Chapter Twenty

It sucked being right.

A quick roll call of the ancient beings confirmed there'd been a huge rift in the balance, triggered by Yiuwa being released from his book. The next step in the prophecy had been taken, and the shifter knew it, because two days after Yiuwa got his vessel, I was able to go home. The shadow attacks ceased and the shifter was already getting ready to move onto the next prophetic event; the fresh blood of the first born male.

So far, nobody knew what that meant, so all first borns were on total lockdown. Jaques, Lucifer's eldest, was being confined to the palace, along with his family. Zelios, who was technically the first born Hades son, had been transferred to Hades's palace, along with Noe, so now Cerberus was in charge of Tartarus. Basically, all firstborn sons were grounded and they were pissed about it, but weren't stupid enough to make a wrong move after the last prophetic event came true on accident.

But at least now I could be home.

Yiuwa had moved in with me and currently got the second largest room in the house, which had been my other bedroom. He seemed to be fitting in mostly well. He was still coping with the differences between our universes. And while Hades had given him the knowledge of most everything, it didn't change the fact that Yiuwa was utterly awed by everything, including our concept of gravity. He'd jump up and down, wave his hands around, reach up for the ceiling. It was pretty funny and reminded me a lot of Blaine's kids.

"I love the smell of everything here," Yiuwa murmured as we sat with the kittens in my room on my bed. I smirked at that, leaning back on the bed with Aria laying across my lap, purring and arching her neck toward me. Yiuwa was seated cross-legged with the kittens climbing all over him like they were fascinated with their new toy. Socks and Ghost were streaking across his lap and Dagger kept batting at his hair from his perch on Yiuwa's shoulder.

I could tell dinner was being prepped because of the smell wafting down the hallway. I'd never really paid attention to it before, but Yiuwa was all over that shit, man. He tilted his head back and inhaled deeply. I sniffed with him. The smell of cooking vegetables, meat, and curry sauce. It smelled amazing.

"How is your father taking everything?" Yiuwa asked as he picked Socks up and nuzzled his nose against his. Socks meowed and reached out to push on Yiuwa's cheek.

"Eh, about as well as he was when we left," I muttered, scratching behind Aria's ear.

Meaning, not good. Once everyone realized what had triggered the prophecy, everyone had ganged up on Hades about it. Not that it was anything compared to how Hades was blaming himself. Once again, it was his fault, or so he said. He was beating himself up to shit, but thankfully Lucifer had swooped in just as Yiuwa and I were leaving, so hopefully he'd be able to talk some sense into my dad.

It really wasn't his fault. Nobody saw it coming. There was just too much going on. It was hard to split your attention between everything at once. And Hades had a lot on his plate. First of all, he had me to deal with, then the shit with whoever my mom was. Ambrosius was still pregnant and Hades was still mad at him over it. Hades now had to worry about his first born son, and Lucifer's. Because as much as Jaques hated him, Hades still cared what happened to the bastard.

Yeah, there was just too much going on. It wasn't a surprise he'd missed it.

And it's not like the universe had exploded yet. There was just a rift. Rifts happened when the balance was unsettled, when something needed to be righted. Unfortunately, the more rifts, the more likely the balance was going to tip and things were going to start falling apart. It wasn't like the universe was going to end quickly either. Things weren't just gonna pop and vanish. It was gonna be a slow process. Realms would start disintegrating, climates going out of whack, creatures becoming extinct, magical abilities tampered with and more difficult to use.

Not that that was a good thing. It just meant we still had time to change things.

I just hope we didn't fuck up this next prophetic event.

"You seem nervous," Yiuwa said suddenly, making me blink and look up. I frowned a little.

"Nah, just... Yeah, probably nervous," I glanced toward the bathroom, "Usually at this point, I'd be in there cutting and getting ready to go to the bar."

"But you are not."

"Nope."

"Is there something else you wish to do to ease your nerves?"

"Eh... Not really," I admitted with a shrug, then sighed and flopped over, taking Aria with me and she meowed low in her throat, like she was contemplating my death, but she didn't really do anything as I held her to my chest and rubbed at her chest. Yiuwa leaned forward on the bed so we were closer and he cocked his head.

"Perhaps you wish to contact your Sept person?" He asked. I half-smiled at that.

