Prologue
"Agápi mou, I have a question for you, and I need you to promise not to over-react like you normally do."
The light-haired queen pauses, glancing up from her book at her husband. "Yes, because starting off your question that way is the best way to make sure I'm calm."
The corner of the dark-haired king's eyes crinkled as he braces himself for the inevitable. "Has she passed through here recently?"
"Who?" The queen's green eyes narrow. "Do you mean our daughter?"
"Yes." He replies, not even blinking under her burning gaze.
"No." She replies in a dangerously quiet tone as she slowly gets to her feet. "Are you actually telling me you lost our child?"
"No. I did not lose her."
"Well then why are you asking? Where is she?"
He hesitates. "As of this moment, I am not sure."
"Why?" Her eyes narrow into slits.
"She has finally discovered how to tap into her invisibility, it seems."
"She's invisible?" The queen's jaw hits the floor, and she drops everything purely so she can start searching the room frantically. "Hades, where the hell is our child?!"
"She's invisible Evie; your guess is as good as mine."
"You had her last! How could you lose her?"
"It is quite difficult to keep track of someone once they have turned invisible Evie, especially if they are as small as she is."
She ignores his logical reasoning. "I can't believe you lost her! She's our daughter, and you lost her."
"Did you not hear the invisible part?"
"Yes!" She glares at him. "But I'm more focused on the fact that you lost our daughter."
"No, you're not." He watches her in bemusement. "Are you still upset over the fact that her first word was 'Dad' and not 'Mum'?"
She throws a pillow at him. "No, but now I am!"
"Evie." He laughs. "It is not that big of a deal."
"Yes it is! I gave birth to her; the least she could do was say my name first." She splutters, throwing another cushion at him when he keeps laughing. "Stop laughing at me and find our child!"
He places the cushions back on the chair, following behind his wife as she tears the room apart like a maniacal whirlwind. "Agápi mou, you need to calm down. You will not find her if you bury her under all the cushions you're throwing around."
She pretends she didn't hear him, continuing on her frantic search. "I can hear her laughing; she's taunting us, the little devil!"
"Evie!"
"What? Technically she is; she's your goddamn daughter!"
"What, so all her bad qualities should now automatically be attributed to me?"
"Well, I mean you are Satan, so if the devil horns fit!"
"Agápi mou. Calm down."
"Calm down? Calm down?! Our daughter has disappeared Hades! How can you be so calm when somewhere, our two-year-old child is running around, probably injuring herself because she inherited my clumsiness?"
"Evie."
"She won't discover invisibility early, you said. She'll be talking or walking before she disappears before our eyes, you said. Well kudos to you, because she did walk and talk first, but now she's freaking walking and invisible and-"
"Evie."
"-I would just like to take this chance to say 'I told you so', because if our daughter injures herself it's all your fault, and I totally told you this would happen and that we wouldn't be prepared for it, and-"
"Evie."
"What?!"
"She is not hiding in the couch, so I would advise you stop undressing it."
"How do you know that? You can't see her! Why don't I dress your face with these cushions and see what you think-"
"I don't think that is a good idea."
"Well of course you don't, you great prat! You-"
He chuckles, finally losing patience with keeping up the charade. "Evie, turn around."
"What?" She spins on her heel, and her mouth forms a perfect 'o' of surprise when her eyes fall on the smiling two-year-old in his arms. Her gaze turns accusatory as it lifts up to meet his. "Hades! How long have you had her?"
"For about five minutes." He admits, and her expression morphs into one of outrage. "If you had stopped ranting and calmed down enough to listen to me, you would have discovered that."
She wrinkles up her face and mimics him silently in child-like pettiness as she lifts the little girl out of his arms "You are a terrible husband."
"No I'm not. I'm a wonderful husband." He smirks in a rare show of arrogance. "You just worry too much."
"Well, I'm allowed to worry." She retorts, unable to hide her smile as she glances down at her daughter. The little girl rests her head on her mother's chest, her small hand reaching up to grab the few loose curls that have escaped her mother's messy ponytail. She wavers in and out of sight, her invisibility flickering through her small body like an uncontrollable wave. Her mother glances up at her husband, concern bleeding into her serene expression. "What the hell are we supposed to do if she keeps turning invisible like this Hades? Lock her in her room Rapunzel style?"
He sneaks his arms around her middle and presses a reassuring kiss to her cheek. "We will not need to go to quite that extreme Evie. She will pick it up very quickly; we will just have to keep an eye on her for the time being."
"She's two years old." She scoffs. "How quickly can a two-year-old pick up how to control invisibility?"
"She's smart." He offers. "Like her mother."
She can't help the small smile that spreads over her lips at his blatant attempt to butter her up. "Flattery won't get you anywhere mister."
"I am acutely aware of that fact." He replies wryly. "But it does cause you to stop frowning. You frown too much, agápi mou."
"I'm a mother." She mumbles. "I'm supposed to frown."
"No you are not." He chuckles, gently pulling her back against him. "Besides which, I never thought you to be the type of mother who frowned, anyway."
"You're right." She sighs, leaning her head against his chest. "I could never be the frowny mum. I'm obviously the cool mum."
He hums, pretending to think. "No, that's not quite right either."
"Hey!" She elbows him, and he chuckles.
