Page 70 of Summer's Seduction

My wings bristled, but I fought for control, letting Larkspur work through this.

“Mother found me. I thought I was safe when she grabbed my hand and led me away from the battle, but then Egerius found us.”

Larkspur’s tortured gaze found mine, still lost in the past but seeking encouragement in the present. I took her hand, my wings extending protectively around her. She leaned into my warmth, soothing some of the tangled knots in my chest.

“My mother left me at Egerius’s feet,” Larkspur breathed, tears rolling down her cheeks. “She turned and ran, abandoning me—all but killing me herself.”

Larkspur’s breathing grew ragged, her heart hammering with pain and grief and rage. I wish I could bear this burden for her. I’d only just learned how gut-wrenching it felt to have a parent—one of the only people in this life trusted to keep you safe—turn on you. And it was devastating.

“Hypnos captured you and placed you inside The Glass Palace,” Hecate finished. “Hades and Thanatos found your mother’s body, and there was no evidence of where you’d gone. It wasn’t until we found you wandering around the marshlands to the west that we realized you were alive.”

“I don’t understand,” Larkspur shook her head, seeming to return to herself as she pinned Hecate under a hard glare. “Why do you seem to know these details about my life when I can’t remember anything?”

Hecate swallowed, and it was the first time I’d seen her look nervous. “I know because I was the one who placed a binding on your memories.”

My stomach twisted as I felt Larkspur’s fury swirling together with tendrils of fear and deception.

“Why,” my little monster gritted out through clenched teeth. “Why steal my memories, and why wait till now to tell me?”

Hecate glanced toward the mouth of the cave, hearing distant movements of Artemis and the huntresses, before looking back to Larkspur. “I couldn’t risk you staying with me, not with how closely I work with The Olympians, but Medusa hid you for decades. She taught you how to hone your magic until she couldn’t shroud your power any longer.”

“Larkspur lived in The Underworld for decades?” I asked as Larkspur leaned into me. She’d burned through a lot of magichelping us escape Lycia, and though my little monster didn’t want to admit it, she needed to rest.

Hecate nodded. “Medusa and I consulted The Oracle of Delphi. We knew you couldn’t remain in The Underworld with such power, not when Hypnos had already discovered you once and slaughtered your entire family.”

I flinched, feeling guilty that such a horrible creature was my father, even more so that I’d been too weak to do anything. Hecate must have seen the small movement because her following words were directed at me.

“You were a boy when all of this transpired, Morpheus. You were the one who discovered her tracks leading away from The Glass Palace and concealed her escape. I doubted you knew how big of an impact that small bravery would create, but even as a child, you were never aligned with Hypnos.”

Something in my chest clenched under her praise because it didn’t help lessen my shame. Even knowing how horrible Hypnos was, it had still taken me decades after that day to stand up to him. Countless lives had been torn apart before that one prisoner had finally given me the courage to change. Feeling like a failure for the second time this evening, I glanced down at Larkspur, imagining her as a little girl wandering through the north alone.

“The Oracle warned that binding memories could get a little messy. Those involved in Larkspur’s childhood might have been affected.” The goddess wrung her hands, causing the white snakes tattooed along her forearms to dance.

“It wasn’t an option I took lightly, but all other futures ended with you crossing The Lethe before your allotted life thread and The Underworld falling. The Oracle was lax on the details, but it sounded like if you died, it would lead down a path of war and deathwithoutHades to clean it up. So, I bound your memories and a vast portion of your magic and placed you with Soterio inThe Realm of The Living. He raised you the way life would’ve been if you’d been born only a witch and not the princess of The Nightmare Kingdom.”

Larkspur was quiet for a long moment, the churning rage inside of her growing thicker by the moment. The pressure in the air shifted like thousands of particles becoming charged, and I swear I felt anger prick along my skin like a hive of crawling ants. Finally, she spoke.

“You mean to tell me I was powerful enough to have my magic bound?”

“Yes.” Hecate glanced at me, wary of the calm, low voice Larkspur was using. “The Oracle said you must not be imprisoned by Hypnos.”

“It wasn’t ideal, but you were safe?—”

“I was suffering,” Larkspur cried, the pain of haunted memories causing her voice to break.

Hecate’s dark green eyes pricked with tears, but she didn’t let them fall. “I didn’t understand what was happening between Demeter and Hypnos. If there had been another way, I would’ve taken it, but The Oracle said?—”

“Fuck The Oracle,” Larkspur snapped. “And the fates.”

Hecate’s eyes widened as the cloudless sky above us seemed to darken.

“Are you telling me that all of this—having my home destroyed, my life erased, my sister taken, and then forced into a place where witches were murdered and worse—all of this was part of some plan divined by The Oracle? Because that seems pretty fucked up.”

“The Oracle sees only what might be,” I breathed, feeling the churning storm inside her about to erupt. She looked like she was trying hard not to scream. I held her gaze, letting her take what little strength I had left because she needed it.

Truth be told, I thought this whole thing was fucked up, too. The fates either had far less power than we thought or were the worst type of primordials. Either way, raging about things out of our control wouldn’t help Larkspur now.

Larkspur’s breathing evened out, most of her panic fading before she turned to face Hecate once more. “Has Psyche had her memories and magic stolen too?”

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