Page 56 of Mortal Desires

To think we were always free, even in the afterlife. No consequences but the ones we decided to take on. I wondered if the ones punishing themselves really did something so bad. The ones who didn’t were simply evil enough not to care if what they did was wrong. Instinctively, I moved closer to Vicious, my arm brushing his.

“Here we are.”

Right at the edge of the forest we crossed stood a small wooden shack beside a lake, the eerie fog around it made the hairs on my arm stand up.

As we reached the shack, something trembled the shack’s walls. I gasped but Vicious didn’t stop until the door opened on its own accord. I yelped, bringing my hand to my chest and he reminded me once more, “Remember, quiet.”

I nodded. I was pretty sure fear seized my vocal cords.

I dragged my feet, but we crossed the threshold. Was that how people thought about our manor? Did the kids who rode bikes in front of it shiver in fear?

A caldron sat atop an open flame in the middle of the room, a fire hazard if you asked me. The flames were green, licking the bottom. We waited, just standing there without uttering a word.

Forming from the shadows themselves, three figures appeared. The one in the middle had long jet-black hair and cat-shaped, piercing yellow eyes. To her right, her sister looked the same but almost translucent like she was running out of ink. She stood there, without looking at us or anything but the shadows around her. And finally, the sister to the left, a distorted version of the middle one. She looked the most inhumane of them all, her sinister smile showing off sharp teeth.

“My lord,” they spoke in unison. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

“I’d like to ask you a question.”

They hummed, coming closer with their gaze fixed on me with so much intensity I gasped and reached for Vicious’ arm.

“But we don’t want to answer your questions,” they spoke again. “We like the daughter of the underworld. The true queen is finally here.”

“Don’t talk to her,” he roared.

They blinked at him, even the translucent one concentrating for a second. “Why?”

“I came here to ask you a few questions,” he said again.

The fates watched him in silence. Vicious knew them well enough to push.

“A soul contacted the queen a long time ago. A soul who had died even years before that. How did she do it?”

The fates hummed, stepping closer as they moved their eyes to me again. “The question you’re asking is wrong. Ask the right one.”

Vicious huffed and twisted his hands together before roughly placing them on his waist. I watched the fates, pushing my fear deep, deep down where they hopefully couldn’t see. Swallowing a lump in my throat and knowing Vicious might be furious, I spoke anyway. “Why?”

The fates smiled a terrifying smile. “Yes, why. The answer you know too, my queen.”

I looked down at the ring and back to the fates.

“Abuela cut you a deal, is that it?”

“Pilar,” Vicious warned.

“The queen is the first witch we see.”

I nodded, not sure then what was happening. They never met Abuela, that’s what they meant. If I was the first one they saw…

“We are interested in the fixed points in history,” they said suddenly. “Things that can’t ever be changed. They happen again and again in a loop. They are born and die here. Repeated through history like echoes.”

“I thought the underworld was the echo of the above.”

They tilted their heads to the side. “Everything happens at once.”

I was getting tired of hearing that.

“Let’s go.” Vicious made to step away, but I stopped him by grabbing his arm—too close to making sense of this whole thing to give up now.

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