Sept has his own issues to deal with. We'd talked yesterday anyway and he was getting ready to go on some job to protect an Aztec priestess on her way to a temple or some shit. He didn't need to cut his job short. Besides, his dad was the one who gave him the job, which meant the guy was testing Sept to see if he was really up to the task of working with their family again.

Besides, Sept wasn't mine anymore. And I wasn't his. We'd accepted that, and actually... It didn't hurt so much anymore. I mean, it still kinda ached whenever I thought about the good times we had together, but a few good memories didn't build a whole relationship up again.

But that was okay, I was coming to realize.

People got together and they broke up. They got with someone else. And it didn't always end up in a break up. Just look at Adrian and Malachi. They got through Adrian's sexual abuse, got through Malachi's alcoholism, and more than two decades later, they were still together. But then sometimes things fell apart, like Hades and Persephone. It just didn't work out. They found people who understood them better than they understood each other.

And when I thought about that, when I looked at them, I realized that I didn't need to be depressed about the break up. I was going to find someone else eventually.

I just really wanted to figure out myself first. And figure out this whole love yourself hippie bullshit.

Because, as weird as it sounded-- love yourself-- it was true, honestly. I expected Sept to do all the weight lifting and I did nothing. I just hated myself and expected him to do all the loving, and that wasn't fair. He deserved to be loved too.

I sighed.

"Nah," I said at last, making Yiuwa raise an eyebrow, "He's busy. Besides, if I wanna talk to someone, I'll talk to you. Unless I'm annoying you already." Yiuwa blinked owlishly, like he couldn't contemplate the very idea, and I laughed, shoving him with my foot. He smiled slowly, clearly not understanding that just his goofy face and universal innocence charmed me, but as long as I was happy, he was chill. And I liked that about him.

A knock at the door made me blink and roll over, sitting up as I called out. The door opened and Aasimah poked her head in.

Right. Because Rowan was gone.

Yup. Just like that, when we'd shown up, Aasimah had informed us that Rowan had taken off after turning in his resignation. According to his very brief message to Aasimah, his job here was done and he needed to move on. I managed to find his friend, Simon, but Simon claimed he had no way to contact Rowan... and then proceeded to flirt with Aasimah, who kept shooting him down every single time. But I think she was getting a kick out of it, because whenever Simon left, she'd smile and watch him leave.

Anyway, Rowan was gone, but that didn't mean Aasimah was. The girl stuck it out as probably the only female worker here I could stand. She was tough, didn't put up with my bullshit, wasn't afraid to say how she felt, and she knew how to handle my beast.

"My lord," Aasimah greeted with a short bow of her head, "Hades is here with Lucifer. It would seem your test results have arrived." I stiffened at that, then looked at Yiuwa, who frowned. Immediately Yiuwa picked the cats off him and rose to his feet, looking fully prepared to stand with me on this matter. I took a deep breath and set Aria aside, getting to my feet.

"Alright, thanks, Aasi. Do me a favor while I'm gone? Have them keep dinner warm. We won't be long," I added. Aasimah nodded and stepped aside, letting us out of the room ahead of her. We went to the main throne room where Hades was waiting with Lucifer.

Hades looked way better now than he did the other day. The other day, he was pissy as fuck, frowning so hard, it was like his face was broken. Now, he looked more grim than pissed, his long black hair flowing over his shoulders, those glowing blue eyes almost as bright as the light fixtures in the room. Beside him, Lucifer stood with his hands folded behind his back, decked out in his usual white leather get up, his blonde hair swept back from his face.

"So who's my mom?" I asked, walking in. Hades looked up.

"You sure you wanna know? Cuz... she's still alive. And, she's not happy," he tacked on. I frowned.

"Why am I surprised that another lady hates my existence?" I asked.

"Eh, no," Lucifer said slowly, "It's not that she's not happy about your existence. More like, she's been infuriated for centuries that someone kidnapped her only son." I stared at him, then looked at Hades, who sighed.

"So, like a thousand years ago, I was setting up a treaty with a particular goddess. She hated the Egyptians as much as I did, so we were gonna tag team them until her realm was attacked by the Norse god, Thor. She didn't have time for the Egyptians, or me for that matter, and had to take off."

