Shaping Fate (3 page)

Thanatos stared
, shocked. Ria was carefully scraping wood away from the neck of a life-sized wooden horse head. All of the stalls on one side of the hall, and half of those on the other, were covered in carvings and reliefs.

Shaking off his immobility,
Thane studied the carvings on one of the Cerberus kennels. She had been brave enough to even carve the inside walls of the stall with images of nurturing canine females. She’d depicted them perfectly, each one a giant wolf with three heads. The vertical support posts had the bodies in relief, and the heads protruded into the hall and doorway. These animals’ snouts were wrinkled in anger, lips pulled back in a snarl, baring vicious fangs. Their eyes were filled with hate and every hair on their heads and bodies were standing on end: the perfect guardians had they been real.

He laid his hand along the side of one of the heads, wanting to feel every ridge, when something happened
. The head below his hand lost its fierce look as its eyes closed and it rubbed against his palm. The other free-standing heads whimpered, wanting attention, too.

The statues had come alive.

As he scratched the wood-creature behind the ears, he gazed at Ria in wonder. The rest of her work was coming alive as well. Horse heads shook their manes in playful invitation as Cerberus pups tugged playfully at the adults’ ears.

Ria stopped scraping at the statue and set the knife aside
. Her gaze was still filled with pearly green as she stepped close and hugged the statue around the neck. The horse nuzzled her in affection before nipping at its neighbor.

“
I’ve never seen such wonderful work, or the ability to animate it,” Thane said as Ria reached again for the knife.

She jumped, startled
. For a moment, her eyes were blank, still lost in her trance, but the green slowly receded back into her irises as she became aware of her surroundings.

“
Oh, Thane! I’m so sorry, I should have asked before I started carving.”  Her face was pinched with concern and fatigue. She swayed where she stood. His wings pumped to give him an extra boost of speed; he caught her and carefully set her on a nearby hay bale.

“
I’m fine, really, this always happens when I work.”  Her smoke and honey voice was slightly raspy with weariness, “Some food and water will easily rejuvenate me.”

He couldn’t give her food from Hades or she would be forced to live there forever
. He thought of Irvin and had an idea. “What did you normally eat on your island?”

She looked at him, curious
. “Mostly fruit and nuts, sometimes fish, but those were few and far between.”

“
Have you ever had a steak? Or lemonade?”  He asked, thinking of one of his favorite mortal foods. He didn’t
need
to eat, but most gods enjoyed it. He certainly did.

“
No… I don’t think I know what that is.”  She scowled as she thought. It was kind of cute.

He shook that thought away
. “Want to try it? If you don’t like it, you can try something else,” he said.

“
Yes, please! I’d love to try new things, now that I’m off the island.”  Her eyes brightened and her face glowed with excitement. The ice around his heart chipped a little in the face of her warmth.

“
I’ll have to hold you to take you where we’re going,” he said, turning her sheet into a simple black sundress that hugged her curves lovingly. He then threw a glamour over them to hide his wings and her bruising. He did
not
need to be harassed by some do-gooder with the wrong idea.

She rose and trustingly stepped into his arms; his wings, now invisible, wrapped around them tightly
. She fit against him perfectly. She was small, slight, and delicate as antique china. This was a really bad idea. She made him feel, and that was dangerous, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

She didn’t know where they were going, but she trusted this man
. She didn’t know why. The golden man had hurt her, but she knew, perhaps instinctively, that Thane would do all he could to keep her safe. Everything inside her wanted to be close to this man. She closed her eyes and focused inward. Every time he was near, her body warmed and she felt inexplicably happy. She knew there was a cloud of terror surrounding him. She was in the middle of it, but it didn’t seem to affect her for some reason. Surrounded by deadly fog, she was nevertheless untouchable in his arms.

She opened her eyes when she heard metal clanking against metal and the din of voices
. She looked around and saw dozens of people sitting at dark cherry tables talking, laughing and eating. She’d never heard or smelled so much at one time. The noise almost hurt her ears, but she quickly discovered that she could essentially turn the volume down. The smells, though, were all so decadent and mouthwatering… Her stomach rumbled loudly, barely audible over the boisterous mortals.

Thane
, hearing the sound, laughed. Actually
laughed
!
She’d gotten the feeling that he didn’t care to show emotion, but, oh, did she love his laugh. It was hoarse with disuse, but deep, rumbling up from his stomach, and made her entire body tingle strangely. She laughed with him happily, not minding being the reason for his amusement.

He stopped laughing abruptly, a scowl upon his handsome face
. It upset her; she wanted him to smile again, to laugh. She liked it. Instead, he took her hand and led her to a table. A woman wearing a strange white thing over her middle asked them if they were ready to order. Ria had no idea what she was talking about, so she glanced at Thane.

“
Yeah, we’ll have two steaks, medium-rare, lemonade and a coke,” Thane told the stranger, his eyes never leaving Ria’s face. The woman left and a loaded silence settled over them. She didn’t know what she’d done to upset him, and she was just about to apologize when he asked, “What did you do on your island? Two thousand years is a long time to spend in the same tiny place.”

“
Carved, mostly. There are some mountains and caves with all kinds of stone; I also sculpt using clay and mixtures of different mediums. I actually did a kind of conglomerate in your statue. Your wings were formed from obsidian, and I used some sapphires for the eyes; the body was a strange, bronze colored marble. I love how it all came together so well.” 