Silence falls over the two of them as they wrap themselves up in the other's company, both of them unintentionally gazing down at the same time at the little girl now sleeping softly in her mother's arms.
"Look at her Hades." She says softly. "She's perfect."
"I know." He smiles, resting his chin on her shoulder.
"How could the Fates say those things about her?" She whispers, fear lodging in her throat as she unwillingly reminisces their warning.
"Evie? Can you come to the judgment room for a brief moment?"
"Define brief, babe." She hums slightly, putting down her book to reply to her husband through their telepathic link. "Because I'm five months pregnant now, and moving briefly is slowly becoming harder every day."
His chuckle echoes around her mind. "It will not be for very long agápi mou, I promise."
"Okay fine. I'll get Calla to roll me there." She says it in jest, but there's an element of intrinsic fear to her words; even though she knows it's an irrational fear, a small part of her is secretly terrified that her stomach - and child - won't stop growing, and that one day she'll be so big that her stomach will just explode. Hades always found that hilarious when she told him, and didn't seem to get that she wasn't joking like she normally does.
When she finally arrives at the judgment room, she discovers with a jolt of surprise that her husband isn't alone; in fact, he's accompanied by three very particular women who she hoped she would never see again. She smothers her surprise, and carefully arranges her expression into one that radiates calmness as she waddles over to her husband's side.
"You should've told me we had guests. I would have brought refreshments." She jokes, trying to lighten the mood. But her joke goes completely over the Fates' heads, who all just stand there silently and stare at her. She clears her throat awkwardly, looking up at her husband. "In the nicest way possible, what the hell are they doing here?"
He pauses, unease flickering through his expression. "They say they have something to tell us."
Her eyes go round, her gaze darting over to the three women warily. "What? If you're trying to reassure me, you're doing an appalling job, Hades; the last time you said that, the world kind of broke for a while."
"It is about your child." Clotho, the woman on the left rasps, her aged voice completely contradicting her youthful appearance.
The queen freezes, all the blood running from her face. She wraps her hands protectively around her stomach. "Can we choose to never hear it then?"
"No." Lachesis replies, not recognising the sarcasm in the queen's tones. "We have a prophecy that we were not able to ignore, and neither will you."
The queen falters, glancing up at her husband. The king's jaw clenches and he steps closer to her, his eyes burning dangerously. When he speaks, his tone is glacial. "What is it?"
Atropos steps forward, and the air starts to hum around her. Her voice echoes around the room, as if the very air is sensing the importance of the words coming out of her mouth. "Heed our warning, for these very words will change the fabric of the future to come. Though this thought you abhor, your daughter-"
The queen can't help herself; she interrupts Atropos, her voice hushed with awe. "We're having a daughter?"
The king tries to shoot her a reprimanding glance, but her excitement is contagious, and he can't help the small smile that turns up the corners of his lips. "Evie, focus."
"Sorry." She grimaces, her excitement sobering up when she catches the fierce glare Atropos is aiming her way. "Continue."
Atropos clears her throat. "Though this thought you abhor, your daughter will cause a civil war. And at nineteen years, though kind at heart, your daughter will be the catalyst that tears the world apart."
The queen feels all the blood drain from her face as she stares at the Moirai in absolute horror. "What?!"
Atropos steps back, her expression eerie. She repeats her initial statement. "Heed our warning, parents of the Harbinger. Your daughter is but a thread in the fabric of the future, but her fate is indeterminate. She will catalyse a civil war; a conflict that will split the supernatural world as you know it and change it forevermore."
Then, the Fates disappear from their view without another word, leaving the king and queen terrified and heartbroken in their wake.
The queen swallows, attempting to dissipate the abhorrent memory from her mind with that one action. "How are we supposed to protect her from the Fates' prophecy if we can't even protect her when she's two?"
He stills, his arms dropping from around her, and seconds he appears in front of her. He studies her quietly, his expression softening when he catches the distress clouding her usually cheery features. "That's the real reason you were worried about losing her when she turned invisible just now, isn't it?"
She nods, smiling minutely. "You can see right through me, can't you?"
"Of course." He replies, his tone gentle. "Evie, just because we lost her for a few minutes when she turned invisible, does not mean that we will not be able to protect her when she is nineteen."
"How can you be so sure Hades?" She demands. "How are we supposed to protect her then if we can't protect her now?"
"There is only so much we can protect her from, agápi mou." He reminds her.
"I know, but..." She hesitates, biting her lip. "How could they say that she'll start a civil war? Why would she want to start a civil war? I don't understand."
"I don't know." He sighs, tucking a curl of her hair behind her ear, watching her with a tenderness only she brings out in him. "However, if she does, I doubt it will be willingly."
"She can't." She shakes her head stubbornly. "She's our daughter Hades. I refuse to believe that she would."
"Agápi mou, we cannot ignore their warning. We of all people know that they have been right in the past, and ignoring their warning will surely cause dire consequences."
"I know." She swallows back the lump in her throat, her grip on her daughter tightening. "I just want to keep her safe."
"I know. And we will." The king kisses her cheek, worry evident in his gaze as he glances down at the little girl in his queen's arms. "We will do whatever we must to protect her Evie, I promise. She will be okay."
"I hope you're right." The queen sighs, pressing a butterfly soft kiss to her daughter's head. "Oh, my girl. My poor Elliana. What does the world have in store for you?"