Page 62 of His in the Dark

“I know it will.”

I do not offer more of my thoughts on the matter. Things always change when two forces meet with opposite desires.

Love or desire? Her question resonates through me, as if the Fates have pulled the question from my memory themselves.

I feel Persephone’s absence in painful longing, watching the Fates stand together. I need her beside me. It is a desire I will not allow myself to feel in this place. My emotions are too strong as it is, and they are balanced against those years of isolation. It is not like me to wish for the touch of another, especially one so casual as what the Fates are sharing now. Yet I find myself wanting it.

Only from Persephone. No one else.

I do not flex my hands against the urge, but it is there.

For a few moments, it seems the Fates are waiting for me to speak. Perhaps they are remaining silent to encourage me to do so.

I do not speak, I wait for their consult as they pick through my mind. I think of my hands on Persephone’s skin. I think of her heels in my back. I think of how she tasted, and how she sounded, and how she took me into her body and let me find pleasure there. I did not think it would be like it was between us. I did not expect to be able to let myself get lost enough to have such a powerful release.

My mouth goes dry remembering it. Dangerous, to let my mind wander at a moment like this, but the Fates must decide that I am not going to continue.

“Do not underestimate the power of the Goddess.” I am not sure which one of them speaks. It could be all of them. It could be none of them as the voice seems to come from deep within my mind. “The more support you give her, the less she will need from you. The more powerful she will become.”

Those words do not inspire desire in me. They inspire pure irritation. The less she willneedfrom me? Why do the Fates insist on misunderstanding me? Why can’t they seethesethreads when they can see so many others?

"I do not wish for my wife to require my hand," I say sharply. "I wish for her to desire it above all else. Is such a partnership in your visions?"

The Fates shiver, as if a stronger breeze has come through the room, but I do not feel a change in the air. I would welcome it if I could.

"It's a dangerous game you're playing," they say, a warning edge in their tone.

I laugh. It cuts through the stillness and echoes back at me. “Yet we're playing it nonetheless. Such is the way of Gods.”

The sound of whispers fills a room. Is it the Fates, or souls out of time? What are they discussing? I cannot make out a single word. The Fates themselves shift in their places, their hands brushing against one another’s, eyes on me.

“Zeus would win if it came to a war,” one of them says. “Only in the sense that you would be trapped in a hell of your own making.”

The voice splits in two. “The dead will be the undoing,” another adds, tone sharper. “For all mortals will perish.”

All mortals would perish. My eyes widen with what they predict. It is not possible for the mortal realm to be barren. Demeter. The singular Goddess’ name echoes in my mind and a chill flows down my arms.

“And,” says the third, “the underworld will be no more than ash.”

The voice snaps back together. “—with the screams of the souls that once were.”

The ominous foretelling is not what I had hoped for. New fear creeps through me.

I feel it all down my spine. My arms. My legs. The dread does not stop until it has filled every place in my body that is capable of feeling it.

“I will not give her up,” I state. Knowing the pain that will come of me. Perhaps we are all meant for pain.

“We did not say you must give her away.”

“Your words are not clear.”

“You should avoid war, my king,” the Fates say as one. “For the fate of all. War will end us as we know it.”

“How?”

“That is not for you to know. It simply must be.”

My anger rises again like a flame that will never be extinguished. It is useless. “I want to fight for her, to protect her, to keep her.”

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