The woman came back with plates loaded with food
. Ria studied the fare carefully, wanting to savor every sight and sound she experienced. The meat was a rich brown, and steamed slightly. It smelled divine, surely a gift from the Gods. Cutting a small portion, she carefully took a bite of the slightly red meat. It was a robust and slightly peppery taste that zinged across her tongue, making her mouth water for more. After a few more bites, she realized that she was dreadfully thirsty and turned to her glass. The contents were slightly yellow, but it smelled sweet. She took a drink and gasped at the tart puckering sensation. It was delicious; sweet, tangy and refreshing all in one. She smiled at Thane and said, “Thank you for bringing me here, this is really good!”

“
I’m glad you like it,” he said, not looking up from his plate. He’d laughed.
Laughed
, and nothing had happened. The ground hadn’t shuddered, the building hadn’t collapsed, and no tsunamis were anywhere in sight. This had never happened before. Since he was a child, any time he allowed emotion to surface, someone somewhere died…usually millions of them.

He’d laughed though, felt true amusement, openly and completely, and nothing had happened
. He glanced at Ria, who was savoring every bit of food with a joyful expression on her face. She’d been the cause. She’d caused his laughter, and he had a feeling that she’d been the reason that nothing had happened as well. Maybe, while in her company, he could allow himself to experience more emotions.

****

Thane watched as Ria cuddled a Cerberus pup to her chest. She laughed when it jumped up and licked her with its three tiny tongues. Thane's heart filled with warmth at the sound.

He'd just returned from carrying a soul to the Underworld Dock. It had become habit to seek her out when he was finished with his duties each day. They would talk for a few minutes then go to a new type of place to eat. So far, Ria loved beef and chicken
, tolerated fish, and hated pork. Tonight he planned on introducing her to pizza.

After their meals, Thane always took her to experience a new
environment. It amazed him that Ria never had a complaint about the climate. Deserts, prairies, woodlands, jungles; she loved them all. He wanted to see her reaction to snow and ice. They were going to northern Canada for tonight's excursion.

“
Hi! How was your day?” Ria's honey smooth voice jerked Thane out of his mental planning. There was something warm and happy in her eyes, something that danced and shimmered when she looked at him. Thane loved that look, but he wasn't sure he cared for the way it made his heart flutter. Ice and decay were not supposed to quicken with life.

“
Same as always,” he replied, purposefully being vague. He didn't want her to know who and what he truly was; he didn't want her to fear him. “Are you ready to eat?”

Before she could answer, glowing balls of light zipped into the stable. They surrounded Ria; the larger ones attempting to grab her while the smaller ones burned her skin with zaps of electricity.

“OW! Thane, help!” Ria cried, unable to touch the orbs without burning her hands.

When Thane tried to intervene, the orbs doubled in number and started attacking him as they tugged Ria away. None of his powers worked on the damned
light-spheres. This told him that they were bits of magic stolen from the few Gods older than him. The fact that they resembled miniature suns and were focused on Ria revealed that Helios was their master.

As Thane was blinded by one of the orbs, six of the large ones were succeeding in lifting Ria from the ground. In her terror, she screamed, and a green fog erupted from her eyes. Reacting instinctively, Thane released his iron control on his own purple miasma of terror.

Purple and green swirled together; the cloud filled the stables with Thane and Ria's desperation, fear and determination.

When the multihued cloud touched the beams and walls, the snarling
Cerberus effigies sprang free of their housings. Their heads and torsos remained wood, while their back halves were dark shadows.

The shadowy
Wood-Cerberi snapped their jaws and easily gobbled up the glow-orbs, like something from a Brothers Grimm tale. The orbs retreated to a corner of the stable and converged into one giant ball of volatile magic. With a blast of energy, the magic ball surged toward Ria, and Thane was too far away to intercept the floating death.

Light flashed, blinding Thane; the animals howled and screamed in fright as smoke drifted through the stable.
The Underworld shuddered as Thane's heart wrenched in grief and shame. He should have been able to protect Ria; he was one of the most powerful beings in existence, and he couldn't protect his mate.

The sound of feminine sobs finally reached his ears, making him pause. He concentrated, forcing his eyes to adjust to the
darkness of the room after the blinding light. What he saw caused his heart to bleed with the pain of his joy: Ria sat upon the stone floor, weeping over the charred remains of the largest of the three headed Wood-Cerberi. Thane scooped Ria up in his arms and held her tightly, thanking all the Gods of Fate and Death for not taking her from him.

“
Thane,” Ria sobbed, “it isn't fair. He sacrificed his life for me. He shouldn't have done that; that's not what I made him for!” Her sobs wracked her tiny body.

“
Ria, you created him out of love. Love for what he could be, if he had form and life. Each of your creations feel love for you in return and wish to protect you out of love. The wood-beasts of the stable were created from your love to be guardians. He fulfilled what he considered his duty, and for that, for giving his life for love and duty, I grant him and his kind an afterlife. All of your creations will return to the stable after death as shades, to live in peace or continue their task as guardians as they so wish.” As Thane spoke, his eyes deepened to onyx with sapphire sparks dancing within the darkness.

The blackened husk of the wood-
Cerberus crumbled to ash as a purple shadow rose from it. The shadow-wolf stretched and shook his head. He glanced back at his shoulders, obviously surprised at not having to share his body with two other heads...an anomaly of his death. The shadow-wolf then jumped up and licked Ria's face affectionately before turning to Thane and lowering his torso to the ground in a low bow.

Master, I am
Achlys, spirit of the death mist, Alpha of the future Shadow-Wolves, and your loyal servant,
the Shadow-Wolf said.

“
No, Thane said, shaking his head as he knelt before Achlys, “You serve no one. I would be honored, though, to call you friend.”

With a wolfish grin, Achlys licked
Thane's cheek in acceptance then lifted his head in a proud howl. The Wood-Cerberi joined the howl as they each returned to their places in the stable carvings, their shadowy hindquarters disappearing into the wood from which they originated.