Page 6 of Fates of Monsters

I don’t dare interrupt them as they tell us things we definitively didn’t know.

“The old god knew you’d be able to get through the veil, because it was prophesied you could get the sword. He would have forced you to get it for him and taken you from us. We didn’t want that for you. The sword… its magic is the same as the day the goddess used it. I was not born with the power, and I never dreamed it would be my baby who had it,” my mother whispers. “The day you were born was one of the best and the worst of my life.”

“How did you know she had this gift?” Emerson questions.

My father frowns. “A light burst from her chest, like a beacon, and the veil woke. It was darkness before her birth, and now it is a glowing, bright light in this world. It awoke for her, like we were told it would.”

My mother nods. “We knew we had no choice but to get you out of this world. The old god could not have you. He’s trapped here without your power.” She pauses. “The goddess locked the worlds apart because the Rift was a prison for him. Now the Rift is open between our worlds, but not everyone can walk through it. The people talk, even here, and to walk through the Rift is to become a mindless solider for the Rift King’s army. The Rift King is nothing but a slave for the old god.”

Louie.

Emerson wraps his arm around me. “How did you get Calliophe out?”

My mother pulls out a necklace from under her top. “There was a tiny bit of the crowns left that the goddess kept. It’s nothing more than a necklace.” She shows me her necklace, a deep pink gemstone in the middle of a golden locket. It’s broken, cracked in half, barely held together anymore. “It used to be whole. I used it to make a small enough portal to get you through and pushed you through to your world when you were only a few weeks old. I left a note with your name on your blanket. We went far from here to make sure he couldn’t find us when we made the portal, but it didn’t stay open long. We didn’t come back here for years, but the old god seems to have forgotten about us now. He knew you were gone from this world.”

“We didn’t want to send you there,” my father whispers, his eyes shining. “I hate to even ask what your childhood was like. Did you find a family? Do you have a mom and dad that are looking after you? We don’t want to offend them by asking you to call us your parents.”

“I had no one,” I say quietly. “I was taken in by many, many foster families, who gave up a lot to keep me alive, but I was hunted in that world too, for a different reason.” I look at Emerson. “That’s a long story, but I found a family with my mate and friends. I have no one to call mom and dad. Those roles are very much yours, and thank you for saving me. For making that hard decision.”

My mother sobs. “I’m so sorry you didn’t have a family. I never wanted that for you.”

There isn’t much I can say to that to make her feel better.

Emerson is tense. “The old god. Would he know Calliophe is here now?”

They look at each other. “Possibly. He has the crowns now, but perhaps he still wants the sword or wants her dead. You shouldn’t use your gifts.”

“I want the sword to save my world,” I begin. “The goddess showed me the past and you. She showed me where the sword is, and I know I’m meant to take it from the veil.”

My mother softly smiles. “As you should. You were born with a fate, and that sword is yours.” Her eyes tighten. “But there was a warning that my mother told me, told to her by her mother and so on. The veil holds no time or love. We were warned that there is a great test within the veil for the child of the prophecy. That unless you are what the veil wants, you won’t leave with theswordbut yourdeathinstead. We are the last of the royals of this world, Calliophe, and the veil is a test. I’m sorry I cannot pass it for you, but it was not my fate.”

“You’re not going in there alone,” Emerson growls.

My mother shakes her head. “Only she can enter. I’ve tried to go in myself, and it doesn’t let anyone in. It speaks only her name. Calliophe. I didn’t choose your name; what lies in the veil did.”

“I don’t have a choice,” I softly tell Emerson, turning his head to me. “We can’t be trapped here. Louie is coming for our city, our home, our people. He’s got an entire army and endless power because of me. The Wyerns need their king. Our family needs us. We cannot leave them alone in a war.”

“The worlds can burn. Fuck, I’d burn them down for you, but I won’t let you die,” he growls. “You’re mine, and selfishly, nothing else matters to me.”

I softly kiss him. “Emerson, we both know you couldn’t live with yourself if we didn’t do this. You need to trust me.”

His eyes are bright purple stars dying in a dark world. “I do trust you, but I can’t lose you. Don’t ask me to stand back and let you walk to your death. You’ll find I’ll be right in the middle of death and you, holding it back.”

“You won’t,” I whisper. “I’m yours and I will fight with everything I have to get back to you.”

He searches my eyes and I know he wishes he could fight this for me. “I want something before you go in there.” I raise an eyebrow. “I want you to be my mate, bound in blood and marks.”

My heart all but softens for my king. I nod, kissing him once. My mother clears her throat. “We can do a ceremony and there is a blessed mating ceremony room still here.”

“Be my mate, Calliophe,” he whispers against my lips. “Once and for all. Be fucking mine.”

I brush my lips against his. “Forever.”

ChapterFive

It doesn’t feel real. It feels like a dream. Something I made up when I was still a small child, looking for my parents in the faces of strangers I saw on the streets. I would imagine a day like this, where my parents were at my side as I did the big things in life. I didn’t plan for a mate, but this is one of the biggest moments of my life, and I have my parents here. My mom is here, alive, and braiding my hair with her small hands. My pink locks look strange in her hands, and yet there is a deep feeling of comfort, one I knew as a baby for only a short time. The memory may be lost to age, but the feeling is not. She is my mother. She looks at me directly in the mirror as she finishes the final braid, and I see so much of myself in her. I have her nose, her cheekbones, but the structure of my eyes and my lips comes from my father. She smiles softly at me, matching the look in my eyes.

“I never imagined you with pink hair, in all the times I allowed myself to think about you. To dream of you as an adult. I wish… so many things. I’m so sorry for the upbringing you had.” Fresh tears fill her eyes, and my heart clenches. “But you’re alive. Alive. Now we have found each other, I hope we will have time to do all the things I’ve dreamt of. I want to be there for you.”

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