With My Last Breath

"How can this be?" she asked. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Do you think that you are the only ones who control Fate?" I asked humorlessly.

"You are not. We have simply allowed you to hold that role … and for far too long.

That will end soon."

"Will it?" she replied with icy, eerie calm.

I took a step toward her, intent on restraining her, on holding her down until I could decide what to do, but she took a long step back.

With a strange and horrible screech, she thrust her head and shoulders back and her clothing fell to shreds and dropped to the ground around her ankles. As she stood naked, her wrinkled skin turned ebony black and hideous bony wings ripped from her body, fanning to fill that entire side of the room. She opened her eyes and they were blood red.

"Will it?" she asked again, her voice hoarse and dripping with the evil that I knew she was. The temperature in the room plummeted, the cold radiating from Lachesis herself. I shivered, as the hair raised at the nape of my neck. I could see every quick pant of breath that I took hanging in the air.

Glancing down, I saw that her toes had turned into razor sharp talons, scratching the floor as she took a few more steps. Then suddenly, she took flight through the room, shooting over my head and out my open windows.

Rushing to my balcony, I watched as she flew quickly from the palace and into the night. In horror, I realized that a long, scaly tail hung behind her. And then she was gone and I was alone, breathing hard as I leaned against the balcony railing.

What did this mean? Where was she going? What the hell was she?

I desperately tried to calm myself but dizziness from fear, from the blood loss, from the shock of what had just happened overtook me and I crumpled to the ground in a heap.

My tattered clothes lay in a pile in front of me and I concentrated on them as I sent out a silent plea for help.

Mother, I need you.

And then I closed my eyes.

Courtney Cole 84

With My Last Breath, Book Three

Courtney Cole 85

With My Last Breath, Book Three

Chapter Fourteen

"Help her! Help her, Hecate," a voice pleaded anxiously.

My mother. I tried to open my eyes but my eyelids were too heavy. It felt as though a brick lay on each one. I struggled with it for a moment and then gave up. I didn’t have the strength to move or to speak. All I could do was listen.

"Hecate, what has happened?" Ares muttered hurriedly. He was anxious as well. I could hear it in his voice. "What is wrong with her?"

Where was I? Was I still in my bedchambers? I inhaled a breath and in it, I could taste the roses that drifted in on the breeze from the gardens. I was still in Camelot, that was certain. The night air was thick with dew, roses and brambles. I could smell the damp earth from outside and the moss that covered the palace walls and I could feel the salt from the sea on my lips.

What was wrong with me? I was physically drained, my energy gone. I couldn’t lift my hands or move my legs. I could hear Hecate rustling beside me, moving, perhaps mixing something. Glass and metal scraped against each other and then a pungent odor filled the room, clinging to the inside of my nostrils.

"What the hell is that?" Ares boomed.

"Hush, Ares," my mother cautioned.

"I care not who hears me," Ares thundered. "I wish to know what the witch is going to feed my daughter. It smells like death."

"Perhaps that is exactly what it is, war god," Hecate muttered. "You do not need to know what my magic contains, only that it is very powerful. Lachesis drank from your daughter’s blood. You can see the wound in her arm for yourself. Your daughter’s pure blood has now fueled the Moirae. But because of that, it has left Harmonia impotent and spent.

"I shall have to use strong magic to revive her. Do not worry yourself, Ares. I’ve used this very potion on others, including your other daughter, Ortrera. She came through just fine and so will Harmonia…and her baby."

Something cool forced my lips open and the most vile liquid I had ever tasted dripped down my throat, sliding into my belly like fire. The repugnant potion churned within my stomach, rapidly spreading through my blood with every beat of my heart. I felt it return my strength and as it did, it forced a shrill scream from my lungs, jerking my body into a sitting position as I shrieked.

Guinevere clapped her hands over her ears as she stared at me in panic.

"Harmonia, stop!" she murmured. "Are you alright?"

I quieted the unconscious scream and assessed myself. Was I?

"I don’t know," I answered. "I think so."

Courtney Cole 86

With My Last Breath, Book Three

Hecate patted my arm. "You’ll be fine now. Our concerns should not be with your well being, but with Lachesis… and what she has done with her new knowledge."

"What do you mean?" I asked anxiously.

Hecate stared at me patiently. The sympathy that I found in her gaze was startling and I inhaled.

"What is it?" I asked quickly. "What has happened?"

She sighed and my parents drew closer, making me instantly nervous. I wasn’t sure if they meant to restrain me or comfort me.

"As you know," she began, "Whenever someone travels time, there is a risk… a risk that something will be altered. Any change, no matter how small, can cause massive ripple effects, effects that start small, but gradually widen until they create devastatingly large changes."

I kept my eyes trained on Hecate’s solemn face.

"What has happened?" I repeated in a whisper.

"Close your eyes and hold hands," she instructed quietly. We quickly did as she asked and our minds were instantly filled with visions.

The world had turned black.

Everything was just like the Wastelands where Cadmus was being held… void and cold. I shivered as I watched the images unfold in my mind.

Mortals were heartless, war raged everywhere. Thunderous dark clouds encapsulated every city as far as my mind could see. It was a bleak place and it was because of the Fates. I knew that without doubt. Because they did not have to continue their charade in order to keep me contained, they had turned the world into what they wanted it to be. Their only purpose now was to find the sword. They did not care what happened to the mortals. And the mortals were killing themselves.

Even the Spiritlands was dark and Olympus was ravaged and war torn. Houses were demolished, the land was quiet and black, the people were miserable.

I gasped and yanked my hands away, ending the visions. I jumped from my bed and rushed to the windows. The lush rolling mountainside below me had turned brown and dead. Black clouds swirled overhead, while dry leaves and withered rose petals blew across the countryside.