49
Powerful Defences
“Pythia!?” I shouted again as if just to make sure.
“Hey, that would be me,” she replied giving us all a nervous little wave. It was still weird getting used to her looking this way, as I had been used to a cute little black girl with wild curly hair and colourful clothes. But like this, in what I now knew was her true form, she looked like an Egyptian goddess.
Long dark hair that shone like silk against her white casual summer dress, one that was edge in a thick border of gold and red leaves. Under this she had on a pair of dark blue skin-tight jeans and dark tan coloured boots that had straps and loose folds of leather. The whole look had that cool ethnic vibe to it, along with the headband in the same design as the border on her short dress, holding back her beautiful hair.
The white cotton against her skin brought out the glow of her sun kissed tan, and also the exotic olive green in her eyes that were jewelled with honey flecks bursting from around the irises. She was utterly breathtaking, but in an innocent way as if she didn’t yet know this about herself.
Now, I know that because of this girl, in the past I had endured more heartache than I could ever have imagined…hell, we both had, Draven and I, but that didn’t mean that I was going to hold it against her. Because as she said to me not that long ago, we really weren’t that different her and I…minus the Egyptian Goddess part.
I had never asked to be the Electus, just as she had never asked to become an Oracle. Yet we were both used as puppets by the Fates and neither of us had any choice in the matter. For me, it was solely done for the man I loved and all the people around his life and mine, who I cared for.
But for Pythia, well she just had no choice. It was this, or death. So, she played her part and in doing so, somewhere along the line, she had become the bad guy in people’s eyes. However, in the end everything had worked out and also, everything she had said had happened, just not the way we ever thought it would.
Which was why I got up, walked over to her and hugged her to me, replacing that look of insecurity and unsureness from her face, filling it instead with relief. So much so that tears started to well in her eyes as if this was the first bit of kindness she had been shown in longer than she could remember.
When I thought about the trouble I had caused her just by being me and by being born as Draven’s Electus, she had been cursed out, hunted, and blamed for everything that had happened. But she had just been doing what was demanded of her, so yes, of course I hugged her. She was one of us and that would never change, no matter what derogatory thoughts people wanted to cling onto…like Lucius for example.
“Welcome back, honey,” I told her, rubbing away one of her tears and giving her a smile that told her all she needed to know. She gave me a nod of understanding and I took her hand to lead her over to our little ‘meeting’. I was glad to see that Pip gave her a little wave and Sophia acknowledged her by getting her another chair to sit in, one next to mine.
“Well, at least we know who Dom had hidden behind that screen,” Sophia said.
“Yeah, like some dirty little secret…huh? Oh…I mean, no, nothing like that…the opposite in fact,” Pip said backtracking the second me and Sophia started shaking our heads at her, ending with Sophia rubbing her fingers along her eyebrows as if trying to ask the Gods for strength.
“It’s okay guys, I know things are going to be a little strange,” Pythia said giving us a small smile and trying to help ease the tension.
“Well yeah, sure it will be, for starters you used to be a cute little black chickadee with hair I wanted to hide things in…also, awesome dress sense back then,” Pip said making her smile and me stretching the back of my neck wondering what the chances of getting through to the end of this little group meeting without Pip insulting her at some point.
“Thanks…I think,” Pythia said smiling, which I took as a good sign.
“So, getting back to the reason you’re here, I take it Draven had you brought here?” I asked turning to face her and ignoring the way Pip folded her legs as if she was about to start meditating.
“He thought I may be able to detect something or someone trying to control elements of his demon side,” she told us, and this was something I already suspected.
“And did you?” The question came from Sophia this time.
“Yes, I did.” This surprised me but then again, her next answer surprised me even more, oh, and also made me start to panic.
“You detected someone trying to pull Dom’s demon through?” Sophia asked again as if needing to be sure. This time Pythia just nodded making Pip ask,
“So…who was it, crumpet?” I smirked at Pip’s new nickname for her, before Pythia’s answer quickly wiped it off my face.
