Page 15 of Invoking Ruin

“I didn’t know a name five minutes ago. Who’s to say it’s your real one?” He sets the glass on the bar top and steeples his fingers.

“I do. It’s the one my mother gave me, after all.” He has to be drunk. My name isn’t my real name? He’s sputtering nonsense. I’ll cut him off after this and send him on his way, if he can even walk.

The man’s grin only grows. “Your mother, eh? And what was her name?”

“Her name was…” My mind spins, reaching for a name that I was so sure I knew just a second ago. Now, nothing’s there. No name, no face.

What is going on?

“That’s none of your business,” I snap. I need to get out of here. This conversation has gone from annoying to something far more dangerous. I don’t know who this man is, but I don’t want to know him, either.

Over his shoulder, I catch sight of my manager as she serves a table. I give her jerk of my head to indicate I need some fresh air, and she nods.

“If you’ll excuse me. I’m on break,” I say. “Enjoy your drink.”

I set aside my dish rag and leave the bar, making my way toward the double doors leading to the back. Before I can get through them to safety, there’s a scream, and then a white hot crack against my skull.

I fall to my knees, the world spinning.

“Sorry, but we’re not finished chatting yet,” the man says above me, the words partially lost in the roar filling my ears.

“Or rather, I still need you. You’ll see why soon.”

My vision goes black and I slump to the ground.

Chapter four

Atê

Go see the Moirai .

How easy for me.

Leaving Tartarus again is hard enough. It’s dark in the bowels of the Underworld, and while someone has set torches guttering in brackets along the walls, the light they throw off is feeble, as though Tartarus is swallowing it all up. Perhaps it is.

I see no one in those dark hallways, a small stroke of luck, but once I’m in the deep grey gloom of the Underworld proper, my luck runs out. Patrols of dead souls seem to be out in spades, today. They force me to take my time, to dodge out of the way of the Underworld denizens guarding their home.

It’s still an easier path than the way I came in. I learned my lesson, with the rivers.

Still, ducking behind corners and hoping to go unnoticed by one of the Empusae, Hecate’s pet shapeshifters, is not my idea of a fun time.

The Underworld isn’t nearly empty enough.

Finding the Moirai is another problem, but fortunately, one I think I can solve. Since the fall of the belief of men, the Moirai have dwelled permanently here in the Underworld, serving its king. They had a plum position for many centuries, in a choice location on Gaia where they answered to no one. Other gods even begged for their favor. They lost all of that once their duplicity with Nyx was revealed.

If I’m right, they’ve fled to the edges of this gloomy realm, sulking in their exile.

If I’m lucky, they’ll be angry enough at their fate to answer my questions. If I’m extra lucky, they won’t still be working for Nyx.

Unlikely. Nyx wouldn’t send me to them if she didn’t have reasonable certainty they would do her bidding. Their counsel, whatever it may be, will have to be taken with a grain of salt.

The Moirai are powerful allies and have led wiser gods than me astray. I’ll have to tread very carefully.

There’s a prickle of warning just behind my eyes, a nuisance in my brain trying to tell me I’m making a mistake.

As though I don’t already know I’m on the path to ruin. Seeing Nyx was a mistake, taking her advice and seeking out her allies is a worse one.

But they haven’t left me any choice.

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