The Rise of Venus

A Tall Glass of Honesty

Song: When You Fall in Love With Someone playlist by WHATDAPAN

"Venus, open your eyes," the Moon Goddess murmured.

When I opened them, I knew I was still in a dream world. Thankfully, this picturesque view was much better than my previous nightmare. Before I'd been drowning in thick blood and hundreds of unborn children. Blue smoke tethered itself around me and held me underneath the crimson current.

It was the worst nightmare I'd ever had in my entire life. And it was all because of the dagger...

The dagger I liked so damn much.

I slipped my dark hand into the Moon Goddesses pale one. Cold strength filled my aching bones as she helped me stand. Strands of silver wove around me in a long train of an ethereal dress. We were back on the cliff in Delaware. The same place she'd married her Mate.

"Why do I keep seeing you?" I asked. "Mother says you haven't been involved in your descendants' lives for a long time. So, why now?"

Why me?

Her small lips widened into a sad smile before she squared her shoulders and wrapped an arm around me. We faced the roaring sea together, watching shades of dark blue crash into obsidian rocks.

"I'm here because I want you to win." She was shorter than me and yet, it felt like she was towering over me. The conviction I heard within her voice was much stronger than Mother's had ever been. I could see now where our teaching's of how to be a perfect Luna came from.

"So you'll help us?" The loud sound of hope wasn't lost to me as I looked into her crystal blue eyes. The very same ones she bestowed unto me and many others.

"I will do everything I can to steer you in the right direction." The Moon Goddesses cryptic response made me feel a little queasy. It wasn't until I remembered what Dion said did I finally understand.

She could nudge us along and help out here and there. But she couldn't directly insert herself into the prophecies. Apparently these rules applied even to the Gods.

It was a peculiar piece of information for me to absorb. I used to think the Gods were like the stars. I thought they could do whatever they wanted to.

"The stars supersede my birth," she said. The Moon Goddess smiled, confirming that she'd read my mind. "Yes, there are things that even I must follow. Regulations and bylaws. The annoying matters of elevated policies."

She rolled her eyes, frowning at the sea. "Even so, there's some wiggle room anywhere if you look hard enough."

"And what wiggle room do you have with us?" The wind howled suddenly, drowning out the last of my words. It almost made me chuckle that even in a dream my hair was still pulled into a low bun. My ancestor, however, didn't have that same luxury. Her knee length hair whipped around us in a silver tornado, making her small nose twitch.

"These artifacts my siblings left behind..." Her hand slipped into mine as she led me away from the cliff. We settled behind a large tree and listened to the wind's loud whistles for a short spell. "I forget, but does your branch of the family know about the fight that took place?"

"Sort of," I answered. "But we don't know what happened. Can you tell me?"

The Moon Goddess tucked her forest green dress under her knees and leaned against the cold bark. A cold mask slipped over her alabaster hued face. I glanced at the black wolf burned into her skin, just over her heart, and touched my own empty chest. She had what I so desperately yearned to have with Leo one day.

I was a little jealous.

"Well, in the beginning, Alpha and his siblings were the first Gods," she began. "There was Alpha, the Werewolf God. Lilith, the Vampire Goddess. Mage, the Goddess of Magick. Essence, the Elemental God. And the youngest was Grace, the Fair Folk Goddess."