“It was Keira.”
“Uh…come again?” I was glad Sophia had something to say ‘cause I was still stuck on the mouth gaping open stage, that which was quickly giving way to panic.
“Keira is the one who is pulling his Demon out?”
“Oh no…no, no, please tell me you didn’t tell my husband this?” I said in a tone that was close to begging, as if that would help with an outcome that couldn’t be changed either way.
“Gods, no, of course not,” she said granting me about ten wishes in one and making the three of us all take a collective sigh of relief.
“Well, thank the lord’s knickers for that,” Pip said flopping back in her seat as though she had just run a marathon…or more like completed a sexathon, as that was more Pip’s style.
“No, I knew that wouldn’t have been the right thing to do and besides, as much as Dominic asked me here to help him, I am actually here to see if I could help you, Keira.” I gave her a grateful look in return before asking the question I had to, not the one I wanted to.
“I hate to ask, as it’s not like I am not unbelievably grateful here, but I have to ask why?”
“Because for the first time in my life I have been granted free will. I am now my own person and can do as I wish. I can be good, be bad, be anything I want as I am no longer a tool to be used by the hand of men or the will of the Gods. I am no longer held captive by the Fates and their invisible chains.” With the way she said this, I couldn’t help but feel proud of her and I was glad to see that she felt the same. The way she held her head high and was basically saying to the world, ‘Hello, look at me, I am a survivor, I am a Being gifted with free will and I am now one of you’.
“Which means I can choose who I wish to help and more than anyone else, I wish to help you and in any way I can,” she added looking to me.
“Why our Tootiseroll?” Pip asked making me give her a half smile.
“Because throughout all of this, she has been the only constant I have had in my life. Long before you came into this world Keira, I knew of you and what you would become,” she said first addressing Pip and then looking back to me as if this was something she had wanted to get off her chest for a while.
“But then when I met you, I could not have ever imagined the kindness that you bestowed on me. Someone who cared for my wellbeing despite facing your own traitorous journey,” she spoke again and by this time the tears had arrived, and I couldn’t blame it on hormones. Pythia turned to Pip who had asked the question and asked her in return,
“So, I ask of you, can you imagine another Being in this world more worthy than her? Someone who has put people above her own wants and needs all this time? Someone who was ready to sacrifice her very life so that those she loved could live instead. To love so powerfully that she broke every barrier put in her way, experienced pain, suffering, heartache and betrayal, just with hope in her heart that the world would get the chance to go on without her… That is why I am here,” Pythia said, and by the time she finished we all had tears in our eyes, but mine were the only ones streaming down the face. Okay, so maybe I wasn’t the only person crying so freely, as now Pip was wailing out a sob before she launched herself at Pythia and ended up in her lap hugging her head to her bosom, telling her,
“That was fucking beautiful…seriously you are so awesome and so, so, so in our band, it’s not even funny!”
“Your band?” Pythia asked whilst patting Pip’s back as she was still clinging to her like a child.
“Don’t worry, there’s no band, just a group of three girls who always seem to have some shit we have to get Keira out of,” Sophia explained.
“Yeah, usually there are four of us, but Ari is off on her own adventure with handsome Vinny boy…but you’re here now, YAY! You’re gonna love it!” Pip added to this, so I decided to do the same,
“Welcome to the club, honey.” She gave us both a smile and then after a few more seconds that were well past awkward, I decided to give her a lifeline, which would be one of many now Pip was in her life.
“Pip, do you wanna let her go now?”
“Oh yeah, good plan…wow, she smells sooo good,” Pip said behind her hand at us as she went back to her seat.
“Thank you, Pythia, I don’t know what to say other than how touched I am you feel this way,” I told her after smiling at Pip’s ‘smells’ comment.
