Page 33 of Bought By the Cerberus
Enyo could have gone, but for whatever reason, she hadn’t. She lingered at Phonos’s side, still trying to help him, even if it obviously wasn’t working.
“Mother,” Phonos said, and tried to take Enyo’s hand. His fingers passed straight through it, like a wisp of cloud.
Horror crept up my spine, and I scanned the room, searching for the other wounded Keres. That was when I saw it, the terrifying result of Theron’s attack. Alecto’s edges were blurring, her form becoming translucent. Megaera slumped against the wall, her aged face shifting as if she couldn’t remember what she was supposed to look like.
I grabbed Theron’s arm, burying my fingers in his fur. Enyo’s desperate warning flashed through my head.He doesn’t bring ending. He brings absolute void!
The Keres weren’t just injured. They were disappearing.
Enyo’s shoulders shook, and I realized she’d seen this coming. “Stay with me, Phonos,” she whispered. “Please, stay with me.”
To her right, Alecto let out a small noise. Enyo shot a glance toward her and her face went white when she saw what was happening. “No. Not you, too.”
I felt numb. The world was blurring around the edges as I tried to process what was happening. “T-Theron,” I stammered, “what do we do? We have to help them.”
Theron looked as lost as I was. And why wouldn't he be? Whatever had transformed him into that creature, he clearly hadn’t been prepared for it, or for the consequences.
“Not my children,” Enyo continued to sob, crawling between them, having seemingly forgotten all about us.
The air in the chamber suddenly thickened, and the spire trembled under the weight of an unseen power. “You can’t help them, bride of Agrion. The House of Keres is being consumed by time itself.”
The words came from everywhere and nowhere. Three familiar figures materialized in the ruined chamber. The Moirae. The maiden Clotho, the matron Lachesis, and the crone Atropos, all standing side by side, just like they had the day of the duel.
“Past, present, and future,” they intoned. “Memory, destruction, and age. There’s nothing you can do to fight it.”
The impossibility of the situation hit me harder than ever before. The Moirae were right. Each head had affected the Keres children differently. Theron’s other form had controlled time. What could we hope to fix about this?
But Enyo wasn’t willing to give up. She prostrated herself at the Moirae’s feet, begging. “Revered Moirae, please. Don’t let them fade away like this.”
I held my breath, waiting for the Moirae’s answer. Enyo had said the Moirae couldn’t undo whatever Theron had done, but it couldn’t be that hopeless. Not if they were here.
“There is a way,” Atropos said quietly, confirming my guess. “The question is whether you have earned the right.”
Understanding dawned in Enyo’s eyes. Her entire body shook as she pressed her forehead against the crumbling floor. My stomach lurched. Whatever she was about to ask for, I already knew it wouldn’t be good.
I was more right than I could have dreamed. “I beg for the honor of unweaving,” Enyo said. “Let my existence save theirs.”
Unweaving? Wait… What was she talking about?
A memory flashed through my head, my first conversation with Iaso snapping through me like a vicious whip. Both she and Enyo had spoken of being woven by the Moirae. By that logic, being unwoven must mean… Enyo was talking about her own death.
The three sisters exchanged glances, considering the request. I willed them to refuse, to offer a better option. They didn’t. “You have served Asphodelia faithfully for centuries,” Lachesis finally decided. “The honor may be granted.”
“The unweaving is final,” Atropos warned her. Her scissors glinted against her waist, far more threatening than Elena’s had ever been. “There will be no return. Your essence will become pure energy, nothing more.”
“I understand.” Enyo’s voice was steady, filled with purpose. “Your gift humbles me, Revered Moirae.”
Tears filled my eyes, and I couldn’t help but protest. “Enyo, no. There has to be another way.”
Enyo turned to look at her children one final time. The woman who’d welcomed me into her family, who’d made me feel like I belonged somewhere, was about to die to save the people I’d grown to care about.
Then, she looked at me. “Callista, do not weep. I know you don’t understand, not yet... But this is truly a blessing.”
I didn’t know if I believed that, but I forced myself to say nothing more. Enyo had made her choice, and I needed to respect it. I could only take refuge in Theron’s presence and pray this worked.
The Moirae joined hands around Enyo. A spindle floated above Clotho, a measuring rod over Lachesis, a pair of scissors over Atropos. Their ancient power clustered together, pressing on my skin. And then, it reached for Enyo.
The Keres matriarch didn’t die like a human would have. Instead, she came apart at the seams. Threads became visible along her outline, almost as if she was a pattern in a loom, not a person. The threads began to separate, peeling away from her body in delicate strands.
