Luka

After finishing my story, I glanced up at the heirs; Miles didn't seem surprised, which I knew he wouldn't. It happened on his territory; even though he was just a kid, he had to have been only 15 or 16 at the time; Ares was still training him on how to take over as King. It would have been one of Miles's responsibilities to help keep the investigation quiet. Miles offers me a small encouraging smile as my eyes meet his.

Next, I let my gaze travel over to Aphelion. He seems to be feeling sympathetic toward me. Noticing my gaze on him, he clears his throat and speaks, "I may not have killed anyone, but I know what it's like to lose control of your powers; right before I realized that the mating bond had activated, I ended up shocking someone who I was intimate with. The girl I was with," Aphelion states, his eyes flickering over to Katrina's before continuing, "I am lucky she was born with the power of lightning; my magic coursed through her and lit her up like the humans do the night sky on the Fourth of July, I could smell the burning of her hair, an after-effect my lightning had on her. I could tell she was afraid to be around me after that incident, but she had to learn to forgive me, as I was betrothed to be her husband. I promised her it would never happen again, and I avoided being intimate with her, afraid my power would flare up at any moment."

I hear Katrina's sharp intake of breath, and I realize the girl Aphelion's talking about is Hilda, the Norse god Thor's daughter. I lift my lips in an attempted smile at Aphellion, silently thanking him for sharing his story, before I let my gaze shift over to Beckett; the man who's hated me for so long, the man who's judged me based on the blood that runs through my veins, the man that I'd just proven right.

Beckett stares at me, his eyes flickering with remorse. He doesn't know what to say, and I realize I don't want him to say anything. I don't want to hear his fake apology; I don't want him to feel sorry for me. After all this time of judging me, I realize that I want to hear Beckett shout at me. I want to hear him go off on how evil those related to Loki or Eris are. I want him to shout to the Heavens that I deserve to be locked away in the lowest level of Hell, but instead of shouting, Beckett reaches out to me, feeding my tattered soul with the calmness of waves crashing into rocks.

"I think we've all been where you're at. At the age of twenty-one, these powers that we have no control of explode from our bodies. Being the five heirs of the realm, we suffer from powers so strong that not even the original rulers of the kingdoms understand them. Then they put us near hundreds of students, all trying to figure out how to control their divine gifts, and they don't expect anyone to get hurt. All this time of knowing you, Luka, you've been an anomaly to me. You seemed to have complete control over yourself and your powers, yet you were only a few years older than me when we first met. You had just graduated from school the year I started. You were everything I wanted to achieve in life but struggled to. So I saw you the way my father painted all Loki types to me; I saw you as the enemy. Today, for the first time since meeting you, I see you as you, a person with a past, a person with struggles, a person much like everyone else in this room."

Beckett pauses for a moment, making me think he's done before he inhales deeply, his emotions all over the place as a dark rain cloud looms over us. "Luka, you aren't the only one in this room who has killed someone close to them. As I stated earlier, I started at Divine Academy the first year you started teaching. I went home during winter break that year, but I didn't return to school when the break ended. Rumor has it that I couldn't return to school because the war had broken out between the townsfolk and the royals, but that was only a partial truth. The war that occurred. It was my fault. I was spending the day with my best friend, Kirk. I showed off skills I'd learned in school those few short months. One of my favorite water skills I learned was creating a tsunami. Above water, tsunamis are easy to maintain. I can flatten my palm, and the water below will calm down. I thought I would show Kirk a small trick that he would still find cool. Instead, I lost control of the tsunami, the underwater waves growing with strength the more I tried to flatten them out. Each time I lowered my palm, an underwater earthquake would go off and send more water spiraling forward. By the time I was able to release the water from my powers, it was too late. There was so much damage to that part of the kingdom; it went on for miles and miles, so many homes were destroyed so many lives were lost, but the damages weren't only done in the sea; there was also destruction on land, the waves from the tsunami crashing into islands, causing a run-up of water that was over thousands of feet tall. I ended up sinking the entire island of New Moore. My father tucked me away inside the castle, he didn't want to see me punished, but the people were in an uproar about it; they wanted to see me pay retribution for the damages I'd done, the pain I'd caused, and the lives I'd killed. My father wouldn't have any of it. He told me a king never apologizes for his actions. Eventually, I learned my father was wrong, and I did end up apologizing to the sea folk; my apology is what ended the war. I promised to gain control of my powers and fix everything I'd destroyed. While I couldn't bring their loved ones back, I did use the majority of my inheritance to pay back what was lost and damaged. I also helped coordinate an adoption fair for the children who'd lost their families in the tsunami and the war. My people now love me, but I still carry their pain in my soul."

"Beckett, I don't know what to say." I finally responded, shell shocked that he would share his story with me.

"There isn't anything you can say, Luka. There's only one thing you can take away from my story, don't hide from your powers because of what they've done. Embrace your powers and learn to control them." He replies, smiling at me sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, "And if you could forgive me for being such an ass, that would be nice too."