“And she doesn’t mean touched as in she is going to touch herself…I remember when I had to learn that the hard way…boy wasn’t that an embarrassing day for Adam,” Pip said leaning closer to her making Sophia nearly choke and me slap my forehead, but thankfully Pythia just burst out laughing, seeing the funny side of Pip like we all did.
“So, getting back to why we are all here and doing so before Kazzy can shed anymore pregnant tears,” Sophia said, and Pythia’s grin got even bigger as she turned to me and said,
“Congratulations, I am very happy for you both.”
“Yeah, but now we kinda have a big problem, as in she doesn’t exactly want to play the single mom in this picture, which Big Bad Demon Dom going King Kong and losing his shit might cause.” Of course, this explanation came from Pip.
“You’re afraid he will leave?” Pythia asked looking shocked.
“It’s not like it didn’t happen before. Last time he thought he was a danger to me, he moved to a different country, closed Afterlife and pretended he was dead and forbade any one of his kind to ever see me again.”
“Man, can anyone say overkill much?” Pip commented with a shake of her head.
“Okay, so I see your point,” Pythia admitted making Pip add,
“Yeah, we have all been seeing the point a lot more lately.” I laughed at this.
“So, you see my problem here and why I need to figure this out before Draven finds out.” I told her, knowing that I wouldn’t have long, because even though Takeshi was still unconscious (something I found out on our way back to the castle) he could also wake up at any minute. Now I knew there was no guarantee that he would remember anything or know what was going on. But considering one of his special gifts was seeing things and picking up on visions, then I didn’t think this likely or in my favour.
“I do, but without knowing who did this to you then we…”
“Wait a minute!” Sophia said making Pip jump in there with,
“Hold on now sister Mary, come again?”
“I thought you knew about the birthmark?” Pythia said and yes, we did, but any further than that and we were still left with more questions than answers and not once did any of those question include a ‘Who?’.
“You mean someone did this to me?” I asked unable to help the squeal in my tone.
“I need you to show me the mark, that way I may recognise its origins.” I shrugged my shoulders and turned to face Sophia, before lifting up my hair off my neck to show her.
“Uh…am I missing something here?” Pip asked making me frown before looking back over my shoulder at them to find them both frowning at my neck.
“Okay, now I have to see this for myself,” Sophia said getting up and joining them both behind me.
“Well, that won’t take long,” Pip commented dryly confusing me.
“I don’t understand…where is it?” Sophia asked meaning I was now panicking slightly, asking myself just what was going on.
“I don’t get it…did it like fall off somewhere, could it be in the shower or maybe back on the boat, I mean that wave of water hit us pretty hard,” Pip said making me react by getting up out of my seat and spinning round to face them.
“Are you telling me it’s gone...? Is that what you’re telling me?!” I shouted, now really freaking out.
“I am not sure it is,” Pythia said surprising us all.
“What do you mean? Neither of us can see it…can you?” Sophia asked with hope.
“No, but I can feel that it’s still there. I think it’s being hidden somehow.”
“How would someone even do that?” I asked shaking my head in disbelief.
“Well, to begin with they would have to be extremely powerful and I am not just talking your average demon with some extra skills. I am talking something ancient,” Pythia said in a dire tone, making me throw my arms up and growl.
“Oh, but of course it would be! Seriously, when exactly do I get a break here, because I am sick of this shit! Like I need any more enemies to add to the list, at this rate there will be enough to throw a party of the fuckers and have yearly reunions!” I said getting more pissed off by the second and Pip snorted a laugh, making Sophia shoot her a look.
“What, it was funny.” Sophia just shook her head before coming over to me, taking my hands in hers and telling me,
“Look, we will figure this out, even if we have to go to Hell and back, we will, and we will be doing it together this time. You are not alone in this, honey.” Then she pulled me to her and hugged me as I cried out all my frustrations. Yep, totally a hormonal meltdown.
So, what was I left with but a chasm of doubt and very little hope that I was ever going to get to a point where my tomorrow was going to lead me closer to my forever happiness. Not the ten steps back it felt like I kept taking. It was like running on some demonic treadmill, always moving but never reaching my destination.
