Chapter 17

Chapter

Seventeen

AGATHA

A n entire millennium of life barrelled into her as they ascended the few steps of the Meadow's pavilion, memories with each of the gods and goddesses before them landing in her mind's eye. Tears even glistened in some of their eyes. She wanted to speak, but nothing came out.

Their attention shifted from her and Grimm's faces, up to their foreheads just before Agatha felt a weight settle on her head. She reached up to touch the crown that had suddenly appeared there, looking from Grimm's to the others'. All different, yet similar. A mournful grief tugged at her suddenly, the force so strong she almost lost her footing for a moment.

That grief pulled her attention to a lone crown sitting on a pedestal off to one side. A crown of elegant, yet jagged pieces jutting into the air .

Athania. Lady War. Her friend.

Pressing a hand against her stomach, Agatha pushed it all away.

Grimm took one more step forward, a deep, guttural gasp bursting from him, stopping him in his tracks.

Vines of pure night slithered from the others gathered there, wrapping tightly around Grimm's arms, legs, throat, until they soaked into his skin, leaving only a smoky vapour to dispel into the tepid air.

He took a deep breath and looked at Agatha, his eyes crystal clear again, but all the realms still there. A presence like the rumble of thunder, the cosmos, in his eyes.

Lord Fucking Night.

She was marvelling at him, his thoughts mirroring hers as he did the same of her. "My Goddess of Magic," he mused, stepping to her and running a finger down her cheek as if there was not a whole host of beings watching them. "My little witch."

Peace flooded in to replace all her fear. He was back. Hers. Of sound mind.

One of the others cleared their throat and both of them turned to see a svelte and tanned man—a god—smile wide, his eyes misty, and he rushed forward at the same moment Grimm rushed for him.

"Thanasim," he said, voice muffled by their embrace. This was Orlan, Lord Art. He broke free of Grimm just as Agatha was rushed in a similar fashion.

"Lisbeth," she chuckled into Lady Love's shoulder as she crushed her in a hug.

One by one, they traded embraces, smiles, tears. A reunion neither she nor Grimm saw coming .

"Thanasim," Orlan cut in. "Is this wise, my friend? Taking your power back? You left strands of it with all of us for caution's sake."

"Until the appointed time," Grimm said. "And that time is now." He looked at Agatha briefly, and she wondered how much of the memory in their gazebo he remembered.

Orlan nodded, gesturing for them to sit around the long, oval table. "So mote it be, then, brother. But we cannot interfere." Lord Art looked around at the others as they, one by one, nodded subtly. "Not any more than we already have."

Grimm took the seat meant for him without missing a beat. "You interfered despite my binding?"

"As much as we could," one of them said. Lady Wisdom—Valeria. "The power connected each of us to you marginally, but we could not consult one another regarding you, nor contact you directly."

"Goddess Alive it is good to see your seats filled again after all this time." Lord Art continued, "It was never a fight you should have taken on your own. Athania was our friend, our sister, too." He shook his head. "We did what we could to aid you, in our own ways."

Agatha gasped, all of their attention landing on her. " La Femme Déchue . That was you?"

Orlan grinned, tipping his head and flourishing a hand in answer.

Though Grimm had not seen the painting, and the map of star symbols beneath it only briefly, she was certain he remembered it, now that his mind was clear again. "What else?" he asked, looking from one to another. "Lisbeth?" he prompted.

Lady Love cleared her throat delicately, her golden hair swaying. "The two of you continuously threw Athania around the realms, forgetting one another each time. And we couldn't have that, now could we?"

She smiled impishly and batted her eyelashes. "A ship off course that landed Thanasim in a village where Asteria worked at an inn. A travelling army that almost overran a young woman, who chose to assault the captain with her dagger."

Grimm laughed, remembering something Agatha couldn't, but it sounded like them.

Lisbeth smiled slyly. "A peculiar urge to read by the docks on a cold Winter's day in Merveille, and meeting a handsome dock worker who wished to be a novelist."

