I look at Hades, there's something he's not telling me. Frankly, there are a lot of things everyone's holding out on me, I drive and drive to the soft voice of Billy Joel, coming from the speakers and we reach home. Dad doesn't ask anything he scrolls on his phone playing the Sudoku, which only puts me on edge. I reach home, and Mom and Karis are standing on the porch, clearly, the charms around our house alerted them. Wait why did the charms not alert us when Hades came? Karis bounces towards us as I ease the car into my parking spot. Gods, I'm never going to get used to this car.
"You're so driving me to school." Karis squeals and claps. I laughed at her excitement, which chases away all of my worries. I hold onto her string and feel all her excitement.
"Such a show-off." I laugh at her. My eyes follow Mom and Dad holding each other. It's assurance, it's a sign of promise that they'd always be there with us, smiling. I would protect every single one of them no matter what, I vow to myself.
My back suddenly burns, and I yelp. Mom and Dad's startled expression follows me, and they are beside me, I'm rubbing the area behind my shoulder.
"It burns." I wince. Mom pulls down my sleeve and gasps.
"Morana, what did you do?" She asks wide-eyed.
"What I didn't do anything?" I'm frantic now, what the hell happened?
"Your shoulder has the rune of protection etched on it. Who did you swear to protect?" She sounds like I feel. Then, realisation dawns on me.
"Umm hypothetically asking what if you vow to do something in your mind and not like speak the words out loud?" I cringed.
" It depends on how much you mean your vow or with you, though," She gulps and continues " With your mind, it's more likely to happen as an unspoken vow."
"Who did you vow to protect, Mor?" Dad looks shaken.
" All of you." I shuddered as the rune stops burning. I rub the spot. Their jaws stay unhinged.
"What? Worse things could have happened." I looked away, suddenly awkward with the growing attention.
" God Mor we don't need protection," Karis whines.
" We never allowed you to have a tattoo!" Dad shrieks and Mom's eyes widen with the fact he just pointed out.
" Wait, what does it look like ?!" I never thought about getting a tattoo.
"Three moons, full moon in between two new moons." She whispered.
"Wicked." Karis raises her hand for a high five.
"So not wicked, I don't know if I want a tattoo or not," I said, she lowered her hand.
"Wait shouldn't you guys have a tattoo?" I asked and Karis' eyes widened at this, with excitement. Does she really want her body covered in ink? That bad?
"No not necessarily, we don't have a part in your vow, you just......protect us there's no other end of the vow to uphold for us." Mom answered, suddenly looking confused, Dad is just dumbstruck.
"Okay put me out of my misery and tell me why is this a big deal?" I ask them, and the moment the words leave my mouth I realise I have made a big ol' mistake.
"First of all, you aren't allowed to have a tattoo," Dad repeats the same thing he said.
"Second of all, it's not your job to protect us." He says and I cut him off
"Hell yeah it is, I will protect my family come hell or high water or the damned devil himself!" I gushed out in anger. This is a ridiculous fight to have on the porch. Dad looks like I have caught him in place. I want to be smug but that wouldn't be the right sentiment I suppose.
YOU ARE READING
The Cursed Heiress
FantasyMorana Astrea Blackford knew she was special she had to be considering she was the granddaughter of Apollo, The God of Sun and Demeter The Goddess of Harvest. But besides all the light and life in her blood, something else taints it, death and dark...
