Chapter Thirty-One

"Lies," Nick hisses, still trapping me behind him.

Cronus's sharp blue eyes narrow. "If you try to keep me from her, it will not end well for you, Prince."

"Nick," I start.

"Don't listen to him, Rhi. He will lie through his teeth to be free of this place."

You must swear to me that despite whatever lies the creature tells or whatever he holds against you, you will not set him free. Nyx's words haunt my memory as Cronus's nostrils flare in anger. Yet, he spoke about being freed, and I can't ignore the fact that my Scylla does more than remain docile in his presence.

It recognizes him.

"Nick," I repeat. "It's ok. He could have hurt me before, but he didn't. Let me go. "

Nick doesn't move his hands, but he also doesn't stop me when I walk around them to settle by his side and observe the Titan. Cronus stares back at me with an equal intensity, and I suck in a sharp breath once I realize the familiar shade of blue in his eyes is just like my own.

Cronus's eyes soften. "You are beautiful. Just like your mother." He smiles, and another pang of familiarity socks me in my gut. It's my smile. "You look exactly like her. The formidable woman couldn't even leave a piece of me recognizable on my own child. Except…" He takes a step toward me, ignoring Nick's warning growl. "Your eyes. Though, even then, she had to make sure her green ones are just as noticeable."

I try to keep my voice from shaking. "Who was my mother?"

Cronus cocks his head, eyes narrowing in confusion. "You mean you don't know?"

I shake my head. My heart pounds furiously with both excitement and trepidation. It feels like I'm teetering on the edge of an abyss, waiting for this other piece of information, the other half of me , to tip me over the brink.

Before I found out what I was, I had no desire to learn of my birth parents. As far as I'm concerned, Angela and John Owens are my parents. They raised me, sheltered me, loved me. But after coming to Alystair and learning of my monstrous heritage, the need to know who my birth parents are stemmed from necessity, of the need to discover more of who I truly was, and why I withhold the power that I do.

Now, one half of that is complete. My father is Cronus, King of the Titans, and the unexplainable powers I inherited are undoubtedly his. Oddly, I have no questions beyond that. But my mother…

An onslaught of emotions barrel through me as questions fire off in my brain. What sort of mother abandons her child? Did she love me at all? Why did she feel the need to abandon me in the first place?

And the final question, the one that I'm truly afraid to ask…

Is she alive?

"I would have assumed she told you." Cronus leans against his scythe.

"Who?" Nick and I both ask at the same time.

Cronus huffs in annoyance. "Your mother was Scylla."

I cling to Nick's hand at the same time he says, "Impossible."

The Titan's eyes narrow on Nick. "You stand within the Cave of Nyx, a feat thought to be impossible in and of itself, before the imprisoned King of the Titans, and yet you live. Care to say that word again?"

The two start bickering, but my mind focuses only on a single word of a single sentence: was. Your mother was Scylla.

Past tense. Because of course, it's common knowledge that Scylla died centuries ago. My mother died centuries ago.

She's dead.

And yet, I exist now , in this century. How is that possible?

Unless Cronus is lying.

"None of this makes sense," I say, disrupting Nick and Cronus's existential debate. "How can I be Scylla's daughter, living in this day and age, when Scylla died thousands of years ago?"

"Ah," Cronus says brightly. "That is not a question I can answer."

I narrow my eyes. "Bullshit. You are omniscient and all-powerful. Unless there is a limit to your power, after all?"

Nick cringes. I'm aware I have a bad habit of baiting powerful beings, but to be fair, a lot of those said beings were men who were essentially mansplaining. Or godsplaining. Or whatever .

Cronus's darken to nearly black. "I have a question for you, dear daughter. Have you come to free me?"

My stomach flips at him using the term daughter. It sounds wrong coming from his lips. I open my mouth to respond, but Nick beats me to it.

"No fucking way."

Cronus focuses his wholly lethal stare on Nick, but addresses me. "Who is this man to you?"

I respond with the first answer that reaches my lips, and the most honest one. "Everything. He is my everything."

Nick's gaze whips to mine, his unspoken words reflected in his bright eyes. So are you.

Cronus's stare flits between Nick and I. "I see. Then why don't you ask the question you came here for. You want to know who is cloaking your Thread."

Well, he certainly is omniscient.

"Yes," I answer.

"Because you believe it will save his life, save him from the Fate he is destined to meet."

Ok, now he's just showing off.

"You are fortunate I know exactly how important you are to her, Demon Prince," Cronus addresses Nick. "Otherwise, you would not be here to witness this conversation. "

Nick merely raises his chin in defiance, giving the Titan a wordless "fuck you."

"Please d--" I stop. The word "dad" is on the tip of my tongue, but I bite it back. That title is reserved for my real dad. The one whose shoulders I sat on to grab apples from the highest branches of trees and who cheered me on when I first rode a bicycle.

Cronus takes another step toward us, repositioning his scythe by his side. "Is it not obvious? I am the one who cloaked your Thread."