Ira . Agatha closed her eyes hard, reaching for Grimm. That one was still fresh.

Grimm swallowed, immense gratitude flooding their bond before he turned to Lady Love. " Thank you , Lisbeth."

Nyxia cleared her throat, her chin high, regal. "I believe you are quite aware of my part in all this, but for the sake of educating the others, I made Thanasim a reaper in almost every life." She looked at Grimm lovingly. "And did my best to ensure Thalia was in his lives as well."

Lord Nature sat just to Nyxia's left. "Magnus?" Agatha prompted him. She felt in her bones he had specifically given her something she could not have survived without.

Magnus' throat bobbed as he offered her a smile. "Mabon," he said quietly, tears immediately welling in her eyes. "That day in the woods, when you were a witchling. Sister Autumn ," he sang.

"And that woman tried to take me." Agatha recalled that day too well .

Magnus nodded grimly. "Mabon kept her at bay until your mother arrived."

Agatha sucked in a breath. "My goddess, that woman was Chresedia—Athania."

She'd changed—nay, thieved —bodies so many times, yet been the same fallen goddess, while Agatha and Grimm had died and been reborn time and again. All to keep themselves from remembering. To keep her from them. To keep magic safe.

Another nod came from Magnus, and Valeria—Lady Wisdom—spoke up. "I interfered that day as well. I sent Theodore Griswald to Lorelai and Ambrose."

Grimm nearly choked. "The G?thi ? But he works for Chres—Athania."

"No," Valeria said. "Not really. I sent him to counsel your parents. Monarch had called to me. Hespa gave her his name to write in the Grimoire, for Sister Summer."

Sister Summer. Agatha thought of Seleste, of all her Sisters and their place in this madness.

"Hissa called to me." This came from Lord Persuasion, Cullen. "With the idea to inspire Lorelai's journals. She had the goddess quill. You had taken it to her, Thanasim, along with a locket. By then, I had deduced there was something significant about this era—this life. This battle had been waged countless times. But you were all waiting for something." He looked at Agatha. "The Dark Star."

Grimm's attention snapped to Agatha.

"What are my mother's journals?" She leaned forward. "They—they're like pieces of my Sisters and me."

Cullen murmured his agreement. "Yes. And they have the power to summon the First Sisters."

Agatha and Grimm froze in unison. "What?" he breathed, wariness and hope colliding through him in their bond. "Summon our daughters?"

"Yes. Their spirits. Though, the summoning is minimal, and it can only be performed once. Hissa put it into place with me after…" He licked his lips and sighed. "After Athania got to Talan. After the quill had to leave the Sisters and be kept hidden again."

"That is where I came in," Isadora interjected, Lady Fertility in all her regality. "The spell over your lineage and the Sisters Solstice was a good one, but Athania wanted the goddess quill. When she discovered the Sisters had it, she happened to be a rotted old hag and in need of a body."

Agatha's hands began to shake, flashes of Talan as a babe, laughing, learning to wield her magic… Grimm squeezed her hand, trying to mask his own grief while silently comforting hers.

"I feared the lineage would falter," Isadora continued. "But since the next Sisters would not be born of direct descendants, I merely had to ensure that, at the proper time, the correct people would meet and the next Sisters would be born."

"Fantine?" Grimm said. His voice was calm, but Agatha could feel his need to move on from speaking of Talan. It was too painful to address now.

The ever-glowing Lady Day smiled, a ray of perfect sunshine. "The Deux Siècles Eclipse . Talan came to me with that portion of your spell, to ensure it would hold."

"Percival?" This time from Agatha. The fragments were all slipping into place…

"Ah," Lord Peace shifted in his chair. "I sent Lorelai to create Araignée when I, too, saw the Fourth Order would birth the Dark Star."

Grimm inhaled next to Agatha, his breathing uneven. It was so much to take in.

"I believe"—Jasper stood, a wicked grin crossing his dark, beautiful face as he spread his arms wide—"that leaves me."

