Page 22 of Whiskey, Thieves, and Bastards
“I do. My mates are kind of new to it.”
“So, you’re about to hear things about us that we’ve never let anyone else know. You can’t let this leave here. We’re telling you because you’re one of us.”
“You should pinky swear,” Benji said.
Megaera cocked an eyebrow at Benji.
“It’s sacred to him,” Pax explained.
Megaera leaned forward and held out a pinky to Benji.
“Swear it, hybrid.”
Benji hooked a pinky with Megaera. Did my mate just make a pinky swear with a fury? I really hoped he never broke that.
“I think I speak for all of us when I say your secret is safe with us,” Cas said.
“Gods, too,” Dionysus said.
“Well, we knowyouget it.”
“How?”
All three furies sighed.
“Ever wonder why we go for trapping people in their worst nightmare? Mental illness didn’t use to be a thing. People used to treat people with it terribly. It’s been everything from witchcraft to demons, but back in our time, it meant you’d displeased the gods and they cursed you with it.”
It was terrible. I’d been like that once, too, because I really didn’t know any better. None of us did.
“I’m sorry. A lot of us were like that back then.”
“Best we can figure in the modern age is that I’m bipolar, Megaera has schizophrenia, and Tisiphone is borderline. We got the help we need, but back then, we were cast out and ostracized. They threw rocks at us and we nearly starved to death because they didn’t want us near them.
“We don’t know if someone self-actualized us into furies or the fates did like they did with you, but we woke one morning looking as monstrous as we felt inside with this burning desire to punish wicked people. It gave us focus and really kept us stable as the centuries passed and we had a name for what was going on with us.
“We’re still furies, but our focus has been different now. Once we figured out how to change back to our regular faces, we’ve been fighting for mental health care reform,” Alecto said.
“And punishing bitches who abuse the helpless,” Megaera shrugged.
“Furies gonna fury,” Tisiphone said, flashing the peace sign.
“Why haven’t you stopped the Coalition before now?” Cas demanded.
“Because the angels dragged some crap-ass wards from the bowels of Tartarus and until anyone knew what they were and how to disable them, we couldn’t get close. Persephone said you got those answers from Cassandra. The three of us aren’t gods, so we aren’t immune to her curse. If she told us, we wouldn’t have believed her.
“We werehopingto get in on the action if Persephone pulled this off even before we knew Medusa was one of us. The shit they are doing is the same crap we fought to put a stop to ages ago. We’ve been trying to figure out how to bring them down for a while now. Torturing innocents in the name of science and trying to put a mental health bow on it isexactlywhat summons the furies now.”
“We’d be honored to have you join us, but how did Medusa end up different from the three of you? And if you were able to shift back into three lovely women, does that mean she could eventually go out without the glasses Hephaestus made?” Pax asked.
The three furies beamed at Pax and preened that he called them lovely.
“She can go back to how she was before the snakes. Medusa, you can only turn people to stone when youwantto, but you’re going to have to dig deep because your trauma is different from ours. We were angry with how we were treated when we were changed, but it was also pretty messy in our heads. We manifested into some pretty sexy monsters who were angry at the people who abused others. We embraced it.
“Medusa, you’d just been violated, and you thought the one person who was supposed to protect you and take your side punished you for it. You might not have even realized you were doing it, but your subconscious kicked in and made sure no one would touch you like that again. The snakes kept the gods away and your gaze made sure everyone else couldn’t get close.”
“Excuse me, but I happen to think her snakes are very sexy,” Dionysus said.
“You don’t count,” Alecto said. “Your curse may have been lifted, but you’re just like us. You danced the dance and had divine intervention. I take pills. Our dark places change us.”