"Why?"

The Titan's rough-hewn features soften. "Because you are my daughter, and I wanted to protect you, especially after what happened to your mother."

I don't know the full story of how I am alive thousands of years after my mother, but after Cronus's revelation, a part of me feels selfish in what I am about to ask.

"I need you to unveil it."

"I know."

I fight the urge to roll my eyes. "Then can you please remove it?"

"I'm afraid I cannot."

That slow mourning anger is surfacing, the one that explodes without warning. Just as I'm about to ask why he can't, Cronus speaks .

"I was not the only one who cloaked your Thread. In order to remove it, both of us need to be present."

"Then who-"

A thunderous crash interrupts my sentence. The Moirai stand beside Cronus, ethereal and cunning in all their lethal glory. Their pearlescent hair glows in the dimness of the cavern, their different colored eyes shining with unearthly vibrance.

"We should have known you were behind this," Clotho says, her pale blue eyes fixed on Cronus.

"You always cause trouble," Lachesis states, lavender eyes heavy with disdain,

"Even imprisoned, you are a menace," Atropos finishes, silver eyes flashing.

I sink into Nick's side, my last encounter with the sisters of Fate still fresh in my mind. My abdomen throbs with a phantom pain, and I clench and unclench my left fist as though the wound in my palm is still there.

Cronus, however, has zero fucks to give.

"I will gladly suffer an eternity of imprisonment over dealing with you three twats any day."

Nick chokes on a laugh, drawing the unwanted attention of Atropos.

"How delightful, since this is where you will remain until the realm implodes." She fixes her chilling stare on me. "Well done, Rhiannon. I truly did not believe you would venture this far into the hands of death to fulfill your Bargain."

"But she hasn't," Clotho says.

"Not really," Lachesis finishes.

The anger starts to bubble and swell like molten lava. "We had a Bargain. I find out who cloaked my Thread. He's standing right there." I gesture to Cronus.

"But there is another." Atropos's eyes sparkle mischievously. "And you need her to unveil it."

"She can come forward if she chooses," Clotho adds.

"But if not…" Lachesis trails, unfolding her palm. In it lies a twirling Thread of onyx, and I already know whose life hovers in her palm. The life of the man I have done everything for, that I would destroy everything for, and whose life I hold above my everything, including my own. Lachesis eyes her silver-eyed sister, who has her gruesome shears open and inching towards Nick's Thread.

My mouth drops, lips trembling with the knowledge of what Atropos is about to do. "We had a fucking deal!" I shout and barge toward her, only to be held back by Nick.

"Don't, Rhi. You can't fight them. They will destroy you, and that will destroy me."

I meet his golden eyes in disbelief. "If she cuts your Thread, she will destroy you!"

He shakes his head, a melancholy smile parting his lips. "Maybe in this world. In this life." His hand caresses my cheek. "But I'll find you in another."

No. Absofuckinglutely not. I didn't come this far for these bitches to cheat their own fucking rules. I charge toward her again, and Atropos points her shears in my direction.

"If you come any closer, I will stab you again, and this time, I will make sure you do not heal."

I don't care. Reason has left the building, and I'm fueled only by my rage and the idea of a soulless existence without Nick.

But I can't move, my feet halted by an unseen force. At first, I think it's Atropos, but her head is cocked to the side in surprise, her brows drawn together in confusion. I glance back at Nick.

"I'm sorry, Rhi. I can't let you near her."

"Nick, please. " My voice bleeds into a sob.

He holds my stare, his gaze resolute and unwavering.

I turn to Cronus, begging. "Do something!"

Despite his earlier proclamation that he would have killed Nick, he has the decency to look remorseful. "I'm sorry, daughter, but I cannot intervene. "

I let out a cry that is a mixture of rage and earth-shattering despair, then focus my burning wrath on the Moirai. "Know this, I might be a monster, but the blood of the Titans runs through me, and I will unearth every fucking arcane secret to discover what makes you vulnerable before I tear all three of you apart and feast on your fucking screams. I will burn this world, this whole realm, to the fucking ground. I will destroy everything if you take him from me."

Atropos blinks, stunned. To my surprise, her sisters draw back in fear, and I assume no one has dared ever speak to them that way, much less threaten their existence.

It's the Cutter who regains her wits first. "As I said, Scylla, should the other who had a hand in veiling your Thread come forward, I will gladly honor our end of the Bargain."

"Who is she?" I half scream, half growl.

Silence.

Another burst of wrath threatens to explode from my chest, but before it comes to a head, a voice calls out.

" She is right here."

It takes a moment for my brain to reconcile the notorious woman standing before me, to understand that she , the woman responsible for my mother's curse, is here now, and evidently the other powerful entity that helped veil my Thread.

But before I can speak, it's Nick's voice that rings out in the air, unearthing yet another shocking piece of information that sends my mind whirling.

"Aunt Circe?"