Nyxia snorted at Lord Mischief from Grimm's other side. "And what did you do, Jasper?"

"Why, I made Athania's life a living Hades, of course. A little of this here, a little of that, there. Once, I even gave her a wart on her nose while she was sleeping, and dumped a potion into her mash that gave her uncontrollable gas for a fortnight."

They all chuckled, some of the tension dispelling.

"This must be where I come in," Smithwick spoke up from his place on the table in front of Nyxia. "Why did you call me here, Jasper?"

"My little mischievous friend, I believe you might be just the one to fill in the gaps."

The Aureland creature nodded soberly and took a deep breath. Slowly, he turned to face Agatha and Grimm. "Aureland is where the two of you first sent Athania. When she landed in my realm, I immediately knew. I am a Gatekeeper."

He put his animalistic hand to his chest. "I keep watch over the entrances into Aureland, as there are four and they lead to other lands. Thanasim, I do not know what you remember and what you do not, but your choice of Aureland was quite intentional. It was the place of your first life."

Smithwick's attention flicked to Nyxia, who nodded, her eyes downcast and haunted.

"It is the realm of your descendants. It is the realm of Keepers. Powerful beings often called Elves. At the time of Athania's… arrival , Queen Nuria and her brother, Prince Khyan, ruled Aureland. They allowed Athania to stay, though she ended up imprisoned many times. Aureland is a land of peace and safety.

"Always, she would escape the dungeon. Eventually, they discovered she was luring Keepers and other magical creatures in and consuming their magic to make herself more powerful. Most of them perished, as magic is tied up in the soul, but a few got away in time. Though, tragically, they were never the same.

"By that time, she had consumed so much magic that it made her powerful enough to enter Orford, a place in the realm from which you originally threw her. The realm where she—" He paused and looked at Agatha wearily. "The place where she'd attacked Asteria."

Searing pain shot through Agatha's head until she thought her skull would fissure.

…Athania pressing a knife against Asteria's swollen stomach, slicing the fabric of her bodice. Magic wrapping around her body, pushing the knife and Athania back. A roar that shook the mountains, a cloud of black smog rolling in... Thanasim roaring out of nowhere, his skeletal fist plunging into Athania's chest as Asteria screamed for him to stop. As he ripped Athania's soul free from her body, snarling like a rabid beast…

Agatha coughed, trying to drag in great gasps of air. Grimm was up from his chair, gripping her shoulders and saying her name.

She'd had a dream just like that, many, many times .

It had been real…

"I'm all right," she croaked. "Smithwick, please, go on. Why did Athania want back into Orford?"

A glass of water appeared on the table in front of her and Smithwick pushed with all his might to scoot it closer to her, some of it spilling over the rim with the movement. "If you drink up, I will continue," he said, standing in a little puddle.

Agatha obeyed, and Smithwick carried on.

"She wanted the goddess quill, as Isadora said. When she was taken hostage by a general at war with Orford after her husband was killed, the quill had been left behind."

Grimm shook his head. "I have vague memories of her telling me repeatedly she did not have it in Orford. I knew she was lying. At some point, after she was dropped in Aureland, I went to Orford and took the quill."

"Indeed she was lying, my friend, and that you did. But this was around the time that she stole a Portal Key—needed in Aureland to come in or leave—and she went into Orford to retrieve the quill herself, realising then what you'd done. At that point, she raged and killed anyone in her path—again. This was seen as just the pattern of her evil ways. However, it turned out that it was more so to draw you in."

"And it did." Grimm sighed. "I remember that night."

So did Agatha. The night they bound her.

"Yes. You bound her and threw her into another realm, but she kept returning to Aureland, and you would throw her elsewhere. It wasn't until King Darius took the throne of Aureland and his wife the throne of Orford that we discovered it wasn't only the unique magic she wished to steal. She'd discovered something none of us knew. "

"And that was?"

Magnus gasped, all of their attention swinging to him. "There is a hidden portal into the Netherrealm in Aureland."