"Sounds like it was more than a treaty," I deadpanned. Yiuwa raised an eyebrow at that.

"Yeah," Hades said with a shrug, and Lucifer frowned a little, looking uncomfortable, "Her name was Macha. She's the Irish goddess of war and fertility. According to the files, Macha gave birth to a son in the midst of battle and her enemy, the god Thor, cursed her son with the curse of the beast in hopes that the child would kill her. However, Macha had gone into hiding with her son, only for her son to come up missing. Macha blamed Thor and launched an attack on the Norse, but it didn't last long. Lots of blood was shed, hundreds of thousands of people died, and Macha was severely injured and was forced to retreat. She searched for her son, but didn't find him and came to the conclusion that Thor had simply killed him."

"And," Lucifer drawled, waving his hand for Hades to continue. Hades rolled his eyes.

"And I just so happened to set off an alarm when I was running your blood through the system, so now Macha wants to know exactly what the fuck I'm doing sticking my nose in her business. So I'm actually about to head out there. I came here to tell you, and see if you want to see her," he explained dryly. He didn't look happy about it. So judging from Lucifer's stern stare and Hades's annoyed look, Hades didn't come here to invite me along. He didn't want me anywhere near Macha. Lucifer wanted me to have a choice whether or not I wanted to meet my mother.

I looked at Yiuwa, then at Hades.

Once upon a time, I would've just straight up told Hades that I was good, I'd stay home. I didn't want to hurt his feelings, because I knew how possessive he was. He was afraid Macha would take me away, or fuck, she might just straight up kill me. But this wasn't about him; it was about me. And weirdly enough, I did want to meet her. I wanted to see who she was. I wasn't going there expecting her to shower me with love and affection, obviously. I wasn't delusional, but it was nice to know the what ifs in life sometimes, ya know?

"Alright," I stated, making Hades frown and Lucifer look at me in surprise, because apparently he wasn't expecting me to agree either, "Let's go. I got my pants on and shit, so why not?"

"You don't have to," Hades said, "She's... not exactly affectionate." Lucifer grimaced.

"I'm not expecting her to hug me and cry and call me her baby," I responded flatly, "I just want to know who she is. I'm not gonna lie and be all, no, I'm not interested, cuz feelings. No, I'm interested because I'm a curious motherfucker. Now are we going or not?" Hades looked skeptical, like he really wanted to convince me to stay here, but he didn't. Because he knew I'd just go with him one way or another. Nobody could make me do anything.

"Fine," Hades said at last, "Let's head to her place then." He came forward and touched my shoulder, taking control of the teleportation to take us to Macha's realm.

We vanished from my mansion in Styx, Hades, to Macha's realm, the name of which I had no fucking idea. We just appeared outside in the woods somewhere. The trees were huge and towered high overhead, the canopy blocking out the setting sun that made the leaves glow orange. The ground was covered in thick plush green grass, save for a stone path that led up to a log cabin sort of house. Calling it a log cabin would be an understatement; it wasn't quite a mansion, but it definitely looked luxurious. A pointed roof with angular windows cut out in the front, a large porch, nothing too fancy, but nice and spacious.

Hades led the way with Lucifer moving close behind him. Yiuwa and I took up the back as we made our way up the path and onto the porch. Inside, I could make out the sound of dogs barking, making me grimace. The front door to the cabin opened and a very posh looking butler stood there, decked out like Alfred Pennyworth from Batman. He was even old like Alfred with aging skin and drooping big brown eyes.

"Good evening, my lords. My lady is expecting you," he greeted with a thick Irish accent. Hades just nodded and we came inside. The butler closed the door behind us. We stepped into a huge foyer with a large wheel like chandelier over our heads. Across the room sitting in the living room were four huge wolfhounds, all of whom watched us cautiously, now silent, as if they were waiting for us to pull something.

The butler led us out of the foyer and up the stairs, across the house and to a huge office where the windows looked out over a massive lake with a small island in the middle. The office was lined with bookshelves, and surprisingly, a whole shelf of movies ranging from foreign films to basic cable sitcoms. There was a huge stone fireplace, in front of which sat yet another wolfhound, this one curled up and completely at ease.

