We Bent Fate

Chapter 36

Without thinking, I draw the bolts and run inside.

"Don't you fucking dare!" I stand in front of Martha, shielding her from the sword. The moment dissolves into a knee deep silence and my mouth feels drier than a sandbox in summer.

"Oh!" Aphrodite beamed at me. "Look who is here!"

In a second, I saw a bunch of armed people and the lady, Athena shuffle inside the chamber like the way a gas fills a jar; no matter how few of them they were, the space felt crowded. They grunt at me furiously as I scan their faces, behaving like everyone in here is a potential danger.

"You move a step towards us and you will regret everything." I grit my teeth at them, and felt Martha's hands tugging at my shirt.

"It is not her fault!" Lila and Chloe shouted, barging in along with Cassandra.

"We knew about her power! It was us, who didn't tell Martha about her power and what evil she had created." Lila cried out. "So if its anyone who should be killed, it should be us."

I froze in my position and so did Martha, our heads held up in shock earned by the credibility gap of both the sisters. I fearfully looked at Martha who was now trembling with anxiety or anger, I couldn't tell.

"You...you knew?" I croaked and both the elder Moirais' nodded. Martha stiffened beside me and my hand instinctively reached to hers and gave it a little squeeze.

Aphrodite made a tsk-tsk voice from her teeth, the corners of mouth turned down in a 'U'. "I knew it! You all are a disgrace to our culture! But to end the power I shall end Martha, for she was the one who created it in the first place."

"There must be another way!" Lila cried out in panic, her eyes bloodshot and puffy. A few of the men threw themselves at us to attack but Aphrodite held out a hand in front of them to hold their anger.

The air around us felt so brittle that it might snap and if it doesn't, I might. No one speaks. What is there to say? It was written in her fate.

Fine armed bearer of shears, daughter of Nyx will hearken to the prayers of those who share death and of those who don't, all alike. Lawful terrible goddess, the harbinger of death will right and crown the peace of the unfortunate city of the living by losing herself against the great Gods like herself alone.

She will have to lose herself. She will have to die.

A few days ago, Martha kept saying everything and anything that came to her mind to ease that terrible burden of worry. But now I can see it rising as I look into her innocent scared green eyes. I can feel it burning up. Both, dead and alive in a safe capsule deep down inside our thumping heart.

I try to convince myself that she should not be in both the states, because I already am.

I shoot a glance at Martha who looks meekly at me and then at the shears she had come along with, a tear slowly rolls down her puffed pink cheek. In the suspended horror, I feel myself gathering the courage in front of the very many monitoring eyes strained on me as I speak, "You can bend fate."

"Wha-what?" Martha blubbed.

"You were not meant to fall in love with anyone. Especially not with a mortal. But you did. You bent fate. You can bend it again."

"That was my doing!" Aphrodite called out and I clenched my jaw.

"Whosoever's doing it was. The point is that the fate can be changed with the choices we get to make. It doesn't solely have to depend on what is written!" I snapped back at the goddess of love and earned a few glares from the men behind her.

"What choices do I have, Austin?" Martha passed me a defeatist smile.

"I don't know. You are the Goddess of destiny. I just know one thing." I caressed her wet cheek with my thumb as she looked up at me.

"What?"

"She will be burnt anew, attacked by those who try to douse her but blazed by the smoke of her past, she would bring light in the times that seem the most dark."

Her lips twitched as I leaned in and kissed her forehead. "You can do it."

From the peripheral vision of my eyes, I see Lila's mouth moving silently.

Martha bores her beautiful jade green eyes into mine and slowly shakes her head. My chin pulls in despair. She smiles lazily at me and shakes her head again, her lips setting in a straight smile. Bile rises up to my throat and I feel myself shaking my head too.

"I will have to die, Austin."

"What are you doing?" My voice shakes.

"If I bring peace by dying, then I will have to die." She softly whispers, her voice almost as sweet as a lullaby, cajoling me to accept the wrong.

She shakes her head again and so do I, feeling rooted to the spot. I watch her standing on her toes to reach my height and slowly peck my lips with her own. I curl my arms around her waist, trying to gulp down the dry ball of sadness and moved away.

"Stand aside, Mortal!" Aphrodite's voice clashes with the clinking sound of withdrawing the sword from its metallic scabbard. But I stand still like a corpse in front of my girlfriend, feeling like a shell of a man, empty and numb.

The winds stir around us violently as we all stagger a few steps back from the force and then there were two sparkling dots that twinkled from the storm, shaping into a pair of silver eyes.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!" Nyx herself comes in front of Martha with her hands crowded in front of her daughter like a shield. "Hold up there, lady. You wouldn't want to mess up with my daughter."

"This is uncalled for!" Aphrodite exclaims at the same time when Martha murmurs, 'mother'.

"Yes, it is I." Nyx steps forward in confidence and for the first time, I am glad to be in her presence. "The uncalled for but inevitable. Just like my daughter. Just like death."

"This is none of your business. Stay out of it!" Aphrodite staggered back. "Besides, Martha is willing to die and she should die."

"She should." Nyx nodded and I frowned. What?

"But my daughter did not go all the way to the underworld, crossing the rivers of death to pledge on Styx and end up doing nothing for her people."

"So do you want me to let her go?" Aphrodite cried out in disbelief.

"Uh huh." Nyx shook her head slightly and then mirrored Aphrodite's femininity as she too battled her own lashes dramatically.

"Then?"

"I am just telling you to keep faith in her." Nyx smiled coyly at her and then nodded at Martha.

And then when I turned around to find Martha, she wasn't there.