“I am just trying to go over it in my head, I mean the witness circle took me to three points in my life but why, as none of them were connected?” I asked the girls after slumping back down in my chair.
“The witness circle is not about what it can show you, but more what you can show you,” Pythia said gently as if I was close to breaking again.
“She’s right. You go in there and can ask it to show a certain point in your life but sometimes…”
“Fear gets in the way?” I said finishing off for Sophia making her nod.
“You got frightened, that then led you to another frightening time in your life, if not the most traumatic. Then at the height of that fear you needed to find a safe place, which led you to Dominic,” Pythia said making perfect sense.
“Okay, so I get all that but what about the next door I walked through, I ended up in Hell…I ended up with…Cronus,” I said uttering this last part as it all started to make sense.
“What are you saying?” Sophia was the one to ask.
“Think about this, so what did you say, one… they have to be old and very powerful…”
“Checkarino,” Pip said counting off her fingers for me.
“Okay so yeah, he wins that title, considering it took an army of us to take him down,” Sophia said.
“But only one God,” Pythia added, nodding to me like I was still one of something. Yeah, well wouldn’t that have come in handy right about now, I thought sarcastically.
“So here we have our ancient power, and two, he has more than enough motive.”
“Doublely check,” Pip added again making me smile at her.
“Yeah but surely, he knew it was the end for him, so why bother?” Again, this question came from Sophia.
“Well, that’s just the thing, what if he didn’t know, what if he just thought that he would be imprisoned back in Hell and this was like some kind of backup plan or something…? I mean, he didn’t know that he was going to become the Devil’s plaything, just like none of us did,” I said and then couldn’t help but notice the way Pythia shivered and recoiled in on herself at the sound of Lucifer being mentioned. She was almost in a protective ball.
“So, you think that he put some kind of hex on you, one that would force you and Dom back to Hell and in doing so maybe aiding in his escape?” I shrugged my shoulders as after all, this was only speculation.
“I don’t know Sophia, but at the minute it’s the best we have got. He might have had the means to do something like this when I took him back to Hell with me.”
“But wouldn’t she remember something like that?” Sophia asked Pythia this time, who seemed to be the one who knew more about this than anyone.
“If she was as she is now then yes, she would most certainly have felt that amount of power being branded to her…but as she was then…” Pythia let her musing trail off and I decided to point out,
“I wasn’t exactly myself.”
“No, she was a freakin’ kick ass God and I missed it…I missed all the fun that day,” Pip said folding her arms across her chest and slumping back in her chair as if it was the end of the world…again.
“Uh hello, we only travelled back through time, had the most amazing wedding and then you and your husband got to be the protectors of the human world should all Hell break loose…I would hardly call that an average boring day, Pip,” Sophia told her, and Pip started to grin again adding,
“Yeah and it was great cake too…not every day you get to eat great cake, I mean you may try but just because it’s cake, doesn’t mean it’s really cake, cake…you know what I mean?” Pip said to Pythia who sighed and said,
“I do, Armi, my past keeper, she used to make the best cakes.”
“Okay, so moving on from cakes…which yes, granted Pip, my wedding cake was awesome…but getting back to answers here, so you’re saying it might have been possible during that time for him to…?”
“Put a Hex on you, yes I believe so. Like I said, as you are now, you would feel it, but back then, one with extreme power wouldn’t feel it. As think of it like this, it would be the same as if you were stung a thousand times and having one more bee sting wouldn’t make you feel just that one,” Pythia said making Pip praise her.
“Oooooh, good analogy…and also that’s a shitter of a day in anyone’s books.” Pythia blushed and said,
“Thanks, it’s all I could come up with, but I think it works.”
“Oh, I can do one…okay, okay, so it would be like if she was covered in baked beans and then I added on one more bean…”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it, I wouldn’t feel the extra bean,” I said interrupting her, making her frown at me.
