He hated the way she looked.  Hated the yellow tint in her green cat eyes, the red tint on her talon-like nails. He hated everything about her. Lilith, the girl who was more poisonous than a snake.

“Blake? Please say something.”

“Go to hell.”

“Oh please, are you still bitter with me for killing…what was that darling witchling’s name?”

“Zoë,” he muttered through gritted teeth. The muscles in his arm tightened. He hated when Lilith spoke about her.

“Ah, yes, Zoë. This game never gets old,” she finished, laughing.

“Go to hell.”

“So you won’t take my offer?”

At that remark, Blake actually let out a soft and bitter chuckle. “You can take that offer and shove it up your ass, Lilith. The day I become your second in command will be the day I stay dead.”

“I can arrange that.”

Blake grinned. “Go ahead.” He stared at her, watched the muscles in her face tighten as her eye widened in rage. She was bluffing, always bluffing. Her fellow Darklings were few compared to the entire coven. With Selene back, they were losing the hold they had, slowly but surely.

“I loathe you, Blake.”

“The feeling’s mutual.”

Knocking came from the door, echoing through the chamber. Neither Blake nor Lilith moved or even moved their eyes from the other.  The knocking continued. Neither one of them wanted to be submissive to the other; neither wanted to be the first to move. Blake was tired of being the mouse in this game she played.

“Oh, for the love of — I’m coming!” Lilith rolled her eyes as she got up from Selene’s old seat and made her way to the door. It would always be Selene’s seat.

“Sorry to disturb you,” said Eno, entering the room. “Eris needs to see Blake.”

“Of course, he does. Very well then, Blake, you are free to go.”

“Don’t tell me what I can and cannot do, Lilith,” he muttered standing up. “Your days are numbered.”

“Do you really believe that?”

Blake stood next to her, feeling a calmness overcome him, enough to calm him down and subdue his anger. But it wasn’t sufficient to stop him from saying what he had to say.

“Yes, because, Lilith, I’ll make sure of it.” Leaving the room, he smiled at the rage that had filled her vision.

“You shouldn’t bait her like that,” muttered Eno as they walked side by side down the hall.

“If I have to kill her myself, I will. So I will bait her all I want, Eno. She deserves no respect.”

“She works for She of the Dark and She does deserve respect. However horrible she may be, she is still a God.”

“If she wants, she can strike me down right now.”

“I wouldn’t tell her that.” Eno and Blake stopped in their tracks as the hall darkened. Shira slunk from the shadows, but it had not been she who had spoken, but rather the being appearing next to her.

“Negal?” muttered Blake, confused.

“Hello, Blake, hello Eno.”

Blake continued to stare. “When did you two become friends again?”

“We are…working together,” said Shira slipping a hand behind her neck.

“Why should we trust you? It’s all your fault we’re in this mess!”

“I was given orders, Blake, and I followed them. Don’t judge me for that. Besides, my Queen is not innocent in all of this. She told Selene as much, didn’t you?” Negal ignored the admissions, but even Blake could see some truth to what was going on. Had Negal betrayed them?

“Negal, what’s going on?” asked Eno, placing a gentle hand on Blake’s arm. Warmth and comfort ran up his arm. He tried to shake it off, to shake her off, but her nails dug into his flesh, holding him there, depriving him of his anger.

“Go on, Negal, tell them.” Blake stared at Shira. Her condescending tone that usually accompanied her presence was gone. Finally calm, he was able to take in her appearance and found himself staring at a defeated copy of the confident woman he once knew.

“What’s going on?”

“Jason plans on killing Eris,” answered Negal. “He plans on killing him and Lilith and her Darklings and anyone who stands in his way.”

“H–he can’t,” stammered Eno, gripping Blake’s arm even tighter, spreading her fear to him.

“He will still try,” said Negal, tucking her stray hairs behind her ear.

“Selene won’t let him,” Blake said, trying to fight off the terror emanating from Eno.

“We know,” said Shira, finally peeling her eyes from the ground. “A sacrifice will be made in his place. There is so much going on, a war between the Gods. A war with those three stuck in the middle.” Crossing her arms, she let out a pathetic scoff.

“At least I’ll be out of it soon.”

“How’s that, hmm? You’re the last person in the world who deserves to be free of it.” Blake wanted to charge at her, to slam her against the wall and crush her throat in, even though it would mean his death.

“What’s wrong, still mad at the world that your girlfriend died?”

“Shira!” exclaimed Negal.

“What, it’s true. He thinks he’s the only one who has suffered here; at least he gets another chance, all he has to do is go look for it. But me, I get nothing; I lose again and again, and you lost my brother, and Eris lost Azelia, and Nivette, and soon…he has no right to act so piously. He’ll meet Hekate, and everything will be right as rain.”

