Futures Unseen (Chasing Titania #2)

New Life and Old

Arn took me back to his bedroom. It was roughly the size of both our bedrooms put together at Delta Ace. His bed was huge, covered in clean new black sheets. There were two steps up to the thing. There was a closet and two bureaus. A rocking chair sat next to a small bookshelf on a small carpet. The light came from a ball of fire in a glass on the ceiling. We were barely in for a few seconds before there was a knock at the door. 

"Come in," Arn answered, letting go of my hand. 

"Hello boys," Persephone entered again.

"Hi, mom," I said before I could even think.

Arn laughed, but Persephone glowed with such excitement. 

"He might as well address me as such," she gave Arn a little smack on the head. "He will be one of us one day."

"You know that?" I ignored my flushed cheeks. "You know what choices I am to make?"

"It's prophecy, Lexington," Persephone sat down in the rocking chair. "We know what's going to happen because of our dearest friend. We know that when you two marry, Mother Gaia will ask you if you'd like to become a god, just as she did with Levi and me. Then, Levi will perform his immortality ceremony as he did for me. You become a god, and you live with us forever."

"I had no idea," I deflated.

"Let me tell you a story," Persephone grinned.

Arn immediately sat down on the floor before her. I stayed where I was on the bed. I didn't find floors very comforting, and this bed was like heavenly clouds.

"There once was a goddess," she began. "She was young and beautiful, very naïve for her age. She had been in love before but never enough. She traveled with her friends and her mom, fighting demons and crooks for the greater good. They saved and created many clans of Fae. She started to fall in love with a mortal man.

"He was off-putting and strange. Originally, he had been from a healing clan, known as the Swallows, who took any pain as their own to save others. He would go on to form a necromancy group, establishing the-"

"Dawlingwood Necromancy Fae," Arn spoke up.

"Yes," Persephone nodded. "The young goddess fell for the way this mortal man played gently with the lives of others, choosing to heal rather than kill. But one day, during a fight, she was mortally wounded.

She lifted the edge of her flowery shirt to reveal a profound scar that reigned down her side. "The goddess quickly began to die. The mortal man took her to the Sirens, knowing that if the other gods couldn't, or possibly wouldn't, save her, maybe they could. The Sirens wouldn't budge, refusing to help him. Now, the mortal man knew of alchemy's practices, an ancient magic that preached of equivalent exchange. So he murdered the Sirens. He set the goddess in the Crystalline Grund and trying bits of the bodies of the Sirens. He attempted to bring the goddess back to life. First, he tried one of their throats, as the Sirens would sing and tempt fae to their death. But it didn't work. He threw it into the lake, creating the Nymphs. Next, he tried the fingers. Yet, they too didn't work, so he tossed them in the lake. They became the Nixies. He tried the head of a Siren, the hair specifically, but it failed and became the Selkies. He next cut out the breastbone. Yet again, he met no ends, throwing it into the lake. They became the mermaids. He tried the brains, creating then the Nereiads. Lastly, he tries the stomach to no avail. They become the Kelpies.

"Mother Gaia, the Goddess of Life, brought him down into her chambers. By now, the black blood of the Sirens had turned both of their hair black, turned his lovely yellow swallowtail wings black. 'Why are you trying to save her?' Mother Gaia asked. 'Surely you should realize she is dead by now.' 'I don't care,' the mortal man replied. 'I love her more than anything. I will stop at nothing to bring her back to me.' Mother Gaia admired this man's determination. She decided to test him, to see how much he really did love her. 'I commend your effort,' she said. 'I will bring back this woman you love on one condition, that you severe your own wings to revive her.' The mortal man hesitated not a moment. He pulled his trusty knife, a small thing with an onyx blade."