A Dark Fantasy Romance Novel

Nona: Chapter 3

The Solarium

If you were to ask me which room in this farmhouse was my favorite, it would have to be this solarium. With its big window walls on three sides of the rectangular room and the many skylights above, the sunny space was the next best thing to being outside.

In here, exotic roots and flowers thrived… ones that rarely grew in this climate or world. Humans have labeled these plants extinct or endangered throughout the ages.

For example: a rare dwarf pomegranate tree that only grew fruit during prophecies; The preserved eye of the only cyclops to live in this realm, even if for a short time. And a Narcissus daffodil.

True, daffodils are neither extinct nor endangered, but the one blooming in this room was the very first daffodil ever.

Literally, it was Narcissus himself.

The plant’s inability to talk out loud was fortunate, because he was a whiner as it was. To help with his complaining, I placed the obnoxious flora in front of a tall brass antique mirror so he could gaze at himself regularly. Thanks to Goddess Fortuna, that this shut him up because I had been close to composting him if that hadn’t worked.

As for the others, I’d share some of these plants with mortals, but I didn’t want my collection in the hands of those who had endangered them in the first place. My babies were safe and coddled in this mystical space. A room that bent the rules of physics.

The solarium also contained otherworldly treasures that didn’t have roots—objects I kept near me, to use and safeguard.

One such object was my personal book.

I never gave it an official name, but I’ve referred to it as The Book of the Dead. Not that book of the dead… the Egyptian book of spells is another topic, in and of itself. No—this book is lesser known, and for a reason. No one knows its existence or location but my sisters and me.

Those who came to visit couldn’t see the object sitting on the elaborate stand in the far corner of the spacious sunroom. It was something only I saw, touched, or read.

Call it a diary, but that’s stretching the definition. It was a unique book made of a black so dark it looked like a void—a black hole in the form of an enormous tome. Calling it a void, rather than a book, was more accurate because if someone other than me attempted to read it…

They’d get sucked into its depth and spit out into the underworld.

No warnings. No second chances.

No hope.

And that’s why I didn’t allow visitors—if I ever had them—to sneak a peek. Unless they wanted to visit Hades.

He’s a real nuisance, so I wouldn’t recommend the trip.

Nearby where I lounged, water streamed down an eight-foot-wide fountain made of stone and driftwood. Leaning back against soft cushions of a blue chaise, I listened to the trickle flow into a pond filled with koi fish and turtles.

Oscar was in there as well, but we didn’t like to think about Oscar.

I stood and dropped my sandals by the fountain. The floor was warm underfoot, the air perfumed with night-blooming jasmine and mint. The plants leaned closer, whispering through their stems.

“Don’t start,” I warned before the whispering stopped.

“You’re talking to the vines again,” Nikki called from the corner. She sat cross-legged on a low bench, a glass of something bright in her hand. “You know that’s how mortals describe madness, right?”

“They started it,” I said.

“Uh-huh.” She raised her glass. “You planning to tell me why the goddess of beginnings looked ready to strangle a butcher today?”

I froze. “He wasn’t a butcher.”

Nikki grinned. “Oh, he was something, that’s for sure. You going to tell me why your power fizzled out around him, or should I just assume divine performance issues?”

I glared, but didn’t respond. Lost again in his image… his aura was so clean of threads that I could see his features with humiliating detail.

Did all mortals have facial hair like he did?

Or lashes that thick?

“Dea!” Fingers materialized in front of my face. “Are you home in there?”

Nikki’s voice sharpened into focus, yanking me out of my thoughts. Not quite moving fast enough to satisfy her, she waved her tattooed hand in front of my face for extra measure—the ancient tribal markings on her hands and arms creating the illusion of moving designs in the air.

You’d think being covered in ink would dim her delicate beauty, but it amplified it. The graphics once used to bind her to Theos decorated her like art on a deity built from earth and pain.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m listening.”

I was obviously not listening.

“Good.” Nikki held up her calendar, stabbing tomorrow’s date as if I were too dense to know what day tomorrow was. “Then tell me what you think. Should we run the stand tomorrow? I know we’re scheduled to be there, but do you think we should chance running into—”

“He had no threads, Nikki.”

That wiped the humor from her face.

“What?”

“None. He had no soul that I could read.”

“How is that even poss—”

“And why would he talk to me like that?” I broke in again, abruptly snapping alert, finally looking at her. “No one talks to me like that. And why wasn’t he listening to my commands? He didn’t run in terror—he stepped closer… and flirted.”

I began pacing the length of the room.

“That’s exactly what I’ve been asking you!” Nikki threw her hands up in exasperation and stood too. “You haven’t been your colorful-knowing self since we left the market. It’s like you’re in a daze.”

She grabbed my shoulders and gave me a jarring shake.

“You think you’re cursed?” Her voice pitched higher. “I didn’t think you could be cursed. Oh goddess—this is bad. This is like… scaring me. What if it starts affecting the natural order? Or what if He finds out? Should I call your sister? You know—call her the long way?”

Her rambling crashed to a stop on that last question, but she didn’t loosen her grip.

“Too strong—too strong!” I squeezed out.

“Oh, sorry!” Nikki released me, and I rubbed my shoulders like she’d actually done damage.

“I’m glad you can’t hurt me, Nikki,” I said, giving them one last dramatic rub, “or I’d be dead by now. Calm down. You don’t have to use a phone. No need to call my sister. Anyway, we don’t even know if this is anything to worry about. I’m lost in my thoughts, not cursed.”

I sat back down and motioned for her to sit too—to ease her worry. She’d start breaking things around the house if she kept spiraling.

It didn’t matter that she was always worried. Worried that He would find me. Worried that He’d take us away, to use as He pleased.

That was the reason we were here in this world.

My sisters and I were hiding separately amongst living souls. Living separately from each other dulled our power, making us harder to track and find.

When we came together, we were at our most powerful… but also the most findable.

And I did not desire to be found, even if it meant being apart from my family and my full powers.

Nikki, thankfully, could go home to her own family if she wanted to. But she stayed here by choice. She refused to leave me alone in this realm. She was bound to my side because of our past…

And because of the prophecy.

Eye had shown us what would happen the next time He found us—how the world would look if He got his way.

Woe to the living when the gods get their way.

“We could just kill the man… that should solve the problem.” Nikki looked up toward the skylights, thoughtful, her hand on her chin.

“No.” I didn’t even need to think. “He isn’t a problem yet.” (Wasn’t that exactly what I’d called him earlier though… a problem?) “Let’s not jump to murder so quickly.”

Her face fell with disappointment. You’d think she’d be more peace-loving, being from nature and all.

But then, nature could be brutal.

Still—her comment jolted me into focus. I remembered I was going to do something to him. Which meant I had work to do.

“Anyway,” I said, “I have something else in store for Mr. Cherry Lee.”

I perked up, remembering karma could be delivered in more creative ways.

“I think his fate should be something other than death.”

“And what fate is that exactly?” Nikki narrowed her eyes. “What are you going to do to him?”

I winked as I rose to leave the solarium, the worried weight of unanswered questions lifting off my shoulders—for now—as my humor returned.

I couldn’t keep myself from smiling.

I rarely flexed my muscle these days.

I looked down at my hands, slowly stretching my fingers in and out. That must be why I was looking forward to pushing the human boy—my energy pulsing with anticipation.

A chance to break the monotony.

That had to be the reason for this expanding feeling—something close to excitement.

What other reason could it be?

To be continued in next chapter… New Chapters released weekly.

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