We Bent Fate

Chapter 26.

MARTHA

The strange percentage of Adonis came about because it was my fault. It was my jealousy that caused the beautiful girl to unite with her own father!

King Cinyrus of Cyprus' kingdom had rejoiced with fame and gossip when the ever beautiful Myrrha was given birth. She always had the charm and it wasn't hard for someone like her to take long to be worshiped among the Gods as well as the mortals alike. 

And as feared, the day had come. She had just turned eighteen. Her beauty attracted not even men but also the divinity and my jealousy wouldn't just subside. So I tricked the father and daughter. I made them fall in love!

The spell was not bound to a forever. When Cinyrus found out that he had been tricked, he chased Myrrha and the child they had together given birth to with a sword in his child. It was then only when I saw him. He was an infant then. My Adonis.

Repenting my deed, I couldn't afford any more delay and so quickly I quickly turned the beautiful girl into a Myrrh tree and hid Adonis in the underworld. 

I did whatever I could to save him but you happened! You came as death to my poor mortal Adonis and I will make you pay for it!

My head buzzed like a static as the voice foamed at the back of my mind and burst into bubbles. All I could see was nothing. It felt peaceful and I felt tired, not wanting to be shaken up from my eternal sleep and taken back to reality but something brushes my chin and my eyes flutter, white dots dancing in the blankness of my eyes. 

I feel my chin being propped open and then I smell a perfumed sillage of something sweet. Before I could think more, my mouth is wide open and on cue, a candied saccharine liquid melts into my mouth in just a drop. My mouth floods with my own drool and I feel myself putting an effort to push my tongue to find more. 

And so came another drop and I instantly identify the taste. Its honey! Its richness coats my tongue thickly before flowing down my throat and I feel myself getting torn between savouring the flavour and finishing it all in one gulp. 

My heart melted with satisfaction as each inch of it drowned down my mouth but with it came a feeling of nostalgia of the time when I first drank it as a baby. It was also the day when I for the first time sang the song of death and watched a friend die. It reminded me of the days when I would go to the Olympus and meet Aphrodite, and she would tell me love stories and lend me novels. 

A sudden realization strikes me and I sit up with a gasp. "How can I forget this? It was her!" 

"Who?" Someone sat next to me, a girl. Her brown eyes pierced through me as she smirked down at me. My head spun as I remembered her in the underworld, leading me down a dark path to help me find Austin's soul. 

"Hecate." I whisper. 

She grins. "Yes, that is my name. But you weren't talking about me earlier, were you?"

I shook my head frantically, my hands felt cold and trembling. It took me a minute to realize that I was visibly shaking. "Aphrodite." I whisper. 

"What about her?" She grinned. Something tells me that she already knows what I am about to say. 

"It is Aphrodite. She has been coming in my dreams for eternity now. But I don't know why? She comes to my dreams as a huntress and I remember it now." I confided, my body ached with stiffness and I realize that I am holding my breath. 

"Shouldn't you be happy? You remember everything." She beamed at me but I shook my head in confusion. 

"Yeah but it-it doesn't make sense. I vividly remember that I mistakenly got some of the river Lethe in my mouth. Hades and Minos had tricked me into thinking that I would get back to the world of living but it was Lethe. How do I remember everything?" I panicked and then my gaze averted to my surroundings- a familiar space. "Where am I exactly?"

"You are back!" She said excitedly. "You didn't die and that wasn't Lethe that you got into your mouth. It was Styx itself."

"But I fai-"

"You fainted because you were tired. No one had ever crossed all the rivers of underworld and lived to tell the tale."

"And what happened to all my burns?"

"You underestimate me, Martha." She whined. "Did you forget already that I am a witch? I can't be here for long. So stop asking me useless questions and-"

"But-" I insisted. 

"It was your own blood. Ichor. Now go!" 

I froze for a moment. This is happening too fast. "Where?" I asked. 

"Home." She gave me a bored look and then swished a flaming torch on me. I flinched and fell down. 

My eyes flared open in panic and saw myself standing in a huge mansion. 

I am back home. I am in Tartarus!

"Martha!" I heard urgent voices rushing to me, all filled with both relief and panic. 

"Lila!" I hugged my sister who lunged at me without a second thought. 

"You made it!" I saw her shoulders shaking and I pulled apart, wiping her tears with my thumb. She was smiling proudly at me and my heart ached with love. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." I nodded and my eyes landed on Austin who had grown pale and was watching me with my sister with a tiny smile on his face. "I remember everything." I nod at him and he smiled at me with equal admiration that I had seen in him for me when he told me that he knows I love him. 

"Really?" Chloe jumped at the information and I smiled. 

"Yes, I think so." I shrugged. "But first, I need to meet someone."