Smithwick nodded, all attention returning to him like a pendulum swing. "Correct. It was so hidden that Queen Nuria never knew, but King Darius hunted Athania down one day and found her studying it."

"All this time," Agatha said quietly. "All this time we'd thought when she said she wanted to go home that it was wherever she was first thrown from." She rubbed at her tired, sore eyes. "But she'd already been back there. She wanted to return here . To The Void." Her mind tripped over the information, and she fidgeted in her seat. "But, once she had our power, magic would be gone."

Smithwick sighed. "Or would it be hers? If she came here, to The Void, the powers of Lord and Lady Magie de la Nuit at her beck and call…"

The Primordial lords and ladies all shuddered at the thought. Looking between one another, the entire picture was finally painted for them.

"Thankfully, that has not happened," Smithwick said. "Unfortunately, she made the most of her time stuck in the mortal realms. Athania desperately wanted the quill back, and found a way into your familial line via?—"

"Talan," Grimm whispered, his voice strained.

"Talan," Smithwick confirmed soberly. "She has a dark, twisted way of taking over bodies when the soul is near death. I don't know the intricacies of why she took Talan's body, other than the need for a new body and her desperation for the quill, but she certainly used it to alter the Grimoire in an attempt to alter History to her bidding .

"By the time you discovered this, Thanasim, you were in your fifth new life without Asteria." He smiled sadly. "Though, I believe you had recently found her yet again. The last time you threw Athania, it was into a realm with very little magic left. A place where it was outlawed, oddly enough by the dedication of one couple and their comrades—the Jouberts."

Agatha's heart clenched. Every tiny step had been with the protection of their daughters in mind, and her very own parents had done the same for Winnie, Sorscha, Seleste, and Aggie.

"A realm," Smithwick went on, "where the two of you and the Sisters Solstice had taken great pains to orchestrate this era."

"Midlerea," Grimm said tightly.

"Morgana," Agatha whispered.

A slight nod from Smithwick. "But this time, when she fell, a few of our Lord Night's descendants fell from Aureland, too. Bringing the line to Midlerea and birthing the race of beings you call?—"

"The Druids."

"The Druids. They stepped up to lead one of the Four Factions of The Order set in place by the Sisters Solstice via the Grimoire. Peace lasted for a time, but, eventually, the factions were infiltrated and began warring over the goddess quill.

"Worse, dark things began to occur. Athania opened her School of Alchemy, sharing the things she'd learned from the Papiens in Aureland—creatures highly skilled in science and alchemy. But her ways were—" He shook his head, the sharp-tipped spines on his head swaying. "Demented. The Sisters had foreseen some things through Hespa and took pains to stop them, but Athania was one step ahead. She'd learned too much as Talan, but neither of you knew this. That was, until Lorelai Joubert."

"I–I don't understand," Agatha breathed. "What else did my mother do?"

"Thanasim, you approached her when she was pregnant with Sister Winter. By then, you suspected who their daughters would be. By the time she gave birth to Seleste, you'd directed her to eradicate magic any way she could, and you sent her across Midlerea with a prophecy—one written long ago by your daughters.

"She and Ambrose split the work, resulting in two variations of the same thing. It was during those endeavours that Lorelai learned Talan's body had been taken over by Athania long ago." He looked down at his bare feet, then back up at Grimm. "You were killed a few nights later. A warlock by the name of Pollock that Morgana was working with—he poisoned you. I believe your next life was that of Ira."

"Gods." Grimm ran a hand through his hair.

"I need to get back to my Sisters." Agatha's voice hardly carried, but they all stood as one to say their goodbyes.

"I'll return them to Achlys," Nyxia told the others, all their concern evident. "One more night of rest." She turned to Agatha and Grimm. "Then I will escort you back through the Netherrealm myself."

The door of their rooms in the Palace of Achlys closed with a click, and Grimm came to wrap Agatha tightly in his arms. She let the steady beat of his heart against her ear calm the anxiety whorling within her.

