My legs carried me from one corner of the room to another, pacing, unable to stand still. I wasn't sure if I was handling anything properly at this point, but I was trying to push down the suffocating panic trying to erupt.
"Kaira," my aunt said as she sat down. "Are you sure you don't want to eat anything?"
"I'm pretty sure that anything I eat would end up just coming back up, so we're safer with just coffee." I pointed at the mug I was holding. "Besides, you still owe me answers. Why was my mother so afraid? Who was after her? Who wants me dead? And who the fuck is my biological father?"
The two of them looked at each other before both pairs of eyes landed on me, the atmosphere dropping from the easygoing one Elandra was trying to create to a more serious one.
"Gods, Kaira," my aunt said. "Gods are after you."
Weakness shot through my knees, making me sway on my feet. "Gods?" I croaked, hating how unsteady my own voice sounded. "As in, Greek Gods?" They both nodded. "Why would the Gods be after me? I'm just a regular human. I'm nobody."
"Kaira, sit down."
"I'm fine?—"
"Sit the fuck down," she thundered, and instead of invoking the wrath of Medusa upon me, I sat my ass down and looked at her. "Many, many millennia ago a Goddess called Demeter cursed the Gods and almost all mythical creatures to this island, locking us up indefinitely."
The buzzing in my ears grew louder. Black dots started dancing at the edges of my vision. I blinked, trying to focus on what she was saying.
"Have you ever wondered why the Gods suddenly started disappearing from the world and why humans no longerbelieved in them?" my aunt asked, pulling my attention to her. "It was because they truly did disappear. Their realms were abandoned, their homes empty, locked in this place forever."
"Until the prophecy came. Almost thirty years ago, the three sisters?—"
"Fates," my aunt interjected.
"Yeah." Elandra glowered. "Fates saw a child being born. A child that would change everything. A child that was the key to the freedom the Gods wanted. But what they wanted was what they feared as well, because to break the curse, a God would need to die, and not just any God. One of the ruling Gods, one of those that were primarily cursed by Demeter." I nodded, trying to follow, even though nothing made sense. "So when your mother realized she was pregnant with you, when she realized—no, when she saw in her dreams what would happen if she stayed, she ran away. She ran and she never looked back, hoping it would save you from the destiny written for you even before you were ever truly planned."
My head shook, that headache now blooming to full force. "I-I don't understand."
"The prophecy, Kaira," my aunt said. "The prophecy is related to you. The fucking prophecy that took my sister away from me. The prophecy that led to the destruction of your biological father and the prophecy you will never be able to run away from."
"Under the blood eclipse on the second moon's crest.
"In the seventh pass, when darkness finds rest.
"The first-born daughter of the first one shall rise.
"And Gods shall kneel where her shadow has passed."
Elandra's voice echoed around us as she recited the prophecy, as she awakened something deep inside me as if I had heard this before. As if I had seen this before.
I could no longer sit still. My entire body was filled with something I couldn't put a finger on. My stomach kept rolling around, caving in on itself, while my ribs pressed against my lungs.
"I still don't understand what that means. How is the prophecy related to me? How is any of this related to me?"
"Because, Kaira." Elandra stood up and walked toward me, taking a hold of my hands. "You're not what you think you are. You are not who you think you are, and your father…" She looked at my aunt before her eyes found mine again. "Your father was the Ancient one."
I stumbled backwards, unable to stand upright anymore, and if it wasn't for her hands holding me, I would've fallen down.
"W-what?"
"Your father, darling. Your real father was Thanatos, not Benjamin Harley. Your real father was the God of Death. The real God of Death, and you're his heir." Her eyes flashed, making the white glow more. "You are the heiress of Death."
This time I did collapse and as the darkness took over and my knees gave out, the last thing I saw was a familiar pair of green emerald eyes staring at me through the darkness.
13
KAIRA