I couldn't help but snicker at his comment before agreeing to give him another chance. Beckett was just like the rest of us; a lost soul that's been torn apart by a worldly point of view; while he was only a few years younger than I, he'd still lived a pretty sheltered life in the shadows of his father, he still needed time to learn to view the world through his own eyes.

I inhale deeply before turning to the last heir, whose reaction meant the most to me, my mate, Samael. Samael gives me a small smile, but his smile doesn't quite reach his eyes, and I can't get a good read on his emotions; they seem everywhere.

"I can't imagine the pain you went through that day, but I hope I can help ease whatever pain you are still feeling today. That girl, Heather, that died from your magic, was the first lost soul I helped find her way into the underworld. My father had placed me on soul duty that day; he said it was important that I learned to talk to our dead and guide them through their afterlife. I'd been sitting there all day, bored out of my mind, waiting for a soul to come, when suddenly two souls came barreling toward me; the first soul was so black that I knew there was no saving it. Instead, I flicked my blue flames at it, disintegrating it; dark souls have no room in Tartarus. The other soul was completely pure, not a spot of black tarnishing it. A person could rarely be so pure. When I cradled her soul in my hands, Heather began to take shape; when she was back in her body, she joked about me having my hands all over a dead girl. I was surprised by how well she was taking her death. She said she'd had her future read the other day, hoping that she would marry her childhood best friend, only to hear that her death was imminent and near. Then she explained to me that her best friend had tried to protect her from her father and had lost control of his magic, killing her. Her only regret was that she couldn't hold you and tell you she forgave you, that she couldn't tell you not to blame yourself, and that she couldn't thank you for protecting her. She went on to tell me about you as a person, and I felt jealous that I hadn't met this incredible person she spoke of. I couldn't believe I was jealous of a dead girl, but I felt this strong desire to meet this person she spoke of; when I asked her his name, she smiled secretly and told me I would find out one day. I would never have guessed that you were him and that she was your Heather."

My face is soaked from the tears that have finally spilled, but I don't care enough to wipe them away; they were tears for Heather, for a lost love, tears for a woman so pure that even in death, she can only think of those she loved.

Samael steps forward and wipes away my tears, his touch warming me with his fire, "Don't you dare shed another tear; Heather would be upset you're wasting them on her. She accepted her ending; she was ready to move on. She didn't even have to rest in the underworld, her soul leaving me, with the gentle chimes of her laughter still in the air; I've never met another soul so willing to leave this plane."

Samael steps back, and I turn my attention to Katrina, the only other woman to own my heart, the only woman to whom it truly belongs. I wonder if she's been sobbing this entire time, her face is splotchy, and her eyes a red from crying. "Damnit, Luka." She shouts at me, wiping furiously against her face. "You could have told me. At any moment, even on our first day of meeting, you could have told me. You knew before we even met that I had killed my two best friends with a magical light that just spilled out of nowhere. You knew that I also had an unknown dark power in me the day we met. Why Luka?" She cries harder, her words almost incomprehensible, "Why couldn't you trust me enough to unload that burden on me?"

I run to my mate, sweeping her into my arms, cradling her head to my chest, letting her listen and feel my pounding heartbeat. "I've never been one to be vulnerable before. Opening these wounds and exposing my past removes all the barriers I've put up. Until this moment, I didn't feel like what was happening between us, between Samael and I could be possible. I thought it would all be ripped away from me. I didn't feel like I deserved the both of you. I couldn't leave myself unshielded and lose you both."

Katrina pulls away from me, still sniffling, "For a professor, you sure are an idiot Luka; we belong together. We were made for each other. You are stuck with me as much as I am stuck with you. In sickness and health, through the good times and the bad." She states, quoting traditional human wedding vows. "I'll help you overcome the fear of your darkness if you help me overcome mine. I need you, Luka," She whispers, "You're the only one who truly understands my darkside. Let my darkness feed yours." I let my lips hover over hers before placing the gentlest of kisses on her lips.

As I step back from her, I speak to the group as a whole, "Thank you for this. Thank you for sharing your secrets and accepting me for who I am."

Everyone mutters your welcome, and there's some awkward tension in the room, which of course, Samael feels like he needs to break; he walks up to me and grabs me by the hand, and then loudly whispers so everyone can hear, "Now that that's taken care of why don't you show me how grateful you are." His suggestion instantly causes me to pitch a tent in my pants.

"Well, with that out of the way and the wicked witch gone, I'll say adieu to you." Katrina states. I catch her out of the corner of my eye, letting out a big yawn and stretching before Samael pulls me into one of the spare bedrooms; just before the door closes, I hear Katrina calling to Beckett, "And you shark-boy, you're sleeping with me tonight."

**AUTHOR NOTES**

***I hope this chapter wasn't too emotional, but I thought it was time these five had a heart-to-heart.***