Calliope saw the tears.
Streaming down Chuck’s angelic face.She saw his grimace of pain, heard it in his voice.
“Fate forced my hand,” he cried.“And now I am alone.”
Mars and Spike held him but he stopped thrashing.
“Fate is not real,” Chuck snapped, his voice edged with anger and pain, but not just any pain.Pain ofloss.And it was at that precise moment, that Calliope understood the man she knew had changed.
He’d loved.And he’d lost.
His lover, his friend.His sense of self.
And in that loss he turned desperate, aching for the love those he loved had discovered on their own.
Calliope gasped at this realization, her eyes going wide as she stared up at Chuck’s glowing, sad eyes.
