Page 23 of Bought By the Cerberus
It was a lie, and I knew it the moment we left solid ground. My stomach lurched as the Spire fell away beneath us with alarming speed. I would have screamed, the sudden sensation of weightlessness too strong for me to process. But Phonos’s grip remained steady, secure, his heartbeat strong against my ear. Against all odds, I felt safe.
“The first flight is always overwhelming.” Phonos adjusted his hold on my waist, his firm voice easily carrying over the wind. “Open your eyes when you’re ready.”
I hadn’t even realized I’d closed them. Of course I had. It had been my first and only instinctive defense against the original rush of panic. But I didn’t want to be afraid anymore. I’d been trapped in a circle of fear since the moment I’d grasped the weight of my curse. No longer.
I forced my eyelids open to confront the world below. I didn’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t… perfection. “Gods above.”
The city sprawled across a giant island. Lake Acheron surrounded it completely, stretching toward distant shores. Buildings rose from the darkness in varied shapes, and smallglowing dots peppered each structure. The asphodels that gave the city its name.
“Beautiful,” I couldn’t help but croak out.
“It’s nothing compared to you.”
Phonos dipped lower, allowing me better views of distinct districts below. My gaze caught on a familiar circular structure. The Agora of Echoes, where the bride market had been held. Where I had stood on a stage while monsters bid for ownership of me. Where I’d chosen a future I was supposed to remember, but didn’t.
I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it to Phonos, but I couldn’t help myself. “The bride market... Everything feels so blurry. I can’t make head or tail of what happened.”
The air grew colder as Phonos banked toward Lake Acheron’s eastern shore. “That’s unusual for Charon’s memory extraction.” His hold around my waist tightened. “Most people never feel the absence of what they’ve traded. If you’re this confused, the memories must have been more significant than anyone realized.”
After everything that had happened, I’d expected him to dismiss my doubts. The fact that he hadn’t, meant the world to me. “You don’t think I’m imagining the emptiness?”
“Of course not, Callista,” Phonos replied. “If it doesn’t improve with time, we’ll find ways to help you. We don’t have to rush into anything.”
We. The simple word eased the tightness behind my ribs and yet somehow made it worse. In Agrion, I’d never thought I’d have a lover, a partner. But now that Phonos was offering it, that he wanted us to be a “we…”
My mind still went back to the strange lupine beast in the Kratos Circle. He’d spoken that word too, hadn’t he?
Once again, I wished I could ask, but I didn’t have the courage. And then, Phonos slowed our flight to a gentle hover, his powerful wingbeats keeping us suspended in the air. We had reached the lake’s heart.
The water below reflected our joined silhouette, a strange creature neither fully human nor Keres flying through the dark skies. “This is as far as we can go without Charon’s ferry.” Phonos gestured toward the distant shores barely visible through the mist. “Only he can cross these waters safely.”
I studied the impenetrable barrier surrounding us, the sense of boundaries and limitations it represented. “This place… It’s not just water, is it?”
Nothing here was really as it seemed, and the lake… Its water didn’t look like anything I’d seen in the Korinos Wilds.
Phonos laughed. “Why am I not surprised that you sensed it? Yes, the lake isn’t actually water. When the Shift happened, it created this entire pool of death energy. The only place where creatures like us can thrive.” His gaze turned distant, almost sad and lost. “The place we are often trapped in.”
Trapped. The word echoed against the jagged wound still in my heart. “It bothers you. The fact that you can’t fly further.”
“It’s not supposed to.” Phonos shrugged. “This is where we belong. But for me… I’ve always been a little different.”
“Different how?” I asked.
Phonos was quiet for a moment, his wingbeats the only sound as he kept us hovering above the water. When he finally spoke, the shadow of something distant lingered in his voice. “I’m the only male Keres in the city. Perhaps in all the realms. My family loves me deeply, but they can’t understand what it’s like to be that way.”
“You feel alone even when surrounded by people who care about you.”
“Yes.” He met my gaze, and his eyes held depths I hadn’t expected. “I thought you might understand that feeling.”
I did understand. Maybe he hadn’t felt the burden of my shame and curse, but the isolation weighed on him just the same. I wondered… What did that do to a person who lived forever? “In my village, I was the only woman who couldn’t have children. Everyone else had their place, their purpose, their future mapped out. I was just... broken.”
Phonos shook his head and held me tighter. “You’re not broken. Your sterility is what makes you death-touched, what brought you here.”
“But I still feel lost.”
“So do I, sometimes,” he confessed. “Maybe we could help each other find what we’re missing.”
The sincerity in his voice, the way he looked at me as though I mattered, made something flutter in my chest. Here was someone who understood isolation, who saw value in my brokenness rather than shame. Someone who wanted to build something together rather than simply claim ownership.
