Beyond Fate by Amalia Dillin

Author:Amalia Dillin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thorskona Books
Published: 2021-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

29

Elah

Before

Grandfather wasn’t always old. It was the first thing she noticed, when he welcomed her to the Redwood Hall, after she finished staring at the trees, tipping her head back so far she would have fallen over if it hadn’t been for Raphael standing close behind her. At first, when he bent his tired body down to greet her, he seemed to creak and crack at the joints, exhaustion in every line of his face. But when she took his hand, he changed. His wrinkles smoothed and his back and shoulders straightened, and when he stood back up again, he was grinning with bright old eyes in a face as young as her Archangel’s.

“Your Archangel, is it?” Grandfather asked, laughing.

That was how she’d always thought of Raphael. As hers. He’d always been with her, after all, and he’d said they were the most important things. Her and Mama. But she’d never said it. Not out loud.

“Mama says it isn’t polite to read anyone’s mind, especially not family.”

“And she’s quite right,” Grandfather said, his voice warm as a wolf’s howl. “But you and I are not just anyone, Little Goddess. You and I are two parts of the same whole. Not the only parts, mind you, but the most important in this moment, to this world. Through us, all of creation will live or die, and as such, it is crucial that I know your mind. Do you understand me?”

“Is Mama a piece?”

“My first born, as well. Your father—”

“Mama says he left because he loved me, and he was afraid if he stayed he’d hurt us.”

Grandfather’s eyes crinkled. “That is one reason, yes.”

“Why else?” she asked.

“You’ll learn the answer to that question soon enough, Little Goddess. When you’re old enough to understand it. But there are reasons, and there are reasons, and that which is known is usually only a part of the whole. Your birth was necessary. What comes after . . . it is merely an old god’s hope that his house be left in order. Or at least that it might hold the potential to be ordered, if those he leaves behind desire it. I tire of my daughter’s struggles, of my son’s imprisonment by those who have no right to interfere. Now that my family is returned to me, I would see them free. All of you, free, upon my death, to forge your own fates, together or apart.”

Elah dug at the mulch with her toe. “Does that mean Mama and Father could be together, too?”

Grandfather smiled kindly. “I expect she will forgive him one day, but to the rest, I cannot say. It will be her choice, who to love, how to live. It is the least she deserves after everything I have not done.”

She wrinkled her nose, not sure what any of it meant. “Will I ever get to meet Father?”

“When you’re a bit older, you may go to him if you wish. It would delight him, I’m certain, if you chose to.”

“Then I will,” Elah said, nodding to herself.

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