"The Dark Star," he murmured against her hair, leaning down to kiss the top of her head.

After a few moments like that, his voice broke the silence again. "Belfry didn't go to The Primordial as Talan, Hissa, and Monarch did."

Agatha's own heartbeat ratcheted up speed at his words—she knew exactly where he was headed with it.

"Because she had already approached a Primordial Goddess. She'd come to you, hadn't she?"

Tears leaked from her eyes, soaking his shirt. She nodded against his chest. "How did you know?"

He gently pulled her back, hands moving to cradle her face as he searched her eyes. "That was the night I was to be separated from you for the first time. Do you really think I didn't come back almost immediately?" His smile was so painfully forlorn. "I was there quite a lot longer before I revealed myself to you."

Agatha gasped, remembering more of that night. "You did come back. We fought."

"Of course we did. Our bond had been ripped away. We scrambled to hold onto memories of one another. We managed to, just long enough to quarrel. I loathed Belfry's plan. But we both knew she was right."

Agatha nodded, not trusting words.

"And we both know what this means now, my love."

"Please." Her voice cracked. "Right now, I just want you to kiss me like everything will be all right."

His thumbs swiped at her tears, traced her freckles. Gently, he brushed his lips against hers. "Everything will be all right."

WINNIE

Seleste stood gazing into her scrying bowl as Winnie and Sorscha watched on. She'd been tracking Chresedia for a fortnight, the fragmented images of what she could see confirming she and her Acolytes were travelling.

The Druid troupe had met with all of Grimm's rebellion leaders, informing them of their expected duties. Some would head toward Eridon and await the eclipse in secret, while others would head toward the capital cities across Midlerea—in case they failed to stop Chresedia.

Asa was headed from Araignée toward Eridon with many of his warriors and other mages. There, they would scope out the area, keep watch, and prepare for the others to arrive.

The eclipse was to take place in just over a fortnight, leaving little wiggle room for those of them in Merveille to make it on foot. The Sisters and Grimm could translate there, but their troops could not, and neither could most of the Druids.

An astounding number of witches had come forward when Emile drew upon their ranks, but it was yet unclear where they stood as far as the eclipse and Chresedia were concerned.

"I'm excited for this fair," Sorscha said as she hung half upside down from Seleste's bed.

Winnie hummed her half-hearted agreement. The fair was their last-ditch effort to sow stability into Seagovia before they all left. To Winnie, it felt like a living memorial. Perhaps she would feel better when Aggie and Grimm had rejoined them.

"What do you see?" Sorscha directed the question to Seleste, but her eye was glazed over, and she did not hear her. "Seleste," Sorscha tried again.

"Oh!" Sister Summer shook her head as if dislodging something. "Apologies. What did you say?"

"I saiddd , what do you see? You've been staring at that thing since I arrived yesterday, and if we're late to help set up the booths, Tindle is going to skin us alive."

"Just more woods and River Vide. But…" Seleste trailed off, brows furrowed. "I would swear she's nearing Drifthollow."

Winnie stood, coming to look over Seleste's shoulder. "That doesn't sound right. That's too far Nord."

Seleste worried her lip between her teeth. "I agree. Could you have Laurent meet me here before his rehearsal? I'm worried we missed something."

Sorscha popped up, slipping on a pair of sandals. "I'll tell him. Eleanor wanted to show me her act before I help Dulci with her patisserie stall."

Winnie did not argue. She was too busy watching Seleste with concern. Sorscha bopped out of the room and Winnie forced Seleste to face her. "Is this all that's bothering you?"

"Isn't it enough?" Seleste snapped uncharacteristically, immediately deflating. "I'm sorry. Yes, I'm concerned something is amiss."

"However…" Winnie started for her, earning her a baleful wince from Seleste .

"However…" She broke free of Winnie's hold on her arms, and walked to the window. "This is a difficult moon for me each year, I'm afraid. It's distracting me, and now I'm worried we've sent all the rebellion troops in the wrong direction."