Furious

Chapter Twenty-Six

"Sit, relax; no one is aiming to knock you down in here." Here being his study again; where no one could hear my cries if he decided to save everyone else the trouble on the battle field and just take me out now. "I thank you for you patience with me, Autumn; these past few years have not been easy on my realm."

He and I had a very different definition of 'patience'. I did not sit.

"Why can't I remember anything, Hector? Forget all the other burning questions and just answer that one."

He sighed. "I haven't a clue. I will get to the bottom of your memory loss, though. This was not an issue we encountered previously but we are doing things differently with you, I shouldn't be surprised."

"Differently?"

I processed, starting to pace the floor in front of Hector's desk. Seventh child of the seventh generation, they had said. So my father had seven children, Lindsay being one of them, me being the last.

"Tell me that Lindsay and I don't share a father." I recognized the sound of pleading in my voice and yet didn't much care about showing weakness in front of Hector. The most important thing was the answer I craved.

"I cannot. Your father has been attempting to sire new Furies for the better part of the past fifty years. He's older than he looks; most creatures of what you affectionately term "mythology" are. We have longer lifespans than humans; we age slower—if at all. Lindsay was training with me long before you were born."

None of that made me feel better. What could I bring to the table that Lindsay hadn't already mastered?

"What about this seventh child business? If she wasn't the seventh, why even bother?"
Hector looked at me with dead eyes. He knew that she was never going to be the Fury of the prophecy and yet he lead her to believe it anyway. "Back up plan." That was all the explanation he gave before falling into another uncomfortable silence.

Do gods feel remorse for their actions?

"I like to think that though the Fates wove your parents' threads together to create you, as with all of the children your father sired, he really and truly loved your mother." The mother I couldn't remember, you mean? He continued despite my skeptical look. "He spent the most time with her before you were born, and stayed with her for many years after you came into the world. Not a habit he practiced before meeting her, or since."

"And there are seven of us?"

"More; not all of his partners had enough Fury in their veins to produce a Fury offspring and any males were automatically discounted. That's what made you so hard to find. Lindsay was only the sixth Fury child."

"And you think that my generation of Furies is supposed to bring back the original sisters?"

Hector shrugged. "Clotho hinted that we would see a return of power but I regret to inform you that we have yet to see signs of the sisters Tisiphone, Megaera, or Alecto."

A distraction would have been welcome at that moment. I tried not to look at Hector. The room around us seemed to shrink the longer I wanted to be away from him. His assurances about my parents' less-than-fairy-tale romance weren't making me feel better about it. Or about Lindsay, who was nothing like me and yet shared half of my DNA.

She must have gotten her tendency to think she was perfection with wings from her mother's side of the family. Maybe that's where she inherited her sense of humor, too.

"The sister Furies die and reincarnate into a worthy descendant when they deem the situation necessary, Autumn. Just because you are a Fury does not mean you'll be magically imbued with the gifts and power of the originals. From the look on your face I am to assume that you have not finished the history book in your apartment." He assumed correctly. "Allow me to explain: there are three Furies, Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megaera, sisters born of Uranus and Gaia, Titan gods of the sky and the earth. The Furies were well-known for acting as judge and jury in the time before man chose one god over many.