She knew that Ava might not like the news, but she didn't think she'd take it this way. Erika remembered the night when Ava merged with Persephone. They all did - it was a night that none of the legacy children would forget. Persephone had broken through to this world, for reasons that Erika and the others were never quite filled in on. But when Diana, Kelly and Helena realized that Ava was somehow cosmically connected to the Goddess of The Underworld, they salivated like dogs at the chance to claim that power for themselves. All of the legacy children had gone through things at the hands of their parents that the others just would never be able to comprehend. Although every member of The Inner Circle had been put through the ringer, it was different when you were a teenage girl, and the people manipulating you were the women who raised you. It was why although their relationships had fractured and splintered throughout the years, there was still a unity among them. Erika was a witch, and because of that, she was a part of the ceremony that bonded Ava and Persephone. She watched as her mother stood over Ava with the Siege Perilous in her hand. She watched as Persephone tore through Ava with a wave of emotion and rage the likes of which she had never seen. It changed Erika, but more importantly, it changed Ava.
She was barely a woman and now she had the power and sentience of an centuries old Goddess coursing through her veins. Erika had watched a girl she grew up with all but lose a great deal of her humanity, and the rest of Erika's own adolescence was spent afraid, biding her time until her mother and the other Queens decided that it was time for Erika to lose hers. Ava had been somewhat of a tom boy as a girl, always hanging out with the horses and roaming Arklay, often with Ben in tow. After her transformation, she did these things, but it appeared her heart wasn't in it. She had the burden and guilt of an incredibly mature woman inside of her. For as much as Erika had gone through at the hands of her mother, she could at the very least say that she had a true childhood, Ava couldn't. Ava's transformation into Persephone and her subsequent rise to power was a calling card to all the legacy children, that their parents would do whatever was necessary to make them weapons, to USE them for whatever they deemed necessary. As Erika tried to explain the medical terminology, she couldn't help but to notice the anguish in Ava's eyes. Part of the deal was that merging with Persephone had left her barren. And as a magick user, Erika knew that even if it were possible for her to conceive, it was highly unlikely that a child could survive with the amount of energy that burned within Ava because of Persephone.
For Erika, the experience made her never want children. She knew what she was capable of, and she knew that eventually, she would look at whatever child she conceived as a means to an end, as a tool to be used, and she couldn't stomach ever doing to a child what their parents had done to them. But she could sense in Ava that normalcy, that monogamy, that all the things that made one human were things that Ava clung to, sought out even though she also simultaneously fought against them. That was the Stavros in her.
"I told him he needs to talk to Haleigh, but as you can see...Haleigh's not making it any easier."
Ava: "Are you surprised?"
"Not really."
Ava: "Haleigh does what she wants, when she wants, FUCK everyone else and their feelings. She has her cake and gets to eat it too, all the while standing in the rubble of the empire we built."
Truer words had never been spoken, at least to Erika. She had never liked Haleigh for her brother. Haleigh always had a way with men, and Erika never knew if it was intentional or not, all she knew was that in fifteen minutes flat, Haleigh could likely erect an army of men who loved her and would kill for her at the slightest suggestion. And her brother was a power player. Haleigh would have done fine on her own, but her relationship with Cameron gave the suggestion that Haleigh was capable of loyalty, of true love. And he backed her impulsiveness, all of which culminated in The White Queen somehow able to cause such a disaster while sitting pretty with her feet in rose water. But that was personal, and she had to separate if she wanted to survive Hellfire. She felt for Ava, but there wasn't time to really explore that. SOMETHING had to be done.
"So who wants to make the first move?"
Ava: "I'm not doing a damn thing. Between your mother and my father? This night went to utter HELL. And this into the mix? And it's the fucking cherry on top of a SHIT evening. I haven't got the energy to deal with this right now. To even...THINK about how the Inner Circle is going to come out of this situation unscathed. Your King and Queen just blew up our legacy and now you're asking ME to help piece it back together?"
Erika remained silent. What did Ava really expect? This was Hellfire, and though the rebellion had unified them, it didn't negate the traces of the former regime creeping up within them. They couldn't just talk the talk anymore, they had to walk the walk. So yes, Erika DID expect Ava to help because historically, her brother had always helped Ava. The two had worked together for years on The Black Court, and he had clung to her side more so than he had to his mother or sisters over the years. He needed her. And she knew that Ava would realize this.
Ava: "Fine. Here's a move."
The Black Queen blew past Erika and made her way over towards the booth where Cameron was sitting, and although she couldn't hear what was being said, it was clear that Ava was not about to take any of her brother's shit. She watched as Ava exploded and then left, dissappearing into the distance. Erika exhaled deeply before turning to The Black King. Erika was not necessarily a sentimental woman, and she couldn't be sure that she wouldn't want to eat Ava's face tomorrow, but now, being in such a close setting with her, she began to feel nostalgic, and worse, she began to feel bad. She gave a serious look to The Black King, gripping his forearm.
"I get it. This is shitty. It's my King and Queen making a mess of things. But can you do me favor?"
She downed the rest of her hemlock.
"We all went through shit...growing up here, but Ava's was particularly bad. None of us talk about it, but what she went through? It kind of defined a lot of us..or at least it did me. I only told her because she's the only person that can get through to Cameron, and she NEEDS to get through him. Maybe that's not fair..but it's reality. Can you please..just go to her, ask the DJ to play her favorite song...and dance with her? Give her a moment..of happiness..."
[sighing]
"And give all of us a reason to believe that we can fall in love and not have it end in complete disaster. This is your event, John. And we've spent too much time monopolizing it. She needs a moment...so give her one."
Erika smiled warmly.
"I'm probably not the best ally to have..but I ask that in the days to come, you might not discount me as quickly as others might. I'm a mess, but when I get it right? Well..I think I really get it right."
He looked at Ava and then her brother, and thought of the million things that were in front of her in the days to come, but she wasn't afraid. Okay, she was a bit afraid. She knew that tomorrow she might wake up and want to kill them all, but that made tonight all the more important.
