Page 30 of Bought By the Cerberus
“Theclaimingbrandwillbe beautiful against your skin.” Enyo arranged the silken shawl over my shoulders and smiled at me in the mirror. “My son chose well.”
I stared at my reflection, trying to see what Enyo did. The woman looking back wore elegant silk and careful cosmetics, but her blue eyes held confusion. Everything about this moment should have felt right. Phonos was kind, his family welcoming. They offered the belonging I’d never had. So different from the brutal village that had condemned me, the violent world that had marked me as worthless.
So why did wrongness still claw at my chest?
“You’re still fighting yourself,” Enyo observed, meeting my eyes.
“I know I should feel ready,” I admitted. “You’ve all done so much to make me feel at home. Phonos has been so patient with me. I don’t want to disappoint him.”
“Oh, child, you could never,” Enyo said, resting her hands over my back. “Phonos has been waiting so long for the right woman. He knew the instant he saw you. You don’t have that luxury, but you’ll understand soon.”
Soon. Dawn approached, and with it the thread entwining that would bind me to Phonos permanently. The hollow ache in my chest might fade once we were properly connected. Phonos claimed it would, and his family seemed certain.
“I know. It’s just… nerves.”
“It’s perfectly normal, Callista. Just remember this. You might not have been woven in Asphodelia, but you belong by Phonos’s side. With us.”
On some level, I agreed. Over the past week, they’d made space for me in their home. I’d shared meals where Megaera asked thoughtful questions about my weaving techniques. Alecto had regaled me with stories of her patrol missions. Enyo had taught me the history written in their tapestries.
And then, there was Phonos, and the tentative way he embraced me, the way he looked at me. They all wanted this ceremony to succeed. They all believed in it.
Did I? I wasn’t sure. But after all his consideration and care, I owed it to him, to all of them, to at least try.
“Almost ready.” Enyo stepped back and examined her work with obvious satisfaction. “The silk suits you perfectly. Don’t you think so, Callista?”
I didn’t get the chance to answer. A distant sound made us both freeze. Low and rumbling, like thunder, but wrong somehow. Too organic, too filled with rage. “What was that?” I asked.
Enyo moved to the crystal window, peering down at the city below. Her face went pale. “Alecto! Megaera!”
Footsteps pounded across stone as both sisters rushed into the chamber, familiar sounds I’d learned to recognize. Alecto’s measured stride, Megaera’s quieter steps. “Mother?” Alecto asked, already scanning the room for threats. “What’s wrong? What do you see?”
“There’s something climbing the spire.” Enyo backed away from the crystal panes, her fingernails already turning to talons. “Something massive.”
The sound came again, closer now. Stone cracked somewhere below us, the entire spire trembling slightly. Megaera’s breath caught, as if a horrible realization had just dawned on her. “Get away from the window!”
Alecto shoved everyone back, and not a moment too soon. The crystal shattered inward, and a giant head pushed through the opening, black fur wreathed in flames. Amber eyes fixed on me with terrifying intensity. Two more heads followed, each larger than a normal creature’s entire body. The beast’s shoulderswedged in the window frame, stone cracking as he forced his way inside.
“Three-headed Cerberus!” Enyo grabbed my arm, face pale with terror beyond description. “Alecto, get Callista out of here!”
“No.” The word came out steady despite my racing heart. “I know him.”
I truly did. This was a creature more ferocious than every monster I’d met in Asphodelia put together. But I looked at him and saw safety. Warmth.
“You know nothing!” Enyo snarled. “A person destroyed by a Cerberus will cease to exist. Their past, present, and future will be entirely erased. Not even the Moirae will be able to salvage their death energy. Even Thanatos himself cannot stop him. He doesn’t bring ending. He brings absolute void!”
The explanation made my breath catch. She wasn’t talking about death, because why would she? No, the people of Asphodelia worshipped death. This was something else, dissolution, complete erasure. To be unmade so thoroughly that even divine powers couldn’t restore what remained. No wonder Enyo’s terror ran so deep.
And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to agree with her, to believe. Not this time.
For once, the Keres weren’t willing to listen to me and my human whims. “Get her out of here, Mother.” Alecto spread her wings and launched herself into the air. “I’ll distract it.”
“Alecto!” I screamed, but she was already attacking. Her feathers hardened into sharp projectiles, targeting the huge beast.
She meant to keep her distance from the monster, to draw his attention with a ranged attack. But she underestimated his reach. The creature moved with impossible speed for his size. Within seconds, the left head caught her midair in his jaws, giant teeth puncturing her torso.
Alecto hissed, but drove her talons toward her opponent’s eye. She was still unwilling to give up, still the warrior I’d come to care about. But then, something shifted in the creature’s stance. Alecto let out a choked cry, her spine arching and twisting in the beast’s grip.
Even when he hurled her aside, Alecto continued to convulse. For a few seconds, she clawed at her face and her eyes, her mouth opened in a soundless scream. When she finally went limp, it almost came as a relief.
