Shaping Fate Read Free Page B

Shivers wracked her, but her hands remained steady as the floor became littered with sawdust and wood shavings.
    She didn’t see the subtle purple glow that encased her body and moved to encase her work, nor did she realize that the green of her swirling emerald eyes was bleeding into both the whites and pupils, opalizing as it went. She knew none of it, feeling only the need of the living wood beneath her hands. The animals watched in reverent silence.

Chapter Four
     
    Thanatos stared , shocked. Ria was carefully scraping wood away from the neck of a life-sized wooden horse head. All of the stalls on one side of the hall, and half of those on the other, were covered in carvings and reliefs.
    Shaking off his immobility, Thane studied the carvings on one of the Cerberus kennels. She had been brave enough to even carve the inside walls of the stall with images of nurturing canine females. She’d depicted them perfectly, each one a giant wolf with three heads. The vertical support posts had the bodies in relief, and the heads protruded into the hall and doorway. These animals’ snouts were wrinkled in anger, lips pulled back in a snarl, baring vicious fangs. Their eyes were filled with hate and every hair on their heads and bodies were standing on end: the perfect guardians had they been real.
    He laid his hand along the side of one of the heads, wanting to feel every ridge, when something happened . The head below his hand lost its fierce look as its eyes closed and it rubbed against his palm. The other free-standing heads whimpered, wanting attention, too.
    The statues had come alive.
    As he scratched the wood-creature behind the ears, he gazed at Ria in wonder. The rest of her work was coming alive as well. Horse heads shook their manes in playful invitation as Cerberus pups tugged playfully at the adults’ ears.
    Ria stopped scraping at the statue and set the knife aside . Her gaze was still filled with pearly green as she stepped close and hugged the statue around the neck. The horse nuzzled her in affection before nipping at its neighbor.
    “ I’ve never seen such wonderful work, or the ability to animate it,” Thane said as Ria reached again for the knife.
    She jumped, startled . For a moment, her eyes were blank, still lost in her trance, but the green slowly receded back into her irises as she became aware of her surroundings.
    “ Oh, Thane! I’m so sorry, I should have asked before I started carving.”  Her face was pinched with concern and fatigue. She swayed where she stood. His wings pumped to give him an extra boost of speed; he caught her and carefully set her on a nearby hay bale.
    “ I’m fine, really, this always happens when I work.”  Her smoke and honey voice was slightly raspy with weariness, “Some food and water will easily rejuvenate me.”
    He couldn’t give her food from Hades or she would be forced to live there forever . He thought of Irvin and had an idea. “What did you normally eat on your island?”
    She looked at him, curious . “Mostly fruit and nuts, sometimes fish, but those were few and far between.”
    “ Have you ever had a steak? Or lemonade?”  He asked, thinking of one of his favorite mortal foods. He didn’t need to eat, but most gods enjoyed it. He certainly did.
    “ No… I don’t think I know what that is.”  She scowled as she thought. It was kind of cute.
    He shook that thought away . “Want to try it? If you don’t like it, you can try something else,” he said.
    “ Yes, please! I’d love to try new things, now that I’m off the island.”  Her eyes brightened and her face glowed with excitement. The ice around his heart chipped a little in the face of her warmth.
    “ I’ll have to hold you to take you where we’re going,” he said, turning her sheet into a simple black sundress that hugged her curves lovingly. He then threw a glamour over them to hide his wings and her bruising. He did not need to be harassed by some do-gooder with the