“Yes.”
“Would either of you like to explain what you are talking about?” her mother asked sharply.
“Marriage would not usually hold much sway when it comes to leverage in a situation such as this. You were correct when you said he doesn’t have ownership over her because of it—we weren’tthatarchaic, even in the early days.” Thanatos cleared his throat. “At least… Well, we learned our lesson. But there was a tradition, mostly used amongst demi-gods, that fell out of fashion rather quickly. Even Kronos didn’t think of it when he tried to force you into marriage, Sora. He never had any interest in remembering our histories, especially if they involved anyone he thought beneath him.”
Thanatos paused, and her father snarled, “Out with it.”
Nya bit her lip, the wild urge to laugh suddenly overcoming her. There were two principals in the other room. Night and Death were mere feet away, and her kind, grumpy father had just demanded an explanation from them, no reverence or fear to be found in his voice.
It took her a moment to remember all the reasons why he might not be on the best terms with Nyx and Thanatos, mainly the one that involved them selling her mother to a marriage with Kronos.
“There was a mark on her throat,” Thanatos said, and Nya’s heart nearly stopped. “It was newly healed, probably by him, given that few gods have that ability to project healing to others.But…it will never truly go away, nor will the pull that comes with it.”
“Fucking Fates,” Nyx said, softly enough that Nya barely heard it.
“Thatis exactly what I said,” Thanatos agreed. Then, before either of her parents could interject again, he explained, “In the early days of this world, a handful of idiot demi-gods had the bright idea to introduce blood bonding into betrothal ceremonies. When done correctly, it makes it very difficult to be far from one’s partner for long—bordering on painful. It’s like opening a window in your soul and letting a small part of someone else in. Effectively, the two souls are forever tied by an unbreakable thread.”
“And if either were to die?” her mother asked, and Nya’s stomach dipped at the horror in her voice.
“You know how our souls are,” Thanatos said quietly. “Few have the power to destroy them completely.Butif someone did manage to do such a thing…the other would be ripped irreparably.Anabás Caegal.”
Nya took a step back into the sitting room, her hand at her throat, feeling the erratic flutter of her own pulse beneath her skin.
“You saw Ana there, didn’t you?”
Nya jolted, whirling to find a woman perched on the edge of a chair in a shadowed corner of the room. Had she been there the entire time?
The woman smiled, though it did not quite reach her eyes, then stood. She was much taller than Nya, though that wasn’t a difficult feat to achieve. Silky dark hair fell nearly all the way down her back, and her hooded eyes were a striking shade of jade-green laced with silver. She smoothed delicate hands over the front of her azure dress, waiting.
Nya’s lips parted, realizing there was an odd, restless feeling in the air. It made her think there was something on the tip of her tongue, similar to what she had felt during the ceremony, when Anabeth had revealed herself. Anabeth, who was a daughter of?—
“Juno,” Nya whispered, warily eyeing the Goddess of Fate standing before her. “Why didn’t you say anything when I woke?”
Juno raised a dark brow. “If you had seen me, I presume you would have gone to the hall immediately, and I figured you might want to hear the truth on your own before you saw them.”
“And what truth is that?” she dared, already knowing the answer. Not just because of what she had overheard, but because the truth of it was undeniable in the pull now thrumming in her blood.
Go back. Go back. Go back,it urged.
As if Varax hadn’t tied them closely enough. Now, fighting the gravity she had already been pushing against for years felt like a nearly impossible feat.
“You and Morgen are tied by the very threads of Fate,” Juno said, her gaze unflinching. “But what Nyx, Thanatos, and your parents do not understand is that this has been true for a long time. He only made it more obvious to everyone else when he sealed the betrothal with your blood.”
“I didn’t drink his blood, though.”
Silver glinted in Juno’s eyes. “No. You did not. A purposeful self-protection measure on his end, I believe.”
“I’m going to assume this ‘bond’ is supposed to work both ways, but it won’t now.”
“Mhm,” Juno hummed, wearing the same knowing expression her daughter had. Nya did not like it. “It will be a useless block for him, though. I imagine he’s already realized that.”
“What do you?—”
“She’s awake?”
Nya whirled at the sound of her mother’s voice, her breath catching in her throat as she saw both her parents in the open doorway. She had not seen them since she had left for D’anna a year ago to apprentice at the temple. Naturally, they looked exactly the same—her mother a near-copy of her, except with wide, icy-blue eyes instead of hooded brown ones, and her father still ridiculously tall. His dark facial hair was a bit more grown out than he usually wore it, and both of them had smudges of purple under their eyes, as if they hadn’t been sleeping.
She stared at them, twisting her hands and trying to hold back tears of shame, unsure of what to say. Eventually, she hung her head and choked out, “I’m so sorry.”
