Futures Unseen (Chasing Titania #2)

Embodiment

The world was so much darker before I tasted the flesh of men. I was born not long after my mother became immortal. Though I suppose years as an immortal seem mundane, it was maybe a few tens, maybe a few hundreds of years. Time is never clear when you don't have to worry about it. I was kept hidden from Queen Lilith in fear that she would harm me or hate my mother further. I learned from my father and mother or I spent days in the underground with the other gods, the dead gods.

The day that Queen Lilith entered my mother's life once again, the day those from Delta Ace entered my home, I hid in the walls, watching. My father had asked me to stay hidden so I obliged. As I observed their dinner, the one that wasn't a pixie caught my eye. He looked directly at me. It scared me at first, was I visible? Instead, he waved. He was a Nixie, he could hear my heart beating. Nixies governed themselves under my father, as much as he didn't wish them to. All water fae seemed to follow him. 

My father didn't want them because he watched over the spirits of the dead. That is what Mother Gaia also deemed me to do, to help those who were about to die cross over into the proper domain. I could also mess with the strings of age and growth that gathered around others. I worked well with the powers I was given. 

My mother and father left me alone for some time when they went out to battle once again. I wasn't ready for a battle that large, I was only seventeen. So, instead, I escaped into town. The town above the Underworld had come to leave us alone. The fear that we came from the graveyard sent worry to their hearts. There wasn't many fae in the town. The sky in the distance was purple.

I walked into the nearest bar, hoping to find someone. That's when I met Juno, a pixie a few years older than myself. He told me of how the world was ending over in Citadel, some town I had only heard vaguely of. He propositioned me, in the claims that the world was ending and all. I couldn't resist. He took me home, indulging me in pleasures meant for adults. I felt great afterward like I was old enough to do as I pleased. 

Even after the battle, this became a habit. I continued to sneak out into town to indulge in men. I loved their skin. Women repulsed me, I spent too much time with the spirit of Titania, Mother Gaia, and my mother, not to mention Libra, the Great Sphinx, and the servants around our house. 

Libra was the one who told my father what I was doing. He took me out to get me inked with the same tattoo as himself. He had previously taught me of his necromancy magic and how to wield the powers of a god, how to hide in the presence of pixies. Now I was labeled as a necromancer, I was part of a dead race. He wished for me to carry on, to create more necromancers. I couldn't break it to him that I had other preferences, warped and twisted tastes that didn't include women in the slightest. 

That's when I received my letter from Delta Ace. I had to hide Arn, God of Passage. That's how I became Arn Juno, named after my first lover. My parents hadn't an inkling of it. They pushed me to go to Delta Ace, where the group of pixies who had graced our table that one night still existed. The three leaders, Aelianna, Nox, and Thalia knew of my secret. No one else did. Until Lexington, that is. But I had made him forget all about it.

Now, here I was again, underground with Mother Gaia, my parents, my aunt, and my grandmother. The earth ripped open underneath me. I had been summoned.

"Good morning," I stood, dusting off my pants. 

Lilith smiled. Time was but nothing down here, a misunderstood construct. There was no age, no death down here. My joke at least got some attention.

My mother hugged me tightly. She was missing me more than anything. That's probably why I was called to the center of the planet. 

"We are having a family gathering," Mother Gaia stood from her throne. "Welcome home, Arn."