Page 124 of Hell On Earth
“It’s done now,” Adira said. “Remember why you cannot live and let the choice be yours.”
Still coughing, I grabbed the door handle and spilled out of the car while thinking I needed to be seen.
Zotera was there, grabbing me as the ground shook beneath my feet.
“Mother,” she said. “What happened?”
“A vial,” I wheezed.
The burning in my throat was fading, replaced by a thousand needles piercing my mind.
I clutched my head and cried out. The shaking beneath me grew harder.
Megan yelled Thanatos’ name. Zotera’s hands left me. Voices echoed around me–or maybe just in my aching head. The pain there grew.
I closed my eyes against it and saw flashes of light behind my eyelids.
Agony, unlike anything I’d felt before, knocked me sideways. The snow on my cheek was a small point of relief in the anguish twisting through me. The echoes in my head grew louder and louder, and the flashes dancing behind my eyelids became bright white light.
I stood in a field of small yellow flowers and tipped my head back to enjoy the sun’s warmth on my skin. Mount Olympus was beautiful, but I favored my mother’s gardens over those smooth stone halls that echoed with the other gods’ laughter. The gardens offered peace and tranquility. Warmth and the soft scent of summer blooms.
“Persephone,” my mother called.
I turned toward her, my heart filling with the love I felt for the goddess I called mother.
“Child, why are you out here alone? Do you favor no one?”
Smiling, I shook my head. She’d been trying to get me to choose a lover among the gods for several mortal weeks now.
“Come now. Surely Ares? Eros? Apollo? They are all pleasing to the eye.”
“Not to the mind. They play their games with mortals and spare very little of their attention for anything else. When I love, it will be wholly and without reservation for one who will give me the same.”
“But—”
I took her hands in mine. “Let me love as I will love, Mother. Please.”
She studied me for a long moment then nodded. “You are too beautiful to wander alone now. If you wish to visit the gardens, I will accompany you.”
Humoring her, I nodded. Yet, the very next sunrise, she was summoned to Zeus’ bed, and I was left alone. Once again escaping the halls of Mount Olympus, I sought out Mother’s gardens. The butterflies were just emerging from their cocoons. I watched them and laughed as they took flight.
I felt his presence but didn’t immediately turn to look. When I did, I was blinded by his dark beauty. His gaze unwaveringly held mine as he crossed the field.
He didn’t speak as he lifted his hand to touch my cheek gently. Without a word, the yearning in his gaze stole my heart.
“What is your name?” I asked.
“Call me ‘my love,’ and I will grant you anything.”
My heart fluttered in my chest. “My love?”
The desire in his eyes grew.
“Will you grant me a kiss?” I asked.
His kiss was sweet and warm like the sun itself.
He walked beside me that afternoon, quiet in my company. When the sun set and it was time to return to my mother’s side, we parted with another kiss.
