A Tale Before Two Alphas Series Book 2

It had been just shy of two weeks since my encounter with the Fates, three ever-changing female Faeries. Being near her was akin to the sensation you feel before a storm, a natural hum of electricity that makes every nerve stand on end.

Seeing each face should have been unsettling, yet there was something about her that had me captivated. So much so that when she asked me to pose a question, a privilege that mortals and Faeries alike had died for in our tales, the only question that escaped my lips was one of a love-struck mortal—destined for disappointment.

I had foolishly hoped that maybe I was the wife who would break the cycle and live happily ever after with Hades. But instead, I heard a different name entirely. Perhaps it was madness that I had allowed myself to fall for a Faerie, especially one as cold-hearted as Hades. Yet, despite his icy demeanor, I had managed to capture a piece of his heart.

My time with him only increased, even though I knew the name of his true love. The guilt of every kiss, every touch, every romantic moment weighed heavily on me, knowing he wasn’t truly mine. He would never be, but in the two weeks since the Fates’ visit, guilt was the only thing burdening my conscience as his advances continued.

A kiss here, a touch there, our bodies entwined. He would hold me as we lay in my tree, gazing at the stars while I talked about my life back home. Intimacy was a concept I understood but had never experienced firsthand.

Not only had Fate told me I wasn’t his destined love, but Hades didn’t even seem interested in knowing what she had said. He chose to ignore a truth that could lead to his happiness, preferring to live in ignorance. This left me wondering when would be the right time to bring it up again.

When I wasn’t with Hades, sharing stories of my life or researching plants, I tended to the garden where nothing once grew. Its secrets were unlocked in a fit of rage, digging holes at random. This was my distraction from the impending reality that very soon, I would cease to exist.

The key to fertile soil was surprising. Blood was the only common denominator that I could think of that I had done differently. Even now, I found it easy to recreate with any small area that still looked dead when I replaced the soil, adding just a tiny drop of blood.

The garden could continue to thrive after I left, now that it was established, if I pleaded my case for some sort of magical assistance. But that wasn’t my main goal. It didn’t make sense for him to have a garden that didn’t include plants from this realm, plants that only a human could handle.

I also doubted that he or his future wife would want to keep a garden full of human plants. Not to mention the fact that I was just one human. If my days were numbered, so were my gardening days. The garden wouldn’t be completed, leaving me to wonder if she might be the one to finish it for him.

There was some comfort in that thought. Today, I couldn’t even bear to look at the garden. The feeling that it would never be truly completed returned, just as it had the day Fate visited me. The tree and all the bare plots of soil were such an eyesore that I retreated to the other oasis that Hades had given me—the Beach of Lost Things.

The beach was filled with pebbles and rocks instead of sand, yet it felt nothing like that under your feet. Piles upon piles of lost things washed ashore from the human realm. Although “washed ashore” was an odd term to use since the tide never rose or fell, items came and went just the same.

A new hobby I had picked up was collecting the little perfectly round black or pearly white pebbles, ignoring almost all of the other lost treasures that surrounded me on the Beach of Lost Things.

Of course, there were a few human comforts I had picked up along the way, like the bag I took down every day, stitched together from various fabrics. Today was one of those days where the warm, soft breeze creeping up my neck felt eerily familiar and comforting.

This beach didn’t whip your hair around and smelled of iron and dust. My pockets were full of stones as I wandered further down the beach than I ever had before. The stacks of junk piled like a maze around me, with a few openings that still showed off the shoreline and the long-gone castle.

Part of me felt brave today, wandering further than I ever had before. I was on the hunt for more of the rocks that seemed to be fewer and fewer in view of the castle. As I began to weave deeper, I came across large arches of junk, as if they were some sort of rock formation of things stuck together with strange glowing green slimy objects stuck to it all.

Something green glimmered, catching my eye as I walked out of an arch at the bottom of it. The sun hit it just right, making me tilt my head curiously. Hades had given me a ring to protect me, and I had felt it hum uncomfortably around certain objects when I had inspected junk before. This was the same in the castle or while wandering out here, a clear warning of danger as Hades had promised.

This time, the ring stayed cool and still against my skin as I stepped forward slowly, curious about the glimmer that was different from the slime. The color and twisting green jade vines encompassing the giant emerald on what looked to be a comb with one missing tooth. I stared at it for several moments, watching how the light glinted off the stone. Suddenly, I felt a bit…homesick.

Did my mother know where I was? Did she suspect? There was nothing she could do… Even though I felt trapped and was told to call her by her first name—Tatiana was still my mother, so it was hard not to love and miss her on some level.

This comb reminded me of her, though it looked more Faerie-made in nature the way it was formed. It was the emerald, since she had always loved the color of my eyes, eyes that were a direct reflection of her own.

I couldn’t bring myself to pick it up. The need to have something that reminded me of her wasn’t strong enough to want to hold close and cherish. It was a reminder of what I had left behind, not something I could ever truly return to.

“Pretty trinket, but I think the Faerie that owned it was as cold as the stone it’s made from.”

The words made me jump. The distinct male voice that was very much not Hades.

I looked around and saw no one until I turned back to the comb and nearly fell from fright. His warm grasp caught my elbows just in time, a small smile on his lips. One that was interrupted by a jagged scar running down his otherwise perfect face, revealing a sharp pointed tooth.

As the Faerie smiled, his upper lip peeled back in a small triangle to show two perfect little white fangs, one slightly longer than the other. His teeth, coupled with the bottom of his chin covered in a large dark pigment and otherworldly features, made him look more animal than humanoid for a moment.