Hell my loves. Welcome to the final chapter of act one😮💨 enjoy!
Qotd: Who's your favorite character so far?
Paris was busy this time of the year. Especially the Eiffel Tower at noon. People walked past Elijah and Callisto, towards a small shop perched at the corner of the walkway. A bookstore.
"Are you sure your contact is here?" Callisto glanced at Elijah, giving him a side-eye.
A snort bellowed from Elijah's throat. "Oh, my dear Niece is here. Eve will be here." Elijah placed his hands into his coat pocket, feeling for heat.
"Doesn't she hate your guts?" Callisto followed Elijah toward the small bookstore.
"Oh, she does. But I'm sure she's more willing to avenge her sister."
"Good."
The bell to the bookstore tinged. An annoying sound Callisto wanted to burn off the earth. But she smiled at Elijah and walked in. "Too many humans." She flickered her sharp nails. She stared boredly at the stalls stacked with books and in the corner, a reading went on. "Which one is she?"
Elijah narrowed his eyes around until they landed on a dark-skinned female with black hair and neon green eyes. "Her." He pointed to his niece. Eve moved books from an iron cart, from shelf to shelf. She stacked various books in various sections. Most thick and most small enough to read in a single sitting.
A whirl of vicious smile etched on Callisto's face. "Good. I'll do the talking," She took a step forward, but Elijah held her back. "What?" She flashed her canines at him. Her dark pink eyes turned gold in a moment.
"I'll do the talking. She doesn't know you. She's my niece."
Callisto sighed. "Fine."
She followed behind Elijah. Her mate approached Eve slowly, cautiously as the whispering voices in the bookstore. Some she noted were friends and family who made conversations.
That serene peace in their eyes. The gull to hold history books and call them novels. Callisto scoffed, flickering her eyes to the glass ceiling of the bookstore. She could glimpse the sun and the clouds moving with a snail's movement.
"Eve." Elijah piped up. His niece glanced up at him and a flash of red storm brewed in her neon green eyes. She took a look around the store before walking away. With a lonely gesture for her uncle to follow her.
Callisto sucked in the vintage smell of the store, following after Elijah with sharp feline grace.
They were led to a storeroom with numerous books placed in boxes and more boxes on shelves. The room was painted out with shelves nailed to the wall, left and right. It left space to walk in the middle.
"What?" Eve snarled. She narrowed her eyes to Callisto. "Who are you?"
"Callisto; seraph of War."
Elijah rolled his eyes. He took in the posture of his niece. She slouched, trying to keep that vague human expression on her face and her body language. "There's a war coming. We need you."
"You need me." Eve began to her uncle, her eyes flashing green.
A kiss of teeth from Callisto turned Eve's attention to her. She snarled.
"Seraph, do you know who I am? What I am?" Eve's voice echoed a thousand times more powerful.
The same kiss of death ran down Callisto's spine. She grunted, gripping her head. "Godsent." She fell to her knees. "Stop it."
"Eve. She's no threat." Elijah turned his niece from his mate. "We need your help. We need you to ally with us."
"Someone already came and offered me the same deal." Eve wiped a finger across a shelf collecting dust that hadn't been cleaned in weeks. Now that she thought of it, the entire shelf reeked of dust and the stuffiness of it had her nose reeling.
"Let me guess, he said his name is Maalefi'Caerys?" Elijah raised a brow. His niece turned her bored eyes to him. "He killed your sister. What did he tell you?"
"That he killed my sister— duh. He had no reason to lie." Eve blew wind from her mouth, onto the dusty shelf. Dust flew from the white shelf, sprinkling in the air resembling falling snow.
"And you won't avenge her?" Callisto's eyes went wide at Eve.
"Oh, I told him I would make him pay and he can forget about my alliance. I had a feeling you would come here." Eve gave a sickly sweet smile to Elijah. "How is my dear mother?"
"She would if she—"
"— I care not. Let's go."
"And Lucien?" Elijah questioned.
"At home with the kids."
"You have children?"
Eve gave him another Duh gaze. "I'm a Godsent. I can do whatever I want."
Her words had Callisto rolling her eyes, muttering. "Unfortunately."
----
Elijah and Callisto waited for Eve before her apartment building. She lived there with Lucien and their two children. A tall white building housing several private gardens and a door that required a fingerprint to enter.
When she came back downstairs with a small bag, Callisto conjured a maelstrom. It glowed golden, sizzling ever leading them to the penthouse.
Eve followed Callisto and Elijah into the lounge where Dante sat with Kol and Davina, reading history books. "We are back." Callisto sat next to her brother.
"Godsent." Eve kissed her teeth, sniffing the air. Her sight turned to Dante who also stood. They walked to one another, earning wary looks from the others in the lounge. "You're a godsent?" The darkness in Eve's eyes light up. In ways Elijah had never seen. Unless she talked about Lucien. But that light was never as bright.
