From Despair Comes Hope (The Strange Case of Devin Sola Book 1)

Black Damask (The Fog)

***Tia's POV***

"Wait, what?" Ricky asks. "If she's never seen him, how..."

"She saw me, but I'd used a glamour. I thought it might have been Charli but since she didn't have her powers, I figured I'd been mistaken. That she was just a girl who happened to look exactly like her." Chris whispers. "It was in Salem, during the witch trials. I did what was expected of me at the time. I had her burned at the goddamned stake."

***Flashback***

"Damn you Chris! What have you done?" I cry as I pull my twin sister's charred body from the pile of ashes on the ground. Just hours earlier, Charli was burned at the stake as a witch for being a telepath.

"What in the Underworld are you talking about Tia?" Chris questions me. "I merely did what was required of me. And I got you another soul to take to my father while I was at it."

"No, Chris, you didn't. You didn't get me another soul to take to Uncle Hades. You gave me the task of putting my sister back together and putting her soul back." I seethe with anger. If I could take his soul to the Underworld I would. The look of horror on Chris' face is priceless.

"No... it can't be." He whispers. He hadn't just turned her over for being a witch, he'd tied her to the stake and lit the fire himself. "Charli? My Angel of Hope?"

"Yes, Despair." I spit. "Your precious Angel of Hope. In the flesh. And you've killed her you bastard. If only I could take your rotten soul. You don't deserve to be her mate..." I trail off. I 'm weakening from the strain of healing Charli's body. She has to be healed before I can put her soul back. But she is so destroyed... I feel someone kneel next to me and hands over top of mine. Chris. I want to tell him to get away, not to touch me, not to touch her. But I can't do this alone and I don't know how much time I have before her body will reject her soul if I try to put it back.

He pulls his hands away as Charli finishes healing. I force her soul back into her body and wait.

***End Flashback***

"But if he used a glamour, how the hell does she know it was him?" Ricky asks, looking confused. I smile a little. Love has always been just a bit on the confused side.

"Well, first, she might have seen him after his glamour dropped. He helped me heal her." I say. "Second, I kind of told her that Despair was responsible for her burning at the stake."

"You what?" Chris yells.

"I told her that the man she'd seen was responsible for her burning at the stake." I repeat. "I was angry Chris. I couldn't believe you hadn't recognized your mate. Almost all of this could have been avoided if you had."

Hades clears his throat. "No, Tia, it couldn't have. They weren't meant to get together yet. In fact, I hate to say this, but the prophecy had one very grim piece to it..."

No one notices Charli's eyes open or her standing up. "Despair will be the cause of my thirteenth death. The one that will turn me into Destruction." She says.

"How the fuck do you know that?" Tia asks.

"Because Ares told me." Charli answers, shrugging. "That's why he stripped my powers until I found my mate. I can't die while I have my powers – especially the immortality. So he made me mortal. He took all of them originally, but took pity on me when he realized I had no way to communicate without my telepathy and gave that back."

"Ares wants you to die thirteen times?" Ricky asks, looking more than a little shell shocked at the idea.

"Actually, we don't want her to die thirteen times. We need her to die thirteen times." Hades speaks up.

"But why?" I whisper.

Hades grimaces. "Because if she doesn't she won't become Destruction. Chris won't become Creation. And if they don't, well... Olympus, the Gods, and eventually the world will be destroyed."