The Voice of the Dead

Soul-speaker

*Lea POV*

"No! Please no! Leave me alone!" I yelled as I woke up from yet another nightmare. I hid my face in my arms as I sobbed.

Not even a few seconds later, Alex came running inside my room.

"Lea! Are you okay, princess?" He kneeled in front of me, next to my bed.

I sobbed and nodded.

"Another nightmare?" He asked, patting my head. I nodded again and hid in his massive arms.

He sighed and pulled me closer, rocking me on his lap.

"Lea?" I heard Asteria's voice and I lifted my head to look at her. She had a worried look at her face. The Goddess sat next to us and also hugged me.

"I'm sorry." I sobbed quietly, ashamed.

"You have nothing to apologize for, Lea." Asteria smiled gently, grabbing my hand in hers. "We all have nightmares sometimes. You are safe here with us, you know this, right?"

I looked up at her and Alex and nodded with a small smile.

It's true, I've never fet safer in my life then with them.

Alex patted me again and sat me on the bed.

"What do you say to a hot chocolate?" He asked with a grin.

"Yes, please." I giggled.

He left with a wink and I stayed alone with Asteria.

"I wish I stopped having them." I sighed.

"You know, dreams, even nightmares, sometimes mean more than you think at first. Sometimes it's the Fates way to guide us towards something important." Asteria smiled, sitting next to me in my bed and covering both me and her with a blanket.

A sighed and hugged her.

"I see dead people." I said quietly. "In my dreams, I see spirits."

"Have you tried talking with them?" She asked, caressing my head. I looked up at her, surprised.

"Talk with them? Why?" I asked quietly.

Asteria looked at me and sighed.

"Both me and Alex decided to talk about your gift after you settle in nicely. You've been with us for almost a month now and I have to admit, I didn't want you to worry too much about this. From what you told us, you never had a proper childhood. Your mother trained you way too hard for your age. You are barely 14 and already have awoken in the second element. Usually a sorcerer does that way later in teenagehood. But I think we really should talk about this. Do you feel ready?"

I looked at the goddess, thinking. Alex walked back inside my room with three cups in hands. He smiled softly and gave each of us one and sat on my other side.

"We can still let you get more comfy with living with us before that, but I also think we should do something about those nightmares, it's getting harder for you and you need to understand your gift." Alex said, looking me in the eyes.

"You guys are way too smart." I sighed.

"Only a little." Asteria chuckled and took a sip. "It's so good, you're getting better."

She wiggled her eyebrows at her mate.

"Why do you keep calling this a gift, though? I see this more as a curse." I murmured and stuffed myself with some chocolate.

It is good!

"Gods have this tendency to give away gifts. My mother gave away the soulmates, I did it with sorcery." Asteria started, chuckling softly and wiping away my new whipped cream mustache. "Hecate gave witchcraft. And even though now it's not seen as a gift anymore as witches became money thirsty and sell their services instead of helping for free, back when it started, witchcraft was meant to help people."

"We all know how it goes down. Ask Eve." Alex rolled his eyes and the Goddess scoffed, angry.

"Eve?" I asked.

"She is Alex's friend, Ryan, Luna. She and her brother were born sorcerers but they got kidn*pped as children and taken by witches to their coven, to experiment with making hybrids." Asteria explained, her eyes starting to shine.

"Oh, gods. Are they okay?" I asked, covering my mouth.

"Yeah, they are. They found their parents and she recently gave birth to their first child. We want to visit them soon." Alex smiled, caressing his mate's hand.

"I get angry anytime I remember what they've gone through, sorry." Asteria sighed.

"Back to the gifts." Alex winked.

"What? Oh, yes. Okay. Where was I? Ah, Hecate, right. So some other Gods started to think about gifting the mortals as well and the news reached Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld, back then known pretty much just as Hades's wife. And let me tell you, the girl wasn't happy about that." Asteria ended with a chuckle.

"Why's that?" Alex tilted his head.

"She was more ambitious than that. When this all happened, I was around your age and I can remember this very well. At some point she started burning gods to the crisp if they offended her, and Hades had to keep sending them back. They may never died completely, but they sure felt the pain. " Asteria winked at me and continued. "She did fall in love with Hades, he didn't kidnap her or anything and she married him. They are the most well matched couples in the Heavens. They are loyal and faithful to each other, which among the gods, is not something you see often."

"Yeah, I've noticed." Alex scowled.

They did tell me a story about how Ares wanted Asteria to be his wife and they had to fight him to leave her alone. No wonder Alex still gets mad about this.

"Persephone wanted to give something to the mortals. Zeus, Poseidon and many others made fun of her for marrying an old guy and that she just lies and does nothing. That is one of the reasons why Hades is not talking with them. Like, at all." Asteria picked up the story. "She wandered among the Underworld thinking about what she could possibly give away. One day she stumbled upon a soul that was neither in Tartarus, Elysium or in the Asphodel Meadows. This person was wandering near Styx, in mere attempts to go back. Persephone is very compassionate and knew this person must have been good during their life. If you get sentenced to Tartarus, you are securely escorted there by some big, scary demons. Hades ain't playing with assholes."

Alex chuckled, covering his mouth in order to muffle it. I could help but started to laugh as well.

"Anyway…" Asteria rolled her eyes but smiled a little herself. "Persephone reached the wailing man and asked why isn't he moving on. He told her that he died unexpectedly, attacked by an animal. He was able to save his son and kill the animal, but died because of his severe wounds, leaving his child alone in the middle of the forest. He begged to be able to tell someone that he was there, otherwise, his son would die. Persephone granted his wish and with her powers contacted a local herbalist, telling her where the child was. She went and found the child and upon her return, Persephone spoked through the woman and let the tribe know that from now on, the herbalist was able to contact her and, more importantly, she will hear and see the souls of those who can't move on in their death. The soul-speaker would now help them close the matters in the Earth realm and let the souls peacefully ascend into the Asphodel Meadows or Elysium."

"Wow." I spoke, astonished. "Persephone seems like a nice person."

"She is. She made her gift a rare one. Only every couple hundred years a new soul-speaker is born. She chooses the purest souls to be her emissary. And, fourteen years ago, she chose you." Asteria finished with a smile.

I looked at her and blinked, rapidly.

"What…?" I asked, still not connecting the dots.

"You are a soul-speaker, Lea. You received a gift from Persephone." Asteria nodded, grabbing my hand.

What?