Dante nodded. "I take it you've never met your kind?" He tilted his head, sizing her up.
"No. I never did." Eve held out her hands to his cheeks. He allowed her the closeness. Golden light thrummed around them. Green and gold embarking around one another. As beautiful as the aurora borealis during nighttime.
"What's happening?" Davina questioned, dropping the thick black book with orange stripes at the spine on the table.
"When Godsent meet one another, they form a bond." Callisto watched with stars twinkling in her eyes.
"Like a coven?" Davina asked.
"More than that. The godsent have a bond few species have. They're like parts of a body. They act like an organism. Godsent prefer to breed with their kinds, but some like to be diverse." Callisto twirled her hair, watching the golden and green energy engulf one another.
The glow stopped, forcing Dante to open his eyes. "You have much to learn, Eve." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "If all goes well, we shall go home."
"Home?" That light in Eve's eyes flashed. "I have a home with my mate and children."She detached Dante's hands from her shoulders. He frowned.
"Lucien and your children are your home here," Dante pointed to his heart. "But your true home is with us in the new dawn."
Chirps consumed Eve's thoughts. There was a place she could finally call home. Not her father's palace. Not her mother's family or the little apartment she hid with Lucien and their children. The home of her people. The home of the Godsent. In the new dawn. Something in Eve wondered what the new dawn looked like and if she would live to see it.
Something that tugged in her heart all her life.
"Home." She whispered. "When?"
She glanced up at him with weak eyes. 'I'm so tired.' it seemed to whisper.
"I know, Eve. I know." Dante placed his hands on her head. "Walk with me, little one." He nodded towards the large balcony. Eve followed behind him, her hands behind her back.
"Is that the same Dante who makes jokes?" Callisto stuck out her tongue, watching her older brother who often joked or flirted with any terrestrial beings who could bite his head off.
"I'm beginning to find him surprising." Davina muttered. Her eyes lingered on Dante and Eve sitting on the thick stone railing, their legs swung in rhythm with the evening wind.
Birds were beginning to fly about this time of the day, either chirping or cawing, depending on the species. Her mind soon drifted to the êirf dragonling she played with and that ache in her heart returned. She watched the mother fly towards them, wings beating, and gulped thinking this was the end for her. But, The êirf dragons' mother merely sat by the plains. Her green leathery scales glowed. It was an armor against the greatest threat— flies.
She watched with sharp eyes every chirping bellow her hatchling released. Sounds of joy. Then when the sky went dark, she called for her child who flew on her back and she flew away. Her wings beat so loud and powerful, that Davina's heart stayed with them.
Home.
Cyrsae felt like that. The Black Garden could be her home if Dante permitted. Her and Kol's new home. The forbidden garden was a taste of Dante's vast Kingdom of Gardens in Cyrsae. She yearned for more. The thread in her heart never stopped spinning.
"Eve being on our side changes things. We have two Godsent. Even Maalefi'Caerys wouldn't touch them." Elijah countered. He sat next to his brother on the metallic gold leather sofa and picked up one of the books on the round golden glass table.
"Because he can't touch them doesn't mean they can't touch each other." Davina rolled her eyes. "He might have Godsent soldiers of his own to fight each other."
"Eve and Dante weren't snarling. Maybe they won't." Callisto placed her fingers on her temple. She never stopped thinking of every possibility of Maalefi'Caerys's plans. What they might be and who might come out alive. She prayed she would. For her children's sake. "But they might in the end fight against each other."
"You said when they meet each other, they form a bond. Why would he have Godsents fight each other when he knows that?" Davina bites her tongue.
"Not to fight each other," Dante's voice echoed. They turned to him and Eve walking back in. "We will never fight each other unless given a reason. So, unless he has a reason to make them fight their own, they won't."
"What reasons would you agree to?" Elijah asked.
Eve patted her jaw, humming. "I'll fight against Dante if he threatens my family. If vengeance needs to be sworn. If blood oaths that cannot be broken were made."
"See." Callisto stuck out her tongue to Davina. She turned to Eve. "Are you saying he would have them sign blood oaths?"
Dante nodded. "Most likely. If he had approached me eons ago and made me sign a blood oath to come when called and fight with no glory. I would. Even if I was fighting my people. Even if that could get me killed. Blood oaths are powerful."
"What would make him sign one?" Kol asked.
A tilt of the calculated head. "Hmm, I'll be damned," Dante chuckled. "He might very be one of the smartest beings I've ever encountered."
"What?"
They all turned to him, eagerness written on their face. Whatever revelation Dante marveled at. It might very well change the hack in Maalefi'Caerys's game and give them a step forward.