Page 237 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
‘Themis?’ Her voice faltered. ‘Thanatos?’
Mal had always known that Persephone had aided Hecate in the betrayal. But she had never known that Themis had helped as well.
The revelation struck her harder than she expected.
Mal did not remember Themis from that other life Lucifer spoke of, yet she had known her in the mortal world under another name. Adriana. The woman who had been her sister Haven’s closest friend.
Haven and Adriana had grown up together, inseparable as two shadows cast by the same flame. They had spent nearly every waking hour side by side, laughing, training, whispering secrets that Mal had been too young to understand.
Mal had followed them everywhere.
A small girl trailing after her older sister and her brilliant friend, watching them with wide, adoring eyes. She had wanted to be like them. But now the memories twisted into something darker.
Mal knew Adriana had befriended Haven to keep watch over her, to keep an eye on Mal herself, fearingthat one day she might still become the God-Killer. Yet she had never imagined the betrayal went deeper than that. That because of her… Mal had lost everything.
Her memories. Her past.
And Thanatos?
The thought of him made her blood boil.
How could he claim to love her, claim he would do anything for her, when he had been part of the betrayal that had condemned her to this prison and stripped her of her life?
The anger rose like fire through her veins.
‘Do not be too harsh on the poor boy,’ Lucifer said mockingly. ‘He truly believed he was watching his wife slip into madness. In his mind, this was the only way to save you.’ His pale gaze drifted across the frozen lake. ‘However, when your father discovered what they had done… he punished them all.’
Mal’s voice came out colder than the snow beneath her boots. ‘How?’
Lucifer’s lips curved into a thin, satisfied smile.
‘Persephone was banished from the Underworld, kept far from the children she had with Hades.’
Mal’s fingers tightened around the hilt of her sword.
‘And Themis,’ Lucifer continued smoothly, ‘lost her daughters. All three were taken by Hades and bound to the Underworld forever. They were remade into the Moirai, condemned to weave the threads of fate for eternity.’
Mal stared at him in astonishment.
She had seen the Moirai countless times within Hades’ castle—three silent figures seated beside their endless loom, weaving the fragile threads of mortal lives.
Their faces changed constantly, shifting from young to old, from one stranger’s features to another’s. But she had never oncewondered where they had come from. She had always assumed they had existed that way since the beginning of time. That they had always been the weavers of fate.
‘And Thanatos?’ she asked quietly.
Lucifer’s expression grew almost amused.
‘Thanatos was also forced into service,’ he said. ‘He became Death itself.’
Mal should have felt pity.
She knew that.
But the anger still surged through her veins like a storm that refused to calm.
‘However,’ Lucifer continued, his voice smooth as falling snow, ‘before he became Death, Thanatos did something rather clever.’
Mal said nothing. She only watched him.
