Page 40 of The Ash Bride

The sky outside her window was rosy in the dawn light when Persephone woke up and dragged the wool from above her head. Groaning at the happy sky, she went back under.

Someone grabbed the hand clutching the edge of the blanket and pulled it back down until her bare skin was painted pink in the light. Facing two familiar pairs of eyes, Persephone narrowed hers and said, “Go away.”

She let go of the blanket though, letting it fall gently to her lap. Melia placed a miniature basket of berries onto her stomach, patted her leg and watched her until she sat up and popped one into her mouth.

Happy? Her eyes asked them silently. They both nodded once, smiling wide and expectantly.

“While you eat,” Elektra said, “maybe you could tell us about your wedding night.” She wiggled her eyebrows, all implications understood immediately.

Persephone shook her head, emptying the contents of the basket into her stomach and tossing it to the ground.

“You’ve been asleep for two days,” Melia said, replacing it with another, along with a plate of halved figs.

Barely listening to her, Persephone shrugged and ate every bite of the fruit until her stomach tried to escape her body through her throat, leaving only one half of a fig. Which Elektra scooped up quickly, shoving it into her mouth in one large bite.

Elektra shrugged sheepishly when Melia turned to her exasperated, and said around the fruit, “She wasn’t going to eat it.”

While they were distracted with one another, Persephone pushed herself deep under the blanket until she was fully covered again, waiting for Hypnos to shroud her again.

Her friends had other, much less relaxing, ideas.

Elektra held one ankle firmly while Melia jumped off the bed to grab the other as Persephone kicked around wildly trying to avoid her grasp. Once they both had an ankle they yanked her body from the body so fast that her butt and head hit the ground at once.

Groaning in pain, Persephone curled up on the floor.

“Are you really not going to get up?” Melia asked quietly, a sad tone to her voice.

In response, she rolled over to face away from them, resting her cheek on her hands. They waited minutes more before she heard their feet shuffle toward the door to leave.

“I’m so sad,” she cried into her folded hands, she didn’t want to get up but she didn’t want them to leave more. They came rushing back, embracing her tightly and pushing the wool against her skin painfully.

They laid there, a pile of wood and limbs and hair, until once again Persephone, drained and exhausted, had no tears left to shed. Only rising from the floor to crawl into her bed together and doze until rosy-fingered Dawn filled the sky once more, attempting to bring some peace and loveliness back to Persephone’s days.

Dawn helped. A little.

Surprisingly, Persephone was the first to wake. Pushing Melia back and forth until she cracked an eye to glare at her, then sat up anyways.

“I’m hungry,” Persephone whispered.

“This is your house, you don’t have to wake me up to eat.”

“Actually, it’s my mother’s house. My house is carved from a towering black mountain in the Underworld.”

Melia rolled her eyes at Persephone’s sarcastic comment and pointed to Elektra. She gestured her head toward her in question.

“She’s so mean in the morning.”

“We only get one more month with you until you leave for half the year.”

Sighing, Persephone braced herself for the wrath of her friend as she slowly reached to wake her up.

Elektra’s eyes flew open at her light touch and smiled. “I’m awake. You shook the whole bed trying to wake Melia.”

Persephone grimaced and apologized before pushing Elektra out of the bed, laughing as her body hit the ground with a thud. “I had to make sure you were awake,” she said as she waved off Elektra’s glare and helped her to her feet.

The kitchen was empty save for three fresh loaves cooling on the table. It was laden with small pots of honey, bowls heaped with berries, and thinly sliced fruits circling the loaves. They ate her mother’s fresh bread in silence, still blinking away sleep.

Melia poured spoonfuls of honey over hers until it was soaked through and the golden liquid dripped down her arms, pooling under her elbows on the wood; Elektra ate hers plain and complained while waiting for Persephone to crush more berries for both of theirs. By the time she had finished, Elektra had eaten hers and was grumbling under her breath about being too hungry to wait. Calling Persephone countless rude names as she did.

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