"Milady will be with you shortly," the butler said with a low bow, "Shall I bring you refreshments, perhaps? We have a wide range of teas and coffee."

"Nah, we're good," Hades said before I could say anything. I rolled my eyes and Hades just elbowed me. The butler smiled, then bowed once more.

"As you wish. Should you need anything, simply call me. My name is George," he said, then slipped out of the room, shutting the doors behind him. We were quiet at first, investigating the room. Hundreds and hundreds of books, mostly involving nature hobbies like birdwatching and tree leaves. There were quite a few books on cemeteries and ghost stories too. The movie section had shit from the early 50s all the way up to movies that were still in theaters in some places.

"Aw, man, she has the whole Supernatural series," I commented, running my finger along the limited edition boxsets, "Cain would shit himself. Oh cool! She watches Star Trek. Shit, these are all the episodes." Hades didn't seem to care too much about her collections. Instead, he was standing over by her desk, which I noted looked pretty bare. There was nothing more than a laptop sitting on it and a bottle of natural spring water.

I frowned. Actually, the water bottle looked weird. It looked like someone had just let go of it. The plastic all cracked in and slowly pushing itself back into shape again, and the water was settling.

My eyes widened.

"Fuck," I cursed. I barely finished saying the word when a female appeared out of nowhere right in front of Hades, grabbing him up by the throat and slamming him up against the double doors to the office.

"Hades!" Lucifer bolted forward to go after him, but out of nowhere, another female appeared and caught him in a chokehold real quick. Yiuwa started to move, but I grabbed his arm to keep him from getting jump by anyone else.

"I should've known it was you," the female holding Hades snarled, "I was a fool for ever trusting you! You arrogant son of a bitch!" Her accent was ridiculously thick, but I could still make out what she was saying, and I didn't need to be a fucking rocket scientist to know who she was.

Macha held Hades by the throat against the double doors of her office. Her hair was the same color red as mine, bright and vibrant, and it fell in heavy waves down her back with part of it drawn back into a braid, her bangs cut straight across over her forehead. Like her hair, her eyes were red and glowing as she squeezed Hades by the throat, her red painted fingernails biting into his skin. She was decked out in a knit green sweater and brown corduroys, which was kind of at odds with the whole she's a war goddess thing.

Hades didn't react angrily or violent. He just stood there calmly as Macha squeezed at his neck, but I could see that he was getting ready to pass out because of how tight Macha had him by the throat.

"Let him go, bitch!" I barked, coming forward. Another female popped up out of nowhere and went to grab me, but I caught her by the arm and whipped her up over my head and body slammed her to the floor before leaping over her.

Macha blinked, stunned for a moment before she seemed to recognize who I was. She immediately let go of Hades, who sucked in deep gulps of air.

"And let go of the archangel too, or I'll set your whole damn place on fire," I warned, snapping my wrist and forming a fireball in my palm. Macha's red eyes glinted, but she said nothing. She waved her hand at the female who'd captured Lucifer. The female stepped back and Lucifer sucked in a sharp breath before he ran immediately to Hades, grabbing him by the face to check him over. Hades just nodded to him, taking Lucifer's hands off his face, murmuring something under his breath, probably to reassure him.

"Jesus fuck," I said, snuffing out the fireball in my hand and putting a hand on my hip, "You always greet people like that? How about we try again, yeah? Hi, my name's Theo. You must be Macha."

Macha stared at me for the longest time, then frowned slowly. She moved away from Hades and came over to me. Hades tensed at that, but when he looked like he was going to stop Macha, the other two females locked glares on him and he went still. I frowned, watching as Macha approached me slowly. She tilted her head back and forth, like she was trying to see if this was all a big trick or not.

I was honestly kind of interested too. So I didn't mind the close up. She was about my height, maybe an inch taller. She wasn't built petite and dainty, though. She was robust. Her legs were long, thick, and muscular, and her chest was heavy, her face round and a stern jaw. She was definitely pretty, though, in a typical warrior princess kind of way. She had a sweet button nose, rosy cheeks, and full pink lips.

She reached a hand up toward me, then hesitated, like she wasn't sure she could touch me. Her hands didn't look soft and delicate, but more calloused like she did a lot of physical labor, but her nails were neatly filed down and painted red.

