Trials of Tartarus

Chapter Nineteen 

Caltaya’s POV

Shaking with nerves I watch Mutt try and sort through everything. I didn’t even know why I was nervous. I shouldn’t have been, but I was and it was such a simple answer, one that I didn’t want to accept.

I was so nervous because if he chose Moon then I would be doing the same thing that Moon did to me. Killing her love. Killing my friend.

It didn’t matter though. It had to be done, so I would do it. Sighing darkly I crack my knuckles and throw open the door. Mutt looked up immediately, he frowns at me.

“Where’s the cake?” he demands.

“You were serious about that?” I ask.

He gives me a weird look, like I had ten heads and tentacles.

“Oh I never joke about cake,” he says completely serious.

“If I had known when we first met that all it took for you to be serious was cake we wouldn’t be in this situation!” I exclaim.

“You mean the one where you’re about to kill me because I thought you were my friend but in reality you’re some old hag that wants to kill the love of my life because she can’t let anything go and move on with her life?” Mutt asks. “No I think that we’d still be in this situation.”

“Wow okay,” I say blinking. “Clearly you have no filter.”

“You have no cake,” Mutt retorts.

“Because cake isn’t important!” I shout.

Mutt recoils, like I had hit him. “HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT! CAKE IS MORE THAN IMPORTANT! YOU EVIL THING!”

I roll my eyes at him, but still, the words he had said before swam around in my head. Worst than that, he had said them with the intent to hurt me. Which was fair, of course it was. But that didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt.

“Cut the crap,” I snarl, finally sick of it. “Either you join me, or I kill you. It’s your choice.”

“OH NO! You said a naughty word!!!” Mutt cries, backing away and covering his mouth with his hands. His eyes going wide.

“What?” I ask, not having expected that reaction.

“Oooo! I gonna tell on you!!!!!” he says, nodding like a child. “You gonna be in biiiig trouble!!!!”

“Are you being serious?” I ask, my own eyes widening.

The whole thing had completely confused me all of a sudden. Mutt was acting like a child. Which of course, he normally did but this was so much worse.

“Who me?” Mutt asks. “Well I dunno. Am I?”

“Look, I don’t like this game. Okay? So pick. What. Side. Are. You. On?” I demand.

“You don’t wanna play with me?!” Mutt asks. “How rude.”

I close my eyes and count to ten, at least, I started too. But it turns out that was one of the worst mistakes ever. Because I barely made it to five before I was thrown backwards.

I groan, the bookcase had shattered around me, slowly I crawl out from under it.

“What the?” I ask.

“Is closing your eyes the same thing as turning your back on the enemy?” Mutt asks. “Personally I think so, but I’m no child of Athena so I wouldn’t know. Don’t know why I’m asking you either. Considering what you just did you’re not that smart.”

I look up, my head swam. There was spots in front of my eyes, and I was dizzy. So dizzy.

“What did you do to me?” I ask with a cough.

I look at Mutt, he was just a blurry blob he crouched down, so I assumed he was eye level with me.

“Were you lying when you said that you were a mortal before you were a god? Were you even a god?” He asks.

“What?” I ask.

“Was that a lie too? Considering you were the Fire Queen. You had no way to become a god,” Mutt says. “You didn’t need too.”

“When he was killed I drained myself trying to defeat Moon,” I say. “But I couldn’t. She was. She was too strong. And I wasn’t in the right mind.”

“So what happened?” Mutt asks.

“I tried. I trained. She never. Never gave up on me. Not even after I tried to kill her,” I wince, talking was beginning to hurt. “But my powers. They only. Only came back in short bursts of energy. And I. She. She believed in me so much that I became a goddess. But there was something dead inside of me because he was gone. So instead of healing I shattered. Goddess of death fire.”

“So you guys fought again,” Mutt says.

“And once again she won,” I cough. “But I. My hatred, it lived on even when I was dead. It healed me. Brought me back to life. She sentenced me to Tartarus because she couldn’t kill me again.”

“Was that a moral problem or a physical one?” Mutt demands.

“I don’t. I don’t know,” I bite out.

“Well then, I must say,” Mutt says. “For someone that holds so much hatred for someone you really don’t know why.”

“I do know why! I know way better than you do! I hate her because she killed him! He’s dead because of her! She killed him! Do you understand that? She’s not the person that you think she is! She murdered the love of my life for no reason other than because he chose me!”

“Wait,” Mutt says. I could hear the confusion in his voice. “He chose you? That means… You both loved the same guy.”

I laugh bitterly, “Guess you know less about her than I did.”

“What the,” Mutt whispers.

“You see, it’s our curse that family has,” I start.

“Family?!” Mutt exclaims. “You guys are sisters.”

“Yes,” I say. “We’re sisters. And the curse of the Elemental Queens is that-”

“Hold up,” Mutt interrupts again. “Elemental Queens? If you’re fire, she’s ice, where are the other two?”

“They’re from a different family,” I snap.

“Oh okay,” he says. He still sounded a bit confused.

“May I continue now?” I growl.

“Yeah, go ahead,” Mutt says, ignoring the venom in my voice.

“Our family has a curse. Where we love the same guy, and he choses. But never in our history has a sister been so bitter and so selfish as to KILL the man!” I say, my voice rising towards the end.

Mutt leaps back, like I had shocked him.

“Hold up,’ he says, repeating his earlier phrase. “Are you saying that…” he trails off and doesn’t bother to even attempt to continue.

“No, I do not love you,” I hiss. “I disowned her as my sister long ago.”

“Oh. Well good,” Mutt says.

Even as I said it though I couldn’t help but wonder if it was really true. Normally once one of us finds their love they have no attraction to the male that the other finds. Except, the love of my life was dead. So was it possible that I was attracted to Mutt?

Well yeah, it was possible. But it couldn’t be true. Could it? No, it couldn’t be true. I wouldn’t let it be true.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” I say. “If I loved you I wouldn’t kill you.”

“No,” Mutt says. “Your love would kill me.”

I try to ignore how much that hurt, instead all I do is focus on keeping him talking. My vision was beginning to clear, and I could feel my strength returning.

“And what do you think hers is going to do to you?” I ask.

I could see him clearly now, he shrugs, not seeming to actually care.

“Don’t know yet,” he says. “But considering the last person you loved died I think that I’ll take my chances with her.”

“Who would’ve known,” I say. “There’s a man underneath all the childish boy behavior after all.”

“Yeah,” Mutt says. “Figured it was time he came out to play. Thanks for that.”

“I think I like the other you better. Maybe you could let him come back in?” I ask. “He’s so much more awesome that you.”

“I don’t think that you’re one to actually be making demands,” Mutt says, standing up and clapping his hands together.

I glare at him, at least, I hoped I was. I wasn’t lying, I didn’t like this Mutt. He was… Heartless. A killer. Worst than that, I knew I was the reason that he was this way. Something about that knowledge got under my skin.

“And why not?” I ask. “You might not have been a killer before, but you clearly are one now. Which means I’ll probably die. So why can’t I have one last dying wish?”

“Because you didn’t bring the cake,” Mutt says, he used a ‘duh’ voice.

“Again with the cake?” I demand.

“Always with the cake,” he states.