Page 64 of The Coven of Ruin
“Let’s see them,” the bronzed god drawled.
“Well,” she sighed and placed her cards face-up on the table in a flourish.
His slate eyes danced over them in a quick study. “Harpy’s tit, you just won, Trist.” His tone was all disbelief as he splayed his cards out for her to see.
She had him beat.
“Right,” she said brightly, clapping her hands together. “Tell me how this all began. The group and how it involves you.”
“That,” Ares said, “is not a question.”
“Fine. Why are they worshiping Khaos? She’sThe Nothingness. She isn’t even a being.”
Grae looked to Ares. A silent conversation passed between the two gods as Grae easily shuffled the deck of cards without glancing at them.
“She isn’tnota being,“ Grae finally said.
“In short,” Ares explained, “this group of mages and demigods believe in a prophecy that states Khaos can be incarnated. That she will slaughter the gods and take over Olympus. They kidnap seers because, besides that small portion of the prophecy, they don’t have the rest. Meaning, they can’t take action to incarnate her.”
“Why are demigods helping mages? And what do we get out of a primordial being ruling Olympus anyway?” Every answer only bred more questions.
She could tell by the way Ares looked at her that he was considering the price of saying anything more. To her surprise, though, he continued. “These demigods do not have the attributes that Zeus requires to reside in Olympus. They’ve been deemed lesser than and condemned to the mortal plane. So, they are doing it to take what they think is rightfully theirs. We’ve already handled most of them, though.”
The god paused, his hand flexing as he thought. Finally, he said, “As for what’s in it for witchkind, the return of your magic. At least, that’s what they believe.”
“And, allegedly, the reincarnation of the three mothers,” Grae added.
Trista looked at him sharply. “Three? There are only two.”
There was a long silence punctuated only by Grae’s curse. “Fuck.”
Trista glanced between the god’s wince to Brune’s indifference as he took a deep drink from his cup. Then her gaze fell on Ares, whoalmostseemed confused.
“Who do you think are the Mothers?” he asked her carefully.
“We do not invoke their names disrespectfully,” she explained. “They are known as the Mothers or sometimes combined into just one.”
“Irisi and Emella?” Ares supplied.
She nodded, unable to do anything more.
“There is a third mother, though it occurs to me now that there is some reason that this isn’t common knowledge,” Grae added as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Although…” he trailed off, his gaze flicking to Ares and then back to her.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Trista started, standing up. All three gods watched her rise. “Each Mother gave birth to six witchlings—six males and six females. When they grew, they joined.” She put her hands together, interlocking her fingers. “At the time, there was only one coven. As their numbers grew and they needed more space and land, they spread out, eventually creating the six covens we know today. If there is a third mother, who did she give birth to? Where did her children fit in our history?”
“She had but one witchling,” Ares explained. “She mimicked the ritual of Irisi and Emella, but her reasoning was far more ambitious and dangerous to Olympus.”
Trista paused in her pacing. “Did you kill her too, then?”
The God of War’s jaw ticked before he inclined his head. Yes.
“Who was she?” She thought of the foreign covens and wondered if any of them were descendants.Why was she never spoken about?
“Her name was Nyx. Goddess of Darkness and the favored daughter to Khaos.”
Nyx. Not just any goddess, a daughter of Khaos. That meant she had to be older than Ares and even Zeus.The words struck like a binding spell that left her frozen in place. The Mothers were demigods, as she understood. Their ritual for creation was successful because they used their own life force and the purity of their love to accomplish it. What did Nyx use?
“And her descendants? Or did you kill them too?”