"I'm not gonna bite," I told her. She blinked, then reached out further and laid her hand on the side of my face. Her hand was really warm. I did, however, out of instinct, flinch when she touched me. I was so used to my mom-- Aria, whacking me in the face. Of course, Macha caught that and immediately withdrew her hand. She stared at me further.

"Your name is Theo?" She asked.

"Yeah. Just Theo. Not short for Theodore or some shit like that. Just... Theo."

"Divine gift," Macha murmured, then clenched her fist tight and she stepped back, like she really didn't want to be next to me, and I understood that. She looked down at her feet for a moment, then snapped her head to glare at Hades.

"Why did you take him from me?" She demanded.

"I didn't," Hades said calmly, "Someone else did." Macha blinked, looking bewildered.

"Who? Who else could've--"

"A fangirl," Hades responded grimly, and Macha's eyes darkened considerably, making the females in the room take a good step back, "Her name was Aria. She couldn't get pregnant, I guess. Needed a way to suck up to me. She must've done her homework because even I couldn't pick up on it until I ran actual parental testings. I did it twelve goddamn times. He's your kid, Macha." Macha blinked rapidly, then looked back at me, then back at Hades.

"So... You took care of him then," she said slowly. Hades looked back at her.

"I tried," he responded.

"He did," I stated, making Macha look back at me, "He did so goddamn much for me, you don't even know. He put so much on the line for me. He puts up with every annoying thing I do. He lets me play tricks on him and steal his shit, pretending like he doesn't know how I did it because I knows I get a kick out of goofing off. He destroyed the person who took me. He's my dad." Hades looked past Macha at me, something in those glowing blue eyes so intense that I had to look away.

Macha pressed her lips together firmly for a moment, then she turned to look at Hades. She went over to him, touched his throat where she'd left bruises and healed the damage. She rose on her toes, because how the fuck else was she going to be able to put her arms around his neck and pull him down for a hug, and damn did Hades had to stoop to hug her.

"Thank you," Macha managed, her voice hoarse, "I shouldn't have attacked you like that. I should've known you'd never do anything like that. I don't know what I was thinking." Hades shrugged as he stepped back.

"I've been known to be a dick from time to time," he answered. Macha gave him a knowing look, then turned to look back at me.

"Theo," she said, like she liked saying my name, and didn't that just make me uncomfortable as hell, "I have so many questions. I'm not quite sure where to begin, honestly."

"Uh, I have a question," I said, making Macha raise an eyebrow, "Have you seen all those movies?" I gestured to the movie case. Macha laughed and Hades rolled his eyes. The females burst into giggles. The taller one with jet black hair and big baby blue bedroom eyes spoke first.

"Course she has. She seen 'em all at least what? Three times?" She asked, turning to the other female, who was shorter and stouter with an impish look to her.

"Some three, some twelve, I lose count," she said.

"Second question, who are you guys?" I asked, looking at them. The taller one arched a brow.

"My name is Morgana. I'm your sister," she stated. The other one raised her hand.

"And I'm Brigid. Your other sister," she added. I stared at them.

"How many of there are you? I thought you said only son," I said, turning to Hades, who held his hands up in surrender. Macha raised an eyebrow and put a hand on her hip.

"You are. I have six daughters and one son."

"Jesus fuck," I deadpanned.

"Aye," Morgana replied, "That's what I said after the third one. There's Brigid and I, plus Ana, Nola, Aubrey, and Roisin. But Ana was turned into a mare, Nola's on vacation, Aubrey's married so we never fucking see her, and Roisin is a shutin. So welcome to the family, baby brother."

"Wait, baby brother?" I demanded.

"Well yeah," Brigid said, "You were born last. You're the baby."

"Goddamn it," I muttered, looking away and rubbing the back of my neck, "At least I have some younger siblings." Macha looked at Hades, who shrugged.

"I had two more kids after him. Sue me," he responded. Macha shook her head, then looked back at me, biting at her bottom lip.

"Perhaps you would like to stay for dinner? Ah, but I won't force you. I understand that you do not know me and it may be uncomfortable for you, but it was just a suggestion," she added. I looked at Hades, who nodded like he was giving me permission, and I relaxed with a light smile and looked at Macha.

"Yeah. Yeah, that sounds nice, actually."