“No, I was going to say it wouldn’t be the one extra bean to make you sick or bust your gut when you licked them all off, ‘cause that would probably happen way before you reached that bean.”
“Eww, Pip, why would I even do that?”
“Uh duh, ‘cause you’re covered in beans and unless you’re into sploshing, then you need to get that shit off,” Pip said shrugging her shoulders to the others and pointing at me as if I was the nuts one. I looked to Sophia and said,
“Do I wanna know what sploshing is?”
“Not unless you’re into adding messy food to your sex life, then no.” I made an eww face along with Pythia, who also looked as though she was learning all this new stuff as well, making me worried we were corrupting her new innocence to human life or something.
“Besides Pip, I would just wash off the beans, but I can’t believe I even needed to say that!” I said this last part more to myself than them.
“Right, let’s move on from cakes, beans, sploshing and any other food source, shall we…?” I said making Pip hold up her hands to me, replying,
“Hey sister, they’re your beans, you can do what you want with them.” I then closed my eyes and counted to ten before carrying on, now I had the strength.
“So, what you’re saying in a nut shell…”
“NUTS…she said nuts, she broke the no food rule!” Pip shouted pointing accusingly at me and looking at the other two, making me sigh.
“Sorry, what I meant to say is, in conclusion to this new information, the reason I didn’t feel anything was because I had so much power that I wouldn’t have known he was putting the Hex on me and since then it’s kind of been hiding?” I asked facing Pythia again.
“Yes, and it would make sense, because any other time and you would have felt it, but we have a bigger problem.”
“Oh great, like we need any more of those,” Sophia said sarcastically, throwing her hands up and turning her back on us for a minute as if needing some time to think. I can’t say that I blamed her at this point as I was close to doing the same myself.
I just couldn’t understand why this kept happening to me. How I managed to find myself in these situations. All I wanted was to find a peaceful time in my life where the biggest meltdowns included things like running out of nappies whilst changing one. Or being woken up at all hours of the night for various feeds…hell, I would even take a case of mastitis at this point, where my breasts swell up and look like two globes of the earth!
“The Hex is obviously one that continues to build up its power,” Pythia said, making my mouth drop and quickly shifted my mind from nappies, milk feeds and blotchy breasts.
“Come again?” I asked.
“Think about it Keira, over these weeks since the war, it started gradually and then over time has developed, growing in power and in doing so bringing out Dominic’s demon more frequently.”
“Oh shit!” Pip said at the same time Sophia said,
“This isn’t good.” Both of which became a back-drop sound to me hanging a heavy head to my hand and muttered,
“What the hell are we going to do?”
“But why can’t we see it?” Sophia asked continuing with the question as I had a mini internal meltdown…again.
“It must be part of this kind of Hex, like a protective measure, some kind of defence,” Pythia replied, and I had to say, this wasn’t good news.
“So, you mean we don’t know the mark, which means if we don’t know what it looks like, then we don’t know who it belongs to?” Sophia surmised but I was still in the dark on this one, not exactly being big on my hexes and curses.
“What do you mean?” I asked in a freaked-out tone.
“Usually a Hex can only be removed by the one who branded it,” Pythia told me, and this was when my freak out started going nuclear.
“But Cronus is dead! So how do we get a dead man to break a Hex!?” This was when Pip, Sophia and Pythia all gave each other a look as if they knew something I didn’t. Something that I knew wasn’t good.
“What…what is it this time?” I asked looking from one to the other and back again.
“The dead can’t hold a Hex,” Pythia said making me frown.
“What do you mean?”
“What she means is that if the person who branded a Hex dies, then so does the Hex,” Sophia said softly, for we all knew what this could mean and the horror in facing it. However, no one else would say what we were all thinking.
No one else but me.
“Then that means…” I paused taking a deep breath before saying the words I never thought I would ever have to say…
“Cronus is still alive.”