Page 66 of Filthy Rich Vampires: For Eternity

“And if our magic is awakening, perhaps, it is because the Gods themselves are returning.”

Oh, shit. “Which Gods exactly?” I asked weakly.

“All of them,” she added. “There are thousands of Gods in cultures all over the world.”

I looked to Julian, but he was staring at her, shadows clinging to his face. “And that’s bad?”

“It might be.” She leaned against the sink, wringing her hands together. “Since the curse, there’s been a delicate balance to this world. You two are proof that the Gods are awakening, too, and if so, everything will change.”

“How? How are we proof?” I asked.

“You are the daughter of Demeter as Persephone was. He is the son of Hades. In a way, it is as if Persephone and Hades’ doomed love has returned.”

That’s what she’d meant when she said we’d found each other, at last.

“Why?” If she was telling the truth, if there were more sirens, why would I have been chosen? There were millions of vampires in the world, why Julian? “Why us?”

“Believe me, you are not the only one asking that question. The easiest answer is that our bloodline leads directly back to Demeter. But that doesn’t answer other questions, like why your ascension to the throne had such a dramatic effect on magic.”

“There’s a prophecy.” Julian paused and cleared his throat. “Magic to magic, darkness to darkness—”

“I know the prophecy,” she snapped, cutting him off. “But prophecies are roadmaps to places the fates have already chosen.”

I was finding it hard to breathe. The truth weighed heavily on me, and despite my trepidations about telling her, I couldn’t ignore that our resurrection might hold the key to all of this.

“We died,” I whispered. I almost didn’t expect her to hear me.

Horror twisted across her face, and I knew she had. She stumbled a step as though her legs might give out. In an instant, Julian was at her side. My mother was too stricken to reject his assistance as he helped her to a seat.

Slowly, I told her about what happened. How Willem had kidnapped me and manipulated my memories, how I’d been drawn to Julian at the party even though my warped mind couldn’t remember him, how his tether had responded so violently, and how, even in my confusion, I’d followed him into death. She remained quiet as I recalled waking on the throne with the crown and how I had found the melody that drew him back to life.

“And now our lives are bound together,” I finished.

No one spoke for a minute. Julian hovered between us like one of us might faint or make a run for it or attack.

Finally, my mother spoke in a low voice, tears swimming in her eyes. “Then, it is true. You were the ones in the prophecy. You are Persephone and Hades reborn.”

“I think that’s getting a little ahead of ourselves,” I said quickly. “Sirens know the song of life and death, right? Demeter granted it to us, so we could move between this world and the Underworld.”

“Move between,” she repeated gently. She stretched her hand across the table and took mine. “Not return from true death. That is a power only the Gods hold. Even when a vampire turns a mortal, they do so by giving the gift of their blood—their magic—before death. No one can command a soul to return from the Underworld.”

“I don’t have a soul, right?” Julian said quietly.

“You do now.” She swallowed, tears spilling over her cheeks. “Hers. She shared hers to bring you back.”

This was enlightening and confusing. I was beginning to need a nap.

“Okay, but none of that makes us reincarnated Gods,” I pointed out.

“Persephone was the Goddess of Spring. She created life from winter’s barren death.” She looked to Julian. “And did you not pass into Oblivion?”

“Limbo,” he murmured.

“Limbo exists within the Underworld. Only a vampire with Hades’ blood could pass into it.” She paused, glancing at each of us in turn. “Together you have turned the wheel, rewritten the rules of life and death, reset the laws of magic to their origin. Your gift is life, his is death. Light and dark. An endless circle.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

A few months ago, I was a college student struggling to graduate and hold down two jobs. Now I was a freaking Goddess? Could the world get any weirder?

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