“Go to hell. The day I get to be rid of you, and all lose damnable Soul Drinkers and Darklings is the day Zoë gets to rest in peace.”

“Blake, calm down. Her comment was not entirely cruel. If you want answers, you have to visit Selene’s Witchling friend Hekate.”

“We have to go now, Negal,” said Shira, collapsing against the wall, clutching her head. “She’s getting angry.”

Negal caught the falling Shira, who was wincing in pain, clutching her head. “We’ve interfered enough anyway, and for the worse, I fear. Tell Eris about Jason and his followers but say nothing to Selene.” Negal sank away into the ground, holding Shira close. But even through her pain, she looked up as darkness swallowed her and winked at Blake. What the hell was going on?

“Come, Blake—”

“You go; I want to see this Hekate. I want answers, and I want them now. I am so sick and tired of being kept in the dark.” Eno nodded, kissing him on the cheek before leaving him to find his answers.

Back in his bleak room, he sat on the edge of his bed, remembering Zoë. He remembered how she had smiled, how beautiful she had been with her gold cat-like eyes. Her smile was what won him over. Coupled with her gold eyes that had reminded him of Anita. Anita, who had been his wife, even though he had already been a Vampyre.

“Whichever Shadowling is there, I need your help.”

“Hello, Blake.” Vega appeared next to him on his bed, her hands in her lap, looking at her with her sad and gentle black eyes.

“Can you take me to see this Hekate? I need answers.”

“Answers are what you’ll get. But I must warn you, once you learn you cannot unlearn, and once you see, you cannot unsee. Above all else, you cannot say anything to Selene.”

“Why? Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“Because her destiny is finally set in stone; her future has finally been saved, and with it Eris’s. They must follow the path and find the answers themselves when they accept what they see. Knowledge before acceptance will only distract them.”

“So now I have a choice to make?”

“Indeed, but take comfort, at least the choice is yours.”

Weighing the options, he considered being left in the dark, wondering what was going to happen next, or becoming the one to keep the secrets. It was a tough choice, but he was sick of being left in the dark, of knowing nothing.

“I would rather know how everything is going to end, Vega. It will give me some peace of mind, and I need that.”

“Are you prepared to keep more secrets from Selene?”

“Even if I told her, she’s not likely to believe anything she doesn’t want to.”

“How true. Follow me.” Standing up, Vega held out her hand to him. Her fingers were long and delicate, slender and smooth, unlike his callused hands. Taking her hand, he wondered how such a gentle soul could be a Shadowling, and how such a delicate hand could kill anything easily. Was that her curse for her immortality, or had she learned through the ages that having a gentle heart eased her own suffering?

Through the darkness they fell, holding tightly to Vega’s hand, he let her guide him through it, to the Shadow Realm.

Entering the darkness was swift; it was the leaving that was hard. As a Vampyre, he was drawn to the Darkness, pulled to the Shadow Realm. A piece of him felt at home there and tugged at his heart, telling him to stay, and when they stepped out and the door to the Shadow Realm shut behind them, something cut him deeper than any mortal wound could. He suddenly felt untethered.

“What the hell?” Blake spun around, noticing the vanishing act that Vega pulled, and found himself face to face with a Witchling with brilliant golden eyes.

“Zoë?”

A soft smile graced her face. “Oh Blake, you remember me.” He ran across what he guessed was the living room and lifted her in his arms, burying his head into her neck. She laughed, and he pulled away, cupping her face to memorize it. The size of her lips, the twitch of her delicate human nose, and how the white markings on her forehead stood out against her face. His eyes always returned to her eyes. Gold with the tiniest fleck of green scattered through the irises.

“Zoë… gods, how I missed you.”

“Oh Blake,” she said, burying her head into his chest, purring softly. “I missed you too.”

“Zoë…I came for answers. Negal said you had answers.”

With her head still against his chest, she nodded. “I do. I know everything. I’ve seen the future.”

“Zoë, please tell me, what happens next? Tell me everything.”

“Everything, Blake?” she said, pulling away to stare at him with her golden eyes.

“Yes, gods yes. I’m tired of the secrets, of being left in the dark. Zoë, please tell me.”

Hekate – Zoë – took a seat on the sofa and looked up at him admiringly, slightly amused.

“I thought you would never ask Blake.” She grabbed his hands, pulling him to the sofa next to him. “Let’s first start with my true name, shall we. Blake, my name is Ultima, and a long time ago, I was Selene’s familiar. Remember that little kitty that never left her side? That was me. But that’s not who I was entirely, not in the beginning.”

“Who were you?”

“You know, even in my past life I took offense to the fact that you did not even recognize your own wife.”

Blake’s breath caught, and he stared at the face, finally seeing the truth. The high cheekbones, the same golden eyes…

“Oh, my gods. Anita?” Her lips curled into the most mischievous of smiles. “Took you long enough, dear.”