“I don’t know the future. I only know your past, Nerezza, and it was a beautiful one.” She leans in and kisses my forehead before she turns and leaves the room. I hear her voice in my head. ‘Break it once you’re ready.’
Still in shock, I take a few minutes to look around the room, taking in what used to be my home. There’s a picture of Mom and Dad. There’s even a picture of me with all the Fates. I don’t know how I feel about Anwen being Aaron, but Seren didn’t even flinch when I mentioned it. Hell, she brought me here because I said it. Ugh, this is all confusing.
In the end, I don’t have time to wait; I’m running the damn Gauntlet, and my friends need me. I need to get out of here. If anyone can get me back to where I need to be, it’s the Fates. Decided and ready to get going, I squeeze the marble between my thumb and finger. It does feel pliable, but I don’t trust breaking it that way, so I place the marble on the floor and slam my boot heel down on it, smashing it into pieces. Nothing happens for a few seconds, and I frown. Annoyed, I turn to walk out when my nursery scenery before me swirls into nothing before a wind whips my hair around me as my world goes white.
Suddenly, greenery replaces the white as the wind dies down, and I find myself in a small clearing, surrounded by woods. Birds are singing, and I can hear a creek somewhere. The sun is out, but I don’t see anyth?—
Something darts between the trees, grabbing my attention.
“Hello?” I call out as I duck through the foliage and underbrush and push through to the other side of the greenery.
There’s a small creek with water clear enough that I can see the stones at the bottom. Jade, Amber, Sapphire, and Emeralds are only a few I can make out from here, but I’m sure there are more if I were to wade in and pull them up for a closer look. But that’s not my purpose, at least I don’t think so. I turn, looking forthat shadow, and my breath catches in my throat as I see a body floating in the pale pink water downstream.
“Gruesome, isn’t it?”
I turn to find someone in a pale yellow robe walking out of the tree line. Their robes cover them from head to toe, but I can see their manicured hands and delicate slippers as they come closer.
“Definitely not a picture I would hang up in my living room,” I reply.
“No, not my first choice either,” she chuckles, her voice seeming familiar. As the figure comes closer, she reaches up and pulls her cloak that’s covering her face and hair down, and I physically buckle, falling to my knees.
“Oh no, sweetie. It’s okay,” Liliwen—mybirth mother—says, rushing closer to me, and grabbing my arms, trying to catch me.
I blink, attempting to see her through the tears, but everything is blurry as my mind tries to make sense of what's going on.
“How?” I choke out. “How is this possible?”
“Don’t worry about the practicalities, sweetie. We were both blessed that Seren came to find me before my powers tried to seek out someone else on their own. In this case, I was able to pick my own successor.” She runs her hands down my cheeks, catching the tears flowing freely without my permission.
“I’m so lost,” I admit, shaking my head. “Nothing makes sense anymore.”
“I know, sweetie, and that’s why I’m here. That’s why you needed to see my sisters. They are here to help you understand and know your purpose. You need to know the complete truth.” She pulls away from me for a moment and grabs my hand. “Come.”
She walks me upstream, where she has me splash my face with cool water from the stream and sit down beside her.
“I know this might be selfish of me, but may I braid your hair?” Mom asks, and at this moment, she could ask for anything.
“I would love it.” As she sits on a rock, I get comfortable in front of her as she begins telling me the information I need to know.
“First of all, you have two fathers,” she begins. Thank the Fates, Dad already revealed that news because that would have been a horrible bomb to drop on me right now.Thanks, Mom. Now I see what attracted you to Dad. You guys both have a special way with words, like smacking someone upside the head with a frying pan when giving someone bad news. My word—talk about being blunt.
“Yeah, dad already dropped that on me,” I deadpan. “You guys have that truth bomb skill in common, by the way.”
“Yeah, he had a way with words,” she laughs. “What most don’t know is that Aaron is your father, but he’s not the only one who would show up as yours.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Aaron and Adam are twins. When Adam was made, so was Aaron. They share the same DNA.”
“So they both would show up as my father, technically?” I can’t keep the horror out of my tone.
“I do believe so, but I would rather not test that theory and have you within their grasp. The only thing that would have been distinguishable is if Lilith had only slept withAdamonce. She had no idea the second time it was Aaron,” she continues on, and she’s exploding my mind so much that I can’t keep up, so instead I back up.
“Wait a minute. Pause," I say, lifting my good arm to halt whatever information dump she’s about to throw at me. “You just said you’d rather not have me within their grasp, but just before my happy ass found your marble and came into this…whatever we call this, I just saw Anwen, and I’m pretty sure that’s Aaron,” I spit out.
Mom lets out a scoff, but I continue.
“No, don’t scoff at me.” I turn to look at her. “Because before I went down Muscha’s tunnel of death,” I throw up my arms and wince in pain, forgetting my bad arm in the sling, “I was with Cain, who apparentlyismy brother, which he was just trying to convince me that we should band together to rule the world and take down our evil father, or whatever half-siblings are supposed to do. I don’t know. I was barely listening to his half-cracked plan. But now you’re telling me it’s all true!?” My shoulders drop, and a groan slips from me as I cradle my arm against me.
